Planning your wedding is one of the most exciting experiences of your life. However, deciding whether to hire a wedding planner is a crucial choice that depends on your needs, preferences, and the vision you have for your big day. Let’s explore the reasons why you would or would not hire a Wedding Planner to help you make the best decision for you and your partner.
reasons to hire a wedding planner...
You Want Support from Someone Who Knows What They're Doing
A Professional Wedding Planner brings experience, education and expertise to ensure your vision is executed flawlessly so you don’t have to worry about the process or the details. They may have years of experience planning weddings or other events and they have relationships with vetted and trusted Wedding Professionals. These relationships can also provide additional discounts and savings passed on to you.
A Wedding Planner ensures they have solid relationships with family and friends who are invested emotionally, physically or financially in the wedding. They know that there are usually parents, siblings, other family members or friends who want to be involved. A Professional Wedding Planner understands these relationships and takes the time to ensure everyone feels welcome, supported, heard and respected in the planning process and on the day of the event.
Wedding Planners know that your loved ones are important to you and their comfort and well-being also affects your Wedding Day experience.
You Have a Background in Event Planning
You know how much work is required to ensure a Wedding Day goes well and you know the value of having someone there to make sure everything runs smoothly. You also know that in order to fully enjoy the planning process and your wedding day, it shouldn’t be you taking on the planning. You DON'T want to be the point person to problem solve or trouble shoot on your wedding day.
You Want to Protect Your Investment
Weddings are significant financial commitments. A wedding planner helps you allocate your budget and time wisely, guides you to trusted vendors, and ensures you get the most value for your money according to your priorities.
A wedding is one of the single biggest investments you will make as a couple besides maybe buying a house. When you buy a house, you still hire a Real Estate Agent to help guide you through the process or if you build a house, you will be sourcing, interviewing and hiring people to service your home build.
A wedding is a big ticket purchase and you want to make sure you are making the right choices when hiring service providers that know what they are doing. Asking a bunch of strangers in a facebook group about who you should hire for your wedding, is not the most valuable way to find professionals to match and meet your specific needs. They have no idea who you are, what styles you like, where you’re located, what venue you’ve booked or what your budget is. “Reasonably Priced” means something different to everyone. Reasonable should mean… what you are comfortable spending based on what your budget is.
A Professional Wedding Planner will allocate your budget accordingly so you will stay ahead of financial decisions.
You Want your Day to be Unique to you and your Partner
Wedding Planners will work with you to create something unique and specific to you as a Couple with intimate details that are meaningful and memorable. Wedding Planners do not want your wedding to look and feel like everyone else’s. The overall vibe of the day should be unique to the Couple.
You Want to be able to Enjoy the Wedding Planning Experience
When Couples begin the planning it can be exciting and enjoyable. They tour beautiful venues, imagine being surrounded by their family and friends in celebration and are in awe of all the possibilities for creating their dream wedding. There often isn’t a budget yet and they begin booking vendors right away. Soon they realize that the planning is encroaching on their careers, social lives, family commitments and other personal goals. Planning a wedding begins to feel like “work” or a second job.
The details pile up and decisions need to be made that will affect several different aspects of the day. They start feeling like they’re missing something, the worry and overwhelm creeps in and soon to follow is the anxiety and sleepless nights. This can even affect their relationship and create negative feelings between them.
Some couples even say right before their wedding day that they just want it to be over.
A wedding planner will help guide and point you in the right direction saving you hours of time searching for and communicating with qualified and vetted vendors.
Even if you’re thinking of hiring a Planner for Day of Coordination then any errors and omissions, gaps and holes will be found and taken care of well ahead of the Wedding Day.
You don’t want to be exhausted by the time your wedding day arrives. You want to be the Guest of Honour and not worry about all the details of the day. With a planner managing the details, you can relax, knowing someone has your back from start to finish.
You Don't Want to Put Your Guests to Work
Your guests are expecting fun, food and entertainment. These are the people who have always been there for you and you want them to enjoy the day too! They likely don’t want to be setting up chairs in the hot sun, driving around the city picking up items or cleaning and packing decor at the end of the night. You also don’t want your guests’ last memory to be cleaning up and putting away decor, chairs and tables.
Often times, if you ask someone to do a task for your wedding, they don’t want to say no but they really don’t want the responsibility either. You really have to be sure this person is up for the task and willing to sacrifice their enjoyment of the day or parts of the day.
Your Vendors will be Grateful
When a wedding is absent of a Day of Coordinator or Wedding Planner, Vendors know that at some point during the day they will have to step up to cover tasks, answer questions or guide others in ways that interfere with their service. When a Planner or Coordinator is on board, all Vendors are free to work on their service only and will not have to worry about trouble shooting things like: answering questions from guests about where they should be and when, finding certain people who are required for the program to continue, re-writing the timeline to accommodate their service, calming down anxious nerves in the wedding party, fixing mis-placed or broken decor, stalling for time to complete set-up or pivoting their service due to lack of communication etc...
Effective communication is crucial when organizing a wedding. With a Wedding Planner on board, everyone can relax and focus on delivering their excellent service, as the planner serves as the primary point of contact for almost everything!
reasons Why you might not choose to hire a Wedding Planner
You Have Event Planning Experience
Or… you have worked in the hospitality industry and you feel confident creating budgets, timelines or production schedules, checklists, trouble shooting, and managing other professionals and guests. You’re comfortable allocating costs, interviewing and hiring vendors and overseeing the logistics of the day. You are also confident that you have reliable family and friends who are willing and able to follow your instructions throughout the planning and on the day of the wedding.
You Prefer Full Control
If you love being hands-on and feel you’re the only one who can execute your vision, hiring a Planner or Day of Coordinator may not be for you. You love doing extensive research, talking to multiple vendors, and directing everyone on the big day. You are self-aware and know that you have a hard time giving up control and trusting others. You're not accustomed to full service and you know that you would have a hard time listening to a professional. You couldn’t relax and enjoy the service that a Wedding Planner provides. You like to complete tasks on your own time and would find it hard to stick to a pre-determined schedule.
You're Planning a "Small &Simple" Wedding
A small and simple wedding may not be what you think. If your wedding is at a traditional venue with minimal decor, no DIY projects and few moving parts, you may not need a Wedding Planner. For example… a hotel or banquet facility that hosts a lot of weddings and handles most logistics might suffice. They have all the basics you will need… standard tableware, glassware, white linens, chairs, tables and staff to execute set-up and tear-down. Ceremony and reception are at the same place or even in the same room. Your decor may consist of some centrepieces and an arch. You either don’t have a bridal party or you’ve limited it to just two and you have a very limited program with few speeches.
A simple wedding does not mean that friends and family will be helping you with different elements. Adding more people to the planning and execution increases the complexity and the need for more direction and time to convey the instruction. Friends and family will be asking questions about everything they do because they want to get it right for you! You will also now be having to oversee someone’s work more closely and they may not have the necessary equipment, tools or know how to execute as expected.
You Have a Trusted Friend with Event Planning Experience
If a friend with planning expertise is willing to help, they can take on the role but only if they’re involved early in the process. Ensure they have time to address potential gaps or issues and provide for contingencies before the wedding day. You don’t want it to be too late for them to fix any errors or omissions. For example, you may have forgotten to order enough table numbers, glassware, or boutonnieres. You may have the wrong time on the schedule or the caterer doesn’t have enough power for their appliances. It takes time for a Day of Coordinator to get familiar with the plans as you envision.
Also, you’ll want to be sure that this person isn’t just someone you assume will want this role. Be very careful and particular who you ask to do tasks for you on your wedding day as they may not be able to say no, but they really don’t want the job or feel confident in their abilities.
Conclusion
Planning a wedding should be fun and exciting, not a source of stress and overwhelm. Whether or not you hire a wedding planner depends on your unique situation, skills, and vision. If you choose to go without a Planner, ensure you have a solid plan and reliable support. If you decide to hire one, rest assured they will work tirelessly to bring your dream wedding to life while you relax and enjoy every moment.
No matter your choice, remember: your wedding day is about celebrating your love and commitment. Make decisions that allow you to savour this Heirloom event including the days leading up to it.
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