Tips for choosing the right Wedding Planners

One of the most important aspects of planning any wedding is the task of choosing wedding planners. You will be entrusting them with the vital task of turning all of your dreams into reality. To choose the wrong planner could be more stressful than having no planner at all for you and your fiance.

So where do you start?

Even in this current climate, weddings are big business and there are wedding planners popping up all over the place. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it offers more choice to the prospective bride and groom, but unfortunately some individuals are setting up businesses with no real experience or training, so it pays to do your homework before making a choice. As with all industries, word of mouth is often the preferred option and you may well have a best friend or sister who had a really good planner to organise her wedding. Of course what suited them may not suit you, so always look at several options. You could try looking in trade magazines, online wedding directories or do a simple Google search narrowing it down to your specific area.

Once you've got some results, the best thing to do is take a look at the wedding planners' websites to see what services they offer and to get an idea on price structure. Most planners charge a percentage of your overall budget for a full planning service or a fixed fee for specific services such as sourcing a venue. Think of their website as their shop window. If it is badly laid out, or contains spelling mistakes, then think seriously before contacting them. After all, if they can't be bothered to proof read their own website can you really trust them to organise your wedding? Naturally, you can't meet too many planners face to face or you will simply end up overwhelmed. Narrow it down to 2 or 3 wedding planners that appeal to you and then ask for a meeting.

What questions should you ask wedding planners?

The first meeting with a prospective wedding planner is your chance to not only meet them but to decide whether you think they would be the right person to entrust with your wedding day. Make a list of questions before the meeting, as it is easy to forget them once you start chatting. Questions to start off with include asking how long they have been in business and how many and what types of wedding they have planned. Then you need to ask if you can see some examples of previous weddings that they have planned and, more importantly, do they have testimonials to show you from these weddings. If the answer to this is no, then walk away. It is also important to know what insurance they hold, how often they envisage being in contact with you, whether any commissions they receive will be passed to you, and what is included in their fee.

How to decide on a wedding planner

It's all very well being impressed by their credentials but did they listen to what you had to say? Did they offer advice and suggestions of their own and did they point out any possible pitfalls, such as your budget not being realistic to meet all of your requirements. Also were they enthusiastic and knowledgeable? The bottom line is: did you like them? Did you feel comfortable about putting forward your dreams for your big day or did they rubbish them? Did you feel they were trying to change the direction of your day or encourage you to increase your budget unnecessarily? You should be spending quite a bit of time together with your wedding planner in the next few months, so you want to enjoy their company and even have fun with them.

Before reaching any decision, listen to your gut feeling and if something doesn't feel quite right then walk away. Never make a decision then and there, give yourself time. You should expect to receive a detailed report based on your meeting which will give you another opportunity to evaluate what service and level of expertise is being offered. Just remember, this is your big day and the right choice of wedding planners should give you treasured memories to look back on in years to come.

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