Promoted to Wedding Coordinator!

So this past weekend Adam and I were helping out with a couple’s wedding at the Millennium Hotel in Downtown Minneapolis. Adam was an Usher and I was helping out as needed, lighting candles before the ceremony, and various set up tasks.

At the rehearsal the night before the wedding, the Pastor, Clark, spotted me sitting watching and asked if I was doing anything. At the moment I was really just sitting back and observer, being careful not to overstep my bounds and take over accidently. He then asked me to “make this happen”, meaning the order of the ceremony. No one was in charge of telling people when to start walking or what order to go down the aisle in. I was happy to oblige.

So I wrote down the order of who walked who down the aisle and then we ran through it with me telling them when to start walking. How fun is that!?! I got to be a wedding coordinator! It was actually quite nerve-racking, which I didn’t expect. I forgot what it was like to be nervous. I guess I felt a lot of pressure because I was partially responsible for someone else’s “big day”.

When Saturday came around, Adam and I arrived around 1:00, as instructed and helped with the set up. Everything looked perfect! The ceremony was about to begin and a couple of those in the wedding began panicking – the mother of the groom and the groom himself both got a bit uneasy wondering if things were ready. I was happy to calm them down and assure them that everything was under control. I had everyone starting to line up and ready to go and queued the pianist to begin the processional music. The groom seated everyone in the correct order, the brothers of the bride got all the aunts in the right places, and everyone was ready for me to give them the sign to start walking. It was so fun to see everything fall into place.

From this experience, I realized how fun it is to be behind the scenes. I have been a bridesmaid before, but never before part of making everything happen in this way. I enjoyed the rush of adrenaline just prior to the ceremony. I enjoyed calming family members down. I enjoyed the whole process. Who knows, maybe wedding coordinating/planning could blossom into a hobby…or a job… Who knows?