There is no doubt the excitement for the Royal Wedding is upon us. Everywhere you look someone is having a Royal Tea Party in honor of the event.  Then there are the fairytale weddings.  ” I want a Royal Wedding” said a bride to me most recently.  She asked me how she can have that beautiful type of wedding.  We at 27 Miracles can plan a beautiful wedding for you, even if the budget is not at the standard of royal family.  What is most important is not to copy what they have, but to bring your own flair of what royalty means to you, because regardless if you are having a beach wedding or a wedding fit for a queen, at the end of the day it is the two people who fell in love that matter.

What we do not want our couples to fall in to is the mismanagement of financial priorities when planning a wedding.  Sadly we see many brides book their wedding at  very exclusive hotels in town.  Hotels that speak of luxury when the name is mentioned.  But at the tune of 150 ++ per person and estimated 130 guests( as one bride recently had)  attending there has to be  sufficient budget to encompass the payments for such luxury.  What happens is that the deposit is made, the wedding fast approaches, but the bride does not have any vendors.  These high-end locations as well as many other locations in town require that you have certified professionals, who have a business license and liability insurance before they can work in their venue. The hotels usually have a list of preferred vendors as well that fit this criteria, however some of these vendors will be your top of the line vendors and they come with a top of the line price. 

One bride came to me 3 months before the wedding without any vendors.  She wanted us to help her on the day of the wedding plus help her to obtain the rest of her vendors; floral, dj, photo and video and a limo to get her from the ceremony to the reception.  Well,  most days that is not a difficult task for a planner at 27 Miracles or any other coordination company when you work with good professionals that you can refer to at any given time if they are available.  The clincher, all those vendors for $2,000.  WHAT??? Yes, I said $2000!!!   This also is to include our services at 27 Miracles.  This means that if we split each of our cost she would like everyone to work for about $330 dollars each.  Hmm…I will speak for our company and say that means that for 20 -25 hours of preparing for the day of  service, plus the 12-16 hours of work the day of the rehearsal and the day of the wedding.   The planner would have worked 25 hours plus 16 total of 41 hours  and would have made $8.04 per hour, spent probably $20 dollars in gas to get to the location between the two days, and  still has to pay an assistant or two.  Wow?  Oh and since the location charges $75 dollars for a vendor meal, the vendors would all have to provide their own meals, but not sure how that would be possible since they cannot bring outside food into the venue and they cannot leave the property because the bride wants to make sure nothing is missed on that all important date.

The moral of this story: 27 Miracles can perform Miracles within reason and God’s help, but we have to be realistic!!! Don’t buy a million dollar mansion and then forget that you have to furnish the house!  Meaning, if you have a budget of $25,000 dollars, do yourself a favor and hire a planner that will help you to be able to budget your spending and get you more for your money than if you tried to plan on your own.  At the end of the day the money that you paid the planner shows itself in multiple savings and stress relief on that important day!

If you are having a Royal Wedding, a beach Wedding or just a good old-fashioned wedding regardless of what your style is and your budget, think of what all your needs and wants are and if you are not sure consult a professional who will help you, but don’t buy a mansion and have it sit empty for lack of finances to buy furniture.