Happy Sunday Everyone-
I had the great honor of one of my all-time favorite business partners (turned friend)’s daughter, and fiancé, asking me to officiate their wedding. They asked me about 5 months ago, and the wedding was this past Saturday in Napa.
I’ve never officiated a wedding before. At first, I was simply honored, how could I not be. It’s a meaningful request and something I’m sure they considered before asking me. I told them out of the gates we’d set up some time to go through what they were thinking on expectations of me. I also gave them some homework on questions I wanted answered that would allow me to better talk about them as individuals and as a couple. All of this sounded cute and fun until we were about a month out, and then it hit me, this is actually kind of a big deal. Trying to calm myself down, I said to Kim one morning while brushing my teeth, “this isn’t that big of a deal, no one remembers an officiant at a wedding”. Kim kindly said “no, it is a big deal, it’s the biggest day of their life and they chose you to orchestrate their service”. Not exactly what I wanted to hear but certainly what I needed to hear.
I spent some time thinking through this, asking “why am i so nervous about this”. With my coaching days, I’ve done some decent size talks, it wasn’t the public speaking aspect of this, so what was it? I think it was a combination of having never done it before, not being able to go through it with them ahead of time to make sure it’s what they wanted, and Kim’s reminder that this is actually a big deal and not to let myself off the hook with any other thought than exactly that.
It’s not to say I coasted for 4 months. I interviewed them as a couple, I interviewed their parents, I had a decent outline of what I was going to say, and it was coming together, but the last 30 days I spent more time than I probably needed to make sure I got it right. Fast forward to the wedding last Saturday, there the 3 of us were in front of all their family and friends. It was about as perfect as it could be. Being a witness to these two awesome humans getting married, listening to their personal vows, and helping bring it all together, is truly one of the bigger honors I’ve experienced in my life.
I’m hopeful this hasn’t come off so far on me congratulating myself on a job well done. My point today, and this is really for me more than anyone else, is recognizing how much better I deliver when I prepare. You could say “duh”, but if I brought the same intentionality to my day to day, as I did to make sure I got this very important day for Kendall and Shane right, how different would my results look? One of my favorite quotes from Nick Sabin is “we don’t practice until we get it right, we practice until we can’t get it wrong”. Obviously, Shane and Kendall deserve my full time and attention on this most important day, but doesn’t everyone else we engage with on a daily basis?
This event, and these thoughts, have caused me to consider how prepared I am in showing up every day. People having high expectations of you is an honor, preparation is what makes high expectations a reality. It’s worth consideration.
I’ve also attached a pic of the beautiful couple with their Reverend 😊
