WELCOME!
Thank you all for visiting my blog! I am here to share my experiences, and knowledge to help you get through your wedding, party, date night, or just baking with the family. I am your resource for all things sweet! You will notice throughout my blogs I am an open book, and would love to hear from you. If there are topics you would like for me to write about drop me a line here. You will see some abbreviations throughout this blog, and here is what they stand for. NTS means “Note To Self.” WYD means “Who’s Ya Daddy”
How to choose a great wedding planner?
This is a question I get asked all the time. The first thing everyone wants to know is how much is a wedding planner? So for starters please understand good wedding planners are not cheap, but they are worth every penny and will relieve you of so much stress throughout the process and on your big day. A good wedding planner can range anywhere from $3,500 to $5,000. So you don’t want to just ask questions, but you want to ask the right questions. Here are a few questions to get you started:
So my experience with a wedding planner was amazing. When I met her I had absolutely nothing together. All I knew was I wanted a fabulous wedding for less than $15,000. Girl, I wanted diamonds dripping from the ceiling with spotlights and white horses…lol. Yes I know I watched waaayyyy too much David Tutera back in the day. From the very beginning, she said I need a realistic budget. This is very important because your planner can only work their magic with real numbers, those fake numbers tend to disappear through the process and so will your wedding if you don’t give them a true budget. I had one thing I didn’t want to compromise with and that was my blue shoes. Whenever I would want something out of my budget she would say “ If you give up your shoes you can have that.” It put things in perspective real quick.
So how do you get this budget? Talk to your fiancé about how you are going to pay for the wedding. Is it going to be your father and mother paying for all of it, you and your fiancé, the future in-laws, or a joint effort between all of you? Once you know who is going to be involved then asked them what they are willing to contribute to your wedding.
So for example, if your dad says “this is round two baby girl I cant do it again,” and your future in-laws say “well we can give $2,000,” and you and your fiancé are using savings of $8,000, and your mom says “I will pay for your dress.” Sweetheart, don’t tell your planner you have a budget of $16,000. Remember you can always add things to your big day, but you need to start somewhere.
NTS: A great planner will keep you on budget
She then wanted to know where I was getting married at, and I didn’t know. I liked the beach but didn’t really want to be on the beach. She came up with several dates for my fiancé and I to visit and look at venues. Well, we had other fun-filled obligations like a vacation, baseball drafts, cookouts you know family friend stuff. So my fabulous planner went to the beach, took a professional photographer with her and visited several venues. She came back, laid out all the photos of the different venues, and asked me “now where are you getting married at?” “WYD”
NTS: A great planner doesn’t let you miss her goals and deadlines. She is on point even when you are not.
Next was my dress! I saw it in a magazine, but I had not tried it on yet because I couldn’t find it in a store. I gave her the magazine and in less than 24 hrs. she called me and said, “this is where the dress is. Make arrangements to go there and try it on within the next month.”
NTS: A great planner takes on duties so you don’t have to.
My planner had relationships with other vendors like linen companies, florist, DJ’s, make-up artist, and more. She had an inventory of things such has chargers for plates, cake stands, table overlays, mirrors, vases, and all kinds of décor. This was very important because everything she already had were things I would have had to pay for.
Wedding vendors are very willing to give discounts to planners before individuals and here is why. As a planner, a vendor has the opportunity to make more money with a planner bringing more of her brides to them. An individual bride going to a vendor is usually a one-time thing, even if the bride recommends the vendor it will not be more than a planner can bring that vendor. The money you could possibly save working with a planner can pay for the planner.
NTS: A great planner saves you money, and make their check.
All the other very time consuming and stressful components of a wedding such as color swatches, invitations, rsvp’s, favors, rehearsal dinner, table settings, etc… My wedding planner handled it. She was very adamant about the wedding starting on time, and it did. She kept everyone on point. All I had to do was say yes or no, give her my guest list, and shop for my bridesmaids’ gifts oh and of course my cake! I had an amazing weekend and wedding day that I know I could not have done without her.
Take all of these things into consideration when choosing a wedding planner.
Happy Planning,
KG
