Lots of people working around the clock to coordinate. It's not just the normal details of a funeral but also such things as security and media - for example, a whole press area has to be set up for live funerals without being obtrusive.
And the guest list is a really big deal. Always way more people want to attend than should be there and the church can actually fit.
Usually there are a few people at the top of the planning process - handpicked by the family and often including the family - who make these decisions. And all of these decisions are approved by the mourner-in-chief (or if they are too overwhelmed, by another family member).
In this instance, I think McCain probably laid out most of the guest list before he died and Cindy managed everything with the help of very trusted people who conveyed her wishes, got her go-ahead on decisions, etc. This sounds very well-planned-out, unlike a lot of funerals, when every single decision and detail - such as who is speaking, order of service, the songs, officiants, where it will be, guests, who sits where, etc. - have to be worked out in the few days between the person's death and the service. Here, it seems that most of the details were confirmed long before McCain died. He really did his family a great favor - a last gift to them.
One advantage of doing this at National Cathedral is that they are used to these high-profile funerals of government officials and have a whole team that does little but just plan these kinds of events, so they know exactly what to do and have the personnel to make it run smoothly.
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