3 Advantages Professional Wedding Planners Bring to a Bride
Once the excitement of your engagement begins to wane, the realization that “We need to plan a multi-day event for all our family and friends” begins to sink in. For some Brides and their families this is a once-in-a-lifetime, dream opportunity to do what they love. For many others though, the planning of a wedding and adjacent activities is like a recurring nightmare where the wedding cake is not delivered, the dresses don’t fit, and chicken is over-cooked!
No matter which camp you fall into, there are professionals to help your dreams come true and your nightmares never happen. Wedding Planners take some ridicule for being the sassy girl, walking around with a clipboard and being obsessed with the positioning of the eucalyptus berries in the table arrangements. But a professional, experienced Wedding Planner is worth his or her weight in gold and will ensure that your special day exceeds your expectations and that any disasters if not avoided will be managed and resolved quickly---without most of your guests even knowing they happened.
Let’s face it: wedding weekends are among the most emotional times of your life with multiple family units showing up with all their well-packed emotional baggage in tow. It is in this charged environment that hundreds of details must be executed, by a variety of providers, according to a specific timeline. A problem free, totally happy wedding is not unlike a surgery, where multiple specialists convene at a specific, short period of time, each with a critical job to do, in order to send the patient home healthy and happy. A wedding, like a surgery, is really not a time for a DIY approach.
Most professional planners have participated in dozens of weddings and know where the major issues are likely to surface. They generally know the vendors, have often worked with them before and are able to anticipate problems in a process they have seen unfold many time before. And, unlike Aunt Grace or someone’s sister, they approach all the family and friends with a clean emotional slate---they are a professional. They do this almost every weekend of their careers.
Like other professionals, planners and coordinators charge for their services. But often an experienced planner will save all or a large portion of their fees by helping bridal parties make smarter decisions and ensure that the budget is adhered to. What are the three primary advantages professional planners bring to the table?
Planners understand the ‘business’ of weddings and how vendors perform and interact.
Weddings in the US are a billion dollar business but are highly localized with most providers working within a local or regional area. Unless you have experience hiring caterers, florists, photographers and other vendors on a regular basis---take advantage of the planners’ expertise and special knowledge. It is not always about price, but style, tone, specialties and experience when choosing providers and helping them work well together.
Planners will enforce your budget and help prioritize your expenses based upon your overall spending limits.
Most bridal parties do not have an unlimited amount of money to spend and will need to make decisions based on what they can afford. Some ideas (Pinterest!?!) which look wonderful, are easy to execute while others are challenging to do and expensive to deliver. In fact, the smaller and more limited budget you have the more you will need a professional to help you invest wisely and carefully.
Planners help preserve your ‘dream day vision’ but make certain the details get done.
The most special weddings have a central vision: the bride and groom’s dream for what they want their day to be. This vision includes colors, styles, tone, atmosphere and other intangibles that make a good wedding great. But all the vision is lost if there is confusion around who is bringing the table linens, and, are the tablecloths the right length for the tables? Let’s have a wedding cake, but someone better remember a cake slicer! The only person who can manage all the dozens of important details is an experienced professional who knows enough to anticipate the issues and have a basket of proven solutions at exactly the right time to make a difference.
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Venues will almost always provide facilities representation staff to interact with planning and other professionals. These people typically work for the venue and have experience and knowledge around specific venue issues: location for power, additional tables and chairs, parking and availability of tools, equipment, etc. Coordinators and planners not only work months before the wedding day with vendors, catering tasting sessions and other needs but also develop the master seating plans for ceremony, reception and likely the rehearsal dinner. They also develop the Day-Of Timeline, which details from early in the morning, each action item, specific time, and who is responsible for what. These written documents guarantee that the entire team of providers is literally, working off the same page. On the wedding day, this plan serves as the master planning document which brings all the professionals and the details together in one central source of information.
You can have a wedding without professional coordination and planning, but your best opportunity for realizing your dream weekend and avoiding emotional, budget and detail disasters is to engage a professional wedding planning coordinator.
Bogle Farms offers our own trained professional coordinating staff or you are free to use your own.
