lessons learned about organizing an event from watching my sister’s wedding unfold.
it’s surprising that this wedding has felt so chaotic. My sister is a global organizer. She coordinates protests from all over the world, has leaders of effected communities meet up in Toronto every year for one big event that is “Protest Barrick Gold”. Yet her wedding seems like it’s put together with duck tape. Granted, duck tape often holds, it’s one of the best emergency tools, but it does not give the illusion of solidity.
I’m not referring to her choice in partner, the two of them seem very solid, and happy, and wonderful. But I will be shocked, if this wedding goes off without major hitches. Either they will have to let go of some of their fantastical plans, (which would be fine) or they will have to organize a bit better.
Yesterday I stepped in after being woken up at 7:30am, after having gone to bed at 2:00am. Sakura was pleading with me to help. She had the two wedding MCs (masters/mistresses of Ceremony) coming over for breakfast planning but she had failed to get coffee, or breakfast. In my sleepy state i refused to help, but then as she persisted to plea and the selfishness that only comes to me when woken from deep sleep faded away, i started running through my head, “What can we feed people? How is this going to work?” The sad thing was that she was also exhausted. she had probably gone to bed later than I, she was stressed and just unhappy. “Oh Sakura, just go out for coffee, you don’t need to feel the way you do, this doesn’t have to be so stressful.” “It’s an impossible task you’re trying to do, the two of us, this sleepy, with no ingredients, we just can’t cook breakfast for two vegans.”
I got up and walked to the coffee shop to get a bag of coffee and a cup of half and half (for me and saku) and a few vegan treats. Only one MC actually showed up, and she wasn’t hungry...
So I realized that I needed to step in.
My tricks for event organizing:
Google calendar - Invite people to edit or view the schedule. Share with whom ever you want. Schedule things down to the 15 minutes. Easily rearrange events with drag and drop without having to re-create an event.
Single email list - collect all the emails of critical people and start a grand email list. If your event is going to involve lots of emailing and discussion, start a list serve, google groups is easy, but there is also riseup.net if you have issue with google having all your emails. Sakura and Darius were a bottle neck of information.
*At this point, i had to put down my todo list and start doing again*
*Then later, after the wedding I wrote more*
i feel a lot of crazy emotions at this moment.
i wonder if i should go to darius’ mothers house, (she's having a BBQ after the wedding)
i could, i could of course, it wouldn’t take much, but i definitely don’t want to. and I just don’t see the point of doing things out of obligation. the bit about the car, i didn’t want to take the car. that’s not my fault, they could have driven. and dad has money, and i just can’t fix him. he spends money because he didn’t want to drive, not because i didn’t drive. and I know this, and no, no one is telling me other wise but i still have such a hard time with it.
i have such a hard time saying no, it’s almost so bad, and i feel so guilty that it’s not worth doing. it’s easier to just do, get it done, and then feel like the higher one. but that’s not good either.
sakura will depend on me less and less. and this is good.
I’m not referring to her choice in partner, the two of them seem very solid, and happy, and wonderful. But I will be shocked, if this wedding goes off without major hitches. Either they will have to let go of some of their fantastical plans, (which would be fine) or they will have to organize a bit better.
Yesterday I stepped in after being woken up at 7:30am, after having gone to bed at 2:00am. Sakura was pleading with me to help. She had the two wedding MCs (masters/mistresses of Ceremony) coming over for breakfast planning but she had failed to get coffee, or breakfast. In my sleepy state i refused to help, but then as she persisted to plea and the selfishness that only comes to me when woken from deep sleep faded away, i started running through my head, “What can we feed people? How is this going to work?” The sad thing was that she was also exhausted. she had probably gone to bed later than I, she was stressed and just unhappy. “Oh Sakura, just go out for coffee, you don’t need to feel the way you do, this doesn’t have to be so stressful.” “It’s an impossible task you’re trying to do, the two of us, this sleepy, with no ingredients, we just can’t cook breakfast for two vegans.”
I got up and walked to the coffee shop to get a bag of coffee and a cup of half and half (for me and saku) and a few vegan treats. Only one MC actually showed up, and she wasn’t hungry...
So I realized that I needed to step in.
My tricks for event organizing:
Google calendar - Invite people to edit or view the schedule. Share with whom ever you want. Schedule things down to the 15 minutes. Easily rearrange events with drag and drop without having to re-create an event.
Single email list - collect all the emails of critical people and start a grand email list. If your event is going to involve lots of emailing and discussion, start a list serve, google groups is easy, but there is also riseup.net if you have issue with google having all your emails. Sakura and Darius were a bottle neck of information.
*At this point, i had to put down my todo list and start doing again*
*Then later, after the wedding I wrote more*
i feel a lot of crazy emotions at this moment.
i wonder if i should go to darius’ mothers house, (she's having a BBQ after the wedding)
i could, i could of course, it wouldn’t take much, but i definitely don’t want to. and I just don’t see the point of doing things out of obligation. the bit about the car, i didn’t want to take the car. that’s not my fault, they could have driven. and dad has money, and i just can’t fix him. he spends money because he didn’t want to drive, not because i didn’t drive. and I know this, and no, no one is telling me other wise but i still have such a hard time with it.
i have such a hard time saying no, it’s almost so bad, and i feel so guilty that it’s not worth doing. it’s easier to just do, get it done, and then feel like the higher one. but that’s not good either.
sakura will depend on me less and less. and this is good.