White Paper

Executive Summary

On June 28, 2019, I​ ​ created and managed a social event that hosted 130 guest. This included

completing massive amounts of research, advanced communicating, acquiring a site, negotiating

discounts, developing a meal plan, and providing entertainment. This event included a wedding ceremony

with a reception to follow. Through the development, I took special steps and care in reducing costs and

simplifying procedures. I kept a record of my efforts and created a website presentation of everything that

I have done.

Planning a wedding event can be an overwhelming process. As well as providing food for guests

and creating an environment that is aesthetically pleasing, there is also a key traditional aspect that is

expected to be followed. Weddings can also be very expensive. While planning any event, it is important

to figure out ways to stay within your budget. My goal was to plan a social event and ceremony that

celebrated the marriage of two people, while not exceeding their budget. I was tasked with a 130 person

guest list, and a budget of $5,000.

Analysis:

Keeping a wedding below $5,000 is not an easy feit. Forbes reported that the average wedding in

2017 cost $33,391 (Gorman, 2018). According to The Knot, the average amount that brides spent on a

wedding dress in the US in 2016 was $1,564 and in 2017 the standard amount spent on a venue was

$15,163 (O'Connell, 2018). They also reported that an experienced photographer easily costs more than

$2,500 (Seaver, 2018). If I were to accept these costs, I would only have the bare minimum of wedding

essentials met, and already be $15,000 over budget. Knowing this was concerning for my goal, but it is

also very distressing considering that couples who spend more than $20k on their weddings have higher

divorce rates than those who spend less money (Francis-Tan, 2014)
 Marriage is very beneficial to our economy, well being, and physical health. Marriage stimulates

the economy because married couples are reported to spend more than those who are not. The theory for

economical health is that if the marriage rate increases, than so will the spending in the United states

increase (How Marriage Affects the Economy, 2018). Married couples also tend to live longer. In

comparison to single people, married people have fewer heart attacks, and even tend to survive cancer

and operations more often. They also have higher levels of serotonin, which leads to less chances of

depression (Shmerling, 2016).

Putting on this low cost wedding event, transcends the event itself. Not only does it help the

couple have a real celebration of their marriage, but my strategic planning provides the opportunity to

start their marriage off with their best foot forward. In addition, with my website presentation being

public, I will have paved the way for future marriages to start their marriage off debt free as well.

Design:
 The first step to planning a wedding is to decide what the most important aspects of the event are

and to build around that. For my project, it was established that the venue and the photographer were the

greatest priority to focus on. The budget serves as a guide of what venues could be considered. From

there, the chosen venue affects the rest of the planning. Choosing the the Bell Tower Chapel determined

most of the steps from that point on. When I interviewed photographers and eventually hired Brandon,

with FotoVitae, he provided an ideal timeline to capture everything that needs to be captured. Between

the two top priorities, and the financial guidelines, I knew that it would have a rustic theme, what my

guest count could be, and the event schedule. From there, I followed my guidelines for planning the event,

assigned specific jobs to specific people, and determined how to handle certain logistical issues.

When designing the event, I determined that proper communication would be my best tool for

executing the wedding smoothly. I asked myself, what would be the best way for me to communicate with

my guests and the people who will be helping me? This lead to designing two websites. The first is for my

guests. On the site, there is a description of the event, a link to RSVP, and a brief overview of the reason

for the occasion. The second website presents 3 forms of information: developmental steps, complete with

the research that was done to reach each conclusion, the day of wedding execution plans for my team to

have as a resource, and a presentation of the results and conclusion of the event.
https://thejselliswedding.weebly.com/

https://thejsellisweddingproject.weebly.com/

Other ways that I communicated with my guest was through the mail. Once the date and the

venue was determined, I sent out a card telling everyone that they should prepare their schedules for this

day if they wish to attend. Once we were 3 months from the event, I sent out an official invitation. The

invitation stated the date, time, and location, as well as multiple ways to RSVP. I gave them the option to

text me, go to my website, or to mail me the RSVP card that I provided. I also created a facebook event,
which allowed for people to see basic information quickly, have discussions, and click on a link to the

wedding website.

Development:

I was given 6 months to plan the wedding, starting in January. The outline of the event was

established in January when we decided what venue we would use, who we would invite, and what day it

would be hosted on. February we researched, acquired, and booked the most important elements such as

a wedding dress and photographer. February through April was dedicated to planning smaller details and

logistics, as well as inviting guests. In May and June, I tied up loose ends and refined certain details.

During this time the pre events such as bridal shower, hour of planning, bachelorette, and rehearsal were

also planned and executed.

In order to accomplish my goal of planning this event and adhering to a budget, I had to think

outside of the box. Half of the budget was dedicated to the venue and the photographer. With the other

half of the funds, I still needed to acquire a dress, suit, food, and decorations. With research, I applied

simple strategies to save money. Instead of buying a new dress, I bought a brand name gown from a girl

for $200. As opposed to renting a whole suit package from Men’s Warehouse, we only rented the jacket

and pants, since we owned the other elements of the attire. We had to be more meticulous about food and

decorations, as it is easy to spend a lot of money a little bit at a time. A friend recommended that I look

into setting up a taco bar for guests. Through researching whole food stores, a homemade taco bar was the
simplest and most cost effective food plan to execute. Friends and family of the bride and groom donated

decorations, which allowed for the only specific items to be purchased.

https://thejsellisweddingproject.weebly.com/budget.html

Implementation:

I decided to use a pyramid organization structure when designing the roles of my team members

that are helping me. I recognize that I will be absent for much of the execution, so I assigned my friend,

Chelsey Earls-Johnson, as the day of coordinator for the event. As a way for her to understand my plan, I

have sent her all of the information that I have as I have created it. Seeing the developmental process has

helped her to see my vision for the event. Underneath Chelsey, I designated three leadership roles. My

grandmother is assigned to food preparation, one of my brothers is assigned to parking, and my other

brother is in charge of set up and tear down. Each leader has 2-8 helper’s underneath them in order to
accomplish their tasks. If a helper has a question, they will ask their project lead, and if a leader has a

question, they would ask the day of coordinator.

Evaluation:

In order to determine the success of this event I will evaluate three things. The first one is the

Bride and Groom satisfaction, the second is the satisfaction of the team that helped me, and the third is

whether we stayed within the budget. I can evaluate the bride and groom during the event to determine

whether they seem satisfied with the event. However, in order to have proof of satisfaction, I created a

questionnaire for the bride and groom to rate the event, as well as the individual aspects of the event.

When it comes to the success of my team, it speaks volumes for the to execute all of their jobs

successfully. However, I want to know how they felt about the execution. I created a questionnaire that

asks them about each step in the set up, the event execution and the tear down, requesting written

feedback and suggestions at multiple points. I also asked them to list how long each task took. This helps

me to evaluate my personal goal, as it is possible that the team viewed the set up as going smoothly,
however, if it took more time than I intended, than I must reevaluate my strategies in the future. Between

these two questionnaires, the responses will automatically convert into graphs and charts that I will be

able to use to analyze my success with.

It was important to me that the wedding cost less than or equal to the allotted budget amount.

Staying under budget provides the opportunity for the Bride and Groom to start their marriage in financial

peace. It also allows me to provide tools for future coordinators when they plan their events. I evaluated

my success by tracking each cost. I made a list of how much I spent on each thing. I proved successful as

my budget was $5,000, and my cost for the wedding was $4,935.53.

Appendix

www.thejsellisweddingproject.weebly.com

References
Francis-Tan, Andrew and Mialon, Hugo M., ‘A Diamond is Forever’ and Other Fairy Tales: The

Relationship between Wedding Expenses and Marriage Duration (September 15, 2014).

Available

at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2501480 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2501480

Gorman, M. (2018, May 31). Eloping Might Be The Best Start To A Great Financial Future Together.

Retrieved from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/megangorman/2018/05/31/eloping-might-be-the-best-start-to-a-gre

t-financial-future-together/

How Marriage Affects the Economy. (2018, October 29). Retrieved from

https://firstthings.org/how-marriage-affects-the-economy

O'Connell, B. (2018, August 28). How Much Does a Wedding Cost on Average (With Breakdown)?

Retrieved from

https://www.thestreet.com/personal-finance/education/how-much-does-wedding-cost

14693474
Seaver, M. (2018, November 08). The National Average Cost of a Wedding Is $33,391. Retrieved from

https://www.theknot.com/content/average-wedding-cost-2017

Shmerling, R. H. (2016, November 18). The health advantages of marriage. Retrieved from

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-health-advantages-of-marriage-2016113010667