Trying My Hand at Wedding Ceremony Coordination

Since Nate and I started dating a year and a half ago, I have accompanied him to his disc jockey gigs, which have primarily been wedding ceremonies and receptions. I love getting to spend the extra time with Nate, but to be perfectly honest, wedding receptions can be kinda boring if you don't know the bride, groom or any of the guests AND you aren't allowed to get up and dance when the good dance music is playing. So we did a little brain~storming and came up with a way that I could potentially be kept occupied at an event ~ we started offering day~of reception coordination. The idea was that I would be on hand to make sure that the reception proceeded in a timely fashion and that everyone was where they needed to be for all the important events. We thought it was a great service to offer ~ usually a family member or friend is delegated to this task, but if we could take responsibility for it, we could ensure that all the guests were able to enjoy the event as stress~free as possible. I considered venturing into wedding planning, but decided that day~of coordination was the best way to go as I can have a short fuse sometimes and don't exactly have the patience to deal with bridezillas during the entire wedding preparation process.

Several months ago, we met with an adorable couple who happened to be the first bride and groom who wanted to use our new service. But in addition to coordinating the reception, they also wanted me to coordinate the ceremony. {Oddly enough, they didn't seem too concerned with the fact that I've never done this before! I think they really just wanted someone outside the family to take a leadership roll at the rehearsal and before the ceremony, and help make sure that everything goes smoothly.} Their wedding is this weekend and while I'm a little nervous about it, I'm also pretty excited. I've been researching the best ways to conduct a ceremony rehearsal online, and I think I'm actually ready!

The wedding should be a lot of fun ~ the bride is Canadian and the groom is American, and they're getting married at the Peace Arch, which rests on the exact U.S./Canadian border, and happens to be where the couple met for the first time. I don't know that I've been to an outdoor wedding and reception since my uncle got married in 1986 {they're somewhat rare here in Washington as the weather cannot be trusted to cooperate} but we've had beautiful, rain~free weather for weeks, so hopefully we'll all stay dry. It's been so hot though ~ I hope we don't melt!