One of the most common phrases a Wedding Planner hears from brides is; “I don’t need a Planner because my Mum/Sister/Friend/Aunty is taking care of everything for me”. If you planned your own wedding, you may have even thought this yourself. But when your wedding is over, you may have felt, like many others, that it might have been less stressful, with some professional help. Today I want to look as some of the key reasons why couples do hire Wedding Planners. As well of helping you to understand how you might be able to sell yourself as a Wedding Planner if you are already working in the industry, this list will help those of you considering Wedding Planning as a carer to understand why many people do choose to have a professional help them with their Wedding. You may also enjoy this video, 12 Tips for Wedding Planners.
Reasons Why Couples Hire A Wedding Planner
- Experience – This is something that no mother, friend, sister, cousin, aunt or well meaning other has. Planners are experienced in the intricacies of planning weddings, professionally. They know what works, what doesn’t, what to avoid, when to do things and how to make sure things run smoothly and this only comes from experience. When working with brides ask them if they really want to leave the biggest day of their life to chance or if they want a professional there with them to ensure every detail is taken care of.
- Introductions – Not unlike any other industry, when you work in the world of weddings you build relationships with other wedding professionals and this includes the many vendors/suppliers out there. Weddings are no longer the simple affair they used to be and there are quite literally hundreds of suppliers to choose from, all with varying degrees of experience, skill & knowledge. A Wedding Planner’s reputation is linked closely to the professionalism and ability of the vendors they recommend and a good Wedding Planner only aligns themselves with the best in the industry. What a Wedding Planner is doing when not working on weddings, is building these relationships and spending time getting to know vendors and their work. This is what makes their introductions so powerful.
- Work ethic. A Wedding Planner has been employed to do a job. Wedding Planners don’t attend weddings to socialise, relax or enjoy themselves. I’ve lost count of the amount of times brides have told me that they, or members of their family, spent the day putting out fires, rather than enjoying themselves. A Wedding Planner gives everyone invited to the wedding the luxury of being able to enjoy the wedding day.
- Put out Fires. Things go wrong on the wedding day. That is a matter of fact. There is no such thing as the perfect wedding and with all the best will in the world there will be minor hiccups, and sometimes major ones. It might be that the centre-pieces aren’t right, the chair covers are the wrong colour, the guest count isn’t correct, the cake is stuck in traffic somewhere, or the weather is causing havoc. Many of these things are dealt with quickly and efficiently by a Wedding Planner so the couple is never even aware of them. However without a planner these things become the responsibility of the couple and their inner circle and detracts from the the things they should be doing, like getting ready.
- Set Up. A Wedding Planner will be the person onsite during the set up process and if she isn’t she’ll have a coordinator there doing it, so that nobody in the wedding party is on their feet for 3 or 4 hours prior to the wedding running around trying to get everything looking perfect. Vendors need direction, hotel staff need direction and the design of the wedding needs to be achieved so it is exactly as it should be.
- Logistics. This is a Wedding Planners forte. Whilst they aren’t often wandering around with a headset in the style of J-Lo in the Wedding Planner, they are there in the background, making sure that everything happens seamlessly. But this is something that just happens. A Wedding Planner uses their expertise, experience and hours of planning this Wedding with the couple to ensure that the day runs as it should.
In our courses we teach you how to be a Wedding Planner a couple can rely on to manage every aspect of their wedding professionally. To find out more, visit a campus close to you via the links below or talk to one of our Course Advisors, who all work in the industry and understand what it takes to be a successful Wedding Planner.
