8 reasons to hire a wedding planner
If you’re reading this then it’s likely you’re recently engaged (congrats!) and are trying to decide whether you might need a bit of help with planning your wedding day.
Often people assume that only people with BIG budgets hire a wedding planner, but that’s simply not true. In fact, it’s often couples who might have what you’d consider a ‘mid-range’ budget who don’t have the time or the desire to put in the hours to plan their wedding day. They have busy lives, thriving careers and a lot of social plans. Without a wedding planner, something will have to give in that busy schedule to create time for planning their wedding. So you can see how it seems appealing, right?
I’m here to explain exactly what it is that wedding planners do and why hiring a planner might just be worth it..
1. We save you time (A LOT of it!)
It takes an estimated 250 hours to plan a wedding, and often longer if the wedding is more complicated. That’s a serious number of hours on top of a potentially already-packed schedule. A wedding planner can put those hours in on your behalf, and you can pick and choose the elements you’d like to plan yourself. I should also mention that you will of course always be the final decision maker – this is your wedding and so nothing will be confirmed without your say so!
2. We take the stress away
While some of the wedding planning process is really fun, sadly it’s not all champagne-swigging and dress shopping. A hell of a lot of work goes into planning a wedding so the task shouldn’t be taken lightly! Having a wedding planner on board means you don’t have to sweat the small stuff, or come to think of it, the big stuff either. We’re there to think of everything for you, from the research for all your suppliers (there are a lot more than you initially think!) to the briefings for said suppliers, set-up, styling and management on the day. So you can have a smooth-sailing, stress-free lead up to the best day of your life!
3. We do the hard work for you
The sheer amount of research involved in planning a wedding is incredible. Lucky for you, wedding planners already have the contacts and the knowledge to provide you with the best possible suggestions and suppliers, tailored to you.
After an initial kick off meeting, your wedding planner will take time to digest your brief and will come back to you with a summary of your vision for the day. Once that’s all okayed, we’ll get to work with finding and narrowing down the best possible suppliers and give you options to decide from. You don’t need to spend hours of painstaking research to find the perfect bespoke bar, pizza van or florist of your dreams, HOORAY!
4. We help you bring your vision to life
Lots of couples find that they have a really clear idea in their heads of what their perfect day would look like, but they find translating that into reality pretty difficult. It’s hardly surprising – there are so many styles, options and suppliers available that it can become really overwhelming to pinpoint exactly what you want, and how that will fit into your day. A wedding planner is an expert in distilling down and defining the style for your wedding day, based on what you tell them during your initial chats. For instance, Natalie Ellen Weddings provides you with a bespoke, detailed proposal after your very first consultation call which gives you a clear picture of what your day could look like if you work with me.
5. We do the boring bits
Now this really depends on what you deem boring, but for the majority it tends to be the often-long-winded scheduling, timelines and briefs. Call me weird but I bloody love those ‘boring’ bits. Seeing a schedule come together as you confirm all the details is something I find so satisfying! A wedding planner can expertly manage all of the logistics and scheduling right from the start of the planning process, proving a detailed timeline to be used throughout, and each and every document needed ahead of the day.
6. We’re prepared for all eventualities & think quickly
Often couples are worried about what will happen if something goes wrong on their big day – well fret not if you have a wedding planner on the case! Of course, we always hope that everything goes off without a hitch (terrible pun, sorry!), but we know from experience to expect the unexpected. As your wedding planner, as well as my experience of handling mishaps at the drop of a hat, I’d also come armed with ever-faithful emergency kit, full of weird and wonderful fixes for even the tiniest of problems. I’m a firm believer that nothing should affect a couple’s big day, so I’ll do anything and everything in my power to keep it that way!
7. We think of all the little details
It’s likely you haven’t planned a wedding before, so thinking of all the finer details can be difficult. There are so many different elements to think about when planning a wedding. A wedding planner can break everything down for you and make sure nothing gets missed. This is particularly helpful in the last minute run up to the wedding day, when it often dawns on couples that they’ve forgotten (and not budgeted for) place names, confetti, decoration for a second room etc etc. Having a planner on board means you can sit back and watch the details come together perfectly!
8. We manage the whole day on your behalf
Without a doubt, the most satisfying part of being a wedding planner is seeing the day come to life. A wedding planner will be there to manage the set-up before your day, be the ultimate ‘go-to’ gal and coordinator on the day itself, and even stick around for the pack down too. Schedule in hand, we meticulously tick off each and every element, whether it be styling tables, greeting and supporting suppliers or making sure the guests are topped up in time for the speeches, we cover it all.
Natalie Ellen Weddings provides a full wedding planning service, ingeniously named ‘The Whole Thing’. If you’re engaged and are thinking about getting married in London, Surrey or further afield, get in touch and we can have a chat about how I can help. I’d love to hear from you!
Nat x