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Insights from Wedding Planners & How They Do Business – Part 1

Recently I had the wonderful privilege to talk to several Wedding Planners in our area and I asked them several questions regarding Wedding Planning and issues that they had experienced.  Plus I asked specific questions about their business practices.  Here are some insights from professionals in the field and some honest information about how they do business.

Rachel McCalla from Lucky You Productions assists in preparations of the day.
Rachel McCalla from Lucky You Productions assists in preparations of the day.

Here are the questions we asked:

  • What is one unrealistic expectation that most brides have when planning their wedding?
  • When you recommend a vendor, what is the basis of that recommendation? Brides are concerned that it will cost them more for their various vendors. Many brides believe that you receive a referral fee from all vendors, and that adds to the total cost. Would you care to address that concern that we hear from many brides?
  • What are some of the toughest tissue that you have had to deal with?
  • What would you like to see changed in the wedding industry here in our area?

We will address the answers to each question over the next few days.  Let’s start with the first question:

 

What is one unrealistic expectation that most brides have when planning their wedding?

  • Maggie Lohr from Magpie Events in Washington, Missouri said that many engaged couples believe that their family will be able to provide assistance for their wedding, as a wedding gift to the couple.   Unfortunately what happens many times is that her brides would call at the last minute hysterical because so-and-so of their family flaked out and now they needed to hire someone like ASAP!    While Uncle Bob or Aunt Peggy might be well intended, what if they should get sick?  Do they have the proper equipment to do the job?   What if you are unhappy with the end results, can you live with that in the future and still be family and/or friends?  Lots to think about here.
  • A second major issue that most wedding planners mentioned was unrealistic budget expectations.  Many brides would disregard their recommendations because having “such as such” was important to them and invariably they would run over budget.   And then brides were not willing to reduce spending in other area.  Thus they would go over budget, tempers would flare, and somehow the blame would come back to the wedding planner!   I like what Victoria Bauer of A Bride’s Ally had to say, “Especially with the advent of sites like Pinterest and Etsy, I believe many brides today feel that if they just look hard enough, for long enough, that they can eventually find exactly what they want, exactly how they want it, for exactly how much they want to pay for it. Somehow, someway, they should be able to find a high quality service/product for a bargain basement price, and that is just not realistic. There are a lot of good deals out there, but sometimes what they want is just not in their budget. The old adage ALWAYS rings true – get what you pay for.

My words of advice – if you hire a wedding planner, listen to her!  She has done this many times before.

Tomorrow we will tackle the second question regarding vendor recommendations.

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