Page 134 - South Mississippi Living - February, 2020

How to plan for the ‘what ifs’ of weddings? Whatever the size of a wedding, there are many details, and that means things can go awry even with careful planning. Two Coast wedding planners have a few tricks up their sleeves to calm the fears of brides and their families.
ROMANCE & WEDDING
WHAT IF...
story by Lynn Lofton
Jean McGrury of After the Proposal with clients. “The trust factor is in place.
Wedding and Event says she always has a backup plan.
That means a plan B for an outdoor wedding; a backup on speed dial if a vendor is a no show; if there’s stain on
a dress, baby wipes are handy. “In all
the 25-plus years, I’ve pretty much come across so many scenarios I’ve got it down to a science,” she said.
Becky Ginn of An Affair to Remember Weddings and Events always does a complete walk through before a wedding and has a second plan to cover the unexpected. “I walk through and ask ‘what do you see that could possibly go wrong?’ I keep a note book of the plan and a wedding bag that includes pins, glue, duct tape, bobby pins and more,” she said.
She calms nervous brides and their mothers by letting them know everything is covered and that brides should relax and enjoy the day. “The majority of brides are easy to work with. Weddings for me are truly fun,”
she added.
McGrury builds a strong relationship
There are always going to be some nerves, it can’t be helped, but we always try to stay way ahead of the client and guarantee our service,” she said.
Fortunately, this Biloxi wedding planner was ordained 25 years ago to perform ceremonies. “We were having a wedding in Biloxi with a hurricane building in
the Gulf,” she recalls. “We moved the wedding from Saturday to Friday in
less than four hours’ time, and thank goodness it all worked out. The officiant never showed up. Luckily, I had the ceremony in my binder and was able to take over.”
Ginn remembers a wedding where the groom and groomsmen didn’t show up for photos. She went to their hotel and got them. “They had partied too much the night before. I used diplomacy and a lot of coffee.”
In another ‘what if’ for Ginn that no one could foresee, the bride’s father
got his leg caught in her dress during their dance, causing him to fall to the floor taking a table of food along with him. “You just can’t plan for everything but you can go with the flow and keep smiling!” she said.
134 | February 2020
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