Congratulations you’re engaged…now what? After the proposal of your dreams you spend the next few days making tons of phone calls and visits to share the exciting news and to show off the ring, then one day as you are flipping through a wedding magazine it hits you - you have to a wedding to plan!
Where do you begin?
Who do you call?
The task of planning a wedding to a newly engaged bride can seem quite overwhelming. Where should you have the reception? Should you have a buffet dinner or seated served? Should you have it outdoors or inside; what if it rains? Your wedding will likely be the most elaborate and expensive party that you will ever host, and you want it to be perfect. For this fact alone many couples are deciding to hire a professional wedding consultant.
What was once considered to be a luxury only reserved for the famous and affluent, hiring a professional wedding consultant has actually become a necessity and can actually be a smart move economically. A wedding consultant should be considered a part of your wedding expenses when determining your budget, not an additional expense.
The scope of the consultant’s involvement in your wedding is entirely up to you. You can have the consultant plan as much or as little as you desire. If you find that you are a “hands on” type of bride and want to do the planning yourself you can still enjoy the benefits of a wedding consultant by selecting only the services you need.
Wedding consultants can provide an array of services to their clients which can include:
- Determining the wedding budget – This should be one of the first things you should do after getting engaged. Costs for weddings vary greatly depending on factors such as location and your wedding style. A wedding consultant can help you decide which aspects of your wedding are important to you and the overall look you are trying to achieve. Based on your priorities, your consultant will determine realistic ideas of what things will cost to help you achieve your overall vision all while keeping within your budget.
- Referring Qualified Vendors – Putting you in touch with qualified vendors that are within your budget is the most important job of the wedding consultant. While referrals from family and friends are great, their style and budget may not reflect your own. A wedding consultant, knowing your budget and style of wedding you are trying to create will refer vendors that meet your criteria. A wedding consultant’s prize resource is the relationships she establishes with other wedding professionals. Therefore he/she may be able to negotiate a better price than you may obtain as a one-time customer.
- Stress Reducer/Confidante – Planning a wedding can be a time of great joy and often time’s one of great stress. Many couples find themselves riding on the roller coaster of emotional tension during this time in their lives. Not only are they preparing for the biggest day of their lives, they are also under going a life-changing process and starting a new family together. Sometimes it’s nice to have a third party who is neutral listen to you as you let off steam about family disputes or someone to simply bounce ideas off of who is not emotionally tied to the wedding.
- Time Manager - Many of today’s couples are immersed with responsibilities involved within their personal and professional lives. With career commitments, family responsibilities and maintaining active social lives, many couples are finding it increasingly difficult to find the extra time needed to plan the wedding of their dreams. A wedding consultant can set appointments for you, keep track of deadlines, develop a timeline and payment schedules.
Hiring a consultant does not mean that you will have to give up control of your wedding. However, it does mean you will have someone who is knowledgeable of the wedding industry that will look after your interest. Realizing the benefits of hiring a professional wedding consultant early in the planning process will allow you and your family the luxury of enjoying your special day without having to worry about whether the flowers have arrived or if the correct linens have been placed on the tables. Keeping everyone on track can be stressful for the bride and groom as well as their families however it’s all in a day’s work for an experienced consultant.
Erika Beckwith is an experienced event planner specializing in both social and corporate events. She is also the founder of the event planning firm Beckwith & Associates LLC which serves the Metropolitan Atlanta Area. Visit her website at http://www.beckwithevents.com/.
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