Clicking With Your Wedding Planner - It's Essential
Let me paint a picture for you...
Emily and Dan have planned their DREAM wedding. Emily has selected all of the details based on her love of blushes and neutrals and her obsession with garden roses and peonies. She is a true girly girl and wants her wedding to feel like a sophisticated fairy tale. Dan has taken a back seat to the details but really has an interest in the food and their guests. His Italian heritage has him putting an importance on good food and good times. Both Emily and Dan are laid-back in nature. They have conveyed to each and every vendor exactly what they are looking for and trust those vendors to execute their day perfectly.
The day has arrived and the wedding planner and all vendors, except for the florist, are at the venue. When it becomes apparent that the florist is more than fashionably late, the wedding planner gives her a call. She is lost so the planner gives her directions. Once there, the florist only has 30 minutes to set up all of the centerpieces so the planner gathers a few people to help unload and jumps in to help set things up. Since she knows the exact style that the bride is going for, and what the centerpieces are supposed to look like, she is able to help the florist with little to no direction. She is even able to tweak a few things that she knows the bride wouldn’t like. Everything is set up on time and mini-crisis number one is adverted.
The day is well underway. Cocktail hour is almost over and guests will be heading to the buffet line shortly. After corralling the entire bridal party and getting through announcements, the planner checks in with the caterer to find that the buffet line has not even begun to be setup. After being assured that the setup is about to happen, she waits 10 more minutes. Still nothing. The guests should be heading to the buffet in 15 minutes, so the planner grabs the buffet tables and starts setup. She knows how important food is to the groom and a rushed dinner isn’t acceptable. Dinner starts only 5 minutes late and mini-crisis number two is adverted.
The above example is a bit extreme, but true. (I’ve combined a few weddings into one story, but you get the point.) Certainly, every wedding isn’t going to have things go wrong, but it does happen. In addition to directing vendors and stepping in to set up, I’ve also had to coordinate last minute, surprise slide shows and ease rowdy guests that almost got the bar shut down. Because of my attention to detail, organization and understanding of the couple’s vision and what was important to them, I was able to step in exactly where I was needed. Because my couples and I have clicked so well, I was able to make decisions that they were happy with, without bringing a problem to their attention. Had I not had a true understanding of the couple and what they wanted, I might not have made the correct decisions, for them, in those scenarios.
Having a planner that you can relate to just makes the entire process so much more exciting. I approach every single client like I would a friend and truly develop a relationship with them throughout the planning process. Doing so allows me to serve them better than someone only focused on the logistics of the day. It also makes me so much more emotionally involved in, and attached to, their wedding, which makes for an extremely enjoyable experience for everyone involved.
A couple needs to be able to trust their planner to make appropriate, crunch-time adjustments based on their vision. They should be someone who you trust will step in, in your place, and make the decisions that you would. They should also share the same love of details that you do. Trusting a planner to get the job done and knowing that you have the same standards really enables you to relax on your wedding day. Working with my clients comes naturally and easily since we have similar personalities, and get along so well, and that’s what every couple should look for in a planner.
Don’t be afraid to keep looking if you don’t feel like you are clicking with the people that you are meeting with. Planners shouldn’t be afraid to tell you that they don’t think you are a fit either. There are going to be some AMAZING wedding planners out there that just aren’t AMAZING for you and vice versa. At the end of the day, you want to invest your time and money into someone that you know is exactly what you are looking for!
