The Devil’s in the Details

II don’t think I fully grasped that saying until three nights ago. Cue the cool effects and dreamyharp music… Oops, I thought I was in an episode of Saved by the Bell for a minute.

Before  November I thought planning a wedding was the most fun thing that ever happened to me. That’s when things were simple. That’s when I was making the easy decisions like picking out my dress, venue, caterer, florist, and photographer. For some reason the bigger decisions were easier ones.

But, nothing is simple anymore. Now it’s time to choose if we are going to have gumpaste or real flowers on the cake,  gifts for my bridesmaids, my jewelry, what color shirt and tie Justin is going to wear, what color shirt and tie the groomsmen are going to wear…I could go on and on and on. And I haven’t even mentioned the invitations I am designing yet.

The devil is most certainly in the details. They are the hard part.

The details are what make wedding planning and project management a perfect marriage, excuse the pun. If the detailed decisions are hard to make at least they are well organized. So let’s talk about wedding planning monitoring and controlling. No, I’m not talking about having restraint while planning a wedding, I’m talking about keeping the tasks within the wedding project controlled and monitored.

I have actually been struggling with wedding planning control lately. Since I am acting as the wedding planner, stakeholder, bride, and everything in-between it’s hard for me to separate my feelings and stress from the project management side of things. If a task is overdue and I’m not in charge of completing it I have to have conversations with the people who are supposed to be helping me with those tasks. If this were my fulltime job and these people weren’t my fiancé and family I would most likely be more professional about the conversations. But since it’s my wedding it unfortunately doesn’t always go that way. I’ll confess, some tears have been shed.

Systemation’s Fast Start in Project Management workbook puts it best: “Monitoring and controlling is not about domination. It’s about gathering information so you can measure, monitor (evaluate), and adjust progress (correct) toward the project goals.” But this is easier said than done.  I have discovered that the problem with applying this methodology whole-heartedly to personal relationships is those closest to you don’t want to be treated like your employees. So I have a conundrum on my hands. I suppose the best thing to do is meet somewhere in the middle. I’m definitely still learning.

So I guess, in the end, the devil’s in the monitoring and controlling too.

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