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5 Reasons to use a Wedding Planner

Posted on 27th Feb, 2013 by Jackie Jolliffe

Your wedding could be the largest and most complicated event that you ever have to organise. So why not call in a professional to help you with the organisation?

Even if you enjoy the challenge of making the arrangements yourself, there may be times when you wonder whether the workload is worth the effort!

Here are 5 reasons to use a wedding planner.

1. Stress relief

One of the most common themes in testimonials for wedding planners is that it was a relief to have them around.

Getting married is recognised as one of the most stressful life events. At a time when you would like to be planning for a happy future, you get bogged down in the detail of choosing venues, co-ordinating arrangements with multiple suppliers and generally chasing responses to phone calls and emails. It’s easy to make more than 200 phone calls while arranging your wedding.

A good wedding planner will build up a friendly relationship with you, understand how you would like your wedding to be and generally make the arrangements on your behalf. You don’t lose control of your wedding – all decisions are referred back to you and you make all the choices, but your planner can do all the legwork. And make all the phone calls!

2. Market knowledge

Your wedding planner will have worked with venues and other wedding suppliers in your area and have a sound knowledge of who provides the best quality of service. They may even be able to negotiate special rates for you based on the relationships that already exist.

If you wish to use a different company for some aspect of your wedding, your planner knows which questions to ask to ensure that you will get good value for the fees charged. And she’ll follow up testimonials as well.

3. Your representative

Most venues have an event co-ordinator to make your day run smoothly. But this doesn’t mean that a wedding planner becomes an unnecessary luxury! The venue co-ordinator represents the venue’s interests but your wedding planner represents you.

She will liaise with the venue staff but make all the checks that you would otherwise have to make yourself. And, if you would like your wedding to be a little out of the usual way that the venue handles things, your planner will work with them to make sure that, as the client, your wishes are adhered to.

4. Budget management

This is where the cost of your wedding planner may pay for itself. One of the first things that she will do is to establish your wedding budget with you. It’s easy for the costs of your wedding to mount up and we all know couples that were taken by surprise by the final total for their wedding.

When you are choosing the suppliers for your wedding, your planner will put you in touch with companies that can provide their services within your budget. And she will monitor the total expenditure on your wedding, warning you if it looks likely that you will overspend it. This leaves you free to make the decision whether you want to do this or to revise your arrangements to keep within budget. So there should be no nasty surprises when you tot up the final amount!

5. Enjoy your wedding

On your wedding day you would like to be able to relax and enjoy the ceremony and meeting your guests, right? So would your family.

Let your wedding planner take the strain! She will double-check all the arrangements in the last few weeks before your wedding and she will be there on the wedding day to make sure that everything runs smoothly.

Are the wedding bouquets and buttonholes late in arriving? The planner will have been in touch with the florist to find out where they are, and know that they were delayed in a traffic jam but will be arriving within the next 10 minutes.

Has the band arrived and need to know where to set up? The wedding planner knows where to put them.

Has a fuse blown and left your wedding reception in darkness? Your planner will get the candles lit and contact the relevant company to get the power back.

All that you and your family need to do is eat, drink and circulate among your guests!

A final word

The UK wedding planning industry in the UK is unregulated, so before hiring your wedding planner check their credentials!

The UK Alliance of Wedding Planners is the only organisation in the UK dedicated to the wedding planning industry. All their members are fully vetted before being accepted for membership and all their members have to commit to the UKAWP code of business practice, which puts the interests of the client at the heart of the service they provide.

Other professional planners may belong to organisations such as the Association of Wedding Professionals.

Thanks to Make Our Day for this guest post.