Q: Dear APW team,
I wanted to put in a topic request. (I think it’s too big for an Ask Team Practical question) I’d love a post about delegating tasks to friends who volunteer. During my engagement, a lot of friends have offered to help with “wedding planning,” but they never specify more than that, and even though we’re a month and a half away from the wedding, all of the planning I’ve done so far has been time-consuming vendor searches, interviews, and decisions. How do you delegate that??
I’m hoping to get some help in the weeks before the wedding as we prepare the decor, favors, and programs, but are there ways that friends can help all along the process?
Thank you!
Kate
A: Kate,
Like you, we had friends and family members asking very early on what they could do to help with the wedding, but most of what we were doing at the time were logistics and decision-making—things we didn’t feel were easily delegated or crowd sourced.
Later, with decisions in place, it became much easier to identify where we could use help as we got closer to the day. We invited friends to help out by making it a group activity of sorts: we went out thrifting for glasses for centerpieces; we invited people over for pizza, beer, and to help pick songs for our party playlist; we watched the Superbowl while gluing paper flags together. For us, it meant that we could get more things done quickly without isolating ourselves for the months leading up to the wedding.
However, considering there are a million and one ways to plan a wedding, it’s only right to open this to the group. Did you invite friends to help you accomplish wedding tasks? How did you delegate? What did you delegate?
