5 Reasons to Hire a Wedding Planner and How to Find the Right One
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If you just got engaged and don’t know where to start, or if you’ve been planning a while, but feel like you might need some additional support, or you really want to plan a wedding that is meaningful for you and your fiancé as well as special for your family and friends, then a wedding planner might be right for you.
As a wedding planner, I want you to feel confident in your decision to hire me or one of my colleagues. When you’ve never planned a wedding before you may not have any experience working with a wedding planner, so it’s easy to second guess yourself on whether you need one.
What is a wedding planner?
A wedding planner is hired to assist couples in planning their weddings and other wedding related activities. They may help plan the full weekend, part of the wedding, or only manage the festivities on the day of. Keep in mind that wedding planners are not one size fits all. Services vary widely and so do prices, styles and specialties.
Depending on the agreement, they can source venues and vendors, negotiate contracts, create design plans, coordinate wedding logistics, build checklists and timelines and ensure that wedding-day activities run smoothly. Not only that, they make sure everyone from the bride and groom to the family, friends and bridal party enjoy every moment. Planners do more behind the scenes than you will ever see on a checklist and that is the way it should be.
One of the biggest misconceptions I hear about wedding planners is that they are the same as venue coordinators. This is not true. A wedding planner is hired by you and acts entirely as your advocate to make sure your dreams come true. The venue coordinator wants you to be happy of course, and may help with some similar tasks, but ultimately their first allegiance is to the venue.
There’s also a difference between wedding planners and wedding coordinators. Planners will often do logistics and design or just logistics, but they play an active role in establishing your plans. Coordinators typically focus on implementing the logistics based on your pre-existing plans.
Why should I hire a wedding planner?
The decision to hire someone to help you plan one of the most important milestones in your life is personal, as it usually comes down to what you value. Here are a few of the most common reasons we hear that our clients decided to hire a wedding planner.
1. Time & Confidence
When you spend 8+ hours a day working your day job that doesn’t save much time at the end of the day for planning your wedding. Wedding planners streamline the time that you do spend planning and reassure you so that you know your time is being used wisely.
Weddings should be an enjoyable experience, not stressful. We save our clients the time and stress of the more technical decisions and let them focus on the fun, pretty details. Planners live and breathe weddings, so they can manage the stress by using their background, experience and relationships to make sure the day is flawless.
2. Knowledge & Experience
Since many couples have never planned an event of this scale before they look for a leader who will help them plan with ease. Someone with the experience and the knowledge of what they need to do and in what order. They want someone who knows the questions to ask and can envision how the whole event will come together.
Wedding planners see the bigger picture and approach the wedding as a project to make sure the details are executed correctly. This allows us to act quickly when problems come up because we’ve likely already thought about potential problems and have built in solutions.
3. Vendor Relationships
Planners already know the industry professionals and will introduce you to the ones who will be the best fit for you. They know their work and their reputation for quality. Planners know how to build a team of vendors who work well together to bring you the most seamless wedding experience.
There’s a misconception that planners will only recommend the vendors who give them kickbacks, but that’s not usually the case. Planners work hard to make sure your vision will come to life and that’s important because their own reputations are built on that. If a vendor offers a kickback, but doesn’t match the vibe of the wedding it will only hurt planners in the long run.
4. Budget Manager
Inspiration comes from so many places these days, but those beautiful images don’t often come with a price tag. A wedding planner will help educate you on the realistic cost of various products and services in the wedding industry, and find a way to use your inspiration to curate a design that is tailored to your unique style.
This all starts at the beginning when your wedding planner will help you build a custom budget based on your dreams and priorities. Throughout the planning process they will help you stay on track, so there are no surprises.
5. Creative Ideas
There are so many beautiful images on social media and in wedding magazines, but let me tell you, if you have seen an idea on social media, then it’s probably “in” right now, or last week, or last month. The question you should ask yourself is, will it be trendy in 12-18 months when you walk down the aisle, or will it be tired by then?
Wedding planners turn your inspiration into something that is fresh and creative and will really feel like you. It’s the little touches that will make your story stand out and make it an event everyone will be talking about for years to come.
How to find the right wedding planner
The reasons to hire a planner vary from couple to couple and the good news is that there are so many options for wedding planners out there, each with their own style and service offerings. With a little research you will definitely find the one, the perfect planner for your wedding.
Ask for referrals. Your network is the best place to start. These are people you already trust and that already know you, so they may be able to tell you who would be a good fit or not.
Attend bridal shows. Get to know the planners yourself, in person. Then you can follow up with them after for a more detailed conversation if you clicked initially.
Ask your venue, if you have one. They probably have a vendor list that would include planners with experience at your venue.
Do a Google search for planners in the area where you want to get married and visit their website. Look for reviews and their portfolio.
Find an online publication that fits your style and then look at the real weddings. Sometimes you can search by location. They will often list all the vendors involved with an event. If you like their work, it might be worth a conversation. Many of these sites also include directories that would list planners in your area–another good place to check.
When interviewing wedding planners, consider if their planning schedule meets your schedule and how much you want to be involved. Personalities are important. It’s a long working relationship, so you want to mesh well together. Watch for how well they communicate in the initial contacts to make sure their communication style is clear and that their planning strategy is straightforward.
If you’re in the tri-state area and looking for a wedding planner I’d love to chat with you. You can learn more about what I do on my website, check out our FAQ, and get in touch if you think I’m the one for you!