What Producing Mardi Gras and The Burlesque Ball Taught Me About Weddings

Before I ever worked on a wedding, I spent about twenty years producing. I was entertainment co-ordinator for Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras. I created The Burlesque Ball. I brought Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School to Sydney, produced a theatre festival and worked in radio.

People sometimes assume that's a strange path into weddings. It isn't. A wedding is a live show with one performance, no rehearsal for most of the cast, and an audience that will remember it for the rest of their lives. Everything I learned backstage applies.

These are the production lessons I still use, and the ones I share most often when I speak to rooms full of planners, stylists and venue teams.

Lesson one: the audience never sees the work, only the gaps

When a show runs well, nobody notices the stage manager. They notice the moment the music cues late, the microphone squeals or a performer waits in the wings too long. Good production is invisible.

Weddings are the same. Couples and guests don't notice the forty emails that confirmed the band's load-in time. They notice when the speeches start with a dead microphone. So the job is to find the gaps before the audience does. Walk through the day minute by minute and ask, at every transition: who is responsible, what do they need, and what happens if it doesn't arrive?

Lesson two: the run sheet is the show

In theatre and live events, the running order is sacred. Every cue, every change, every person, with times, written down and shared with everyone who needs it. It's not a nice-to-have. It's the thing that lets a hundred people move as one.

A wedding run sheet should work the same way. A few rules I learned the hard way:

• One version only. Date and number every update, and make sure every supplier has the latest one
• Cues, not just times. "Entrée served after the MC's welcome" is more reliable than "7.10 pm"
• Names next to tasks. If two people think someone else is doing it, nobody is
• Build in buffer. Every transition takes longer than you think. Guests move slowly, especially happy ones

I cover run sheets in depth in The Wedding Planner's Handbook, because it's the document that separates calm planners from frantic ones.

A wedding is a live show with one performance and no second night. Plan it like a producer and the day takes care of itself.

Lesson three: plan for the thing that will go wrong

Something always goes wrong at a live event. Always. The professionals aren't the ones who avoid problems. They're the ones who planned for them.

For every major event I produced, there was a "what if" list. What if it rains? What if the headline act is late? What if the power trips? Each question had an answer, a person and a backup.

For weddings, I'd build that list around:

1. Weather, with a wet-weather plan that's genuinely good, not a sad compromise
2. Late or missing suppliers, with phone numbers and a fallback
3. Technical failure, especially audio for the ceremony and speeches
4. Timing slippage, with clear decisions on what gets cut if you're running late
5. Guest issues, from medical needs to the uncle who's had too much

Then share the plan with the people who'll act on it. A contingency plan that lives in your head isn't a plan.

Lesson four: the energy curve matters

The Burlesque Ball taught me a lot about pacing. You can't run a night at full intensity for five hours. A good show builds, gives the audience a breather, builds again and lands with a high.

Wedding receptions often fall flat because nobody thought about the energy curve. Long gaps between courses, speeches that run forty minutes, a first dance at 10 pm when half the room is flagging. Look at your timeline as a shape. Where are the peaks? Where do guests need a moment to talk and eat? Where does the energy dip, and what could lift it? Small changes, like moving speeches between courses or bringing the first dance forward, can transform a night.

Lesson five: look after your crew

Every great show runs on a crew that feels respected. Clear briefs, proper breaks, meals, and someone saying thank you at the end of the night. When I later grew a wedding planning business to a team of 18 planners, that lesson mattered even more, because tired, unclear teams make mistakes.

On a wedding day, your crew is every supplier. Send them the run sheet early. Tell them where to park and where to eat. Introduce them to each other. It costs you very little, and it buys goodwill that shows up in the moments that matter.

Bringing production thinking to your event

These ideas sit at the heart of several talks I give. Production thinking is useful for planners, venues, stylists and anyone who has to deliver a flawless day under pressure. You can see my topics on the speaking page, and if you're running an industry event, a production lens on your own programme helps too. I've written about that in why your event needs a great MC and host.

And if you'd like the full story of how I moved from producing to owning The Wedding Academy, start with my piece on wedding industry leadership.

Lesson six: rehearse the moments that matter

You can't rehearse a whole wedding, but you can rehearse the moments where things most often go wrong. In live events, we ran the tricky transitions over and over: entrances, cues, scene changes.

For weddings, that means walking the ceremony processional with the people involved, checking the microphone where the speeches will actually happen, and running the grand entrance with the MC and DJ in the room. Ten minutes of rehearsal at the right moment saves an awkward pause in front of every guest.

Book Jac to speak at your event

FAQs

What does event production have in common with wedding planning?

Both are live, one-time performances that depend on run sheets, cues, crew briefings and contingency planning. Production skills translate directly into calmer, better-run weddings.

What should a wedding run sheet include?

Times and cues for every moment, the person responsible for each task, supplier contacts, buffer time between transitions, and a version number so everyone is working from the latest copy.

How do you plan for things going wrong at a wedding?

Write a "what if" list covering weather, late suppliers, technical failure, timing and guest issues. Give each risk an answer, an owner and a backup, then share it with the team.

What did Jac Bowie do before weddings?

I spent around twenty years producing, including as entertainment co-ordinator for Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, creating The Burlesque Ball, bringing Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School to Sydney, producing a theatre festival and working in radio.