Simply Beautiful Words has created this blog series, “Why Hire?” to help you understand what to expect from services, highlight their value and give you some pointers to use in your consultations. I’ll touch base on a few on the most questioned vendors/services.

To start of our Why Hire? series, we’ll take a look at a wedding professional that is near and dear to our heart…Wedding Planners.

In the past, Wedding Planners have been thought of as a luxury for the wealthy. Not any more. An event planner is essential to ensuring your day is planned and executed as you have envisioned.

Wedding Planners (to include some other titles such as coordinators and event designers). They have studied their craft, developed their skills, maintained professional relationships and created a business for themselves. Wedding Planners and their companies are valid businesses and provide a valid service. Please treat them as such.

Why Hire A Wedding Planner

TIME

The average wedding will take 250-300 hours of planning. Process that number for a moment. Up to 300 hours or more!.

What does that number mean to you? It is equivalent to 8 weeks of working a full time job/40 hours per week. If you work full time, please take your salary, figure out your hourly rate (if necessary), multiply that hourly rate by 300.

SBC: I personally, love calling vendors, working with them to come up with a fabulous deal and/or idea for my clients. Researching, always finding new things and vendors, networking, compliling data and running prices per cake slice are things I do all day. Could you? I pride myself on doing my researching and providing my clients with all of the information they need to make an informed decision saving them time and ultimately…

MONEY

Wedding planners have developed professional relationships that make their jobs essential. These relationships affords the planner the ability to secure services or discounts that would not be offered to a private party. In addition, wedding planners possess business negotiating skills that can secure the best contracts and services for your wedding.

SBC: A time ago, one of the supporting sales pitches with planners was that they would guarantee saving you at least their fee. Which is a broad general statement. It is sortof, almost true in a lot of cases, but I would not want to gurantee that specifically. I have saved my clients the amount of my fee on several occassions. There were times when I didn’t save them the amount of my fee. But, I have ALWAYS secured deals, savings and discounts that far surpassed my clients expectations. Without a kickback/referral fee.

STRESS

Planning an event can be stressful in and of itself. Throw in the lifetime commitment, the overwhelming feelings of love, family, money, contracts, traditions and individuality and oh boy do you have a stress cocktail reading to explode.

Never fear, your wedding planner can be there. While they cannot take ALL of the stress away, they can take the details of planning off of your plate. You won’t have to worry about if one vendor sent their proposal and when do you have to have it back by and did the caterer make the last minute change to the menu and where can you find a caricature artist. Your planner will take care of all of that. And if they are good, just may be able to get you and your mother to see eye to eye on a few things. As well as, get the groom to really think about his preference between raspberry filling and a chocolate ganache.

SBC: I for one am a very calm person in general. I have an infectious amount of faith that everything will be ok and we can handle any little hiccups. I had a client who emailed me every Monday with a new set of woes that came up with her fiance over the weekend, I let her vent, and then continued with planning as usual. If you are not careful, one little issue can overshadow what really needs to be done and throw the whole planning timeline off.

COORDINATION

Whether you’ve had a wedding planner’s assistance throughout the process or have planned on your own, what is not up for debate 99% of the time is the fact that every event has and will need a coordinator. A wedding planner/coordinator will see to the plans, details and logistics of your wedding day.

If you have not hired a wedding planner up until this point, you may take advantage of the several Day of or Month of Packages offered by most planners. Planners at this stage come to the table to tie up the last details, coordinate all of the vendors, family and wedding party. These planners will also bring some of the specialized skills and knowledge to the table such as the all important time-line discussed by Blue Orchid Designs or boutonniere pinning discussed by LauraAuer.

SBC: This is what I tell my prospects and clients. Remember the stress we talked about above, this will be amplified 100x on the day of the wedding. Don’t let your mother, sister or best friend be responsible for supporting you and sharing in your day AND making sure the cake is delivered on time, the flowers are set up correctly, the right linens are on the table, the caterer is going to serve on time and the photographer needs directions. Do you? Of course not. I cannot stress enough how at the very least a Day of Coordinator is essential. If you are lucky enough to have someone in your family who extremely organized, optimistic, a quick thinker and doesn’t mind running around all day…COOL. If not, hire a coordinator. I want you to have the wonderful day you’ve envisioned.

PROFESSIONALISM

Hiring a wedding planner will afford you the peace of mind of having a professional oversee your wedding. As professional we hold ourselves to a code of ethics and standards that are mutually beneficial. We are there as your advocate and objective ally. We’ll give your professional, practical advice but never force our own opinion. It is still your wedding, you are planning it and can have all the fun that comes with that planning. But we can be your guidance and assistance.

ENJOYMENT

This is one of the best times of your life. Planning to wed the person you will spend the rest of your life with. What a wonderful journey you are about to embark on. A wedding planner can allow you the time and space to soak up the moments, to cherish the process and look forward with great expectation to your wedding day.

Happy Planning