A few weeks ago, something was brought to my attention by the owner of the wedding search engine and app My Wedding Concierge. She said that the MOST searched term on her site was “wedding consultant”. To be honest with you, I was shocked. “Wedding consultant” is an “old-school” term for wedding planner. A wedding planner IS  a wedding consultant. Being a “consultant” for a bride is just a small portion of what a wedding planner does.

So all this got me to thinking- how can brides even find these planners who are advertising themselves as “wedding planners” if brides are searching for the wrong thing? And for me, it all came down to the fact that they must just not quite know enough about wedding planners.

Which brings me to this week’s “5 Things To Know About…”!

1. Wedding planners plan weddings. But they also are there to answer your questions about your wedding (consulting) and to be the point of contact for vendors so you’re not inundated with emails and phone calls all the time. They coordinate timelines, vendor meetings, vendor confirmations, setup of the wedding, and the whole wedding day. On the day of the wedding, they make decisions so you don’t have to, and they handle all of the stress that comes along with a wedding day (providing you allow them to) so that you can just sit back and relax. And so, the title of “wedding planner” definitely encompasses wedding consultant and wedding coordinator- so let’s just use wedding planner, shall we? :)

2. Wedding planners are an investment for your wedding, not an expense. He or she will save you money- whether it’s directly or indirectly, saving money will happen. From finding you the perfect vendor within your price range or preventing you from buying things that you don’t need, you’ll definitely have made an investment when you work with a wedding planner. You can thank me later. ;)

Photo by ELV photographer Mari’s Paradise Images

3. When you have a wedding planner, you have to let go a little. Sometimes brides have a little bit of trouble letting go of things. I definitely did. But when you have a wedding planner, in order for them to do their job well, they need you to let go. Turn things over to them. If you hire them mid-planning, fill them in on everything, inform your vendors that you have hired a planner, and then it’s smooth sailing. (This is all assuming that you hire a planner for full service. If only hiring for partial or month-of, then this might be dependent upon the planner.)

4. A wedding planner can’t read your mind (although he or she would love to)! Which is why you need to tell your wedding planner any and every thought that you have about your wedding. Because the majority of the time, a wedding planner will have an answer for you. So no need to waste your precious time worrying about anything wedding if you have a planner- just ask!

5. Day-of wedding coordination is never and should never be just the day of the wedding. It’s impossible for a wedding planner to do his or her job by just walking in the day of or the day before a wedding. There are too many things that have to be done before that. Which is why I’m eliminating the term “day-of coordination” from this blog from here on out. :) Month-of coordination is more like it, because that’s an ample amount of time for a planner to be able to do his or her job well for coordinating your wedding day.

Bonus: Unfortunately, there are just some things that a wedding planner can’t deal with for you. Making final decisions, family members, the weather, and assigning seats are some of the things that just really have to be handled by you. And believe me- wedding planners SO wish they could do all this for you, but unless they know you and your family really well and have a special deal with the man upstairs to control the weather, there are things that cannot be fully handled by a planner. However, a planner can and will do anything and everything that he or she can do to help you with things that they just can’t take off your plate.

All of this is in no way everything to know about wedding planners, but it’s at least a little insight. I could have definitely used it when I was thinking about a wedding planner! I have another post on this topic coming soon with some “Twitter insight” from wedding planners, so keep an eye out for it! :)

Other blogs also posting Thursday Tips today…