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In my real life, I am a product manager. This job fits me very well because I get to lead and coordinate projects, thus making the most of my natural predisposition toward planning, analysing, and organizing. In return, this job has helped me transform these traits into skills.
Since I’ve started planning my wedding, I’ve had enough time to regret that I didn’t choose to become a graphic designer, or stylist, or florist, or any other artsy professional whose skills would have really come in handy in the past few months…Still, some of my job tools can be useful for the organization and planning part.
In my experience, projects can easily become unmanageable: they tend to change and evolve in a way that the final result might be far from the desired result.
This is why I approached wedding planning in the same way that I would have approached any project: I started with a project mandate.
A project mandate is prepared at the start of a project and provides an overview of the objectives and the scope. (In this case, the project is the wedding.) Whenever I have doubts or want to remind myself of what it’s all about, I take a look at my mandate.
If you’re curious to see my Wedding Project Mandate, here it is:
| Description | Wedding day for about 80 guests in Lake Garda, Italy |
| Deadline | September 2011 |
| Objectives |
|
| Scope |
|
| Not in scope | Plan the travel for all our guests or any transportation not on wedding day. |
| Quality Expectations |
|
How do you like our project mandate? How would it be different for you? Do you also need to remind yourself at times of the priorities and objectives of your wedding?
Oh, I love this! I’m an IT consultant, so not only does about half our office have that tree-swing comic up in their cubicals, I know *exactly* where you’re coming from with your mandate. My FI (a product test lead) and I came up with objectives for our wedding just like you did, though we didn’t write out an actual strategy like you you did (maybe we should!). We also joke about using Microsoft Project to come up with our wedding timeline and keep us on track. 
Good luck with scope creep, I think that’s what worries me that most, especially when it comes to the guest travel expectation that you laid out. We also said it wasn’t in our scope, but I’m a people-pleaser, so I worry about trying to make people happy and get caught up or spend extra dough to arrange it.
Wow. What a great way to keep yourself grounded. That mandate is totally down my alley; I’ll have to keep that in mind for planning! Plus, love the image! It made me laugh.
Ah, I love it. There are many brides who lose prospective and you did a great job of summing up the true focus of the wedding! I pretty much have been unofficially following this though, I refuse to let myself lose focus on the real goals of the day.
About 50% of my job is project management these days, so I can really appreciate this. I love your mandate!
jajajaja I emailed this to my Dad. He is also a Project Manager and as soon as I mentioned wedding planning we sat me down to make a rough draft of the whole process so he could schedule and budget it in MS Project for me. I guess it’s his way to be involved in the wedding and since I am probably the most un-organized bride to be ever I appreciate the help!
Apparently, you have my dream job!! Love the mandate. Makes complete sense.
I love your wedding mandate. This is something that I need to write up and pin to my fridge!
I love this!!! I am an HR Progam Manager and the full scope of my job is setting the HR strategy for our North American operations. With that, comes full scale project management and program implementation. Anywhoooooooooo, I so appreciate this and feel validated in my approach to planning my wedding. This def brought a smile to my face….hahahaha
Too funny, this reminds me of the project management that I do in my job.
My DH is a program manager, which was sooo helpful during our wedding planning, as neither myself nor my mom are big planners. He loved the picture you posted by the way - he is going to put it up in his office!
I am a product manager too, so this hits a bit close to home! My guy has always told me ‘Our relationship is not a Gantt chart’ but I can’t help letting him know the life milestones and what progress we need to make 
I havent written a project mandate, but I have heard other advice, that you should pick the 3 most important things for your wedding, and focus on those and the other details are not as important so you shouldn’t sweat them so much. It is all about perespective in the end, and your guests will remember the feeling and experience not all these little details we brides can get so hung up on!!!
This is great!! We need more posts like these.
@toshella: I hear you so much!! I also am super worried about guests travels and am trying to draw very strict lines about what I will do and what I will not do. I keep on repeating to myself that my guests are not small babies, they are grown people that can take care of themselves - but I still want to make it as easy as possible for them!
@aquawater: Yes that vignette is hilarious and so true!
@MaiFuture: That’s my problem too, I tend to lose focus and get caught up in too many small things / details…
@MsFrancez: Lol I might have to try Ms project as well!
@Miss Pain au Chocolat: Nah, don’t think I do… What is your dream job?
@Soon2BMrsP818: You’re really working on huge projects - those skills definitely can come in handy during the wedding planning…
@rachaelrobin: Lol glad he appreciated it!
@jennifer_nz: I think we each have to find our own way of keeping the eye on the ball, as it’s so easy to get distracted! I love the relationship milestones, I think it’s a useful way to make sure you’re on the same page with your SO..
bwahahahahahaha! LOVE the image of the swing! LOL!
We didn’t come up with anything like this, since I didn’t know jack about weddings or what I’d want (unless you include taking elements from the weddings that have popped up in our novels…. what? a night time ceremony would be AWESOME!!!) So, my FI helped come up with the whole wedding thing.
Of course, now I’m the one who keeps bugging him about what HE needs to finish, lol!
You are so my new hero! I wrote it all up like that for my wedding bee application but I never wrote it out just for me.
I dig the pre-wedding communication. I don’t think many people (ourselves included) did much beyond blogging on our wedding sites.
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Miss Carousel, Dusseldorf, Germany/Garda, Italy Age and Occupation: 29, International Product Manager Fiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Front End Developer Engagement Date: May 29, 2010 Wedding Date: September 2011 Venue: I’m an American-Italian girl living in Germany with my Belgian fiancé, planning a wedding in Italy. I can’t wait to show our guests the wonderful Lake Garda, Verona, and want our wedding to be a fun filled, charming, day in the life of “La dolce vita.” Mr. C and I love spending time together, and have added wedding related activities to our cooking nights, dance lessons, and road trips. We love sampling restaurants, could listen to Sinatra all day, and are just a tad geeky and into technology. As we want all of our passions to be part of our marriage, what better way to start than by incorporating them in our wedding day?
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