Wedding planning is a big job, and planning such an important and special day with so many moving parts takes meticulous organization and preparation. From choosing colour palettes, table décor, ceremony décor, to reception layout it can sometimes get overwhelming to do alone.
We love working with wedding planners and find that they are a valuable asset in the behind the scenes aspects of your big day. They take your ideas and, along with all of your wedding vendors, bring it to life so you and your guests can really enjoy the day!
We asked a few of our favourite Calgary and Banff planners the question:
What are the top things you want couples who are planning weddings to know before their big day?
Here are a few of their answers:
10 Things Wedding Planners Want Couples to Know
1. Your planner is on your side
Your wedding planner is there for you! They want to make your wedding day as special as they can for you and your partner and are there to help guide you and support you in any way that you need.
Lynn Fletcher, Founder & Creative Director, Lynn Fletcher Weddings - "You hired your wedding planner for a reason. Their expertise and knowledge is their gift to you. They are being paid to make all of your wedding dreams come true. Your happiness is their success gauge. So trust them to take great care of you... because they will."
Jacqueline Delorme, President & Creative Director, Jacqueline Rae Weddings - "Planning a wedding is stressful, no matter which way you stack it. Your planner should be supportive and compassionate, but also forthright about the process and how things are progressing. You should feel comfortable confiding in them. A good planner will make you feel relaxed and excited about your special day."
Chelsea Townsend, Owner & Lead Stylist, Coco & Ash Weddings + Events - "Wedding planners are on your side. However, as quoted by a mentor of mine 'Wedding planners make plans. We are not responsible for the decisions, actions, failures and needs of every other person.' We do not assume the responsibility of others as part of our job. We make plans and organize those who are a part of them."
2. Your decision making is important
Though we know that wedding planners are extremely talented at what they do, at the end of the day it is still your wedding and what you have to say matters! Don't be afraid to speak up and make decisions, this day is about you and your partner and will be remembered and cherished by you two the most.
Evelyn Clark, Founder & Lead Planner & Designer, Evelyn Clark Weddings - "When it comes to planning their wedding, couples understand that they will likely need someone to help with the basics, like supervise the wedding set-up and handle day-of hiccups. What couples often don’t anticipate is the level of decision fatigue they may feel, and how this creates a lack of focus in wedding planning, which can lead to fighting, budget problems, or regrets. One of the things our clients appreciate the most about working with us is that we keep them focused on the priorities they outline to us in the beginning."
Christy Berscht, Lead Coordinator, Beyond the Proposal - "Having a wedding planner will help you streamline your vision to curate a day that is truly reflective of you and your partner. We will help you determine exactly what your needs and wants are, we will offer suggestions you might not have thought of and will help to knock out the ideas that don't quite work. We will work with you to maximize your budget to create the day you're dreaming of."
Coco & Ash Weddings + Events - "Wedding planning require realistic decision making from clients. It requires time and effort even if you have a wedding planner. Sometimes we are bound by how quickly you work and respond to us and how organized the process is. Do your best to respect our planning systems and give efficient information and feedback on how to make the process work best for you! We want you to enjoy it! Kind honesty is always accepted!"
3. Planners have valuable vendor insight
Your wedding planner has worked with hundreds of vendors over their career which gives them the advantage of knowing what vendor will work best for you. They can give you the inside scoop on their preferred vendors that will fit your vision. Having a planner saves you time on searching for all the vendors on your own, and will often result in the best service possible.
Madeleine, Founder & Lead planner, Moments by Madeleine - "As the demand for weddings increases, many vendors are choosing to work with couples who have planners. Why? Because they know the logistics will be fully taken care of. A photographer is there to capture memories of your once in a lifetime day, not create and manage a timeline. By ensuring that you have a planner on your team, it may open up vendors who otherwise wouldn't be available for your day. This allows these creative vendors to focus on what they do best!"
Reese Snyder, Owner & Creative Director, Events by Reese - "A planner is able to guide you with their expertise and experience so you can be guaranteed that you aren’t going to be disappointed. Weddings are a large financial commitment, and you want to be sure you are going to be satisfied with the vendors and services you hire, and a planner can provide you just that. In addition, there are various behind the scenes details that a planner manages, and their industry knowledge is key when making those important decisions and coordinating the entire process."
4. Save on the trinkets
As most past brides know, wedding favours and other small décor details can sometimes cost more than what they're worth. Instead of spending on the small items, save your money and add that towards items that will have a bigger impact. (We may be biased, but we say splurge on the flowers!)
Lisa Grosso, Owner & Lead Wedding Designer, Mountain Bride Inc. - "Save on the trinkets and spend on your flowers and romantic candles. Your wedding flowers will make a huge impact on your guest experience, they transform an average space and make it really romantic and beautiful. You can waste a significant amount of money on things that do not make a visual or experiential impact for your guests. Skip the guest favours that all get left behind at the end of the night. Save on the cocktail napkins and trinkets you have been tempted to buy. Use Minted to create your wedding day stationery. Go for a small cutting cake and give your guests a dessert bar instead. All of these cost savings will allow you to get the gorgeous flowers that you really want."
5. Be patient, but remember to have fun
Tasks always take longer to complete than clients think they will. With so many moving parts it's easy to get frustrated with the details, but be patient, it will all work out in the end. Trust your planner!
Lynn Del Castilho, Founder & Lead planner, Chemistry Events - "For many of our clients, this is their first rodeo, but it’s not ours! We are fully aware of the time that goes into the planning process from the many weddings and events we’ve managed thus far. We often ask our couples, 'Have you ever assembled Ikea furniture?' You think it will take a couple of hours and suddenly your whole day has been eaten up! It’s not that the instructions are faulty or that there are missing pieces, it’s just that tasks take time. We liken the wedding to-do list to the classic image of Santa with his long scroll of children’s names twirling around his feet. Each individual item does not necessarily take that long to accomplish, but the accumulation of them (and the fact that so many decisions depend on the outcome of other decisions) is what makes it time consuming. We love it and it’s a lot of fun, but so is a great night out on the town and that takes time too!"
Lynn Fletcher Weddings - "Wedding planning is a marathon, not a sprint. Your planner will let you know when it is time to do each phase of planning. Take it easy and know that millions of tasks will be done in due time. You do not have to rush the process or overload yourself at the beginning when you are excited (we know that it is natural to want to). Your planner needs time too."
Mountain Bride Inc. - "Wedding planning can be fun! If you are getting bogged down in the planning details, connect with an experienced wedding planner. When you meet with them and feel like the weight of wedding planning has been lifted off your shoulders, you have found the right planner."
6. Your planner should be the right match for you
It's important to choose a wedding planner that makes you feel comfortable, but also one that suits your style and vision for your wedding. Creatives often have different ways to express and showcase their designs, so it's important to choose one that suits your style and speaks to you.
Aimsley Braun, Sr. Wedding Producer, Julianne Young Weddings Inc - "Wedding planning companies and programs are very hard to compare one to another - Everyone does things a little differently so it's best to interview a few planners and go with the company you align with based on their approach and style. Not just the price."
Evelyn Clark Weddings - "A tip for staying focused is to ask yourself 'does this suit my style, personality, and budget for my wedding, or do I just LIKE it?' You know how sometimes you’ll see something amazing in a home on Instagram, or see a great outfit on someone, but when you bring it into your home or put it on yourself it’s not quite as amazing? The same thing applies for your wedding. You can appreciate the aesthetic or idea, but it doesn’t have to be for you. We’re there to ask our clients whether that idea fits into the budget, their overall vision, and if the idea is truly 'them'."
7. Put your marriage and happiness before the wedding
At the end of the day, your marriage is more important than the wedding. It's easy to get wrapped up in the little details and lose sight of that, especially when you've put so much time and thought into planning this day. But remember, your spouse, commitment to them, and the life you build together are all more important than the wedding itself.
Coco & Ash Weddings + Events - "Sometimes wedding days don't go as planned. We really encourage couples to TRY and see past a dirty dress hem or a ceremony rained out, think about the end goal. Marrying the love of your life, celebrating with friends and family, and capturing those moments in whatever form they happen!"
8. Wedding Planning Services are largely intangible
With weddings it isn't until the big day that you see all of your hard work come to fruition, and while that might seem frustrating at times, it's all worth it in the end. All of your planning and time put into this day will pay off in the end!
Chemistry Events - "The 'evidence' of Wedding Planning Services is often only truly seen and felt on the actual wedding day. It is very difficult to 'prove' the time that is being spent on the planning behind the scenes. Quantifying the number of times our task list changes, or your day-of timeline is revised, or the number of emails and phone calls that go back and forth between us and your vendors and venue staff and rental companies and (even sometimes members of your family or bridal party!) is a near impossible task. Not only do clients need to wrap their heads around paying for something they can’t hold in their hands, but also that they are investing in something they won’t truly benefit from until months down the road. Of course, throughout the planning process, couples will see tasks being checked off the list as decisions are made and vendors are booked, and rentals are secured. However, it’s only on their big day when they can put all their focus on themselves and their loved ones while things are managed behind the scenes that the true value of that expenditure becomes clear. It’s a bit like paying for a fabulous outfit that needs to hang in your closet, unworn, until a year from now. Is it worth it? When you put that baby on and feel fierce and tremendous, yes, you’ll absolutely know it was worth it."
9. A good wedding planner will save your sanity
There are so many details, big and small, that go into planning a wedding and while at first they may seem manageable they can easily pile up and become overwhelming. It's easy to miss out on the details of the day during planning and find that they become overwhelming on the day of. You don't want to have to worry on your wedding day, and if you have a wedding planner, then you won't have to!
Moments by Madeleine - "We do this for a living! It is recommended to hire an accountant to do your taxes, you need a realtor to buy a house, and a doctor to do your annual check ups. So why plan your wedding on your own? When you hire a planner you are getting years of experience, a planner who spends every weekend with a new couple, a new timeline and always a brand new design curated just for the two of you. We utilize our vendor partnerships and past wedding experiences to create a timeline with amazing flow, a floor plan that is not only a beautiful canvas for your design but also logistically sound, a budget that is realistic and help you manage it along the way. We are here for you, to make this experience fun and enjoyable by bringing our tools to the table."
Events by Reese - "For most couples, it’s often their first time planning a wedding. Many people don’t realize the value that comes with hiring a wedding planner until they are in a very stressful situation that ultimately impacts the entire wedding planning process and your overall experience. A great planner makes sure you actually enjoy the process from start to finish and ensures you don’t miss any details, big or small!"
Beyond the Proposal - "A good wedding planner will save your sanity. Planning a wedding is an emotional experience and decision making can all-of-a-sudden feel challenging because you want your day to be perfect. It was a lot harder to plan my own wedding in comparison to the hundred others we've planned. A wedding planner will offer a neutral position to discuss all of your ideas and can help you manage any bumps in planning along the way. This could be anything from choosing the right colors to how to manage varying family dynamics. Consider us your professional friend in the planning process - no one else will care about your wedding as much as we do (with exception to of course, you!)."
Monica van Regen, Owner, Lead Planner and Designer, Picture Perfect Weddings - "Hiring a planner is the best way to ensure nothing is overlooked, and will give you a stress free planning experience with creation of your timeline and to do lists so that on the wedding day the couple, as well as their guests and family, get to show up and just enjoy the day with no setup/takedown or other tasks, everyone gets to celebrate the day with no tasks of their own."
10. In the grand scheme of things, wedding planners aren't as expensive as you might think
Weddings are expensive but having a wedding planner or coordinator is well worth it in our minds, and the cost of one is worth it in the grand scheme of wedding planning.
Moments by Madeleine - "We all know weddings are EXPENSIVE, and add post pandemic inflation, supply chain issues and the highest demand we've seen in the wedding world, weddings are truly more expensive than ever. As your wedding planners, we work to ensure your dollars are utilized in the best way possible. That might be encouraging you to replace those banquet chairs for a beautiful wooden cross back to make the biggest aesthetic impact in your wedding venue or designing ceremony florals that can be easily repurposed into your reception décor to maximize your floral budget. Not only can having a wedding planner help you maximize your budget, but we can work with you at the very start of your planning process to ensure your dream venue fits within your budget, while not compromising too far on other vendors like your photographer, florals, and entertainment. We can share industry standard pricing during those initial meetings to set a realistic budget to avoid moments of sticker shock in the following months."
Chemistry Events - "We want clients to know that wedding planners don’t 'pad' their prices in case something comes up, rather we charge accordingly knowing from experience that things will come up. Planning an event is not rocket science but it does entail the management of a lot of moving parts, many of which can only be truly put into action very close to or on the day-of."
Beyond the Proposal - "The cost of services is built into your budget, and we work with you and your vendors to make sure that your dollars are stretching as far as possible. We can save you money by working with partnered vendors who offer a vendor discount, and we save you time. We work with you for many, many hours throughout the planning process to know your wedding plans inside and out. Every single detail will be managed, and you will be able to show up and be present - you can't put a price on a stress-free wedding day! At the end of the day, our service is intangible, yet one of the most valuable. Often our clients say their only regret is that they didn't hire a wedding planner sooner!"
While wedding planning is a big job, it is one made easier when you have a wedding planner by your side. We hope that these tips will help you as you begin planning your wedding and will give you a better grasp on what to expect from your wedding planner. If you are thinking of hiring a wedding planner we highly recommend using a company that we work with on a regular basis. For a list of additional recommended wedding planners in Calgary, Canmore, and Banff beyond those mentioned above please click here.
We always look forward to working with planners and we are so thankful for their artful and detailed eye, and direction that they give on the big day!
When you are ready to book your wedding florist we hope you get in touch with us so we can bring your floral dreams to life!
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