Echoes

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10 Reasons You Should Hire a Wedding Planner
If you think wedding planners are only a privilege the rich can afford, think again. Here's 10 reasons…

Reason #1. You deserve everything to be perfect on your big day.
It takes a lot of time and hard work to pull a wedding together perfectly. A wedding planner has organised a wedding a hundred times, and with practice comes perfection. They know the right people to talk to, how to get the best prices, what should (and shouldn’t) be in a contract, and how to ensure that every single detail is prepared for your big day.

Reason #2. You’re not very good at sticking to a budget.
Money is one of the hardest aspects of planning your wedding. Who’s paying, how much, when is your bill due and how do you ensure you don’t spend too much of it? A wedding planner is like a financial adviser or an accountant who specialises in weddings. They know how much things should cost, roughly what percentage of your budget will be spent in each area, whether, and when payments will need to be made in order to secure services or products.

Reason #3. Your wedding planning experience should be enjoyable, not stressful.
Whether your engagement is long or short, you should enjoy every moment of that special time with your dream man. Most importantly, you do not want to turn into a neurotic Bridezilla who can’t sleep, can’t eat, can’t work and is constantly stressing about how much work there is to be done. Since it’s our job, a wedding planner has time and the skills to deal with everything on your behalf. All you have to worry about is taking care of yourself and enjoying your engagement period.

Reason #4. You don’t want to spend hours finding suppliers and trying to figure out who is trustworthy.
It’s daunting to know how many suppliers are out there (and how many people it takes to make a wedding a success). Knowing who to trust and who is right for you is one of the hardest tasks of planning a wedding. Once you find a great wedding planner however, the rest is much easier. They can recommend suppliers they’ve worked with before and know how to get the best prices, and the best results, from them. “Even if we have to use a new supplier, we know how to find the best one for your style and price.”

Reason #5. You don’t want to worry about forgetting to plan or pay for something.
Wedding checklists can be pages long, so it’s no surprise if you’re worried about forgetting something. Luckily a planner knows what needs to be done like the back of their hand! They will keep track of all your deadlines and remind you when things need to be done and decided on. Nothing will ever be missed, and there’s no danger that something won’t turn up on the day because of poor preparation.

Reason #6. You both work and you don’t want wedding planning to take over your life.
Planning a wedding takes a lot of time, even more if you do everything yourself. Having a wedding planner is like having a personal assistant whose sole responsibility is doing all the running around for your wedding.

Reason #7. You have a great venue coordinator but they don’t take care about any of the other details.
You’ve already found your venue and you get on really well with the venue co-ordinator (the person who takes care of all the logistics of the venue and often is provided as part of your wedding package). She’s great and has got everything under control, she’s even given you a recommended list of suppliers that they work with. But keep in mind, that’s generally as far as her services extend. A wedding planner goes beyond these tasks and can help you manage your budget, mediate disputes with your family, tell you what flowers are in season on your wedding date, take you to meet the other suppliers, research prices, and anything else you wish.

Reason #8. You need help making your vision a reality.
No matter whether you know exactly what you want, have a vague idea, or no idea at all, a wedding planner can help you define the look, style, mood and emotions you want to create. They know the latest trends and are inspired daily by other brides, suppliers and the industry. They can visualise what will work in your venue and know how to bring your desired mood to life.

Reason #9.You’re struggling to meet the demands of your friends and family.
Does your family have a different idea of how your wedding should look? Many brides have to deal with a plethora of conflicting opinions from their friends and family about how the wedding should unfold, and it can be hard to please everyone. Not to mention stressful. A wedding planner will deal with your family’s expectations, show you the available options and can be relied upon to give you expert advice so you make an informed decision.

Reason #10. You’re planning a wedding somewhere other than where you live.
Planning a destination wedding has it’s pros, but it’s hard to organise suppliers that you’ve never met or imagine a space you’ve never seen in person. A wedding planner with experience in organising abroad weddings has a trick or two up their sleeve for getting the job done the way you want.

“The truth is, planning a wedding takes a lot of time, energy and focus,” we say. “Sure, some bits of it are fun and exciting, but then there’s the endless research, details to remember, payments to make and so on which aren’t so much fun but are very necessary. Using one of our wedding planners means you’re in control. It’s definitely your day, your way, but you have a specialist working on your behalf to do the legwork, reduce your stress and ensure every detail is your kind of perfect.”

An Actual Case - Echoes Update for the Day!!!

Why We Didn't Hire a Wedding Planner... But Wish We Had

In the early stages of preparing for our big day, we decided not to employ the services of a wedding planner... but in hindsight, oh, how I wish we had!

Why we didn't
We had very little debate about whether or not to bring a wedding planner on board. Quite simply, I wanted us to handle all the preparations and vendor research ourselves. I thought it would be fun to do the research, and also felt that us looking into the suppliers was the only way to know all the options... so that we could make a truly informed decision and ensure we got the style we liked at the most reasonable price -- not simply a wedding planner's "usual" contacts. My groom was more than happy with this conclusion, since it saved us an extra line item in our bridal budget... and we were indeed worried that a wedding planner would be quite expensive.

Why we wish we had
• Wedding tasks aren't always fun. Sure, it's a ball to ooh and aah over cake designs, but there's nothing enjoyable about researching mini-buses for guest transport or making seating charts. There isn't much joy in reviewing vendor contracts or keeping track of payments, either. Contrary to what I had thought, hiring a wedding planner doesn't mean outsourcing your entire wedding; a wedding planner only handles what you want them to (support at the start to get you on the right track, on-the-day coordination only, or indeed the whole shebang) so won't take over and choose your final bouquet design for you. So if do you want to drive your wedding planning, you can focus on the fun parts... and leave the boring bits to someone else.

• Wedding planning is stressful. Wedding planning is not the romantic experience one expects it to be. There are many details to take care of, meddling family and friends might drive you crazy and vendors can be a source of drama. During our engagement, several recently married friends told me that in the final month before the wedding they had been so exhausted that they just wanted the day to be over. This ended up being true for me: in the final week I lost five pounds from stress, burst into tears a few times and my groom and I were snapping at each other. This is not how anyone's planning should be. Bringing on board a professional planner to help and take some of the workload off our hands definitely would have made sense (and they probably could have given advice on managing family drama).

• We weren't that great at choosing vendors after all. Despite thinking that researching vendors ourselves was the only way to ensure we could make the best supplier decisions, this didn't work out so swimmingly. Out of 15 or so wedding day vendors, there were only three that we were actually totally happy with... and some others we were extremely unhappy with. When we started out planning, we had organized less than one wedding... why did we think our judgment would be better than that of a professional, who has seen these vendors in action at more than one (and perhaps several, and perhaps many!) weddings? Why did I think a planner would force us into choosing a vendor we weren't completely happy with?

• We didn't know what to look for in a vendor. Other than a little Google research before interrogating potential vendors via email, we really had no idea what to ask. For example, after contacting 20 different hairdressers for quotes, I realized I had to specify if I was planning an up- or down-do to get accurate pricing... so had to email them all over again. We asked cake makers for price quotes for a three-tier cake, but it didn't occur to us to ask about the height of the tiers... until two months before the wedding, when we found out the "magnificent" wedding cake we were paying hundreds of dollars for was only nine inches tall, and we'd now have to shell out twice as much money to get it to the grandeur that we wanted.

• Wedding planning takes time. Until you really get into the preparations for your big day, it is impossible to fathom how much work is involved and how many details need to be taken care of. I know brides who have taken leave from work in order to have more time to prepare their weddings. If you work long hours, have lots of hobbies or have children to look after, and don't want to be completely drowning in to-do lists during your engagement, a wedding planner handling some of those tasks for you could be a real lifesaver. Also, you really don't want to get in trouble at the office by getting caught doing wedding planning on company time!

• Things do go wrong at the last minute. The day before the wedding, the baker for our cake buffet claimed they never received our order, and our dance floor provider phoned halfway through our bridal party lunch claiming they hadn't been paid. That night while setting up the reception room, we realized one table setting was missing, so had to frantically call the decorator for extra chair decorations, and re-confirm guest numbers with the kitchen. Tiny things, but they were unnecessary and brought a general feeling of stress on a day my groom and I had planned to be lovely and relaxing. Someone to handle those details for us would have been amazing. We were lucky nothing went wrong on the wedding day itself, but -- yikes! -- what if something had?

• A wedding planner can help with costs. The imagined price for a wedding planner was a reason we decided against hiring one. However, here are two things that I realized in hindsight: 1) Planners know what different services cost, and can better spot when a vendor price is exorbitantly high or too good to be true. They know most local wedding vendors, and can help you get the best value for your budget. 2) As with any other wedding vendor, you will agree in advance what services you want from your planner and how much that will cost. It is not in their interest to hand you a bill at the end of the wedding that you can't afford to pay. Wish we'd realized all that earlier!

• It can be difficult to find help elsewhere. There is much to do in preparing your special day, so without a planner you either must ask help from others or handle everything yourselves. Occasionally we asked our family or bridal party to help, but none actually themselves offered assistance, so we soon felt awkward asking. On the wedding day, when my groom should have chilling out, he was driving all over town picking up cakes and buttonholes, and when he arrived at the ceremony had to set up our refreshments table. We asked one friend to reach the ceremony early so she could SMS us that the officiant, musicians and decorator had arrived on time. These are all tasks that an on-the-day wedding planner could have coordinated for us, rather than burdening ourselves or our guests.

At the beginning of your wedding planning, sit down as a couple and consider how much time, how much budget and how many helpers you have available for big-day preparations. Consider which areas you could do with professional support, and which planning areas you're less interested in and happy to outsource to someone. Look into wedding planners in your local area; even if you're hesitant, it won't cost you anything to give them a call and find out the range and price of their services. It could be your best way to a smoother, less stressful and more romantic wedding planning experience.