It’s easy (and, hey, #ambitious) to get engaged and think that you’ll be able to do it all on your own. You have a good handle on what you want, what suits your style, and you may even have a reasonable degree of design savvy with all those hours you log on Pinterest and Instagram. But, that can only go so far. Hiring a planning partner ((and partner is the operative word here)) to your team can help in so many ways. Today we’re filling you in on why hiring a planner is beyond worth it.
Odds are, you haven’t planned a wedding from start to finish before. There’s a steep learning curve to the wedding industry, and professional planners bring experience and knowledge to the table that the average couple simply doesn’t have—know-how that can make your life a lot easier. Planners bring a level of edge, expertise, and elevation to your wedding. They work with your ideas, personalities, and stories and are able to use their experience and resources to bring things together in a way that is both polished and reflective of you and your partner.
Over the course of working with you, planners will get to know your bottom line. This means they’ll carefully consider your budget, relate it back to what’s most important to you, and find the right wedding people to recommend for your event. A wedding is a huge commitment—both in time and money—and a planner will do their best to protect your investments and make sure you’re covering everything you need (and some wants, too) with the funds that you have.
On your own, you might just settle for vendors who are in your price range, but not so much a proper fit for your vision. But, good wedding planners are amazing at not only developing and maintaining their vendor connections, but connecting with the ones who are the perfect fit for your day. Whether it’s a florist, a venue, a baker, or a makeup artist, your planner can curate a collection of vendors that specialize in events like yours.
A good planner will instill confidence in your planning journey. Take it from Meredith Grey, they are your wedding planning “person” who will make suggestions, accompany you on vendor appointments, help with any of your questions or concerns, and lead with your best interests at heart. Essentially, planners bring the calm—pointing you in the right directions and illuminating what matters the most, so you spend your money efficiently and know who will best serve your special day.
Organization is paramount to planning a wedding. There are countless contracts to keep track of and a crazy amount of deadlines for deposits and details. It’s enough for anyone to get a little overwhelmed! A planner can help set a schedule of tasks for your engagement period and keep things moving (a lot of the trouble with wedding planning is knowing what line items to tick off first on your to-do list; approaching everything all at once can be pretty paralyzing). If you have someone who can organize and manage details, you’ll feel an incredible sense of support and structure.
If you hire a full service planning team, they’ll likely be able to handle the communication between you and your vendors. You’ll be CC’d on all the emails to stay in the loop, but you won’t have to lift a finger to put those messages together.
Though wedding planners don’t need counseling credentials to precede them, these experts do an exceptional job of keeping the peace—especially when you’ve all but lost your energy to end disagreements, explain proper etiquette, and/or compromise with your soon-to-be spouse. While your wedding day should be the most joyous of days, if you’ve lost your sanity somewhere along the way, you’ll find it hard to enjoy it to the fullest extent. So, whether you’re arguing with parents, constantly playing referee for bridesmaids, or feel like you and your partner have fallen out of sync, your planner is usually waiting in the wings, ready and willing to jump in to help.
By the end of the planning process, it’s understandable to think that everything is done and ready to go—the final checks have been written and head counts have been shared—but the day-of can be extremely overwhelming. A planner will take care of all the day’s details for you, managing vendor arrivals, ensuring bridal party members show up on time, answering last-minute guest questions, keeping the schedule on track, and busting out a plan B…just in case.
A wedding planner truly becomes a couple’s best line of defense against best-day-ever dilemmas. Consider hiring a planner+team like spending money to hire your best friend, but in this case you know they will deliver without fail, because it’s their passion and profession. All their effort and time goes into creating a wonderful and memorable experience for you and your partner—and at the end of the day, you’ll be so grateful you hired one!