In the chaos of planning a wedding, the expectations, decisions, and logistics can easily overwhelm even the most organised person. There’s the hunting for the venue, the squabbling over who to add to the guest list, the flower arrangements…the list goes on!
Even for newly engaged Daria, a self-proclaimed control freak, the challenges of wedding planning became too much. "I'm your typical Type A person," Daria explains to HELLO!. "I work in PR, so it comes natural to me to take the reins, especially for big events like a wedding. I like to be in control of everything in my life.”
Unsurprisingly, when Daria got engaged to her fiance Andrew Brunetto, 29 who works in real estate, she assumed that she would want to take control of all of the logistics. “Andrew was happy for me to be the one in charge,” Daria explains. “He knows what I am like when it comes to organising anything - that I like to be the one behind the decisions - so he said he will happily take a step back.”
However, as their wedding guest list crept up to 300, Daria began to feel overwhelmed. “I quickly realised that organising a 300-person wedding on my own was going to be almost impossible, not to mention stressful. Even for me who loves this kind of thing! But I just didn’t know where to start with the delegations. Honestly, I didn't really want to delegate anything to Andrew, but I knew that I had to.”
© iStockWorking in PR, Daria had already heard about the use of AI in event planning, but was sceptical about giving a robot some control over the decision-making for her wedding. “When it was first suggested by a colleague that I should use AI to help me delegate some tasks to Andrew, I thought it was a crazy idea. A wedding is such a personal occasion! Plus how on earth could AI know Andrew better than me?”
However, desperate from some help, Daria put her scepticism aside during a date night with her fiance. “We thought we would give it a go over dinner and a bottle of wine. What did we have to lose? And it actually ended up being really fun and was quite the bonding experience.”
Daria was recommended to go to the online wedding planning platform Zola.com and check out their ‘Split the Decisions’ tool, which prompts couples to answer questions about their relationship dynamics and interests. Then based on this information, it strategically allocates wedding tasks, including ones that she hadn’t even thought of yet, like stamping and mailing out invites and applying for a marriage license.
© Getty“I was genuinely surprised, and I must say relieved at how it assigned the tasks so perfectly and also reminded me of all the smaller details that I needed to add to the to-do list,” Daria explains. "It assigned Andrew to find a venue, DJ and a band, which is great as it takes a huge pressure off me, plus he’s into music way more than I am. And it also assigned him to work on our guest list and table plan, which is a job that I will happily drop.”
And it wasn't just task delegation that Daria found helpful through the process, the use of AI strangely encouraged the couple to find a newfound appreciation for each other. “I love that Andrew is finding joy in looking for a band and looking for the venue," Daria beams, emphasising the unexpected joy and camaraderie the tool brought to their relationship.
"It's essentially like a wedding planner, but better," Daria says. “Because it’s free, it helps to keep your relationship sane during stressful times, plus it’s making you think of things that you wouldn't initially think by yourself. We are now really enjoying and excited about this planning stage and can’t wait for the big day!"
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