#WeddingTalk: 6 Tasks to Delegate!

Is your bride-to-be a Type A kinda gal? Don't let her get snowed under! We've listed our Top 6 Tasks that are easy to delegate and will save couples time and stress.

Wedding planning can be a real nightmare but it can also be lots of fun. For many people it’s exciting to have creative control over such an important day, but inevitably there comes a point when even the most organised and in-control bride or groom-to-be realises that there are just so many different tasks to worry about that it’s a little too much for one person to handle. 

You’ll hear this all the time on your wedding planning journey: Delegate, delegate, delegate! It seems simple but it can be hard for some of us to let go of the reigns and hand control over to someone else. Here are five tasks that we think are safe to delegate (to the right person):

1. Music: Have you got a partner who’s not pulling their weight? Why not try to work to their interests? If your partner is a music buff, give them the task of sorting out music for your reception (and even your ceremony). For different couples, this means different things. Some people are taking up the new trend of an “iPod DJ” at their reception – basically an iPod or Spotify playlist that runs throughout the night. Others choose a live band, while others hire a professional DJ, which comes with its own benefits. Sometimes the best solution for couples is a combination of the three options! Either way, making an iPod playlist or contacting/hiring/paying musicians or a DJ is a relatively simple task that can be easily fixed if you’re not happy with the result. If you’re going down the iPod route, why not give your partner a list of “must-haves”, a timeline of how the reception will run (so they know when to have high-energy numbers and when to slow down), and see what they come up with. You can always ask for changes to be made, but making a playlist is a pretty time-consuming task – a good way to keep your partner busy while you work on other tasks!

 2. Collecting Addresses: These days it’s rare for us to have the postal addresses for all our friends and family. It can be a bit of a task getting in touch with them all and then keeping track of their details, so why not delegate this to a trusted friend or family member. You can even delegate different areas to different people – so a bridesmaid may contact all the old high school friends, a brother-in-law all the groom’s family, and an aunt contact all the bride’s family, etc. You can ask them all to send the addresses to you in one format, or even better, take advantage of online-based systems such as Google Docs and share one spreadsheet with them all so they can update it as they get responses. 

3. Addressing, stamping and sending: When it comes time to send your save-the-dates or invitations, pick a couple of friends with nice handwriting, have them come over and turn your envelope-stuffing session into a party! Turn the boring and repetitive task of sending out communications into something fun with a movie, some bubbles, and a big of gossip! If your best friend doesn’t have the best handwriting, they can stuff, seal and stamp the envelopes instead! This is another task that is time consuming but is easy to delegate and take some weight off your shoulders. 

4. Returning hired items: Did you hire a cake stand from your baker, vases from your florist, or other items? Some couples go away on honeymoon the day after their wedding, and even if you don’t, why start your honeymoon period (which should be about just you and your new spouse) by running errands all over town to drop off hired items before they’re overdue? Allocate one supplier to each member of your bridal party, and give them a deadline (for example, the cake tier may need to be returned two days after – choose someone who lives near the bakery!). You’ll find that by giving each person one small responsibility, they will really rise to the occasion and take their responsibility seriously – it’s much more effective than dumping all your tasks on one maid of honour or best man.


5. The Bachelor/ette Party: This is probably a no-brainer, as usually it’s the responsibility of the bridal party to organise the hens or bucks events, however we’ve noticed a rising trend in brides taking care of their own hens party plans! Sometimes this is just because it suits the bride-to-be more, or because she has a very specific vision of what she wants, but sometimes we hear brides complain that their bridal parties are unorganised or flaky. At the end of the day, the hens or bucks party is not your main priority – the wedding (and your marriage) are, so it makes no sense to spend all your time worrying about your bachelor or bachelorette party to the detriment of your wedding planning tasks. 

If you’re in the position where your bridal party are letting you down, consider getting them all together and pulling rank, be honest: “I’m a little concerned that it’s taken this long to get the plans together – do you think that I should ask someone else to organise it for you?”. This may seem a little harsh, but no one will be calling you a bridezilla if your friends agree that yes, it has taken a while for them to get their act together. It may spur them into action and help give them the boost they need to really pull together and work as a team to organise a fantastic party for you! 

If not, you can always stick to your guns and work with an event planning business to put together the event yourself. You may not find one business that will organise the entire thing for you (it can be a risk for businesses as so often they may not be able to get a true sense of your vision for the event), but you may find one or two businesses who will be able to provide everything you need. You may need to organise a venue yourself, and they may provide catering or a DJ; and perhaps you’d like some entertainment – you can find a business who will provide a stripper, or even a lapdance instructor (turn the tables on the traditional hens party!), or someone who can just come and play all those standard hens party games you love but are too busy to put together yourself! There are endless possibilities, but if you give someone a clear idea of what you like, you can get away with delegating the organisation of this fun night to your friends, or even to a business. 

6. Calming you down: The final one is the most important! So often, married couples say that their wedding days flashed past so quickly they can barely remember any of the details. It’s such a shame that after putting all this work into planning your special day, you should forget to stop and take it all in while it’s happening! Ask a trusted friend or family member to pull you aside every now and then and remind you to stop and smell the roses, or to step in and take over if they see you getting distracted by how the day is running. You’ll find that they’re more than willing to help out, and won’t mind keeping an eye on the time or on your vendors for you so that you can slow down and enjoy your special day.