My Wedding Ideas - Cheap Wedding Ideas & Creative Wedding Tips » wedding planner

What to Look for In a Personal Wedding Planner

Wedding Gal — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:48:24 +0000

Choosing 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

Wedding Gal — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:48:22 +0000

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

Wedding Gal — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:48:26 +0000

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

Wedding Gal — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:48:17 +0000

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

Wedding Gal — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:48:15 +0000

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

Wedding Gal — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:48:12 +0000

Wedding 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!

Wedding Gal — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:59:04 +0000

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!

Best Bridesmaid Websites (verybestsites.com)
2011 Wedding Hair Trends (joyofspa.com)
What Brides (and Event/Wedding Planners) can Learn from Extreme Cage Fighting (mylittleflowershop.wordpress.com)

Interviewing your wedding planner / event planner

Wedding Gal — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 01:36:16 +0000

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.

Image Source

Five Wedding Planning Mistakes

Wedding Gal — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:43:02 +0000

Just 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.

Budgeting ahead of time also involves your acknowledging the fact that you may surpass the total by at least 10%. Surprises do happen, so cutting back on other needless things will ensure that you don’t go over budget too much. In these initial wedding preparation stages, you and your fiancé need to discuss who will be paying for what. It used to be that the bride’s parents paid for everything, but this ideal is slowly fading away. If you’re still coming up short on funds, there are literally hundreds of ways to cut costs for your wedding day, including having fewer guests, choosing an off-season date, selecting flowers that are in season, and having friends and family play a bigger part by making the wedding cake or trying their hand at photography.

2. Not Giving Yourself Enough Time

The image of the harried bride has been engrained into the psyche through a number of television shows that hype up the combination of little to no time and a ‘my way or the highway’ attitude. This is why giving yourself ample wedding preparation time is necessary to ensuring that your wedding flows seamlessly. If you want a large, extravagant wedding, you need to begin planning at least a year and a half in advance; for a smaller, more intimate wedding of about 50 guests, eight months to a year is fine. You need to take into account what your plans are for your wedding and adjust your schedule accordingly to prevent costly wedding mistakes from occurring.

Giving yourself more wedding preparation time allows you to order your cake, dress, wedding favors, flowers, decorations, etc. well in advance so that you don’t come up empty-handed from last minute rushing. Allotting enough time also applies to your wedding ceremony and reception. Don’t keep your guests waiting at the reception venue while you and your wedding party are taking hundreds of photos – consider taking a majority of the pictures before the ceremony and the all-important couple, wedding party, and family pictures after the vows have been exchanged.

3. Not Delegating Responsibilities

Delegating responsibilities, wedding preparation tasks, and roles is vital – you cannot do everything! For brides, their bridesmaids are there to help them with the important duties of the wedding day, so creating a short list of responsibilities for each friend is not unexpected. Mothers, family members, and friends are also glad to help run a few errands or make calls for you if you ask. Just make sure you ask someone you know will get the job done on time.

Part of the wedding experience also relies on a number of people who require detailed wedding preparation directives from you, such as the caterer, photographer, florist, transportation and/or drivers, and DJ. Discussing your ideas with them ensures that you can work together on the same wavelength and avoid embarrassing wedding mistakes during the actual reception. You should also arrange for the wedding party to meet at the church or the wedding ceremony location at a specified time. Corralling so many people at the same time is what leads many couples to pick up the wedding party members at their homes. Late arriving wedding party members is one of the most frequent and sometimes uncontrollable wedding mistakes a bride and groom have to deal with.

4. Not Hiring a Wedding Planner or Someone You Trust

Many brides swear by their wedding planners, and yes, it’s true that they take care of just about everything involved in wedding preparation and planning, preventing a number of the more common wedding mistakes brides make. It’s kind of like you and your fiancé are the stars, while the wedding planner works behind the scenes for your big performance, seeing everything from start to finish. Wedding planners know all the ins and outs of great wedding preparation and planning and can help the couple find reliable caterers, bridal attire and supply stores, transportation, and DJs at lower prices. Before signing any contracts, however, talk with the wedding planner to see if it’s a situation you’re happy with.

While incredibly helpful, wedding planners can also be pricey, unfortunate for the bride who is trying to cut costs. This scenario goes back to delegating responsibilities – ask someone you trust to help you make wedding preparation arrangements and appointments with each wedding supply store and/or vendor. You can even scale back operations and have a simplistic wedding that you plan or DIY completely to save money.

5. Not Fully Considering the Reception Venue and Details

Sending your guests on a wild goose chase to find the reception venue is something that happens more often than you’d think and is one of the biggest wedding mistakes couples overlook. For out-of-town guests, this is confusing; for in-town guests, it’s an annoyance. Choosing a reception venue that’s close to the wedding site is a must, unless you provide the transportation to and from the reception. More than 15 – 20 minutes away is a hassle, and some guests may not even bother going if it’s farther than that.

Otherwise, if your reception venue is outside (or exposed to the elements), rain and windy conditions may appear so you should always have a back up in cases of inclement weather. A rained out wedding reception is one of the more common wedding mistakes brides have neglected to plan for. Part of the wedding preparation necessities should also include your requesting the venue’s landscaper to spray for bugs so your guests aren’t being bitten by mosquitoes and gnats.

Learn to Laugh Off Those Wedding Mistakes

Pre-wedding preparation, while helpful, will inevitably miss some little detail of your big day. These wedding mistakes (or, more likely, minor ‘blips’) are to be expected and may even provide a funny moment for you and your fiancé to laugh about in the future. Wedding mistakes do and will happen, but you shouldn’t be bothered by them. Simply go on with the show and smile – no one will know the difference!

Cherie Johnson is the founder and owner of Creative Bride, a one-stop shop for personalized, unique baby and bridal shower and wedding favors, helping couples. Cherie’s wedding advice has appeared on several websites including Little Wedding Guide, Wedding Lenox, and The Wedding Source. For more information on Creative Bride, please visit http://www.Creative-Bride.com.

Photo by audioeric & by saikofish

Hiring a Wedding Planner (Coordinator)

Wedding Gal — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 05:53:37 +0000

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.

So, what is a wedding planner anyway, and what do they do?

A wedding planner (sometimes called a wedding consultant, wedding coordinator or a wedding producer) is hired to help the bride and groom coordinate a wide variety of tasks associated with their wedding. Planning your wedding can get vary frustrating at times that will make you forget about the fun that you need to have. So, it is a good idea to spend a little bit more on a wedding planner to make sure your wedding day goes smooth.

A wedding planner can help plan many aspects of your wedding, including DJs, floral arrangements, cake, seating arrangements, invitations, photography, and so on. In some cases, they might also be able to use their industry connections with vendors to get you a good deal on many things.

The wedding planner will conduct an interview with the bride-to-be and the groom, and then coordinate the details of the wedding that have been agreed upon. A good wedding planner should be able to assist in organizing, budgeting, purchasing services for your wedding, and after the interview he or she will put a contract together that you and him or her need to sign. Without a contract there’s a lot of room for misunderstanding and confusion of what was agreed upon.

In the contract, or often referred to as a letter of agreement, the wedding planner will include his or her services, the cost of these services and payment terms.

When you receive the contract, if there’s anything you do not agree with or anything not to your desire, discuss it before signing. When you sign the contract, you and your soon to-be wedding planner have to agree on all of the items listed to avoid any possible misunderstanding. But remember: even though you have been through the interview process, you are not obligated to continue with his or her service until you sign the contract.

So, how can you find a good wedding planner?

Nowadays, it’s probably the easiest to find them on the Internet. But, it’s best if you know anyone who had had them for their wedding. Referrals are always the best.

Even if you have to seek help from the Internet or yellow pages, be sure to ask for his or her credentials. Ask for references from each of your potential planners and research their past work. Also, ask to see a few other weddings your potential planner has prepared. This will help you make a decision very easily of whether you like their style or you need to seek another one.

Some of the advantages of hiring a wedding planner are: saving you from frustration; money savings, since most have connections in the industry; low stress, and so on.

However, there could also be some disadvantages, such as: overconfident (ego) planner may try to convince you into having a wedding of his or her dreams and not of your dreams. If you’re a person who likes to be known or to show off, hiring a planner may not be a good idea as they will be in charge of your wedding. Another disadvantage would be that you may hire a scam artist who may not have done any weddings while broadcasting his or her enormous experience. That’s why it is vital to do a thorough research on the planners of your interest.

So, how much does a wedding planner cost?

Expect their fee to be anywhere between 5% and up to 20% of your total wedding budget.

Some important points:

Be sure your wedding planner is a member of the Association of Bridal Consultants.
Contact your wedding planner’s references. Contact at least three brides and be sure that the wedding planner performed well.
Be sure the wedding planner is dressed to match on your wedding day.

Photo credit: www.sweetchicevents.com

Want to Get Married in Barbados? (relaxbarbados.com)
The Do It Yourself Wedding Planning Guide (weddingsetups.com)
Grand Cayman Vacations (grandcaymanvillas.net)
Tori Spelling Niecy Nash Wedding Planner (popcrunch.com)
Cayman Islands Wedding (grandcaymanvillas.net)
Congratulations! You are Engaged… (chicagonow.com)