Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Hire A Wedding Planner
NOT reading these 10 reasons could literally cost you thousands of dollars PLUS hours of stress, headaches and worry. (Intended to be read by brides and grooms to be -- and their families)
- You deserve it! Your wedding day is all in the details. Your wedding day is a reflection of you and your personality. People will remember specific details. People go to a lot of weddings each year – make yours the one they remember. You have probably been reading Modern Bride and all the other bridal magazines for months now. You have been talking to all your friends that have been married and getting their advice. You have lots of ideas of your own. However, you probably have not attended, yet literally planned hundreds of weddings. Think about these few simple questions: What are gifts for the groomsmen that aren’t boring? What do you absolutely have to put in gift baskets for out of town guests? Why do certain flowers cost what they do? Draw upon that expertise of a planner who is on top of all the current trends, who knows what colors are “in” right now, who knows who are the top designers, the best places to go, vendors to talk to, what you could use from Martha Stewart’s magazine last month in your ceremony, etc... Remember, the bride’s job is to be the bride. Not to be a wedding planner. Have fun, keep things in perspective and enjoy the experience!
- Some studies say that most girls have been dreaming, thinking, planning and preparing in their mind for their own wedding since about age 12. That is a long time with usually some very high expectations. The wedding day is obviously supposed to be a very special day. To put things in perspective, usually the three most important timeline photographs you will ever take in your life will be: your high school graduation picture, college graduation picture and your wedding picture. So what is it worth so that the bride and groom’s families don’t worry about everything coming together 2 weeks before the big day? What is it worth to know that all the 97 little details on the schedule of events on your wedding day will be taken care of and executed flawlessly? If you could actually buy “wedding insurance” to virtually guarantee that your event would run smoothly – how much would you be willing to pay for that type of peace of mind?
- If you take the time to interview consultants and ask if things ever “go wrong” during the reception or if they have had some “close calls” --- the stories you might hear will probably astound you. Often the bride is never aware of the frantic panic sometimes behind the scenes. She does not need to know or be concerned about the “little hiccups” that sometimes happen. Little things like the fact that the band is late or the best man forget the rings or the hotel does not have a credit card on file for the honeymoon suite, etc.....these small challenges do happen are there for the planner stay on top of and solve. The wedding day is the day for the bride. She has enough on her mind to be concerned about.
- Referrals are everything in the service business. Up to 80-90% of new business that comes to a wedding planner is from referrals. These referrals are usually from vendors they work with each month and you guessed it: from happy former clients. Take the time to interview brides that used a wedding consultant and those that did not. Most of the feedback quite often will show that the brides that did hire a consultant say things like “I don’t know how we would have done everything without her help”. On the flip side, brides that often try to save money and not use a consultant, if they are candid will admit that things might have gone smoother if they would have used one. Remember, a wedding planner wants you at the end of the experience to refer your single bridesmaids, your cousin that is getting engaged next month and your friend at work who getting married soon – all to her. Thus, there is an incredible incentive for a planner to bend over backwards in order to exceed all your expectations and make your wedding an incredible experience. This is a good win-win scenario.
- There is another misconception that perhaps a coordinator involved with a church or from the reception venue can also “act” as your wedding planner for the day. This can be very misleading and dangerous to assume they will take on multiple roles. Granted, it is sometimes nice to have as many people as you can to on site to assist when necessary at a church. Don’t look for them to be at the reception later. Granted, it is nice to have the director of catering of your venue say that he or she will be there the night of your reception. Often they will make an appearance and not stay very long, because there are usually three or four other weddings going on that same night that they have to check up on also. I am sure you have heard what happens when you assume something – it can end up being a big mistake.
- Wedding planners usually work off a flat fee. The notion that they receive a “kickback” or commission from referring a client to a vendor is absolutely false. That sort of activity is very frowned upon and usually does not last very long, as the good reputation of vendors is so important to maintain. Usually a wedding planner will receive discounts on various services due to the fact they give certain vendors so much business each month. Most wedding planners will pass this savings onto their client. Quite often after the wedding, reception and honeymoon are long over and the dust has settled, all the invoices have been paid and life is back to normal – the final numbers usually show how the wedding planner’s fee more than paid for itself from the discounts received from vendors and overall time saved from all her labor.
- If you can believe it, the normal wedding deals with an average of 22 different vendors! These people range from contacts for the reception venue, florist, photographer, the band or DJ, linens, cakes, the church, transportation, hotels and lodging, and much more. To take it even a step further, each vendor usually has one or more people working there, all with individual work numbers, emails addresses, and let’s not forget cell phone numbers! Now the rolodex of total contacts, phone and fax numbers and emails for a wedding quickly rises to a staggering amount. Most people just a few months into the process of planning for a wedding start to very quickly get easily overwhelmed – and rightly so! The bride, groom and their families during the planning stages still have go to work, travel, run personal errands, attend school, etc...in other words – they still have live their lives. Using a wedding planner is a wise use of resources to leverage your time and delegate the duties to deal with these 22 different vendors. This way you can still have a life – and stay sane in the exciting yet sometimes crazy planning process.
- The two largest one-time purchases a person usually makes in their life are: a house and a car. Paying for a wedding can often rank at number three (sometimes even number two). Usually the majority of people use a real estate agent to assist in such a large purchase of a home and to handle all the logistics, some of which are very confusing to the average homebuyer. Most people often buy a car from a dealership that does involve talking to a car salesman. And in spite of the bad reputation that car salesman sometimes get, most are usually very professional and quite knowledgeable about the different classes of cars they represent. Hiring a wedding consultant expert to assist in how to manage your budget, where you can save, what you need to cut out and what is an absolute must. In summary, you would not buy a house or car without expert assistance. Why risk mismanaging a large budget for your wedding?
- Unless you know how much a groom’s cake costs off the top of your head or how much linens for 250 go for or what normal videographer fees are, etc...then you might be a little in the dark on what to pay for certain services. Wedding planners are up to speed on what the going rate is for all services that relate to a wedding. By using a planner, you can avoid paying too much to a vendor (or maybe even getting taken advantage of) and also avoid perhaps skimping on a much needed service that you should allocate more budget towards.
- Wedding planners have continuous business each month with numerous vendors. When they call a vendor with a brand new referral, they know the bride that they are referring will always receive extra special treatment. If that vendor does not do an amazing job, then they will probably not ever get any more referrals from the consultant. If the bride is raving about how this certain florist really went out of their way, stayed open late and went overboard with customer service – take a guess which florist will get that next referral from that consultant? If you go directly to a vendor like a florist, photographer, cake vendor, band, DJ, invitations, etc…. you represent basically a one time customer. Bottom line: clients of wedding planners often do get special treatment from vendors.
