{"id":502,"date":"2007-10-16T10:45:47","date_gmt":"2007-10-16T15:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.royaluxury.com\/blog\/2007\/10\/16\/how-to-hire-a-wedding-planner\/"},"modified":"2007-10-16T10:45:47","modified_gmt":"2007-10-16T15:45:47","slug":"how-to-hire-a-wedding-planner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.royaluxury.com\/blog\/how-to-hire-a-wedding-planner\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Hire a Wedding Planner"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong>A wedding planner, coordinator or <\/span>consultant can ease the pressure of <\/span>throwing a reception-particularly if <\/span>it’s a large party, or one held <\/span>far from where you live. Full consulting services <\/span>can consume 15% <\/span>of <\/span>your budget, <\/span>but some planners can actually help <\/span>cut costs through savvy vendor negoti\u00ad<\/span>ations. All should be able to ensure you <\/span>get the most value for your money.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/span>Narrow the Field<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unless your venue provides a consul\u00ad<\/span>tant, you’ll need to do some research. Ask around: Newly married friends <\/span>are a good resource, as are caterers and <\/span>florists. For additional leads, check out <\/span>the experts quoted in wedding publi\u00ad<\/span>cations, or contact organizations such <\/span>as the Association of Bridal Consul\u00ad<\/span>tants (860\/355-0464) or June Wedding <\/span>(707\/865-9894) for a member list. But Remember: These planner are not always prescreened, so y ou will still need to interview them yourself.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Get the Scoop<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Plan to interview at least three wedding <\/span>consultants. Your planner’s personality <\/span>is, of course, important (you’ll be speak\u00ad<\/span>ing to her a lot), but so are her answers <\/span>to these questions: How many wed\u00ad<\/span>dings have you organized? (You want <\/span>to hear lo or more.) How busy will <\/span>you be around my wedding? (She <\/span>should not be contracted for another <\/span>wedding on the same day.) Will you <\/span>provide a written timetable and regu\u00ad<\/span>lar updates? Will you attend my wed\u00adding and coordinate onsite? (Find out <\/span>whether another member of her staff <\/span>may do this instead.) Will you, handle all of the negotiations with vendors?<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/span>Call Your Fellow Brides<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Once you have a good idea as to the <\/span>consultant you’d like to hire, look into <\/span>her references. Call prior customers to <\/span>hear about their experiences. Did the planner take care of everything they’d asked her to? Was she accessible and pleasant? Did she present fresh ideas? <\/span>And did she stick to the budget?<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A wedding planner, coordinator or <\/span>consultant can ease the pressure of <\/span>throwing a reception-particularly if <\/span>it’s a large party, or one held <\/span>far from where you live. Full consulting services <\/span>can consume 15% <\/span>of <\/span>your budget, <\/span>but some planners can actually help <\/span>cut costs through savvy vendor negoti\u00ad<\/span>ations. All should be able to ensure you <\/span>get the most value for your money.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/span>Narrow the Field<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unless your venue provides a consul\u00ad<\/span>tant, you’ll need to do some research. Ask around: Newly married friends <\/span>are a good resource, as are caterers and <\/span>florists. For additional leads, check out <\/span>the experts quoted in wedding publi\u00ad<\/span>cations, or contact organizations such <\/span>as the Association of Bridal Consul\u00ad<\/span>tants (860\/355-0464) or June Wedding <\/span>(707\/865-9894) for a member list. But <\/span>remember: These planners are not <\/span>always prescreened, so you’ll still need <\/span>to interview them yourself.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Consider a Part-time Planner<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

To get an expert’s help at a fraction of <\/span>the cost, you might hire a consultant for a single brainstorming session in the beginning and to help coordinate <\/span>on the day of the wedding. This way <\/span>you get the benefit of her know-how, <\/span>though you’ll be doing the planning <\/span>legwork yourself (meeting and negoti\u00adating with vendors, organizing sched\u00adules and so on). Just make sure you’re <\/span>both clear on the exact services she <\/span>will provide, so nothing gets left out.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Seal the Deal<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the contract, list each of your con\u00adsultant’s duties and deadlines, as well <\/span>as what her responsibilities will be at the event itself. The contract should <\/span>also list payment and cancellation <\/span>policies, the name of her emergency <\/span>substitute, and contact information for her and eve3ryone on her team<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A wedding planner, coordinator or consultant can ease the pressure of throwing a reception-particularly if it’s a large party, or one held far from where you live. Full consulting services can consume 15% of your budget, but some planners can actually help cut costs through savvy vendor negoti\u00adations. All should be able to ensure you … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “How to Hire a Wedding Planner”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.royaluxury.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.royaluxury.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.royaluxury.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.royaluxury.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.royaluxury.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.royaluxury.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.royaluxury.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.royaluxury.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.royaluxury.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}