Eight Reasons To Hire a Wedding Planner
In this day and age there’s basically no shortage of advice out there about planning a wedding. The DIY’ers would love for you to think that you can do a whole wedding on your own in an afternoon with some elmers glue and pipe cleaners and then the there’s the celebrity wedding magazines that look like they’re paid for with Monopoly money. The right answer however for most people, at least most of the brides that we meet and work with is somewhere in the middle. These days you’ve kind of got to expect your wedding is going to cost some cash. I could go into our fees really quick to explain them but its at least a few times a year I watch a groom (or father of the bride) swallow his tongue when he sees the zeros on our contract. The reality is that these days this is real business. Not necessarily insanely profitable business (though it can be) but real. We have real taxes, real expenses, and real expensive gear. (And our kids eat real food too). All that said I thought it would help to get my perspective on one of the most valuable and realistic places to start with your wedding planning both from a creative and practical perspective. Drum roll?
HIRE A WEDDING PLANNER (Here’s eight reasons why)
You have no idea what you’re doing. (Psst your mom probably doesn’t either). So here’s a run down. You need a venue, date, photographer, videographer, dj, caterer, bartender, lighting, decor, linens, florals, bouquets, a dress, bridesmaid dresses, suits or tuxes, a schedule, hair and makeup, somebody to set it all up, somebody to break it all down, somebody to serve the food, clean up the plates, return the rentals, close up the doors. That - just so we’re clear - is literally just the tip of the iceberg. A wedding planner’s job (literally their entire job) is to juggle all of these decisions and then both spoon feed them to you with options and opinions, but also help you budget your way through all of them.
Speaking of budget a solid wedding planner will frequently be a break even including their expenses. Track with me here. By the time you take 10,000 trips to hobby lobby buying all sorts of random crap, spend hours and hours on google trying to figure out which DJ is the best option, negotiate the rate of the flowers, decide on a photo budget, and taste a bite of cake or two without somebody driving this ship you’re going to blow whatever budget you have. Again, a good planner just simply does that for you. I’ve seen planners stretch $10,000 to look like $40,000 and I’ve seen brides without planners burn through money like Rick Ross.
When things go wrong… But honestly, between now and then - They will. I hate to be debbie downer here but this is a complex industry and things change. I always chuckle a little bit when we hear girls say “rain on my wedding day is my worst nightmare”. Nope : Our bride in Tulsa in 2010 who stepped on a broken wine glass and bled all over her dress… That beats rain. The wedding cake at the outdoor reception in Dallas in 2016 that melted and fell off the table during the first dance… Beats rain. The makeup artist in St Louis who made the bride look more like bride of Chucky than the beautiful elegant girl she had envisioned… THAT BEATS RAIN. Trust me, things are going to go a little off schedule here and there and that’s really ok. Sometimes a little rain makes the day fun if I’m honest, and sometimes a little oops here and there keeps everybody on their toes (but) when you have a planner they’re busy behind the scenes making things better. It’s the difference between you finding out at the reception that the flowers were an hour late but still arrived in time for everything or your crazy dramatic maid of honor running in sweating telling you the flowers aren’t coming and your marriage is doomed.
They know the vendors. This is the part of their job that I think is actually the most important. Wedding planners these days kinda have to be nice, and firm with the vendors. I’ve worked with a few in the last decade who have gotten that mixed up a bit, but generally speaking it’s really nice having somebody in the industry who knows the verbage we all speak and still knows your vision as the bride. It’s always nice having somebody you can rely on to give you honest advice when it comes to the other people you’re hiring to help put this big day together.
Ever build a house? If not, ask somebody who has. The first step is typically hiring a builder. That guy (or gal I suppose) is called the general contractor. And that person may look, talk, and act like they built your whole house for you but let me assure you - they probably don’t even touch a tool belt. What do they do? They make sure that the plumber plumbs well, that the walls are in the right places, that the light switches work and the paint is the right color. Those dudes work their tail off making sure that everybody else does their job so that you can have the house you want and only really need to talk to one person… Wedding Planner
All the little things. Who ties up your Bustle? Who pins the boutonnieres? Who lights the candles? Who makes sure your champagne flutes are full before the toast? Who help corral family members for photos? Who go to your tastings with you to chat about what food goes with your theme and budgets? Who makes sure your invitations get in the mail? Who makes sure you have invitations? The wedding planner.
Have you ever been the last person to leave a movie theater? The sheer filth that 50 people can leave sitting completely still for 2 hours is pretty incredible. Multiply that by 100 and you’ve got the apocalyptic end result of a wedding reception. Trashcans and tables and cake on the floor, clogged sinks and broken glass and that guy asleep in the corner. Unless your big thank you to mom and dad for paying for your wedding is then asking them to clean up all the wreckage… Wedding Planner
You’re going to be in a magazine? Wow - congrats. Bet you can’t guess who submitted that… The reality is that very few photographers have the time these days. Florists don’t exactly seem like the right people to be contacting the publications, and your parents just don’t know enough detail about all that needs to go into an editorial. These days when our work ends up on blogs or in print it’s usually (you guessed it) because the planner long after their contract with you was up spent time sending those images to an editor for submission.
Here’s a bonus - your parents want to have fun too! Let em’…. Wedding Planner
I could just keep going but I think you’ve gotten the point. If you’re in the Arkansas area you’re in luck - there’s some incredible planners here. But after doing weddings all over the country these days I can say definitively there are great planners popping up all over the place. Beware though, the blue haired lady that smells like aqua net and has been sending brides down the aisle since 1919 is still in business and when you say you want a first look, a sparkler send off, and to sing “I’ve got friends in low places” on the dance floor with your dad - she might keel over. Hire somebody that sees things the way you do and then just assume that they want you to have a great day. Don’t nitpick, and don’t be hateful - just enjoy the process. Happy Hunting!
