Plan Before You Hire A Planner
by Stacey Miller
Hiring a Wedding Planner/Coordinator is very important for even the smallest weddings. However, a planner is there to do just that, plan your wedding. Unless you are willing to give the reins to your planner and let them pick everything out and surprise you, there needs to be an idea in place.
We, as planners, can pretty much do anything you will need us to do, but we don't pay for everything and we are not the ones getting married. Therefore, we ultimately cannot make the decisions.
The first thing you really need to have an idea about is your theme and your colors. From there we can give you examples of how we feel the ceremony area and reception area should be decorated. You also need to know which types of flowers you like and then we can give you advice on how we think they should be utilized. You need to have a catering menu ready to go with the items you are wanting for your reception. We cannot pick the menu out for you. We can give you suggestions, but we don't know what you like and don't like to eat. Those are just a few things, but there are more.
We are here to help you and make sure that your wedding and reception are your dream come true. However, what people don't realize is how long it can take to hire vendors. The longer it takes to put a menu together, the longer it will take to hire a caterer. This time is crucial. If you wait too long, your preferred caterer may not be available. As a wedding planner, I thoroughly enjoy planning and coordinating weddings. However, unless you are willing to put everything in the hands of your planner, some decisions have to be made ahead of time to make things run smoothly. This is particularly true with choices like your caterer, videographer, venue, and photographer, to name a few.
We want your wedding to be the best day ever for you and your guests. If there is a plan already in place as to who you would like to use for your vendors, this will greatly help us. Even if it is two or three vendors in each category -- at least we have an idea and we can get you what you want.
In the end, we want you to be just as excited as we are to see everything come together and be as beautiful as you are expecting it to be.
