Trust me… I hear you… wedding planning is expensive. And I’m sure there are plenty of tasks that you can do on your own, and I’m also sure there might be some thoughts of “why do I need to hire someone for this if I can just do it myself?” and if those thoughts aren’t necessarily coming from you, there is probably someone in your life who might be saying that to you too. But today, we are going to dive into that exact mindset, and specifically when it comes to having someone present on wedding day to take the reigns — today I am talking about why hiring a wedding planner will make your day (and your life!) easier.. micro wedding or not!
#1: Budgeting
To start, most of us don’t spend our days talking with wedding industry vendors or wedding venues, and so we may not necessarily know how much (realistically) a wedding costs let alone how much to invest in quality vendors… PLUS there are always hidden expenses that come into play that you don’t think about right away the closer that wedding day comes. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a heads up in regards to what to expect when it comes to the numbers for your wedding day? Hiring a wedding planner eliminates the stress of having to figure that all out – Who is actually worth what? Where should I sacrifice and where should I invest? What’s a general estimate when it comes to preparing for all those last minute items? Allow an industry expert to come alongside you and help you figure all of that out. You don’t HAVE to spend an arm and a leg + your firstborn child to have a beautiful wedding. Having a wedding planner with you to help with knowing where to cut costs is extremely helpful, instead of potentially cutting costs on something you should really invest in.
#2: Stress-Free
Now let’s be real… there will ALWAYS be some amount of stress on wedding day.. that’s just part of having a wedding. BUT that doesn’t mean it should be a complete stress magnet. Hiring someone who understands your vision and how you want your day to come together is going to allow YOU to fully relax on wedding day – even if something goes wrong! There is something so liberating when it comes to being able to truly trust someone to have your back and take care of things – and that is EXACTLY how you should feel on wedding day. You should feel like you are being 100% taken care of, and that even if someone tells you about a few details running late or not coming together perfectly, you can smile and say “Don’t worry, I know so and so has it covered” and send them off with a thumbs up.
If I can use an example – and this might be stretching it, but the principle remains the same – imagine if all the big retail stores did not have their categories of employees. Imagine if the CEO of Disneyland was the one and only person that had to operate the rides, keep the park clean, serve delicious food, fix any mechanical shut downs, keep an eye on parking, run the security checkpoint, be all the characters, do a one-man-band parade, keep all the stores stocked and sell merchandise, etc etc (I think you get the picture) Disneyland would simply not be the same right? The park would have to operate on a much smaller scale, because it would be impossible to run the happiest place on earth efficiently. Use that same mentality when it comes to planning your wedding. Yes, you may be capable of running the show on your wedding day, but that is going to take away from the quality of the day and how efficiently it runs. It is going to make you way mores stressed than if you are able to hand off tasks to a designated person who you know will handle it.
#3: Expertise/Help/Connections
One of the best parts about hiring a wedding planner is that they usually have a list of recommended vendors that they can give to you. This eliminates a HUGE step in the wedding planning process: searching. I think for most people, they don’t necessarily know where to start when it comes to finding vendors. I think most people start with Instagram (which isn’t a bad thing – pretty sure every industry vendor can be found on Instagram) but even then, how do you know which vendor is the right one? How can someone trust that what people are preaching on their profiles is truly what they can expect? Wedding planners know which vendors to choose and which ones to stay away from. And if they’ve been in the industry for awhile, they can usually tell pretty quickly if a particular vendor is a good option or not, before getting too deep in with them. Wedding planners have expertise in this industry that no one else does. There are some vendors that rely entirely on wedding planners to bring them bookings because that wedding planner knows their stuff, can offer quality help and guidance for couples, and in turn provides a great experience for the vendors as well.
#4: Organization
This kind of goes a little hand in hand with the stress free point, but having a wedding planner present on your wedding day means you don’t have micromanage anyone. The wedding planner will make sure things are running on time and vendors are doing their jobs. They literally train themselves to be adaptable to any situation that might get thrown their way. Us other vendors can usually tell when we have a good wedding planner by how they create the schedule. Do they pay attention to the details? Do they consider every avenue? Have they covered all the bases? Do they have back up plans? Problem solving is a huge skill with most quality wedding planners, and in turn that means they are organized and ready to face whatever might come their way.
I don’t know about you, but there is something so satisfying about being organized. Granted, it’s important to not be a robot 😉 but if you’re anything like me, you’re a planner and there is nothing more satisfying than checking off that list. Finding someone to do that for you – and do it excellently – is an irreplaceable gift on your wedding day.
#5: Schedule
Some vendors actually offer help here. For example, during my inquiry/booking process, I actually create a super basic breakdown of how the day will look when it comes to photos. I do this because I think it’s important for couples to realize just how long different parts of the day take. It’s easy to think that having 2 hours for your elopement seems like enough time, but when you actually breakdown what’s important to you and what exactly it takes to make that happen, you will find that it can take much longer than what you initially thought.
The schedule is everything on wedding day. Yes, this day is about marrying your best friend – absolutely. 100%. But if there is no PLAN in how that is going to happen, then the moment when you say ‘I do’ might not be as sweet as you imagined. It’s actually quite fascinating to me how even the smallest decisions we make in our every day lives effects our mood, energy and attitude. Even more so, every decision you make from the moment you wake up on wedding day is going to effect the rest of the day. Having someone to create a schedule that is focused on what’s most important is going to create the kind of environment you need on wedding day.
#6: Stress-Free
So important I just wanted to mention it again. Did you know that stress is directly related to your immune system, sleep quality, menstrual cycle, and just about everything else that goes with a properly functioning human being? I can look back at the last few times I’ve gotten sick and I know for a fact I was heavily stressing about something. If you don’t want to break out before your wedding day, the least amount of stress is necessary/helpful. If you don’t want to get sick right before or after your wedding, the least amount of stress is necessary/helpful for your immune system (along with these helpful tips to boost your immune system).
Seriously, don’t put yourself through that. It might not seem like it will be a big deal now, but I promise you… I PROMISE YOU.. having shot over 150 weddings, there was NO couple that ever regretted hiring their wedding planner (if they did their job well of course – if they didn’t, then the couple might have reason to regret their decision) in fact, my sister in law can attest to the importance of having a wedding planner through the entire process of wedding planning. A “day-of” coordinator cannot understand the entire day or answer all the questions if they simply show up on wedding day with only a few phone calls prior. It’s impossible to understand everything the day-of. Having a planner alongside your entire process is crucial.
#7: Creativity
Lastly, hiring a wedding planner can actually help the creative process of bringing your vision to life! Or, if you have no idea what you even want to do or where to start when it comes to the creative/decorative side of wedding planning, then they can guide you and offer you the help you need. It truly takes a certain skill set to craft your vision into a tangible product, and again, being able to trust someone COMPLETELY with that job is going to put you in a position where you are able to actually enjoy the process of planning your wedding, instead of dreading every decision.
I unfortunately had a friend who did not hire a wedding planner, and on top of that a lot of the details and decorations that were involved were DIY. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, but putting that pressure on yourself and doing the physical labor to do it yourself comes at a great cost – and it’s up to you to evaluate if it’s worth it to go through that for your special day. Some brides purposefully choose to DIY everything, and that’s perfectly okay! But if you don’t necessarily have the time to do that, then I strongly suggest hiring a wedding planner to help!
#8: Eliminates Putting Extra Work On Some Vendors
I’m just gonna be real for a second… if a couple doesn’t hire a wedding planner, it usually falls on the wedding photographer to work both jobs. It can’t really be helped – the photographer has be aware of the plans/timeline in order to make sure photos are done at the right times. So if no one is around the day of the wedding to help make sure things are moving along, then we usually have to step into managing everyone. This isn’t alway a bad thing, I actually see value in providing that for clients if they were unable to hire a planner… but the fact still remains that it’s not our job to manage the day, wrangle family members, etc etc and by putting us in that position, you are actually bringing the quality of our work down, because instead of being able to solely focus on creating beautiful and captivating moments from your day for you to have for the rest of your life, we are now stressing about making sure everything is in order to make sure the ceremony starts on time etc etc.
It’s especially draining, both physically and emotionally, to do be doing two jobs on wedding day when it is not recognized or acknowledged that we are doing that. It’s not always the photographer, sometimes the DJ has to wear the wedding planning hat in addition to their own job. But if you know that’s happening, and you’re aware of the effects that it’s having on some of your vendors, just remember to speak extra words of encouragement to them on wedding day – they will appreciate it more then you’ll know.
I hope these tips were helpful! Whether you choose to hire a planner or not, I will show up and serve you selflessly and joyfully no matter what. These tips are truly out of heart that desires for you to be fully present on this incredible day. It comes from a place of watching so many couples be extremely stressed out on the day that they are supposed to be the happiest! So please know that if you’ve reached the end here… but these 8 reasons to hire a wedding planning will truly make your wedding day easier!
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