Required Wedding Day Duties

[lover in athens]

Just wondering if you all thought there were any "required" or necessary jobs/duties that need to be fulfilled on the wedding day...
We are having a small wedding party, and would like to include some of our other close friends/family. I did a search and got some good ideas of what CAN be done (ie guest book attendant, program hander-outer (nice word!), ushers, etc), but I''m wondering if there are any things that NEED to be included?

Do we need someone to watch gifts? Someone to hand out programs? Someone to direct guests to the guest book??

Thanks!

 

[janinegirly]

good ques that i can''t answer unfortunately. i am wondering who ushers usually are...

 

[So_happy]

Hmm....you could probably move the gift table into the reception area once it begins (if it were somewhere other than in the reception hall already). We do this at the Hyatt. Takes 2 people with some balance and 1 minute to scoot it into the adjacent room. I personally wouldn''t want to assign that particular task to anyone (minding a gift table in an empty room). It just sounds so lonley lol and there are options such that I suggested to alleviate this burden.

You could have someone hand out programs but you could also set up a pretty basket with a pretty sign that reads "Take one" or something. Another delegation avoided.

Direct guests to the guest book? Unless your guest book is difficult to locate (?) and not somewhere pretty clearly positioned, then I suppose you could have the servers you''ve hired direct guests to the correct vicinity.

I guess I''m not too keen on giving things like this for my friends to do once the wedding has begun. Especially when there are ways around it. BEFORE the whole thing begins, however, I can think of a few helpful things that my bridesmaids and planner can help me with. Like, picking up breakfast in the morning and then lunch in the afternoon (we pay they fly); calling to confirm details/dates/times the day before of all my vendors; help prepare centerpieces to go out in the morning; bring an mp3 player and small set of speakers so we have tunes while getting ready etc.

 

[lover in athens]

oh no...i definitely wouldn''t ask any of my friends to do any of these jobs once the wedding has begun! i''m just talking about while the other guests are arriving. once the wedding starts, i want everyone to just enjoy!

 

[akw94]

I''m probably the wrong person to comment since I really don''t know the answer BUT my thought is that NO, there aren''t any other tasks that are essential. Although I like the idea of including people, I think they''d rather just hang out than hand stuff out or direct people here or there.
Also, I''m having nieces and nephews be ushers b/c I do want them to feel included but nothing for other adults.

 

[So_happy]

Date: 5/3/2007 3:34:20 PM
Author: lover in athens
oh no...i definitely wouldn''t ask any of my friends to do any of these jobs once the wedding has begun! i''m just talking about while the other guests are arriving. once the wedding starts, i want everyone to just enjoy!

Oh! Sorry lol!! I have a "feel bad" complex and hate asking others to help when I can do it myself or pay someone to do it. Since I''m on a budget (that''s getting out of hand lately) I usually end up doing it myself

 

[sumbride]

Ha, well, my girls don''t want to do much anything besides party, and I''m ok with that! We''re actually paying for people at our venue to:

attend the gift table & guest book
cut and serve the cake
serve punch

These are all jobs I''ve been assigned at other weddings and I HATED them, so I''m thrilled to not offload them to a friend. When I told my catering manager that my bridesmaids didn''t want to work he said "they never do these days!"

I''ll probably have somebody help with the programs, but I really hadn''t thought about it yet. They may just be on the chairs. All I really need my BMs to do is 1) Show up pretty and 2) have a good time and 3) keep me sane! Seems like job enough in itself!

 

[labbielove]

I think that question really depends on your Venue, etc.

I''ve only ''assigned'' jobs to people who have asked what they can do to help. Many of my friends want to be involved, so I''m speaking up!
-one friend is hosting the shower at her home, and is coordinating with my 3 sisters. our original venue became unavailable (my mom''s home) and i really don''t want it at a restaurant as i want a casual homey small shower.

-2 friends are going early the day of the wedding to bring the potted mums to the church for outside and/or do any last minute decorations at the reception hall (setting up my diy centerpieces etc.)

-1 friend is using her connections to try and hook me up with a limo company willing to do a one way trip for 1 hour. very hard to find around here.

- 1 friend is watching our dog while we go on our mini-moon

but on the day of- no way man- i want everyone to party and have fun!

 

[anchor31]

Our venue, entertainment and photographer need payments on the day-of, so the best man will be taking care of that. My ladies will probably be making sure every now and then that things are going smoothly with the vendors.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Our wedding party didn''t really have ANY duties. We did have two ushers who helped with the seating but besides that...The CC had someone to watch the gift table. I think that would be a terrible job for a friend!