Monday, February 7, 2011

10 Reasons to Hire a Wedding Planner


Your wedding day is a pivotal, life changing and supremely important event, and planning it is not for the faint of heart; it requires a lot of time, energy and resources, which is why hiring a wedding planner is practically an unwritten law.

If you want to avoid a stint in the psych ward, bankruptcy, family feuds, and – don’t even think it! – calling off the biggest party of your life, consider hiring a wedding planner to avoid headaches and any potential for disaster. If that doesn’t convince you, here are 10 more reasons to consider it:

1. Sanity Preservation

You called the church where you want the ceremony, and it’s already booked. You found your dream dress, but it’s $1000 over your budget. Your fiancé is begging to have his ex-con uncle act as best man. You’re at your wits end, and ready to throw in the towel. Wait! A wedding planner’s job is to listen to your needs and wants, and then deliver. They know where to find great dresses at lower prices, available venues that you may have never even considered, and they can help you navigate the strange etiquette twilight zone that threatens to turn your wedding into a Twin Peaks meets Family Guy episode.

2. Money Honey

Instead of relying on yourself to make the 73 phone calls and trips to the store to find the most gorgeous cake, perfect shoes, and affordable floral table arrangements, let the expert take the helm! A wedding planner has experience doing all of the things you are likely tackling for the first time, and one of those things is planning a party on a finite amount of cash. Let them sniff out the deals that suit your budget so you can be free to look after the myriad other things that need attention. Like you!

3. Oh the Fights

Having a personal consultant around is a great buffer against family members and partners eager to impose their opinions and ideas. Unlike your mother-in-law, a wedding planner is emotionally removed from the decision making process involved in every aspect of planning. This makes it much easier to cut to the chase when it comes to deciding on details like the seating arrangement, invitations, and wedding cake. A wedding planner will tell it like it is, support you, and remind you that this is your day, and no one else’s.

4. Excuse me, do you have the time?

Most people do not have the luxury of taking time off of work to plan a wedding; and opting out of things like raising children, cooking, doing laundry and running errands is not a viable option. This begs the question, do you have time to plan a wedding? Everyone could use a hand or two to make a beautiful thing happen, and nominating your family members to do the work is a recipe for a little something called resentment, exhaustion, and irritability. You can save yourself a lot of time and trouble by hiring someone who already has the time, and won’t be there to begrudge you for it.

5. I Have a Dream

You have so many ideas about how you want the food, decorations, dresses, and even the seating arrangement, but you still aren’t sure how the naked Elvis impersonator is going to fit in with the whole Hawaii Five – O theme. Not to worry, your wedding planner can help you with your visions, dreams, fantasies and absurd notions even when you can’t. Especially if you have no idea where to begin, working with a wedding planner can be the difference between just another wedding, and the experience of a lifetime.

6. Let them eat cake!

You envision a simple yet elegant selection of organic, whole foods based entrées followed by a seductive array of decadent desserts. Your fiancé, on the other hand, prefers a more down to earth menu of buttermilk fried chicken, grits, and mashed potatoes with pork gravy, followed by bumbleberry pie. With the help of an expert, the haggling over who gets to choose three of the five appetizers will soon be turned into the happy sighing of a couple who have reached a very satisfying compromise.

7. Insider Information

Being the savvy and experienced experts they are, wedding planners have the inside scoop on the world of nuptials to a degree that most of us wouldn’t have the first clue about. Your wedding planner will know where to find the best caterers, floral shops, designers, car rentals, even the name of the best unadvertised DJ, plus the connections to swing a deal where you wouldn’t be able to. They know the right people that are right for you, which saves you precious energy, money, and time.

8. Details, Details, Details

You may think you know what you’re doing, in fact you may know very well how to arrange, organize and plan your big day, but did you remember the gift opening, the registries, wedding favors, garter belt, and thank you gifts for the bridal party? Maybe not, that’s a lot to remember, and the great thing is you don’t have to. A wedding planner will look after those details and even send you a reminder of when to pay for the flowers, book the hotel rooms, and be ready to walk down the aisle.

9. You’re engaged, remember?

With a heavy case of wedding fever, and a lengthy list of to-dos, you may be forgetting to take time to enjoy being engaged to the someone you will be spending the rest of your life with. Spending the time before your wedding in a stressful, high pressure, non-stop whirlwind trying to figure out how to orchestrate such an important event is no way to start off a good thing with your mate. Sharing the load with an experienced, knowledgeable hired hand will lend you invaluable support, and free up time and energy for some special moments with your loved one, hopefully planning the honeymoon.

10. The Big Day

Picture your wedding day and really think about how you want to feel. Bets are that you do not want to feel anxious, harried, or on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Nor do you want to morph into the dreaded Bridezilla. You want to be as relaxed as possible, your mind free of concerns and fleeting panic, confident that everything is unfolding smoothly. This is the very essence of what a wedding planner does. They ensure that a timeline is tightly adhered to, that the ring-bearers have their rings, the photographer shows up on time, and the organist continues to play soothing music until it is time to crank out the Wedding March, all while you take a moment to appreciate the smell of your gardenia bouquet. Now, doesn’t that sound good?

By Chaplain Mirabai Galashan MTh.

1 comment:

  1. These are pretty good reasons on why to hire a wedding planner. Last month, I hired a reputed wedding planner for arranging my nephew’s wedding and he booked one of finest DC wedding venues to arrange a beautiful wedding.

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