A 300-person, formal wedding in 2025 needs a project manager.
The Most Efficient Wedding
From proposal to wedding day, I used project management principles, techniques, and documentation to make the wedding planning process smooth and stress-free.
The Setup
When I first started planning the wedding, I took a step back to choose the right project management approach. While a Waterfall structure might have worked for the fixed timeline and major dependencies, I knew there would be a lot of moving parts happening in parallel—and that flexibility would be key. An Agile approach felt like the best fit for how my team (a.k.a. me, my partner, and a handful of amazing helpers) would actually work.
I set up one-week sprints to keep things manageable and built in a weekly review every Sunday morning to track progress in a burndown chart. This rhythm helped us stay focused, adjust as needed, and keep momentum up without getting overwhelmed by the big picture. It also gave us space to celebrate what we got done—which made the whole process feel a little less like a chore and a lot more like a celebration in progress.
My Documentation
The team consisted of myself, my mother, my fiancé, my sister (who is my maid of honor), and some other stakeholders, like my father and the rest of the bridesmaids. I made sure to build out a RACI chart with the categories of tasks assigned, and did a stakeholder analysis. My fiancé helped me with the risk management plan, and my father helped with the budget. I’ve created Statements of Work for several of my vendors
We are currently ahead of schedule and right on budget, with none of the pre-wedding risks occurring.
