How to Find the Right Wedding Planner
At Truly Yours Event Planning we want you to have your perfect planner. If you are a newly bride-to-be, you are probably realizing that planning a wedding involves making many choices, from flowers to colors to calls for selecting vendors, several contracts and many more details that will require time and organization. We are talking about over 300 hours of planning for the small to average wedding.
So, you had an amazing engagement, you told the big news to friends and family, love is in the air and you feel over the moon. You want to feel this way forever, only to realize that the to-do list that comes with the planning of your dream wedding is a little overwhelming to say the least.
If so, it might be time to think about investing in a wedding planner. Just remember not every wedding planner is the same.
It might be easy to dismiss the idea of a wedding planner as an unnecessary expense. The truth is that most venues now require for you to have a wedding planner, especially hotel venues. The advantage of working with us; we have been in both ends of the wedding business. We can answer all your questions and most importantly we can ask all the right questions to the venue wedding sales team to make sure there will be no unexpected surprises after you sign the dotted line.
Most wedding planners have been through last-minute changes. They have dealt with missing rings, unexpected guest arrivals, and vendors getting lost on the way to the venue. You name it, wedding planners have seen it many times before and have taken it all in their stride.
Fortunately for us, we have worked with amazing veteran vendors in all areas of the wedding planning, from Florists’ to DJs’ to wedding cakes to photographers. So, our unique relationships allow us to minimize the margin for errors.
If you are worried about the cost of a wedding planner, you will find that the initial investment you make will repay itself a thousand times over in the stress it saves you.
If you have decided that you do want to hire the services of a wedding planner, take a second to think about your unique needs. Maybe you want someone to take care of every detail for you, or you just need a set of helping hands to be there on the wedding day. Make sure their experience is beyond the reception and decoration, that they provide you with a full plan for the ceremony as well and are able to advise you to the extent of a full planning package even if you are only contracting them for the day of the wedding.
We will be happy to offer a free consultation, prior to you selecting your planner. Our goal at Truly Yours Event Planning, is to make sure your dream day is captured by the right planner.
If you haven’t already defined your wedding vision, make sure you sit down with your partner and do this first. This way, you will be able to clearly communicate your dream day to your wedding planner and make sure you are on the same page.
Once your wedding vision has been clearly defined, your wedding planner will then start researching on your behalf. This means sourcing all your quotes and liaising with the appropriate vendors based on your requirements and your budget. Your wedding planner can then run all the quotes by you, make amendments where necessary, and start booking in vendors for your big day. Even though you will be kept in the loop, you will not actually have to make any phone calls or deal with any back and forth emails.
The logistics of your wedding day is also something that a wedding planner will take care of for you. A timeline will be created for your wedding, which will clearly detail how the day is going to run from beginning to end. Your timeline will include timings for everything, from your ceremony set up right through to your speeches and first dance, finally, the coordination with all your vendors.
If you are feeling overwhelmed just thinking about all the above, then a full wedding planning service could be something to consider.
Please remember that wedding planners are hired to handle all the logistics of your day. They work well with numbers and swear by spreadsheets and timelines. But when it comes to the visual aspects of your wedding like creating a color palette, designing a vision board, or crafting DIY favors, this is a completely different role.
We at Truly Yours Event Planning, have planned hundreds of events that include not only the pairing of the right vendors with the client but bringing your dream to reality. We will work with you to bring your vision to life or create the most memorable experience based on your style and personality.
Maybe you have done all the hard work already. You have locked in your vendors, successfully created your budget, and feel comfortable with how the planning is coming along. But have you thought about how you are going to set everything up on the day of the wedding? Do not forget most venues do not aid with running your ceremony nor decorating your ballroom. Remember that a wedding set up is extremely time-consuming, physically demanding, and usually involves a last-minute surprise or two that needs to be dealt with. That is a lot of pressure to put on someone that should be spending the day getting ready and celebrating with you. Hiring a day-of wedding coordinator will take all that stress and responsibility away from you (and your loved ones) on your big day.
Find your best fit by asking the right questions.
The best way to know if you are booking the right service for your needs is to simply ask questions during your free consultation.
Whether you are opting for a full planning service or an on-the-day coordinator, it is important to ask the relevant questions, so you know exactly what your package includes.
You should ask about anything that might incur an additional cost. This usually relates to any tasks that are going to result in extra time, travel, and resources for your wedding planner.
Site inspections and venue walk-throughs are a perfect example. If you have chosen a venue that is outside of your planners’ local area, it may mean an additional travel fee for site inspections.
The same rule applies to ceremony rehearsals the day before your wedding, or any vendor that may need to start setting up a day prior, you need your planner to be onsite for any additional days to meet with these vendors, this could also mean an extra fee.
Top questions to ask a wedding planner before hiring them
How many hours does your package include?
Is correspondence unlimited throughout the process or is there a specified amount of phone calls and meetings?
What is your response time for emails?
Are you familiar with the wedding venue and have you worked there previously? If not, do you have experience working at similar venues?
Do you have availability on the wedding date?
What kind of wedding budgets do you have experience working with?
Will you be able to make suggestions to work within the budget?
Are you able to customize a package according to my requirements if we feel there might be something missing?
How does the payment process work with other vendors? Will each invoice be passed through for payment directly, or will they be bundled together into one lump sum?
Do you offer any styling assistance, or will this need to be booked separately?
Do you pass on any discounts from other suppliers or do you receive a commission?
How do you handle any last-minute emergencies on the day?
How many team members will be there on the wedding day?
What do you love the most about being a wedding planner?
Before putting any kind of deposit down, you should also ask for a copy of the contract and the insurance. Have a really good read through the contract with your partner and make sure it covers all your requirements. If there are any grey areas or if you feel like something is missing, ask about this upfront.
Log into the website to check out our packages and then call us for a free consultation at 727-220-1219 or send us an email to schedule a face time call at info@trulyyourseventplanning.net. We will love to hear from you.