Georgina Clatworthy

By Georgina Clatworthy

Just as every couple is different, so is every wedding and it is important to remember that both of you are involved in the big day. When planning a wedding finding the best way to work together can ensure you create a wedding day that is full of both your dreams. Check out the following wedding management profiles and discover which is the right planning strategy for you.

The Big Boss: this is the classic wedding planning arrangement where the bride will reign supreme and has complete control. With you doing al the planning your groom will likely have just a few simple tasks assigned to him. This arrangement is perhaps the smartest strategy as it lessens the probabilities of something going wrong and time spent arguing over things your groom may not care about anyway. However, this strategy does mean you would shoulder all the responsibility and that can make planning a wedding very stressful. It is best to discuss up front the things you both want from your wedding day and do delegate some of the planning tasks to him (but try not to make them all the boring ones).

The Merger: both your families are likely to want to get involved and this can result in all the major decisions being decided by some kind of family committee with you both becoming the major negotiators. Whilst this arrangement does make your wedding planning a family affair there is a bigger risk of family arguments and even a division occurring. There is also a big risk of the two of you deciding on things that you are not keen on just to avoid upsetting someone. If you take this approach to your wedding planning try to present a united front from the start, make sure you stay in control by stating your wishes upfront and always hold your meetings on neutral territory!

The Equal Partners: simply a 50/50 split between the two of you meaning that you both share the planning tasks equally. This turns you wedding day in to ‘your wedding day’ as opposed to ‘my wedding day’ and sharing the workload means less stress for you. This does mean relinquishing some control and you both needing to work as a team. There maybe disagreements and conflict along the way but as long as you are both prepared to compromise you should be able to pull it off. Put together a clear plan of action at the very start and give each other some freedom over some decisions.

The Skills Based: this requires you to assign the various wedding planning tasks according to aptitude. For instance if he is keen on his music then assign him the task of finding the wedding entertainment and choosing the music for the ceremony. If you are creative then you take control over making the stationery, wedding favors and table centers. This is an arrangement where everyone wins because you will both be putting your time and effort into things you love. It is a great approach to wedding planning and one which you are likely to excel at because you are in charge. However, on the downside the task allocation could end up a little uneven because one of you may excel at more things than the other and as the bride you could end up with more tasks because of the number of things that he would not be suited to (bridesmaids dresses, flowers etc), there could also be problems if your skills both lie in the same area! The key to making this planning approach work is to ensure you are both happy with your assigned tasks including the boring ones and do consider working together on some tasks if you can both bring strengths to them.