What Do Wedding Planners Do?

I get asked this question a lot.  A lot.  I get asked by people at networking meetings, by brides, by grooms, parents of couples and friends and family members.   It should not be such a quandary.  The best answer is – we do everything for a wedding.  Let me break it down with the top 6 things that good wedding planners know how to do well and talk about what we do that is a little bit different from most wedding planners in the DC area.  First – I chose this photo above because long before the wedding starts – we go shopping.  Yes – you will do endless shopping for your wedding…dresses, ties, decor, gifts, food, flowers, alcohol…you name it.  Wedding Planners will save you hours and hours of time by helping you find the right locations to buy items both on and offline for your wedding weekend.  I say wedding weekend as most weddings in DC tend to be destination weddings with over 40% of your guests being from out of town typically!  The average time a bride spends on her wedding every week is 40 hours if she does not have a planner.  Yes – 40 hours…that is a full-time job.  Yes – we work full-time planning weddings.  You don’t have 40 hours – so you hire a wedding planner.  A wedding planner already has shopped everywhere for brides and grooms (at least the experienced ones). We have been doing this for over 15 years and we get bombarded with emails every day about the latest and greatest places for brides and grooms to find all their wedding paraphernalia.  We save you time and money.  Our team takes it further to help find the best local and eco places possible in addition to the finest and couture in wedding style.

This photo was taken for a recent spring wedding where we helped transform a barn into a wedding reception space days before the wedding began.  A good wedding planner is going to be able to find or have the right team to help do all of the set-up and break-down of your wedding without you having to do a thing.  What makes our firm different from most other wedding planners is – we do decor, lighting, flowers and furniture rentals in-house.  We have our own team.  We have our own workshop, our own carpenter and custom design items for our clients.  You spend less time and money with us as we already know your budget and want to stay within or under it.  Not a lot of hassle and you save hours and hours of time (I see a theme here – wedding planners save you time!!!!)  Oh and by the way – we travel and carbon offset all of our traveling!

This may sound crazy – but we help get you down the aisle.  We wrangle all 16 of your bridesmaids and groomsmen along with your 3-6 sets of parents and grandparents, 3 flower girls and 2 ring bearers and your father who tends to wander.  This is just for the ceremony prelude song…there will be so much more wrangling that goes on throughout the day:  Photography wrangling (think about finding your 3 cousins that you know want to take a stab at getting a vodka and cranberry at the bar even though they are only 19); introduction announcements; finding your wandering dad again for the welcome toast; finding your slightly tipsy sister and brother of the groom to do those toasts after the main entree has been served; finding your grandmother so she can see you cut the cake before the first shuttle leaves; finding your older unmarried sister to make sure she is present for the tossing of the bouquet…you get the picture.  If you don’t have a planner – then your poor mom, your aunt or one of our bridesmaids will have to be on point for this and basically they will not be able to enjoy the day.  Again – here we save your family time.  PRECIOUS TIME AT YOUR WEDDING!  That day never comes back…ever.  It’s over in about 6-8 hours depending on how long your reception is.  Do you really want your aunt or your best friend missing out on all of these moments?  Wedding planners help all of your guests and especially you and your families enjoy the day…it is literally priceless.  What makes our planning firm different than others in the DC area in regards to wrangling…not much.  Any good wedding planner will know how to do this.  But don’t be fooled…just because someone has a type A + OCD personality does mean they will have a true handle and grip on how a wedding day will flow.  That only comes from experience folks.   Again – we have over 15 years experience with it.

We create time and space for brides and grooms.  No – not like Star Trek (I wish)…we create moments.  Take the above for instance.  The bride and groom were so nervous about their first dance.  We made sure we found a time during the cocktail hour (and a private space) before they were announced in to the dinner reception for a first dance “rehearsal”.  It calmed their nerves and they got a few minutes to themselves to just be alone on their wedding day (which rarely happens and I highly recommend it)!  Again – time…that precious word.  We literally create time for you.  Again – that only comes from experience.  Again – after 15 years and thousands of events in hundreds of spaces in the greater DC area, Dominican Republic, USVI, St. Thomas, Anguilla, St. Maarten, Spain, Ireland, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico and 13 other US states – we know weddings!  We know the spaces and the nooks and crannies of every hotel, event venue, mansion, manor and garden in the DC area and Dominican Republic specifically and therefore can create those special memories that become capsules of time and space on your wedding day.  We also staff in the Dominican Republic – kinda sets us apart from other planners in  the DC area as well.

Do you remember those horrible group projects in high school and college?  The ones where you were “teamed up” with people you hated in the class and you ended up doing all the work?  You wouldn’t want your wedding team to be that team would you?  A wedding planner helps to gather a group of wedding professionals that work within your budget; have been to your wedding venue before and have your style in mind.  Most of the time they will be vendors  that have worked together before and actually like each other.  What is a team that likes to work together?  A good one.  A bad one is where the bride or groom bases all of their decisions just on pricing or just on style or just on the venue.  With thousands of vendors in the DC area – only a wedding planner with time and experience will know which vendors have worked at least  a few times at your venue (or if you are getting married at home – vendors that have worked at private homes before).  The wedding planner will of course be able to guide and direct a group of any wedding professionals throughout your day based on a schedule.   Heck anyone can do that really.  What makes our team different?  A combo of facts:  1) We have over 15 years of experience (there is that time element again); 2) Most of the time our brides and grooms use us for floral designs and decor so it helps reduce the amount of vendors at your wedding – which in turn reduces problems and your carbon footprint; 3) We are a multi-cultural team and fluent in Spanish as well as French.  Many folks that work for catering companies and decor groups have Latinos working for them and we love being able to communicate with them in Spanish when necessary to help ensure an awesome day! (I am married to a Latino!)

Finally – we fix things.  Your bustle falls apart, we sew it.  Your hair falls out, we pin and hairspray it.  You mom spills red wine on your dress – we blot the redness away.  Your make-up starts to fade, we dab and coat where needed.  You need to go to the bathroom in your 22 yards of tulle, we go there with you.  The limo breaks down, we get another one.  Your photographer needs water – we get it.  You name it – we do it the day of the wedding.  I never said it was glamorous…it’s just what we do and we love it!!!

We do logistical management, we do everything from helping you find the right dress all the way to making sure the candy leftover at the candy bar gets packed up and in your brother’s SUV at the end of the night. These are just a few of the things that wedding planners do.   The list is endless and that is why I have written 4 books on wedding planning.  My fourth book is coming out later this year.

This has to be one of the longest posts I have ever written – but my intention is to help create clarity as movies and cable TV shows have created myths about planners.  The majority of brides don’t act like the raving lunatics that your see on Bridezilla and other ridiculous wedding shows on cable.  If they had a good wedding planner – they would never act that way. A good wedding planner makes sure that there is no need to go crazy on your big day…that is what we do!

Let us plan your wedding – make an appointment today!