Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Why a Wedding Planner New York City?

We all have friends and family who are happy to help us with our weddings. However, your friends and family are your guests and even part of your wedding. Although, they can be very helpful they can not be a part of your wedding and make sure that everything goes flawlessly at your as well. After all, friends and family are not professional wedding consultants and they will not be able to guarantee a perfect event, nor help sort out whether your budget and deals are accurate.

A wedding planner is there to ensure that everything you want at your special occasion is procured and present on time. A planner or consultant will help to do all your wedding arrangements by taking the big load and stress off your shoulders and coordinate your day in detail. Even if you are an expert at making all the arrangements you can not be the bride and supervise that everything happens as planned and scheduled.

The wedding day will need direction and coordination which the coordinator can take care of the day of your wedding. A Wedding Planner, Coordinator, or a Consultant is an expert and specialist in wedding planning. This person assists in the planning of weddings on a professional basis. So, the amount of experience and situations a good planner has encountered is numerous and he or she can handle most high pressure situations that can occur during a wedding.

A professional planner is a consultant in the wedding planning arrangements. It is misinterpretation to think that this person will take over your event. A planner will give you an abundance of ideas and advise for your wedding for you to pick from and know that a professional is supporting you.

The planner has loads of information for the designing and planning out, and most professional event planners are aesthetically inspired and have creative ideas to add to the wedding. You may know that you want a beautiful wedding, but coming up with unique ideas and designs for it may not be your forte.

Thus, a planner can give you these ideas to select from. An event planner or coordinator is constantly creating and knows where and how to procure all the unique details for your special wedding. Not to mention that a professional planner has the connections to all the deals and bargains as well as knowledge about reliable vendors. Professionals in the business know the art of negotiation and they are there to do that for you.

Wedding planners have connections with vendors in the wedding business and they are able to access discounts for clients. Consultants have extensive knowledge about wedding products and services and can recommend those that are right for the couple, as well as other unique services that the couple may not have thought of or found on their own.

A planner knows all the particulars. They can understand your budget and access the vendors who will work with your taste and price, thus, saving you a lot of time shopping for the right vendors. This person can also assist in coming up with a budget based on the couples needs. Most importantly, planners and consultants are experts at adhering to the budget.

They will advise you on the best way to divide your budget and how to acquire all the services you need within your budget. An event planner knows all the tricks and tips to trouble shooting and avoiding dilemmas. A professional understands timelines for planning a wedding and knows when what needs to be done, as well as how to get things done.

Event planners and consultants are very organized and detail oriented people. They are able to support the bride and be a close advisor through out the entire planning process and on the wedding day. What many couples do not realize is that wedding planning is extremely time consuming and it can be a full time job. There can be a lot of oversight when there is so much to manage if the planning is not handled properly.

A wedding occurs only once, and you can't go back and do it over. So, even when couples think they have it under control, it is important to consult a professional who can give assurance of this. A coordinator can also be hired to supervise and coordinate just the wedding day. On the day of the wedding the coordinator will ensure that all the vendors, guests, bridal party, and the bride and groom know what to do and when to do it, so the wedding proceeds as planned by the bride and groom.

A couple who is absolutely confident about their planning skills may opt for this option because they will not be available on their own wedding day to ensure everything they arranged occurs according to plan. The couple is also not available if an emergency is encountered, thus a professional wedding consultant could take over for the couple and allow them to celebrate and enjoy their special day.

For a stress free wedding day, a planner or coordinator is a must. Whether it is to help plan the entire event or to supervise the day of the event, a planner will ensure a couple's peace of mind on the day of their wedding. Coordinators and consultant are actually very affordable, especially when considering the money that a consultant can help to save the couple.

There are a wide range of wedding consulting and planning services for all budgets. Most coordinators offer free initial consultations and it is worth seeking these services for a once in a lifetime event. Having a planner may initially seem like an excessive expenditure; however it could be well worth the investment. A wedding planner will help you always stay one step ahead and be your creative partner.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2894633
http://www.chicweddingfavors.com/

Monday, February 13, 2012

Why Use A Wedding Planner?

What is a Wedding Planner?

Essentially, a Wedding Planner is a professional whose expertise and contacts can turn your wedding into a day of absolute perfection. He or she is the lynch pin for your event; the one who will locate the services and suppliers you require; who will negotiate contracts; mediate and manage the various companies involved in your day and ensure that everything runs like clock work. Popular alternative job titles may include Wedding Coordinator, Wedding Consultant, Wedding Designer or even Wedding Specalist. I will use the terms interchangeably throughout this paper.

Planning weddings is indeed great fun. However, as with any other job in this world it is not all plain sailing. Planning a wedding with the expectation that it will be a day to eclipse all others can take an unbelievable amount of time and effort, to say nothing of the stress and worry! There are ups and downs, periods of great joy and times of immense stress and pressure.

Weddings are events that are dreamt about: some brides have imagined walking down the isle in a pure white dress and a tiara for 30 years or more! It is certainly a challenge unlike any others you may have come across before. And when you add both work and a hectic, pre-wedding social life to the equation, often the feat seems monumental. It is an honour not to be taken lightly.

Why You Would Use a Wedding Planner

Nowadays, with so much to do and such relatively little time to do it, employing a professional wedding consultancy is increasingly seen as a sensible way of ensuring a stress-free engagement and potentially flawless wedding. In the USA it is the norm: the majority of couples getting married use a Wedding Planner. It is a huge industry providing couples with an invaluable service during a period in their lives when stress and worry should be banished and time is of the essence.

Slowly but surely couples in the UK are waking up to the realisation that a Wedding Planner / Consultant is not a luxury reserved for the rich and famous. Nowadays a good Consultant is just as familiar with organising a small and intimate family gathering of 12 as an extravagant party of 500 or more.

Using their expert knowledge of the industry together with extensive databases and links to leading suppliers a Consultant will have the foundations on which to build a perfect wedding. They will give you unfettered access to every supplier in the country that fulfilling your requirements. Unless otherwise instructed, their priorities lie solely with the couple, their wedding objectives and the all important budget. And when you find a Consultant whom you trust and feel comfortable with, you may be sure that these elements will be managed wisely.

Wedding Planner Skills

Wedding Planners are expected to be versatile, knowledgeable and resourceful. It is their job to assist both the bride and groom in the run up to the Big Day. On the day itself, it is the Bride who is queen - the Planner is there to personally assist.

They will bear the brunt of the daily chores, plan and manage the event from behind the scenes, thereby giving couples valuable time to relax and enjoy their engagement and look forward to their dream wedding. One should be able to rely on them for support as advisors, coordinators, supervisors, mediators, managers and financial advisors.

The Planning Process

As with most wedding consultancies, at AbsolutePerfection.co.uk we will usually start off by sitting down with the couple in order to learn exactly how the clients envisage their wedding day developing, from the moment they wake in the morning to the time they depart the party amid an explosion of fireworks at the end of the night. Although we often see the groom shying away from the initial planning process, we always try to encourage his input.

It is vital to try to get him 'on board' as early as possible, for you can be sure that 2-3 months down the line - when many of the major decisions have been taken - he will begin to show an interest and realise that maybe this wedding lark isn't as dull as he had at first expected! Regret is a terrible thing and something that we only learn about with hindsight!

Once the all important Wedding Plan or Brief has been devised, it is the Planner's job to get the ball rolling and start locating the suitable suppliers and services. This can be a daunting task but they should have great industry connections and will be able to provide you with the assistance you require. At this time it is imperative that constant liaison be maintained between the Planner and the couple.

Although the Planner will locate the relevant suppliers and offer knowledgeable guidance and advice, the choice as to which companies to use will usually be decided by the couple. There should not be any pressure exerted by a Planner at this time. If you do feel pressured, one may assume that the Planner may be on commission from the said supplier, so be insistent and remind your Planner that their role is to assist, not to decide!

Once all the suppliers have been selected, the budgets are met and timelines have been finalised, it is usual for the Planner to assist with the rehearsal and then oversee the wedding day to make sure the needs of the bride, groom and wedding party are met.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1051162
http://www.absoluteperfection.co.uk/wedding-services.htm

How to Pick a Professional Wedding Planner

When you select a professional wedding planner, you are hiring a person to take care of the creative aspects of the wedding. If you are not an expert in design, whether it's interior decorating or fashion design, doing things yourself could result in a wedding that looks too simplistic or even unattractive.

And even if you do have a talent for these things, if you work you may not have time to make the arrangements, since you would have to constantly be on the phone with a series of vendors. Additionally, a professional wedding planner knows how to do all of these things within an affordable budget. You just need to know the steps involved with selecting the best wedding planner. These steps are explained in greater detail below.

1. Find Wedding Planners Based on References and/or Testimonials

The first step you need to take to select a professional wedding planner is to find ones based on existing references and/or testimonials. If a particular wedding planner has a website, you can check the testimonials listed there, (if there are any). Hopefully, at least one of the testimonials should provide a phone number, email address or another form of contact information. Use this info to ask them what their experience was with the wedding planner in question.

If you want to select a professional wedding planner based on more references, consider starting a discussion on a wedding message board. Start a topic called "selecting professional wedding planners" and see what the members suggest.

2. Take Advantage of the Free Consultation

Once you have gathered wedding planners based on referrals, you need to proceed to next step for selecting a professional wedding planner. This involves attending their free consultation session, if they offer one. At the free consultation session, you'll be able to meet with them personally and see exactly what they have to offer. Be wary of wedding planners that don't offer free consultations. They could provide excellent services, but without a proper introduction, you are taking a risk using them. With a free consultation you know what to expect, upfront.

3. Determine Their Success

When selecting a wedding planner, you need to know how experienced and successful they are in the business. Wedding planners who can afford more sophisticated Yellow Pages listings, websites and other forms of advertising, probably are more successful than the person with simpler ads. Also take into consideration whether or not the wedding planner has their own office with employees, another indicator of their success level.

Does this mean you should never consider the 'little guy' who may not have had as much success? Of course not... though you need to put things in perspective. Wedding planners who are not as successful should offset things by offering lower prices, free consultations and other things that could attract buyers.

Don't pay $2,000 for a wedding planner who's only done a couple of weddings, when you can pay the same price for a more experienced wedding planner who has done hundreds. However, also keep in mind wedding planners with fewer clients can spend more time concentrating on your wedding.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1503204
http://aweddingplanningguide.com/

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Finding A Good Wedding Planner

A wedding planner will greatly reduce your problems that you will tend to face while planning for your wedding. A lot of stress is common while preparing for your wedding and you tend to worry about the arrangements, the execution of your wedding plan and much more.

A good wedding planner will definitely help you to remove the stress factor from your wedding plans and that too with you still being in control. A wedding planner will ease your load while you plan your wedding and also ensure that it will be a memorable day in your life.

A wedding planner offers many services to help you have a great wedding. Since most wedding planners have experience and contacts with most providers, they will help you to find the best possible items for your wedding within your budget. They can also help you to identify the best possible church or venue for your wedding.

The wedding planners will know lot of venues where you can have your wedding at a reasonable price too. Finding the best possible attire for the bride and the groom or even for the whole family is also done by wedding planners.

Making floral arrangements, arranging for the photographer, videographer and decorations for the wedding is also done by wedding planners. Almost all necessary arrangements needed for the wedding and your reception will de done by the wedding planner and thus you can relax and prepare for the wedding.

While picking a wedding planner do make sure that you do the necessary background checks needed and also ensure that the person whose services you are going to utilize is a licensed wedding planner. A small research on the wedding planners available in your city would be beneficial in picking the right person for the job.

As weddings involve huge amounts of money it is very important for you to land up with the right wedding planner else you might lose your money and also ruining your dream wedding. Pick a wedding planner who has a great personality and one who can work as a team with you. The wedding planner should be ready to give and accept ideas to make the wedding just as you want it to.

Even if you hire a wedding planner do remember that it is your wedding and you need to make the final decision on what is needed and what can be left. You should not let the wedding planner make all the decisions as that will make your wedding not the way you really wanted it to be. But don't blindly accept or reject any suggestions from the wedding planner.

Have a healthy discussion with the wedding planner before you make the decision. The most important thing to consider while selecting a wedding planner is the costs. Do check through all the available wedding planners in the city and compare their services and costs before deciding on which wedding planner you are going to select.

Do remember that even the best planned wedding can have a few unexpected glitches and in such situations a wedding planner will be a boon to you as the wedding planner will take care of those problems while you can enjoy your wedding.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/693719
http://weddingplannerbasics.com/

What is a wedding planner and how do you separate the good ones from the incompetent?

In the planning industry there are two types of planners: Event Planners and Wedding Planners.

Generally, event planners handle designing and producing corporate, social and non-profit events. The types of events they are involved in can be quite diverse - from complex one-day entertaining events strategically planned to meet business objectives to corporate learning, performance, motivational events and elaborate arrangements of incentive or product launch theme productions that take place over the course of a week around the world.

Some event planners handle not only event design, but also education and entertaining components (transportation, accommodation, food, beverage, decor, entertainment, themes) but also multimedia stage production. This is the type of event planning that I have been primarily involved in.

Wedding planners work with newly engaged couples to help them create the wedding of their dreams. They take over all the wedding planning and operation requirements, consulting closely with their clients along the way.

They are compassionate, caring and adept at handling the emotional elements that are tied to planning a wedding when nerves are frayed, couples get jittery and help find areas of compromise between couples and their families when there are opposing ideas on how the wedding day should unfold.

Wedding planners co-ordinate the weddings from beginning to end and are on hand on the wedding day to oversee that all goes as planned. Some wedding planners also handle social events as the two event planning styles are closely aligned whereas event planners who mainly work with corporate and business related social events generally do not cross over into wedding planning as juggling the needs of these two very different clients does not tend to mesh.

If couples are considering hiring a wedding planner, I suggest they first read Your Stress Free Wedding Planner.
With this in mind, they will immediately be able to spot the level of competency of a wedding planner, and they will be able to discern if the wedding planner is experienced or not.

Experienced wedding planners are able to fully answer questions pertaining to the budget, contract and logistical problems.

Check references- not only other wedding couples that have hired them. Also check the venues in which they have held their events.

Find out their level of ability e.g. if the wedding planner has only done events for 50 guests or less and your wedding is for 500 or more, there will be a learning curve for the wedding planner - don't let it be at your expense.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/27683
http://sketchandtravel.com/

How you became involved in wedding planning?

I started out in travel and managing one of the highest producing offices for a national chain. As part of my office's growth, I developed corporate business, which evolved into handling all of their corporate events such as incentives, conferences, conventions, product launches and social corporate branding events.

Subsequently, I joined one of the leading incentive houses to design custom one- of- a kind events around the world for corporate clients.

Over ten years ago, I opened my own special events company. As a result, I have created-produced-orchestrated corporate and social special events around the world for over fifteen years, including the gala theatrical opening for Disney's Beauty and the Beast and the co-ordination of Oscar winning director Norman Jewison's 25th Anniversary Celebration of Fiddler on the Roof.

In addition, I am also the author of five best-selling professional books on event planning that are being used around the world by industry and business professionals, and as teaching tools by Universities and Colleges.

The foreign rights for my second book, The Business of Event Planning, have been sold to China and Russia, and Harvard has deemed my third book, Event Planning Ethics and Etiquette, a "must read" for event planning and small business professionals.

The event planning series of books came about as a result of my being called "to run and rescue" non-profit gala events days before an event was scheduled to take place.

I noticed that many charitable organisations were clueless as to what to be aware of and wary of when planning events. I found this most disturbing.

The same situation occurred with wedding planning. Clients or their friends began to consult with me regarding their personal wedding plan needs. I kept hearing from them as to how stressful they found the process to be- the hidden costs and surprises they kept encountering along the way. Because of the direction I am taking my company, I do limit the number of weddings that I personally become involved in.

I wrote Your Stress Free Wedding Planner as a means to provide couples with what they need to know from a design, budget, implementation (logistics) and orchestration perspective - not etiquette - when they go to plan their wedding. I wanted to give them a wedding planning tool that would held them enjoy the process, lessen the stress and show them how to create a wedding day that is meaningful, memorable and magical.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/27683
http://sketchandtravel.com/