Hi all! So excited to share my latest Wedding Wednesday post with WeddingWire – all about how to find your ideal Wedding Planner! In my humble opinion finding your Wedding Planner is almost as important as finding your groom. Lucky for me, I knew to use WeddingWire as a my ultimate wedding planning resource and I wound up with the wonderfully amazing Heather Lowenthal of Posh Parties. As with everything else in wedding planning, finding a planner can be a bit overwhelming, so today I’m going to break down exactly how I found Heather and knew she was the one for me.
For our particular Wedding Venue (see which one we chose here) it is required to hire a Wedding Planner, which seemed strange to me at first. But after checking out the WeddingWire Forum on the subject I started to see that there were three great reasons for hiring a planner.
3 Reasons to Hire a Wedding Planner
1. Planners Keep You On Track
I’m what you would call a big picture person, so keeping track of a million details for the wedding is a pretty daunting task for me. Planners typically provide a timeline of tasks up front and make sure that you are hitting all of your deadlines. By hiring a Wedding Planner I ensured that we would stay organized and nothing would fall through the cracks.
2. Planners Can Get You Discounts
Working with a Wedding Planner has very similar perks to working with an interior decorator or travel agent. Not only are they experts in their field, but they are also afforded certain professional courtesy’s that average joe isn’t. AKA discounts!
3. Planners Help Reduce Stress
When I need a haircut I go to a hair dresser, when I need a teeth cleaning I go to a dentist, when I plan a wedding I hire a Wedding Planner. Planning a wedding is a full time job, and I was more than happy to defer to the experts. I get to focus on the fun parts of planning rather than getting bogged down in contracts and paperwork. I can’t tell you enough how much easier it has made my life.
How to Start your Wedding Planner Search
In addition to the finding the benefits of hiring a Wedding Planner on WeddingWire, I also found a lot of tips for how to start my search. Step one was being able to answer the following questions:
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What is your budget?
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How many guests will you have?
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What is your preferred wedding date?
10 Questions to Ask When Hiring a Wedding Planner
Once I could answer these questions, I started to put together a short list of wedding planners that I wanted to meet with. I found a few on instagram (my friend Makenzie actually DM’d me Heather’s account @poshpartygal– Instagram is a great way to see if your aesthetics align), a couple were recommended by friends, and one in a magazine. Once I had my list, I headed over the the WeddingWire Vendor’s tab to get the low down. I was able to see reviews, what sort of services they provide, what their starting fees were, etc. In particular I loved getting to read the real reviews from other brides, in our case we were doing a destination wedding so I didn’t have a ton of friends I could talk to that had actually gotten married in Palm Beach. So the WeddingWire reviews are a great way to get advice! I also took the time to check out the WeddingWire blog to read up on all the different types of planners there are out there. After reading a few different posts, I felt like we needed a “Full Service” Planner (read more about the different types on WeddingWire). That helped me narrow down my potential planner list even more. Once I decided who I wanted to interview, I came up with a few questions to ask during our meeting:
1.) Do you have our wedding date available?
2.) How many wedding clients do you take on with dates in the same month?
3.) Will you be the person on site the day of our wedding or will it be another planner? How many assistants will you have?
4.) Have you ever worked with the venue we’ve chosen for our wedding?
5.) How do you charge for your services? Is it by the hour, a percentage of the total wedding cost, or a flat rate?
6.) Can I have an outline of all the services you will provide – examples:
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Will you handle every aspect of the planning or will some tasks fall to us?
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Will you attend all vendor meetings and handle the subsequent contracts?
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Will you provide us with a timeline of the wedding?
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Do you have different package options or do you customize a package based on what our wedding vision requires?
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Is there a set number of meetings or phone calls are included in each package?
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Is the wedding day rehearsal, bridal luncheon, welcome party etc. included in your services?
7.) Will you provide and manage our working budget?
8.) What is your refund or cancellation policy?
9.) Do you have a list of references?
10.) Do you have a portfolio or video of your previous work?
I had a few meetings with planners schedule, but after my lunch with Heather I knew almost instantly that she was who I wanted to hire. She is a full service planner, that works almost exclusively in Palm Beach, has great relationships with vendors I like, and has planned several weddings at the Breakers. Aside from looking great on paper, I felt like we really clicked and she understood the aesthetic I was wanting to achieve for our wedding. I can’t recommend her highly enough, she has been a God send during this process.
This post is brought to you by WeddingWire – all opinions remain my own.
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