Ensure You Choose The Right Wedding Planner

What is the role of a Wedding Planner?

There are endless definitions and at the end of it all, how do you know which one to choose?  So based on the dilemmas facing many would be brides and grooms, here are just a few pointers from someone who has been in the business for quite a long time. I also have the grey hair around the temples look to show for it!

The role of the wedding planner or any planner, from event to travel planner is to facilitate, to mediate, to counsel, to advise, to negotiate, to calm everybody down, to be a punch bag, to have a sense of humour, good communication skills so that everybody knows when, what and how, charming, with a level of sophistication and creativity, knowledge.  A wedding planner should have a good fashion sense, this does not mean that your wedding planner's wardrobe must be filled with the fashions of Emanuel Ungaro's Autumn/Winter collection 2010, Valentino, Prada or Gerard Darel shoes and accessories….it means that she or he must have an eye for beautiful things and must be able to advise regarding colours, flowers, music, the general look and theme.

The wedding planner needs to be able to create and has to have a level of imagination and be able to share it with the couple however this imagination needs to be conservative and a little traditional yet there has to be a spark of adventure and sheer fantasy, Felliniesque type?  The wedding planner is there to ensure that the realistic budget you have set aside is used to its full potential and if the budget will not stretch, your wedding planner should be able to provide you with alternative suggestions or DIY ideas or may have to try and locate if possible suppliers who can meet her or his quota.

Your wedding planner must have the “full knowledge” so in the case of an Italian wedding planner and looking at myself in all this, your planner must know the rules and regulations in Italy and if he or she does not, then they should have the ability to investigate and challenge.  Your wedding planner must be a perfectionist, a workaholic, organized, well mannered however also brutally honest as it does save a lot of time, flexible, always available to the couple, stylish, a decision maker, understanding of religion, beliefs, cultures and traditions.  Your wedding planner must be fearless!

I hope this picture of the wedding planner has not put you in complete disarray but it is important to understand that when you do take on the services of a wedding planner that all the above is considered.

  How do I choose the right Wedding Planner?

It could all come down to trial and error however there is no time for error when it comes to your once day in a lifetime event so here are just a few suggestions…..again I will be leaning towards weddings in Italy since that is my specialization, however I am sure that there are parts here which will relate to wedding planners in the rest of the world.  Being a wedding planner has become big business over the last 5 years and now everybody is a wedding specialist, the hotels have their own wedding and events section and they have wedding coordinators on site and employed by them, farmhouses and B&Bs can now organize weddings, I even know of people who got married in Italy and now believe they have the qualification to be a fully fledged wedding planner but be wary of such pretences. 

Below I have selected 10 tips for choosing the right wedding planner and the most important aspect of it all is to ensure that you the couple actually get what you pay for.

1. Be wary of the wedding planner who will come or will insist on coming to see you but you cannot go and see them.

2. Make sure that your planner has a fixed land line.  Mobile numbers are great and we get calls transferred to our mobile when we are away from the office however mobile numbers are mobile, and any planner of any worth should have a land line as this shows a certain business stability?  Do your own research and you will see that the majority of established companies also have a landline.

3. Make sure that you know the legal entity of your wedding planner.  Will you be dealing with a sole trader?  A partnership?  A company?  This is quite important as it confirms that your planner is serious and runs their business in the best way possible.  It also confirms that that they exist so if it is a company ask for their company number and if they charge UK VAT make sure that they are VAT registered.

4. Ask questions if facts are not clear…. And some of the best questions to ask are:

How many years have you been in business?

Can you contact the clients or the couples who got married with you as indicated on your site

How many weddings have you arranged in the last 3 years….or even less years

Ask questions which are a littler more complex like have you been there yourself?  What is it like? How can you get from A to B and so forth. If they have not been there then that is fine as it shows an honesty on the part of the planner…..

5. If there is a massive price differentiation between one planner and another there must be a reason.  Just because one planner is more expensive than the other does not mean that you have to go with the “cheaper” option. There has to be a reason why one is cheaper than the other so it is really up to you to find out and ask.

6. Make sure that you can communicate fully with your wedding planner.  Does your wedding planner understand what you mean and what you are talking about?  Some couples think that planning your wedding with an Italian based planner will be cheaper…. Think again.  I would say that the costs work out to be if not different similar however you also need to consider the following: a)   If you want to meet up you need to fly to Italy however in the case of a UK based planner for example, you can go visit them or they can come visit you if need be… b)  You are only a UK based call away… Ok with Skype nowadays you have free telephone access but what about if Skype does not work or you are not at your computer or you wish to speak to your wedding planner early in the morning when all the computers are off? Or even late at night and you can only do it via landline or mobile?  c)   What happens if something goes wrong?  How are you going to deal with it if everyone is based in Italy? If you think organizing the documents is difficult and trust me it is not…. Then what on earth are you going to think about Italy's judicial system.  Things take slightly longer than they do here and of course you will be covered by Italian and European law and of course you may also need to go to Italy every now and then as you will not be able to do it all online.  d)   The beauty and benefits of working with some overseas-based wedding planners is that prices can be cheaper especially if you are paying in cash and I leave this to you to figure out. I do not want to be bias to overseas wedding planners as there are some great planners out there who are excellent if not some of the best in the world…. However I just want you to be aware of why sometimes there are differences in costs.

7. Make sure that your wedding planner has the facility to take credit or debit cards and if not why not…. Again this just adds to the stability of your wedding planner as to be able to take this facility ensures that a range of credit checks have taken place so if your planner can authorize payments by credit or debit card then the credit check has already been done on your behalf.

8. If your wedding planner is fluent in the language of the country they are promoting, then this is also a good sign.  Yes the English language today is universal however there are so many idioms, manners of expression, cultural and traditional elements that words can sometimes get a little mixed up and confused. For example, Italian does not use the present tense to make a connection to the present like the English do and as far as some vocabulary goes there are so many “false friends” where the meaning in reality is completely different or can have up to 3 different meanings.  So if your wedding planner can speak your language pretty well and you can understand them when you are talking on the phone and also in writing but that wedding planner also speaks the same language of the country they are promoting, then this is surely a plus.

9. Before appointing a wedding planner make yourself a list of all the things that are important to you and what your expectations are and share this with your wedding planner, who if they are being honest will be able to advise you if they feel that they will be able to accommodate you.

10. Before appointing a wedding planner speak to them. In this world of technology everyone relies on the computer and emails and more computers etc…. stop for a moment!  This is the most important time of your life… and you are going to do everything by email only?  Speak to your wedding planner, if they are not around leave a message, see how long it takes them to call you back, see if you like them, do they sound nice? Do they sound as though they know what they are talking about?  You need to know that your wedding planner will be the closest person to you for the whole planning stage which could be anything from 3 years to 6 months and on occasions even less, just thinking about a recent wedding which took place this November 2010 when contact was made on the 15^th October and we organized a whole event with guests flying from New Zealand, Australia, The US and other European destinations….in a matter of a few weeks…..It is so important that you get on with the planner and this will put you in good stead.

I hope this has given you some insight into what it is all about and the one thing you need to remember and to add to this is that all wedding planners are HUMAN…. Do not forget this as a lot of couples think that wedding planners are all Jennifer Lopez lookalikes with telepathic powers. Remember that we are all out there striving for perfection and we cannot read minds and really need you to achieve the ultimate.

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