With our wedding, we put certain friends in charge of certain tasks, and it worked out perfectly. We didn’t have a professional photographer, so we had my wife’s cousin Amber coordinate everyone’s cameras so that the wedding and reception were fully covered pictorially (and it was, about 10 times over, with fantastic shots). Our friend John helped man the iPod so the tunes kept flowing (we created playlists and mixes ahead of time so that all he had to do was push buttons). We put our friend Wendy’s two young sons Jake and Luke in charge of handing out programs and corralling everyone onto the dance floor. And so on.
The key to making this delegation of authority tactic succeed is by following these three main rules.
1) Put friends you trust in charge of things they enjoy managing. If your buddy Tim is a huge prankster, then it wouldn’t be a great idea to let him control the iPod (as he might start playing Disco Duck or some other idiotic novelty songs). Or if your friend Jenny really likes to talk and socialize, she might not be able to focus on keeping people moving through the buffet line.
2) Don’t put your family members in charge (unless they are a distant cousin or someone not participating in the wedding). Your wedding party as well as your parents and other close relatives will have plenty to do (entertaining their own friends, hanging out, posing for pictures, etc.), so giving them another responsibility may be a bit too much of a load.
3) Don’t give one person too many duties. Even though your friend Mary may be the most organized person you know and want to take on everything, don’t load her down too much, because you still want these people to enjoy the wedding and not be worried or on alert the entire time. Be prudent in how much responsibility you delegate to each person.
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