WEDDING PLAN - IMAGE MANAGEMENT WAY

WEDDING PLAN – IMAGE MANAGEMENT WAY

You have great untapped reserves of potential in you. Your job is to release them.

Recently I had to plan my son’s wedding. As a mother initially I was tensed, getting goosebumps nightmares, and didn’t know where to start from. But soon my inner instinct awakened and murmured slowly, "You have all the potential in you. Your job is to release them."

I knew I had an enormous task in hand... right form planning the huge guest list to the different rituals and events leading up to the wedding and after had to be conceptualized in detail, resources arranged for every aspect of each event, and the entire celebration set against a time-line. It was challenging, but I had confidence in me. I knew it would be a hit, and so marched on.

I realized that laying out the entire plan of the series of events with each flowing into the next seamlessly, adding a cohesiveness to the wedding as a whole, was the first step that would serve as the very backbone of this once-in-a-lifetime occasion! It needed all my attention, imagination and meticulous planning. I knew I had an eye for detail and refinement, being an image consultant. Finally, the execution would have to be done systematically as per the plan. That was the key to the overall success. This is where I used my leadership skills to the fullest... team building, negotiation, communication, and all the potential I had already discovered in me along my professional path.

The whole scheme now seemed super exciting. Connecting with my own family members, the event team and other coordinators was so much fun!

Leadership Skills – Why being a mother makes me a better leader.

Moms are pros at multitasking, juggling career and family obligations, managing conflicts and staying level headed. Prioritising and maintaining focus are great skills which many mothers possess, but are not aware of it. Moms can be a major asset to a family or even an organization, and if given the support and resources needed to thrive such as flexibility, they can become effective leaders who bring unique strengths to a family or an executive team. 

I soon realized this while planning my son’s wedding. I used my leadership skills to become the admin of small family what’s app groups, made different teams and assigned them their individual and group roles for different wedding goals to be achieved. What was required was coordination between individuals and groups, and so I had to keep that in mind as well. 

So I grouped them on the basis of not only skills and interests, but also kept in mind how well they got along or teamed together otherwise. Any team must operate as a whole with members supporting and covering each other when needed for it to stand tall and reach the finishing line smoothly. Monitoring them on a daily basis helped me help them find solutions to initial hiccups and to ensure they achieved checkmarks against the allocated tasks.

Goal Setting

Goal setting is a powerful tool for realizing dreams and turning visions of the future into reality. The first and foremost thing I did was journalizing my wedding goals and creating an action plan. The bigger goals for a great wedding were divided into smaller daily goals for each individual involved in it and for every event, within a stipulated time. Time Management was the key factor to be emphasized.

The events that needed to be planned were...

• Ladies Musical Evening
• The Grand Sangeet Night
• Mehendi
• 'Haldi', the turmeric ceremony, and other pre-wedding rituals
• The Wedding Ceremony
• The Reception Dinner

How did I start, and Coordinate?

I used all online resources on social media and Google to find a good event planner, a good anchor, and great venues with good deals. Instagram gave me a wide window to the big names in the fashion design industry and their amazing creations, with the many different options in style and ensembles in their wedding collections. Children made their choices, and so did we. 

That itself was a gala affair with each of us brimming with excitement! Being an Image consultant helped me to guide my family members to select the right colours as per their skin tone and as per their body shape and to select the best ensemble as per each ones role, goal and occasion.

Communication and Negotiation Skills

In general, most women have amazing communication skills. They naturally demonstrate traits of resourcefulness, negotiation, physical and emotional strength , resilience, delegation, scheduling, managing competing priorities – the list goes on.

After coordinating with the event planners I being an Image consultant and a mother used my strong Communication and Negotiation skills to bring all under one roof and to ensure we were all on the same page. As in most cases, there were differences in opinions, but I didn’t want to compromise on my personal choices and that is where my power of communicating and convincing appropriately and negotiation helped me arrive at mutually beneficial solutions.

Making the guest list was a huge task, as we had very active social and professional lives and thus there was a long list besides friends and family. Taking help from my younger son and office staff we made Google docs the link to which was forwarded to all our guests. This was of great help as it became a database for future use as well.

Sangeet Night Planning

Team Building

Teamwork always gives spectacular performances’. When it is teamwork it enhances social relations as well. It is rightly said “Together everyone achieves more”. I defined roles within teams, often involving collaborative tasks.

Different teams and dance groups were made on what’s app. Each group had one admin along with me.

This simplified the work for me as it was the duty of the admin to coordinate with the choreographer and other members for the dates of the dance practices. Since we wanted the Sangeet night to be a grand event, everyone practised a lot,

As my son, the groom himself lived in the USA, making him practice his solo performances and with his so to be the bride was getting difficult because he was going to arrive in India just ten days before his marriage. However with a lot of coordination with the dance choreographer’s team, the event management team, with my son and daughter in law, we made things work out in everyone’s favour and the entire sangeet event was a huge success and loved by everyone.

The Wedding Day

Time management was very important on this day as we wanted the rituals, the baarat swagat, the samdhi Milan, pheras and the reception to be on time. Most importantly we wanted the pheras to be scheduled on the exact time as planned by the pundit’s.

For the most important ritual, the pheras or seven wows of marriage to be taken on time, care had to be taken that all the baaratis reach on time. Planning the timings well in advance and setting reminders to all our guests with the event cards for each and every day made it easier for us to have all our events happen successfully as per the time.

More than the guests it was very important for me to be rest assured that the groom and the bride get ready on time. I had to explain to them the importance of time management which really worked.

The wedding was well enjoyed by everyone with great pomp and show as everyone could enjoy each and every moment.

To conclude I would say, that initially, each and every mother gets tensed as they have to plan many things for their sons or daughters marriage.

But it’s one of the most exciting phases of life, there were sleepless nights till the wedding day but everything finally was worth it.

I thoroughly used my soft skills and Image Management skills to my maximum potential.

Overall one of the best experiences of my life.

My final message to all mothers is “Need not Panic”. We all have great talents which we all possess .Our job is just to “BELIEVE IN OUR INNER POTENTIAL”.