About Professional Wedding Planners, Coordinators And Specialists

A Wedding Planner, a Wedding Consultant, a Wedding Coordinator – Whatever the Title, Do We Need One?

Brides and grooms, especially those pressed for time because they hold jobs or professions, go to school or both ask me often if they need a wedding planner, consultant or coordinator.

For the sake of simplicity, let us refer to all Wedding Planners, Wedding Consultants and Wedding Coordinators as Wedding Specialists. Actually the tone of the question varies between brides and grooms. Brides get very emotional and excited about planning their dream wedding. Most grooms want to take part planning it as well.

Some grooms would like to take an active role but believe, or thinks that their brides believes that it is the women who should plan the wedding. Though they would like to, these grooms do not volunteer because they do not want to “take away” the excitement their brides have toward planning their very special day. However, in today – 21st century, most couples do plan their weddings together.

The question whether you need to hire a wedding specialist is rather complex. It cannot be answered with a yes or a no. Many factors need to be considered, before you make your decision. The first step to answering the question is to determine;

What is a wedding specialist?

A wedding specialist is a professional who is familiar with the wedding circuit in your region, usually possesses a lot of experience, creative ideas, know-how, sense of organization, attention to details and strong contacts with vendors and service providers. Most experienced wedding specialists have over the years learned what to expect, what to ask and how to negotiate with their peers.

Now, consider the following;

How much time and energy do you have to devote to planning your wedding? Can you rely on friends and family to help?

Planning a wedding can and should be fun. However, you must remember and be prepared for the:

Realistic wedding budgets you need to set and stay within,
The various schedules you need to plan and keep,
The endless details you need to take care of,
The logistics you need to coordinate,
The many vendors and service providers you need to hire, work with and supervise when necessary,
Delegation of responsibilities require your being on top of the – what, by whom and by when – to do lists,
You must be conscientious at following up.

If you were to, to what degree would you like to engage the wedding specialist? Consider your Options:

To consult with regarding what needs to be done,
To Help you come up with a realistic budget,
To help you stay within your budget?
To hire the vendors and service providers on your behalf and have you work with them?
To hire the vendors and service providers for you, and also work with them and supervise them on your behalf?
To do everything other than the attire, from the Save the date to the favors and everything in between and to supervise during the wedding itself,
To supervise the wedding day itself – only,
You do not want to engage a wedding specialist.

For worksheets, checklists and questions to ask – CLICK HERE Login and click on the corresponding chapter.

How much can you budget for the service of a wedding specialist?

This depends on the specialist charging method and your negotiating skills. The fee depends on the way it is calculated. Some charge:

A flat fee that depends on what you want them to do,
A percentage of the cost of your wedding,
A fee from you and a fee from each vendor and service provider they offer your wedding to, There are some other fee schedules but they are less common.

Are you planning a destination wedding?

Unless your wedding location offers their services as part of the wedding package, this is the only situation where you must budget and hire a local wedding specialist. Hire the most experienced wedding specialist where you plan to have your wedding, because it is impossible to plan a wedding from afar.

The only exception is if you have friends and/or family in the region who can plan on your behalf. However, I do not recommend it.

Tips and Ideas for a do it yourselves wedding

Many brides and grooms do not want to miss the excitement of planning their own wedding but are not sure quite how to achieve professional results. Following are a few tips.

Whether you hire a wedding professional, do everything completely by yourselves, or anywhere in between, you need to be organized. If you want to have keepsakes of your wedding planning, arm yourselves with a printed copy of your free wedding planning guide – book, A-wedding Fay’s gift to you. Create a comprehensive wedding planning kit that includes:

wedding planning to do list
An appointment book,
A wedding a 3 ring binder with a see through cover
In the binder place dividers, pockets, sheet protectors, business card holding pages and photo pages
A notebook, unless you can write in your planner and it can serve as a notebook,
A personal journal unless one is included in the planner,
Pens to be able to jot ideas, observations and comments,
A business card holder, unless you use card holder pages,
A mini photo album, unless you use photo pages,
Scissors, tape, and a stapler
A pretty box or a tote bag to house these items
A computer, a printer and a camera are very helpful tools indeed.

You will be very busy on your wedding day. So, unless you can appoint others to oversee the wedding vendors and activities, you may wish to consider hiring a wedding coordinator for the actual reception.

Wedding Planners, consultants and coordinators don’t come cheap. Cost can go from about $1000 for the day, to many thousands depending on the attention, details and hours worked for preparing for and supervising on the actual wedding day. Some offer a flat fee, while others require a percentage of the cost of the wedding. (Usually 10- 15%).

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Author Byline

Nily Glaser is the founder of A-wedding Day magazine, a very popular Wedding Resource, and Information Center. She is a published author who wrote and published the A-wedding Day Wedding Planning Guide, Book. She writes important articles and has presented workshops for wedding professionals all over the USA.
To read more of her articles visit the A-wedding Day Magazine.

The almost 400-page Personalized, Printable A-wedding Day Wedding Planning Guide, Book is a FREE gift to our readers.

You may want to check it out! Contact us if you would like to offer it to your visitors (for free of course).

About professional wedding planners, coordinators and specialists