PHOTO BY: MIR ANWAR STUDIOSI think it common for couples not to realized you need a planner at some part of the planning process, whether than be full term or day of. Either way you want someone to help orchestrate the months of planning, detailing, and most importantly keep you sane on the big day! But you know how to make the most of that investment? Here is a list of 10 things, we as wedding planner want to advise you on to ensure your big day is smooth, enjoyable, and most importantly stress free!
Planning a wedding, whether it is for 50 guests, or 1500 guests, is a fun and enjoyable process. It is key to be cautious of time and time management, but also have fun personalizing and designing your day. Although, we as planner have the ultimate goal to reduce your time searching for vendors, scheduling meetings, and the constant communication with vendors leading up to your big day, it is your responsibility to be timely on email responses to the planner and vendors accordingly. For more popular wedding dates around the holiday, it is critical that you responded within a day or two to ensure that you reserved these high priority vendors a head of time. But apart from making sure to be timely on responses, make sure when the wedding day arrives, you truly enjoy time with your family and friends while your planner handles unfolding your countless hours and meetings to create this beautiful moment.
Trust the wedding professionals you hire and their advise and guidance. Make sure you are choosing realizable vendors not vendors based on pricing. Quality over Quantity will get you further, then have to be upset about your sections once the day arrives. It is also great to have expectations with vendors, but also trust them enough to be creative with their styles as well.
By giving your planner and other vendors flexibility and trusting their expertise, you will get the best results.
PHOTO BY: MIR ANWAR STUDIOSWhen it comes to the design portion of your wedding. Pintested is a great starting point, but keep in mind your budget should reflect the design options you envision. Although, you may be looking at an elegant and simple style design, these concepts sometimes have a heavy price tag associated with costs. For décor costs, a great average per person is typically between $40- $75 per person. Make sure you give your planner a good idea of your likes verses dislikes for each photo and design presented before and during the meeting.
There are a lot of concepts, designs, and ideas circulating online, on social media, and in magazines. It is best to draw inspiration from these photos, don’t try to replicate them. After all, your wedding should be customized to you and your personal design. Trust your planner and give us details about you as a couple, so we create a wedding that tells your story. There is nothing more crushing to a creative soul than replicating another person work, it would not be fare to the design, but mostly to you as a couple. Your wedding day is a way to invite your family and friends to be a part of your love story, and the journey leaving up to the aisle.
PHOTO BY: A&A PHOTOGRAPHYPlanners work countless ours create timelines with details, timings, and updated information throughout the process. Read through the timeline your planner provides carefully. If you have something in mind and it is not on there, then update your planner, as they may not know these specific requests. If it is not on the timeline, then it won’t be taken care of ahead of time, because your planner is not aware and will not be able to coordinate it with the other vendors. From surprise performances, to champagne to be waiting for you in your get away car, these details need to be outlined in your timeline.
A wedding planner is an important decision, and also a person one as well. They need to be a great fit for both you and the planner, since you will be working with this planner for six months to a year out before the wedding day. It is important to not just request packages, and pricing from a planner but really get to know your planner, they’re planning process, and make sure you are a great fit personality wise as well. Take the time to meet with them in person or schedule a call to make sure it is mutually a good fit. This is also a great way to start cultivating a relationship with your planner and a wonderful partnership.
PHOTO BY: BELLA LUMI PHOTOGRAPHYWhen scheduling meetings or planning a trip to plan for a destination wedding, work with your wedding planner to check in with all the vendors you’d like to meet with prior to booking flights to make sure they are available. Also allow for 2-3 business days for your planner to confirm your appointments. Although your planner may be flexible to work with your schedule, vendors do not always have the same flexibility. Wedding vendors work weddings over the weekend and typically are not available for client meetings during that time.
In Texas, all seasons can happen all in one day, so keep this in mind that a Plan B rain plan may be needed. We always make sure our couples are equipment with a realistic Plan B scenario in case of inclement weather when selection a venue as well. Options can be as simple as renting a Tent, and as extensive as picking a separate ballroom space to ensue that you get the wedding of your dreams.
PHOTO BY: SASSANI PHOTOGRAPHYSometimes wedding planners suggest not doing something or replacing one idea for another. There is always a good reason behind the suggestion. Our recommendations are based on past experiences, logistics, and expertise – every suggestion is with our clients’ best interest in mind. Although ideas are great to bounce around and get feedback on with your Planner, be prepared to hear about how these ideas play out, the price tag of the concepts created, and how the logistics play out based on your wedding details.
The planning process should be fun and enjoyable! It’s important when planning a wedding to review the information presented to you and be able to make decisions so you can move on to the next part of the planning process. If you don’t absolutely love something from the start, then you most likely won’t like it later, so don’t overwhelm yourself with overanalyzing something. Make sure when you move forward with vendors, you are looking at quality and experience for the vendors, to ensure you get the best product. Planning a wedding takes time, and the goal of your wedding planner is to make this experience stress free as we scratch things off the to do list. While your planner is there to guide you, ultimately the final decision is yours.
PHOTO BY: MNMFOTOShare
