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.

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