Should I Get a Wedding Planner?

Without taking anything away from how special and wonderful weddings are, there’s no denying that they can be very stressful as far as planning and organising goes. As a result, many couples consider the services of a professional wedding planner, who handles everything from planning the catering, the decor and can help you select the bridal jewellery and accessories. But is handing the responsibility over to someone that is essentially a stranger a good idea? In this article, we look at the pros and cons of hiring a wedding planner.

Pros

Less Stress

While most of the responsibility is out of your hands, you still have the final say on what happens, where it happens and how it happens. The main benefit of employing a wedding planner is to take care of all those overwhelming details when it comes to planning a wedding, leaving you to make the most important decisions and not having to worry as much about organising them. The grunt work is left to someone else – which means stressing less during the lead up – but your overall say isn’t diminished. Depending on the package your purchase, a wedding planner might be able to take care of all bookings, which can be very handy if you’re planning a wedding out of town.

Discounts

Wedding planners work closely with companies in the service industry, so most of them have built up relationships with certain venues, caterers, decorators and more. In many cases, a good relationship between a planner and other service providers can mean significant discounts for you. Service professionals offer a discount because the wedding planner consistently steers business their way. Whether or not this covers the cost of the wedding planners is debateable, but you should certainly factor in these savings.

Experience

We’re not all natural event planners and sometimes having a professional at your side to help you make decisions is invaluable. They usually know what works well, what looks good and how to make the most out of your day. You can get their counsel in regards to everything from the bridal jewellery you wear, to what you serve as a main to general etiquette.

Cons

 

Cost

The prices charged by wedding planners should not be underestimated, even with the discounts that can be gained. Especially if you’re planning a relatively small wedding, costs can make up a significant chunk of the overall amount spent on the wedding, so it’s probably best to simply organise things yourself.

Hourly Fees

We would encourage you to hire the services of a wedding planner that charges a fixed price, rather than an hourly fee. It can be difficult to estimate the number of hours spent in the planning process and you could easily end up spending far more on a wedding planner than you ever intended.