The Wedding That Changed My Life: An Event Management Narrative Essay

This essay is a personal narrative recounting a student's experience managing a wedding for a cousin. The student details the planning process, from setting objectives and choosing a theme to hiring vendors and coordinating the event. The narrative highlights the challenges faced, the successful execution of the wedding, and the positive feedback received from guests. The experience proved to be a life-changing event, inspiring the student to pursue event management as a career. The essay reflects on the lessons learned, the appreciation received, and the decision to seek professional education in the field. The student emphasizes the impact of this experience on shaping their career aspirations and provides references to support the narrative.

Management

As a part of the daily activities we have to manage things. The real situations to be faced give
direction in the life. It also creates foundation for the carrier aspects. The management is all
about managing an activity. When it is talked about managing an activity, it is really meant to
make activity a success. While carrying out an activity, some goals are kept in mind in order
to attain the goal. Here I will like to discuss an event which changed my life and gave me
direction. I managed an event for one of my cousin’s wedding along with my brother. It was
a great experience. Managing wedding was a tough job but very fulfilling too. I was greatly
appreciated for the arrangement done and for the monumental efforts.
In order to manage the event, certain objectives were inked down such as size of the event,
appropriate budget, nature of representations, number of guests and kind of strategies to be
employed for the event. The fairy tale theme was picked for the wedding as per the choice of
the bride and groom. The date was picked before a month in order to plan appropriately. The
guests were also invited before almost two weeks (Clarke, 2016). It is the ideal time to invite
guests before two weeks otherwise they forget to attend the event. The potential venues were
also approached with the date and things required. The weather was also kept in mind before
doing arrangements. It was decided that the guests will be sitting on chairs at tables. A room
was also arranged for dancing and speaker’s podium. The approval was also taken for the bar,
excessive noise, parking and vehicle access. The wedding was kept limited to the strict ticket
entry or invitation. More crew was also arranged for the latecomers or extras like partners,
children or friends. The budget was also settled for the wedding, for instance, payment to the
staff, food and drinks, renting equipment and venue. I also assembled a team for organizing
service which comprised of friends, volunteers and relatives. Everyone was informed about
the plan. All were assigned with the duties as per their preference. An eye was also kept on
the guests who have accepted the invitation. It gave a general idea. Soon after this, designers,
decorators, builders, photographers, guest speakers, entertainers were hired for the wedding
taken place (Damacena, Schmidt, and Gauze, 2018). These were even included in the
calculations of catering and seating. The bride was also given surprise by calling her
favourite band on the wedding. An expert was also hired who was master of the ceremonies
and hosted the event. He organised speech for the wedding and declared events like dancing,
meal courses, guests or entertainment. The last minute changes were avoided in order to be
cost effective. The choice of the bride and groom were also kept in the mind (Manners,
Saayman, and Kruger, 2015). A series of actions were also taken to manage the activities
properly. The activities were also coordinated time on time in order to know the progress of

the event. I was surprised from the response of the guests as they were captivating with the
arrangements. They in fact asked from where I pursued event management as they found the
wedding nothing less than managed by the professionals (Berners, 2018).
This wedding inspired me so much that I decided to pursue event management as a career. I
found my interest within this and decided to pursue as a career. This event provided
foundation to my career. I was so appreciated by the friend and relatives. Everyone was
pleased with the arrangements done (Manners, Kruger and Saayman, 2016). In fact I got
some proposals for arranging the event from friends and relatives. The wedding was so
mesmerised that it does not look like it was my first effort. Just a few mistakes were realised
by the whole event but it gave me kind of learning not to commit in the future (Olson and
Brown, 2018). I decided to go for the professional degree in the event management so that I
can conduct events more professionally. Having professional knowledge can make an event
more happening.

References
Berners, P., 2018. The Practical Guide to Managing Event Venues. Routledge.
Clarke, A., 2016. Managing and developing communities, festivals and events. Springer.
Damacena, C., Schmidt, S. and Gauze, I.P.B., 2018. Service ecosystems: insights from a
wedding. Management Research Review, 41(12), pp.1395-1410.
Manners, B., Kruger, M. and Saayman, M., 2016. Managing live music performances: a
demand and supply analysis. Event management, 20(2), pp.147-163.
Manners, B., Saayman, M. and Kruger, M., 2015. Managing a live music performance: A
supply-side analysis. Acta Commercii, 15(1), pp.1-11.
Olson, E.D. and Brown, E., 2018. Perceptions of students in an event management program
of annotation systems and their influence on student learning. Journal of Hospitality &
Tourism Education, 30(2), pp.118-126.