Hiring A Wedding Co-Ordinator-Planner


Whatever the projected budget for your wedding, it is worthwhile to consider engaging the services of a professional wedding organizer. Of course, at first glance it might appear to be an unnecessary extra expense (probably 10% of your budget, perhaps more), but in many aspects of planning for the big day it could actually save you money, or at least help to ensure you get full value for your outlay.
A good wedding organizer should be able to offer a wide choice of suppliers of all the necessary specialist services you are likely to require for your wedding and reception (along with some not-so-necessary extras!) together with the reassurance that everything will be smoothly co-ordinated on the day. It is above all this relative peace of mind that you are paying for. He/she will often be able to negotiate discounts from certain key service providers, and should have the expertise and experience to cater for your specific personal requests regarding what you want and what you don’t want for your special day.
Of course, the wedding organizer doesn’t have to be involved in every aspect of your wedding. There may be several items you wish to arrange yourself (the music, for example, or the flowers). Having a wedding organizer to sort out all the other worrying and time-consuming details will allow you to concentrate on personalizing your chosen responsibilities. If you already have clearly-formulated plans regarding the areas you would like to mastermind yourself, an initial consultation should define the aspects you wish to be handled by the wedding organizer.
You may already have a reasonably clear idea about the style of wedding you are seeking to achieve, maybe even a specific theme. A good wedding organizer will be able to empathize with your ideas and help to develop them into a well-co-ordinated and memorable occasion. Outline your personal vision as fully as possible, so that the wedding organizer has a clear overall picture of what you are looking for. Translating your ideas into an action plan, and executing that plan in all its detail seamlessly on the day, is the organizer’s challenge. And don’t worry if you don’t have a particularly clear vision or plan for your wedding – a good wedding planner will have enough experience and expertise to be able confidently to make suitable suggestions for you to consider, based on your initial projected budget.
Finally, take advice from your chosen wedding organizer on setting up a team (best man, maid of honour, ushers, bridesmaids etc.) to share out the various small yet important tasks on the day. These little details are easily unforeseen or overlooked (e.g. the string quartet don’t have chairs to sit on, or Nigel’s left his notes for his speech in the car), yet in the hands of a skilled wedding organizer they will not present a problem. Always work on the basis that if something can go wrong, then it probably will:- and then everything will probably go right.

Key Qualities to Look for in a Wedding Planner


If you don’t want to be bothered with all the planning that a wedding has to go through, you can just simply hire a wedding planner to do the job for you. Although you will need to pay her a certain fee, the benefit of not worrying about anything at all is a good payoff. You must keep in mind that there are tons of things you need to consider in planning a wedding from little things as invitations to big decisions like caterers and venues. All you need to do is talk to you wedding planner about the specific things you want and she will take care of everything including the transportation of your family members.
What are the key qualities to look for in a wedding planner? One is the wedding planner’s competence. You can gauge her competence by simply asking for referrals or client testimonials about her performance. Since you are meeting her for the first time, a good background check can give you an idea of her competence. Next is to ensure that your wedding planner is very professional and trustworthy. You are handing out all your wedding plans to a specific person and you expect her to do a good job at planning the best day of your life.
Next, your wedding organizer should listen to you carefully. Although wedding planners would like to give their advice and creative input, it is best that they listen to what you have to say first. It is your wedding after all and the concept, motif and elements should come from you and she should openly listen to what you want. Beside her listening skills, she should be able to communicate well with you and the other people who are taking part in the wedding like suppliers and caterers. Since she is the one handling everything, she should be able to talk properly and communicate effectively with everyone.
At the initial part of the planning process, you must be able to give your wedding planner the overall budget for the whole wedding because all the expenses will revolve around how much you can spend. She should immediately accept your budget and work her way around it to give you the best wedding possible for the money you can afford. You shouldn’t hear a wedding planner complain to you that it is impossible to get something done if the budget is too low.
You would also like to have a planner that can meet deadlines. If both of have talked about a certain date where suppliers should be decided on, she should already present all estimates and options for you on the date you both agreed on. Deadlines are very important to meet since you do not want to delay the planning process.
Lastly, your wedding planner should be both friendly yet firm at the same time. On the day of the wedding, she will be the one to talk to your guests and also talk to everyone involved in the wedding. Even though she is under stress, she should still be friendly in dealing with people. However, if something has gone wrong or out of plan, the wedding planner should also be firm enough to deal with it and settle the matter immediately.