What to Look for In a Personal Wedding Planner

October 27, 2011 by  
Filed under Wedding Planning

2067429484_0f98ee39b3Choosing a personal wedding planner can be a frightening task.Finding someone you trust enough to plan one of the biggest events of your life is not something you should take lightly, but is something that will help you create the wedding of your dreams in an efficient and well thought out manner.Here are some tips to find your ideal personal wedding planner.

Certification

Look for a personal wedding planner with a certification in wedding planning.Certified personal wedding planners will have the knowledge base to skillfully plan and execute your wedding.They will know the ins and outs of the wedding business, and will have hands on experience in all aspects of wedding planning.  A certified personal wedding planner will take the guesswork of your preparation by approaching the process as a business transaction.As your personal wedding planner, he or she will be there to plan your wedding in a full time capacity.  Wedding planning may not be your day job, but it is for a number of highly talented professionals.

References

You wouldn’t buy a car without taking it for a test drive, so why hire a personal wedding planner without seeing their previous work?  Their previous events don’t have to mirror the type of wedding you hope to have, but if their clients express that they were communicative and attentive to the desires of the newlyweds to be, this will speak highly of their ability to plan the wedding that you want.

Ask for references of one or two former clients who have either given a statement for the personal wedding planner to use, or people you can call and speak with about their experience with the planner.Also ask to see some pictures of previous events just to get a feel for the spectra of things the personal wedding planner is capable of planning.

Connection

While your personal wedding planner is first and foremost a professional dedicated to the business of planning weddings, make sure you choose someone you are comfortable working with.  You will be working with this person for an extended period of time, and feeling a connection with this person as a trusted party to act in your best interest is crucial.You will want to have the comfort of knowing that your personal wedding planner is listening to your desires and is someone you can envision yourself working with in great detail.

Photo by SWBatzer

How to Get the Perfect Wedding Planner

September 27, 2011 by  
Filed under Wedding Planning

There will come a time in your wedding planning when you might want to get a little help. The best thing to do is to find yourself someone who can help you, someone trained in the field would make the perfect wedding planner. It is important that you have a perfect wedding planner because you will be able to sit back and enjoy more of the wedding planning process than if you were doing it all on your own.

What Is Important about It?

A perfect wedding planner is going to let you be yourself, because they will sit down with you and talk about the kinds of things that you would like to see in your wedding. They will be able to show you more ideas based on your thoughts and help you figure out what things look good and what things don’t look. They’ll be able to take into consideration your feelings about what you would and would not like to see in the wedding, and then a perfect wedding planner will take all of these ideas and put them into wedding plans that fit your budget and your needs

A perfect wedding planner is important to have for several reasons. First of all, it gives you the comfort of knowing that things are getting taken care of. Second of all, you are going o be able to relax a little bit because you won’t have to be doing all of the wedding plans on your own. Third, a perfect wedding planner is specially trained to know how to put things into weddings that need to belong there, and has several areas of expertise when it comes to wedding planning. A perfect wedding planner is going to make the dream wedding of your lifetime a reality, and is going to give you the freedom to ask for help with things that you never dreamt of doing on your own.

Remember that although a perfect wedding planner is going to cost you money, you are going to save in the long run because a perfect wedding planner will be able to give you lots of deals. Many times, wedding planners already have vendors that they use a lot, so they will have deals that they can get you on everything for your wedding, such as flowers, food, and music. A perfect wedding planner is going to allow you to get all of these things, stay in your budget, and incorporate ideas that you never knew you could.

Creating a Comprehensive Wedding Planner List

September 15, 2011 by  
Filed under Wedding Planning

Important Items for a Wedding Planner List

For a bride and groom who wish to plan their wedding, a complete wedding planner list can be helpful in ensuring everything is coordinated for the big day. Great tools to help make this wedding planner list are websites especially designed to account for all the details of the wedding. There are even some free sites that offer this service at no charge.Other items to consider for a list are marriage laws, reception needs, ceremony needs, guest lists, bridal party events, and the all important budget.

Marriage Laws

Marriage laws are different in every state, and should be researched on a local level. All states require a marriage license for a marriage to be considered legally binding, and some states still require blood testing prior to being issued a marriage license.Also the bride’s name change usually cannot be completed until after the marriage license has been signed by the person performing the wedding.

Then she will usually have to go in person to the social security office and department of motor vehicles (or local driver’s license office) with the completed and signed marriage license to have all of her legal documents changed to her married name. These are important steps for any wedding planning list; they should be kept on hand for after the ceremony and honeymoon.

Reception Needs

A bride and grooms wedding planning list will likely have a large reception section; as this is where the party happens.All of the guests, food, decorations, and entertainment all need to end up at the same place at the same time. Coordinating this alone can seem intimidating, however planning ahead and checking items off of the wedding planning list as they’re completed is a way to simplify the process and stay organized.

Ceremony Needs

This part of a wedding planning list is likely to be the largest as this is the section where flowers, guests, and bridal part merge for the main event.The ceremony itself often lasts less than an hour, but the preparation often takes months. This wedding planning list can go on to include every aspect of an individual wedding to keep everyone organized.A wedding planning list can include: the guest list, floral arrangements, booking the church and reception area, finding a band or DJ, organizing the fittings and pick-ups of the wedding party’s attire, the rehearsal and dinner.

The Budget

The most important function a wedding planning list can serve is to keep a bride and groom with in their budgets as it is so easy to get overwhelmed by the variety available and lose track of what is really needed and wanted for the wedding.A wedding planning list can help keep the couple not only on the dollar but also from forgetting something important that is needed for the ceremony, reception, or honeymoon.

It can also ease a budget to discuss ahead of time exactly who will be paying for what.While traditionally, the bride’s family pays for the wedding – that need not be the case any more. Nevertheless, here are a few examples of what is traditionally divided and by whom.  Bride’s family traditionally pays for the reception, flowers, decorations, music, photographer, and bridesmaids’ gifts.

The groom’s family will traditionally provide for the marriage license, ties and gloves for the wedding groomsmen, rehearsal dinner, and the honeymoon.Keeping track of who is doing what on a wedding planner checklist will make the entire wedding process more enjoyable. The bride and groom should be able to relax and enjoy the first day of the rest of their lives together.

When you Should Fire Your Wedding Planner

August 14, 2011 by  
Filed under Wedding Planning

Wedding planners are professionals that are supposed to work with you on your wedding, and they are supposed to give opinions but not be overbearing, and the most important factor of all is that they are supposed to always remember that it is your wedding not theirs, and so even though they may have a multitude of ideas to bring to the table, they should still hear and listen to your ideas first, so that your wedding will be for you.

There are certain times when you should fire your wedding planner, and although this may sound harsh, you need to realize that you only have one wedding, and so you certainly want to be satisfied with the results that come from it. Especially if you are paying to have a wedding planner, then even more so you do not want to be unhappy with the results.

Why you Should Fire Your Wedding Planner

All too many times, you are too afraid to fire your wedding planner, and although this is mean of you in a way, or so you may think, you have to realize that if they are not listening to your ideas, not taking your feelings into consideration, or simply not working hard enough on your wedding, then you truly do have the right to fire your wedding planner and find a new one.

If you already know that you want to fire your wedding planner, but are just unsure about how you can go about it, then just remember to be polite, and even though you may feel bad you really should go through with it because your wedding is the most important day of your life, and you should not feel as though you got ripped off or as though none of your ideas got heard and thus that your wedding is nothing like what you expected, and in a negative way.

Basically there are many different ways that you can go about it, but just make sure that you let them know that you are not happy with their ideas and with the results that are being shown so far. They should understand, and most certainly should not put up a fight, as any good and decent wedding planner will be most concerned about your feelings and about you being happy with your wedding and so if anything they may even direct you to another wedding planner that is more in sync with you.

Why Hire a Certified Wedding Planner

August 2, 2011 by  
Filed under Wedding Planning

You’ve made the decision to hire a wedding planner for your big event, but you’re not sure where to start looking for one.Don’t just start randomly going through the Yellow Pages, make sure you’re setting yourself up to hire a true professional to handle every detail of your wedding.

A certified wedding planner is trained to handle every aspect of your wedding planning, from helping you set a budget, ironing out the details of your ceremony, and of course planning your reception.There are a number of organizations and listings that will help point you to a certified wedding planner, and taking the time to research these sources and hiring someone specifically trained will help ensure that your wedding is all you want it to be.

Financial Planning

Whether you’re an accountant or someone who loathes handling finances, a certified wedding planner can make your wedding planning process much more streamlined with their professional training.  A certified wedding planner will have the expertise to be able to help you set up your wedding budget without creating any big surprises along the way.You’ll gain the confidence of knowing that your certified wedding planner knows the business of planning weddings inside and out, and create reasonable expectations for you regarding your budget.

Ceremonial Proceedings

If you want to create a ceremony that reflects both you and your spouse to be, a certified wedding planner will be well versed in the ceremonial proceedings of many different religions, traditions, and cultural/ethnic backgrounds.A certified wedding planner can help you find a way to seamlessly incorporate various elements of both your and your spouse’s backgrounds into one cohesive ceremony.Furthermore, if your ceremony will need to involved different religious figures they can help find the right people for you.

Reception

The most time-intensive aspect of planning your wedding is probably your reception, so having someone to work with that knows the trade of wedding receptions will really work to your advantage.A certified wedding planner will have all the necessary resources to find you the best vendors for all your reception needs.Additionally, a certified wedding planner will have the skills needed to pull together your reception in a mutually agreeable timeframe.A certified wedding planner will be familiar with caterers, etc. and can help you in the decision making process for your food, beverage and wedding cake choices.A certified wedding planner will also organize your reception planning by organizing food tasting and event preview sessions for you.

The Essential Traits for Becoming a Wedding Planner

July 17, 2011 by  
Filed under Wedding Planning

3658086172_5d16862c7fWedding planners have a very demanding job as they are responsible that everything goes according to plan on the most important day of a couple’s life; a day which they hope to remember and cherish forever. Therefore becoming a wedding planner is not an easy task but definitely a very rewarding job, which will bring you great satisfaction and monetary benefits.

Here are some of the requirements and points to ponder before you decide on becoming a wedding planner.

Your Personality and Qualifications

There is no specific qualification required by law in order to be a wedding planner. However, it is highly recommended to train with local wedding planners or wedding consultants before you decide on becoming one. Training with a local wedding consultant will cost you between $750 and $1500 depending on the company you are training with but it will be very helpful in your future activities and be a contributing factor in your success.

Becoming a wedding planner however requires a very strong character and the ability to work under pressure as there will be more than one occasion when things will not run as planned. You will need to make the right decisions fast without panicking and also without altering the wedding plans.

In order to become a successful wedding planner, you need tremendous organizing skills and coordinating abilities. You need to be able to foresee what may go wrong and most times have a back up plan for it. After all, you are dealing with the most important day of a couple’s life and if you ruin it there is absolutely no way to rectify your mistakes, and therefore, there is no place for error.

Things to Prepare as a Wedding Planner

Becoming a wedding planner will require you to let others know that you are offering these services and the only way to do it is to prepare a portfolio with the services you can provide and in due course the weddings that you have organized as well as references of the couples as well.

Advertising will in the end be key to your success and even though the word of mouth is what will get you the most amount of jobs it is important that you have a professional approach and provide as much data as possible to all those interested through a brochure and if possible a website too. The key to becoming a wedding planner that is successful and thus, in demand will require tremendous people’s skill, professionalism and ensuring that all jobs are done exactly as per the requirements of your clients.

photo by hulk4598

Make Writing Your Wedding Thank You Notes Easy as 1-2-3!

June 30, 2011 by  
Filed under Featured, Wedding Planning

Every bride is touched by wedding or bridal shower gifts. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming to see just how many family members, friends and loved ones care enough to give you something special. And then a bride realizes that she must send thank you notes to each person. For some brides this can be 75 to up to 400 thank you notes! This is a lot of thank you notes to write for any single person to do.

But thank you notes should be written and they are an important bridal task to be accomplished. Bridal etiquette says that you actually have a full year to write your thank you notes – but we’d like to think you get them in the mail a bit earlier than that! What brides need is a bit of a system for writing their thank you notes. Try some of our tips to writing your thank you notes and you’ll be writing them as easy as 1-2-3!

Set aside certain times to write thank you notes. Schedule an hour or half hour each week to write your thank you notes. Having a certain time to do this is very useful. Knowing you will do it during this time takes a lot of stress off of you and you’ll know you will get a lot done. Many brides admit they multi-task and write thank you notes while watching television or getting other things done. You could write them on your lunch hour at work if this was convenient for you.

Consider setting a goal to write a certain number of thank you notes each day or time period. This is especially ideal if you are pushing yourself to write these thank you notes and get this task done. Knowing that you need to write at least 10 thank you notes will help you work hard to write them. You’ll get at least 10 completed, if not more.

Take notes as you unwrap gifts of who gives you what. This is an important bridal tip many brides have used for years. To remember their great aunt gave them candlesticks or their old college roommate gave them an espresso maker. Using these notes can help you write personalized thank you notes.

The best thank you note is thoughtful and to the point. A thank you note doesn’t have to be long, it simply needs to be thoughtful. Thank the person or couple for their gift and say how much you’ll enjoy it. If they came to the wedding thank them for coming and that you enjoyed seeing them there and hope they had a good time.

Get your stamps and thank you note supplies all together in one place. A savvy bride knows to stay organized with her thank you note writing she’ll need to keep her thank you note supplies all in one place. Get plenty of stamps, a good pen and lots of thank you notes. You don’t need to be ready to write thank you notes and not have what you need available to you. Keep it all in a box or bag, right on hand.

Have a list or file of thank you notes to write. Cross of the names as you go. This will keep you from writing two thank you notes to the same person. It’s an easy mistake to make, but any bride wants to avoid this.

See! These thank you notes for brides can be as easy as 1-2-3! Happy writing!

Interviewing your wedding planner / event planner

June 11, 2011 by  
Filed under Wedding Planners

Planning a wedding is a huge undertaking, which is why many couples choose to go the wedding planner route. This is a very wise decision for many couples, especially if you don’t have the time, interest or inclination to plan a wedding on your own. In addition, although you wouldn’t think so, hiring an event planner to plan your big day can actually save you money because they will negotiate with vendors on your behalf to make sure you pay a more than fair price (and that you don’t get ripped off).

When you are scouting out planners, there are some key questions to ask to make sure that you choose the planner right for you and your wedding.

1. How much experience do they have? Probably the most important question to ask. Every professional has to start somewhere, but do you really want your wedding to be planned by someone with no professional experience? Probably not. So, you need to ask fairly specific questions about how many events the planner has planned, how big they were, how big the budgets were, what were the themes of the weddings, etc.

2. Do they have a portfolio book? Nothing speaks to the quality of an event more than pictures. From a planner’s book, you can get a sense for how detailed they are, their flair for design and how polished and finished their events appear.

3. Can they give you references? Of course, any decent planner will provide you with glowing references, and you should definitely call these references. However, you should go beyond this and look for past clients of the planner via Yelp! and other wedding websites where there are reviews of the planner and then try to contact those former clients.

4. Are they credentialed? Many wedding and event planners have taken courses or even completed training for event planning, and these programs can provide planners with a substantial amount of knowledge and preparation as well as official certification. In addition, many planners belong to professional organizations like the Association of Bridal Consultants. You should definitely weigh these factors heavily when evaluating your planners.

5. Do they have tools and resources that are part of their process? Some event planners have event planning software and some wedding planners have wedding planning software to help them stay well organized and streamline their operations, and these tools can really be an asset to both the planner and to you. They also show a commitment to their business and a desire to provide the best service possible to clients.

6. What is their personality like? Although this isn’t a precise question you can pose, it is an important question to ask yourself because you are going to have to work very closely with this person, so you should enjoy working with them.

7. What other value-add things can they offer you? Some wedding planners have special relationships with vendors so they can offer discounts that you can’t get anywhere else. Some event planners use professional event planning software or wedding planning software that includes special tools and features that clients can use. Be sure to ask if there are any special things that the planner can offer beyond their base services.

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Five Wedding Planning Mistakes

February 11, 2011 by  
Filed under Wedding Planning

2633813565_93da8f75fbJust as with any big show, your wedding day will not be perfect – but that’s okay. While you cannot plan ahead for every little detail or problematic situation that may arise, you can arm yourself with some helpful advice to be prepared at all times for any potential wedding mistakes. But before you begin planning your special day, consider these five biggest wedding preparation and planning mistakes that amateur ‘wedding planners’ often make.

1. Not Budgeting Costs

It’s hard to believe, but true – many couples do not create a budget when it comes to wedding preparation and end up in a deep hole of debt. The very first thing you should do to avoid disastrous (and bankrupting) wedding mistakes is devise an itemized budget, allowing for the necessary requirements, such as a venue for both the ceremony and reception, food and drinks, flowers, favors, decorations, etc. If anything is left over, either use this money for your honeymoon or spend it on something a little more frivolous, like a horse drawn carriage for your departure from the reception. Read more

Hiring a Wedding Planner (Coordinator)

December 21, 2010 by  
Filed under Featured, Wedding Planners, Wedding Planning

wedding-planner

photo credit: www.sweetchicevents.com

Don’t underestimate the usefulness of hiring a qualified and experienced wedding planner or wedding coordinator.

Each and every year around 2.5 million weddings take place nationwide. This means that the number of weddings that will take place in your immediate area is astounding. Your wedding plans are going to be affected by number of factors, because many more weddings will happen at or around the same time as yours.

If you want even the tiniest little detail to be taken care of at your wedding, it would be recommended that you hire a wedding planner. He or she can save you a lot of time and money. The wedding planner will help you coordinate your wedding and the most important of all they will save you from frustration. Read more

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