No one ever told you getting married was going to be easy. Quite apart from the fact that living with someone for the rest of your life is a daunting (though wonderful) prospect, horror stories abound about what can go wrong on “the big day.”
That’s where a wedding planner comes in. Rather than keep track of place cards, caterers, cake cutting tools, microphone cords, worker tips and Honey Buckets all by yourself, why not hire someone to do it for you? A wedding planner is a professional who has built an entire career on keeping all your nuptial ducks in a row, and can help you streamline your day – as well as the time leading up to it – considerably.
Ready to find a wedding planner? Here’s a list of questions to ask to help yourself make the best decision about what will work for you. Some of these questions need to be settled between yourself and your S.O., while for others you’ll need the input of the wedding planners you’re interviewing in order to make the right call. Either way, once you go through the list, you’re bound to end up with someone you’ll love working with.
Ready? Let’s get started!
1.How Much Help Do You Need?
First you need to decide how much help you need. Are you only looking for someone to back you up on your wedding day itself – or possibly at the rehearsal dinner as well? Or do you want someone who can offer full planning services, starting from shortly after saying “yes”?
Both have their advantages. If you hire someone just for a day or two, you won’t have to keep track of some of the more mundane aspects of your wedding. Making sure the caterers set up in the right place, chilling beverages, coordinating table-scaping, helping the band set up and putting out a hundred other fires all fall under the purview of the wedding planner. They’ll make sure everyone gets paid, that your event progresses along the program on time and that all events go as smoothly as possible.
The question really comes down to how much time you have to give to your wedding and how much you enjoy each aspect of the planning process. If working out small details is your cup of tea, you’ll be well suited to just hiring a planner for the day. If you’re worried about what you might miss, a planner is the way to go.
2. What’s Your Budget?
Budget, of course, factors in as well. If you can’t afford a planner for the full duration of the planning process, then it doesn’t make sense to try and “make the numbers work.” Instead, talk to a few wedding planners and see what they can offer just for the day itself. You’ll probably find that the services they can offer will significantly decrease your stress and be worth it.
On the other hand, you might also choose to hire a wedding planner for longer than a day but less than the traditional 6- to 12-month window in which most people plan their weddings. That way, they can help you with chores such as ordering flowers, making a seating plan, preparing a final budget, making a program of events and crafting a list of desired photos, just to give a few examples.
3. What Does the Planner Include in Their Services?
The exact offerings for which you can hire your wedding planner will also depend on what they list in their catalogue of services. Some wedding planners offer a full range of packages, from full coordination (down to the last boutonniere) to partial wedding planning to coordination on the day itself. Within those packages they will list the specific services included.
With a full coordination package, for instance, you will likely receive design advice and inspiration for choosing colors, themes, photo props, food and more. With partial planning, you’ll get help tracking your budget and reviewing contracts, as well as ensuring your timeline is one schedule. With day-of, as discussed, you just get a helping hand making sure everything proceeds seamlessly in the background while you say “I do.”
4. Are You Comfortable Using an In-House Coordinator?
In-house coordinators can be a very useful tool if you’re having your event at a church, lodge or other site that routinely hosts weddings. The unique benefit of this situation is that your coordinator is intimately familiar with all the on-site details, such as where caterers will work, which table arrangements are most effective, and where to set up different activities: ceremony, bouquet toss, photo booth and more. Many places also offer food, and your caterer can help you pick from the menu expertly.
5. What Are the Photos Like?
A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. Nowhere is this truer than with wedding planners. These days, most couples spend a few hours to a few years on Pinterest (no, really: it happens) before heading to a wedding planner. Therefore, you should have a pretty good idea of what a beautiful wedding looks like, even if you don’t yet know what how want your own to look.
Ask for photographs or a portfolio from your wedding planner. Any professional worth their salt will be able to whip out several examples of weddings and rehearsal dinners they’ve helmed, which will give you a great idea of whether or not they meet your standards.
6. What’s the Cancellation Policy?
Knowing the cancellation policy is crucial. While we hope very much that your wedding planning process and the big day go smoothly, that’s not something you can count on. Planning can get halted due to sickness or changes in job situation; dates get changed; relationships don’t work out.
Instead of blithely assuming the best and setting yourself up to lose money if things don’t work out the way you’ve planned, check the cancellation policy. You want to work with a company that offers a generous policy, and keeps only your deposit if you cancel at least a month or so in advance. Be advised that if you’re only a few weeks or a few days before the wedding, you’ll likely forfeit half of what you put into it. It’s very, very important to check this ahead of time, though, as some companies will point to the contract and insist you owe them half or even the full amount.
7. How Did the Interview Make You Feel?
As with any professional – a real estate agent, a doctor, a lawyer – you need to be comfortable working together. If a wedding planner you interview gives you a funny vibe, move on. However stressed out you are months in advance, you can double or triple that come the month leading up to the wedding. If you don’t make sure to find someone with whom you get along perfectly (or almost perfectly), you might be very sorry indeed later on.
Instead, take your time interviewing enough planners to get a feeling for different personality types, approaches to planning and what a reasonable menu of offerings looks like. Compare them to find the one that checks the greatest number of boxes on your checklist. Then, when you find a planner you like and are ready to go for it, all that’s left to do is check references.
8. Do References Check Out?
This is a simple step, requiring only that you call a few people your wedding planner has referred you to. Make sure you call at least three … it’s always possible that your planner is using friends and family to pad out their resume, so you want a fairly wide sampling of reviews. Otherwise, you may get hoodwinked into hiring a total newbie or an unprofessional “professional,” both of which can throw off your big day, not to mention the entire planning process. If references do check out, you’re good to go. Otherwise, keep looking or try your second choice.
9. Where Should You Plan Your Wedding and Rehearsal Dinner?
Once you’ve chosen a wedding planner, you should immediately sit down with them and, if you haven’t already, select a site for the ceremony and reception as well as for the rehearsal dinner. Many people opt for hotels and churches that can host both wedding and rehearsal, outdoor parks or gardens, or events on the water. If you prefer the latter, you’ll likely love to have your event on a cruise ship on the waters of Lake Minnetonka or the Mississippi River.
These pleasure boats are perfect for large weddings or for intimate gatherings, made all the more beautiful for the fact that they are set against some of the most storied bodies of water in America.
Glittering lakes and rivers have served as the settings for celebrations for millennia, water signifying life, renewal and fresh starts. If you love a good symbol and just plain want your wedding and rehearsal dinners to be gorgeous, you can’t do better than an event hosted by Paradise Charter Cruises.
Whatever You Do … Don’t Wait
No matter what you decide about your venues, however, it’s important to get started planning that right away. Establishments that routinely host weddings tend to book up very quickly, so you’ll want to choose yours when you’re still in the early planning stages of your wedding.
Ditto your wedding planner, who can help you sort of your tasks, make a to-do calendar at monthly, weekly and then daily intervals as you get closer, and act as an overall source of support on which you can rely for the duration of the planning process. Get started today and don’t spend another second tearing your pretty hair out!