The role of a wedding planner includes all aspects of the wedding day from clothing to venues, catering and entertainment and even arrangement of accommodation, comforts and facilities for wedding guests. One would argue that these duties can easily be shared among family and friends which ultimately poses the question ‘do I really need a wedding planner?’ The general responsibilities of the wedding planner include:
- Meeting the couple to negotiate, identify their proposed ideas for their wedding, the requirements and most importantly their budget. Subsequent meetings would be during the pre-wedding planning period, giving them feedback on progress and also to confirm actions.
- Building good relationships with the couple to see the planning and ideas from their perspective.
- Suggesting creative ideas and plans you think might help them. It could be advice on etiquettes, the budget, guest size, the venue etc.
- Negotiating with service providers and vendors such as caterers, photographers, venue staff etc and bringing them together.
- Maintaining calendars to outline the timeline to the big day and ensuring that actions such as paying vendors and service providers actually take place.
- Making sure every detail is well attended to and all service providers are in place.
- Being available on the day to orchestrate the event.
From the above duties, one can tell a wedding planner is essential to the success of a wedding but you do not just choose anyone as a wedding planner. There are certain qualities you need to look out for. Such qualities include; creative skills, financial and negotiation skills, honesty, problem solving and crisis management skills, flexibility, stamina, listening skills, patience, excellent communication skills.
You might not necessarily find all these traits in a planner but you might find a few. Also try to get reviews from couples who hired planners. They would be the best people to go to for help in finding a good wedding planner and not just a fraudster who would squander your money and misappropriate your budget.