The Wedding Photographer's Handbook really opened my eyes to the amount of planning that the pros put into a wedding shoot. 
Hurter recommends talking to the flourist, the caterer, DJ, etc before the event. He also suggests studying the wedding gown from a fashion and design perspective to achieve an awareness of what details to shoot. And perhaps most importantly, visit the location prior to the ceremony at around the same time of day to get a feel for the lighting. This is serious stuff!I didn't have time for the detailed in-depth prepartions recommend in the book, but I did visit the setting about 24 hours before the actual wedding ceremony. I took pictures of locations that I thought would work for group shots, and I made mental notes of how the shadows were falling, and where to place my flashes. I also studied the lighting using Lighttrac for iPad to see where the sun would be a different times in the day. Read more about this cool app [here].
That night I reviewed my test photos, and organized my shot list. My mom had kindly provided an impossibly long list of requested group shots. My sister and I hacked away at it for a while to make it more reasonable, and I tried to organize the final list by location, hoping to decide ahead of time which shots to take where. This helped a little, but I ended up making several changes on the wedding day because of people camped out in the background of my planned shot areas.
Next: Backing up photos onsite
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