Grace K: Can I Put “Wedding Planning” on my Resume?

By Grace Keating

Wedding planning is a part-time job.

I don’t say this to scare anybody, or to brag about how much time I spend planning and prepping. I say this because, even though I wouldn’t classify myself as “stressed” about all this work, I would certainly classify myself as consumed. When I’m at work, when I’m in the shower, when I’m in bed, I’m thinking about tasks I have to complete. Invites I have to stamp. Decorations I have to buy, or search Etsy for, or make, or paint. Hotel rooms I need to book. Phone calls I need to make.

Really, one should be able to put “planned a wedding” on a resume. This is project management in the extreme. I can see it now:

My Wedding, Chief Planning Officer (July 2014-July 2016)

Duties included, but were not limited to: event-planning; graphic, interior and floral designing; dress-choosing; and food-tasting. Researched, analyzed, secured and managed a team of vendors to produce final product. Exercised exemplary time management skills to deliver critical deliverables under tight deadlines.

Of course, I’m not doing all this alone! I have my mom, sister, other bridesmaids and an awesome fiancé, to name a few. It speaks volumes about these people that I really have not yet felt stressed or anxious about our big day at all. Sure, I get overwhelmed momentarily, but the lasting feelings are of excitement!

About a week after I last wrote in March, Kevin and I had a meeting with our amazing wedding coordinator, Tiffany, at Kirkbrae. We chose our menu items, linens and lots of other fun details. That meeting inspired me to write a huge to-do list. Just looking at it was daunting. All I could think was, well, that’s it. I’m never going to get all of this done. But then I simply counted the items on it. I forget the exact number of bullet points, but let’s say there were twenty-five. I took a deep breath and realized: twenty-five items. Even if I only do one little thing per day, I’d be done in twenty-five days. That’s less than a month. That’s so doable!

And then, I couldn’t be stopped. In the four weeks between mid-March and mid-April, I put my head down and burned through so many little tasks on my list. I bought shoes, scheduled dress fittings, went with Kevin to choose the guys’ tux looks, got a guest book and card-holder, booked limos, designed and ordered invitations, and more.

I’ve learned that sometimes, to get these things done, I just need to stop what I’m doing. Even if I’m in the middle of the workday or a really good show on Netflix, I need to stop and say, “OK, I need to make this phone call now.” I do whatever it is that I told myself I would that day, then get back to normal life. Save the more time-intensive tasks (e.g. addressing invites) for over the weekend or an empty weeknight; but it’s so helpful to use small moments of downtime throughout the day to get a few little things accomplished. You’ll feel so much better and have more time leftover for the bigger tasks – and maybe, one more show on your Netflix binge later.

Happy planning and time-managing to all! And if anyone else has experience with trying to fit “planned wedding” on their LinkedIn profile, please let me know how that went.