Planning your wedding and the wedding of your dreams is a few months away? At this point some brides may begin to feel the pressure and have to double even triple check all of the decisions they have made over the past several months even year. Do you see all of your hardwork and decisions starting to stress you out? Trust me this is a common occurence in brides who 1) are DIY’ing alot and 2) have put all of their trust and leaned on the reccommendations from the vendors they have hired.

Here is a little information to help you if you are the bride I am referring to. Have faith that you have done all of your research and found the best vendor to fit all of your needs. As a wedding professional it our job to make sure that your wedding day runs as smoothly as possible. Recently I have been dealing with a bride who hired me over a year ago. A couple of things that were not disclosed to me slipped through the cracks and needless to say that the bride is starting to feel the pressure. With 3 months away, I am looking optimistically as I found all of the neccessary problems months before and am working them all out on her behalf. This bride hand selected all of her vendors with the exception of 1 which I referred to her. Now everything is looking great and working out but she’s starting to not trust in the caterer or the rental company because of a lack of communication.  I URGE ALL BRIDES TO READ YOUR CONTRACT OR HAVE YOUR PLANNER READ AND EXPLAIN IT TO YOU! Reading and explaining of the contract will help all of those unanswered questions you may have in the months approaching your wedding. Suppose you did not know that there was a certain window of time to get everything set-up and torn down at the end of the night, but there is an extra charge? Would you rather pay a few hundred or pay another $1,000 plus to just leave it until Monday? My guess is a couple hundred is better than a grand anyday.

Utilize the vendors and professionals that you hired and make sure that you receive everything they have promised you in their contracts. Better yet, hire a planner and make sure they review it. If you can’t afford a planner or think that you can’t still check them out for Hourly consultation or A la carte services a $50-$100 charge for an hourly consultation to review your contract can ultimately save you thousands in the long run. Our eyes are trained to find those little mishaps that you may never think about. Trust the fact that all of the great reviews you’ve seen and heard about regarding the vendor of your choosing, they will give you that same feeling. But be cautious, there are some posers and fakers out there who want to take your money and run. No matter if it’s a friend of a friend, HAVE A CONTRACT!!! There is nothing worse than a friend of a friend showing up 1-2 hours late and think it’s cool, then gets drunk at the reception and forgets that hey!, “I’m the photographer, I should be taking pictures”. Your pictures would come out horribly and there is nothing you can do because you cannot get those moments back.

A planner is there to review and have your back and a planner like me, this is my true passion. There is nothing else I’d rather do than plan a wedding but when a bride loses ultimate control and feel like she’s being pushed in the background that’s when the planner steps up and makes her feel like she is the most important person in the world. That’s what I’m doing for my bride, she likes to have the control, I just simply give my opinion it’s up to her to take my advice. I see and plan weddings, this is only her first one. The problems that will happen in the background I will have to manage without letting her know while keeping a smile and making sure she is happy. I hope this helps brides and planners out there with a little advice from a planner. Good Luck and Happy Planning!

With the internet and everything being DIY nowadays many brides that contact me say, “Oh never mind, I can have my cousin help me” or “I can do it myself”. I just want every bride out there to know that no matter how much you DIY everything before the wedding, you will need someone completely no apart of the wedding (family) to be your eyes and ears.

I have had my fair share of brides call me within days after the wedding, saying that they should have used me or if not me taken my suggestion of having someone else help them. Everything you can imagine from, photographers not showing up, to the food not being brought out or all the vendors were calling the bride because no one knew where to go or what to do once they got to the venue. Trust me when I say that I am not trying to scare you into getting a planner.

But for a couple getting married with well over 100 guests, I think you may need help. I try to explain to my clients that; you and your mom (family members) can all do the planning before hand, but at least you need to have a “Day Of” coordinator. Your family can enjoy the wedding and so can you with that special person you love right by your side the whole night.

One of my favorite weddings from last year was when a GROOM called me. His bride was in school, working a full-time job and trying to plan the wedding herself. I was in contact  met with the bride months before hand and she hesitated to sign. Luckily, I keep in touch with all couples who contact me and she sounded like she was very intersted so, needless to say the bride and groom met with me 3 days before their wedding. (Good thing I wasn’t booked-November wedding) and signed with me.

All in all, they are a very sweet couple and I loved every minute (although crazy) trying to finalize all of their small details to make sure the night went without stress. There were lots of small fires that they didn’t even know about until the end of the night and they said they would have never known because of the way I handled everything.

TIPS:

• Check to see if the planner you want to use offers a FREE consultation
• Check with all references given (phone numbers, e-mail, yelp)
• If you’re budget can’t handle their price, see what else they can offer you. I like to offer A la carte/hourly rates or some couples pick a smaller package and add to it gradually.
• If a friend of a friend is your “planner” make sure they know to work for you and not party the night away. Everything to make sure you’re night runs smoothly is in their hands.
• Schedule that FREE consultation. The consultation gives you a chance to see what type of person you are meeting. Do your personalities clash or match? If for anything it’s FREE and a planner is more willing to give you more information in person rather than on the phone.

If all else fails RESEARCH planners in your area, and even some with a 50 mile radius. Because they could possibly be the right person for you.