A Planner’s Plan

While planning changes to my account on theknot.com the other day, I saw that there are 21 other companies advertising under the “wedding planner” section in New Orleans. When I started advertising with theknot.com a few years ago, there were only 8 – 12 planners, including myself. The number of planners doubling in only 2 years made me realize that there has to be a guideline of some sort to help the brides out there pick the best planner for them, or a legitimate planner for that matter.
After researching some of the websites for these planners and seeing posts about them on theknot.com, I am pretty confident that I can give assistance in this process – without telling each bride to simply hire me.

For instance, on one planner’s website, she has a detailed description of duties involved in her full service package. She promises to create wedding invitations, favors and gift bags for the bride-to-be and she promises 20% off of the order if the potential bride hires her for full service. My question is: what if the bride just wants a gift bag with Hubig’s Pies inside? How would this planner get you 20% off of a product that she does not produce? While many planners build great relationships with local vendors and venues, it is almost impossible to have a connection with every possible wedding vendor in New Orleans to the degree that you can promise, without a doubt, that you can get the client 20% off of anything they choose to put in a gift basket. Promises like that should bring up a red flag as it will more than likely be a promise that will not be kept.

Another service offered by this same planner is that she will “work with your guest list to develop a seating chart that will help manage the flow of your wedding day.” First off, we all know that only a small percentage of New Orleans weddings even require seating charts, so that’s kind of a nothing service. Secondly, I do not know one bride out there who would appreciate me taking her guest list filled with names of people that I could not possibly know and, at random, creating a seating chart for her reception. That seems a little silly, and it seems like this planner just needed more lines to create a full page of services offered.

The point in bringing up the two examples above is for the brides out there to really think about what is being offered and consider if the services listed will actually be helpful in taking the stress away from the planning process. Just because the contract is filled with bullet points of services offered does not mean that they are services that are worth paying for. A good rule of thumb is to look for the main responsibilities that you know you will need help with – vendor referrals, budget assistance, time lines for tasks needing to be completed, unlimited access via telephone and email, etc.

If the main points are covered, and you are looking for something else to separate one planner from another, then start looking at the extras. For instance, making a seating chart is nice, but, as a bride, I would rather someone who is going to handle getting all of my payments to the vendors so that I am not running all over town dropping checks off or wondering what is due when.

Read through the contract and double check that what the planner told you in your initial consultation matches with what the contract says. Even if the contract is one paragraph, as long as it explains everything the way that you understood it when you met initially, than you are in great shape.

Other details to pay attention to are pricing. I saw on one planner’s site that the full service package was only $1,000 - $1,500 more than the “day of” package. That should be a red flag considering the planner should be doing 80% more work for full service. And if the full service package is much lower than what you are hearing from other planners, ask yourself why that would be the case. I’ve had three clients come rushing to me months before their weddings because a planner that they hired (who was cheaper) cost them more money because she was not holding up her end of the deal. Ultimately, that planner’s actions (or lack thereof) resulted in the brides losing contracts, dates, venues, etc. so they had to fire her in the middle of the process and start fresh with me.

I have created a recap of these and many other points/questions to help you avoid situations such as that. Since this entry is entirely too long, but way too important to cut, this will be a two part entry! Look for the next blog entry which will include the “check list” and remember that, in most cases, the wedding planner is the first vendor you will hire after you get engaged. Ultimately, the planner’s job is to set the tone to make your planning process as easy as possible. The idea is to take the stress away and help point you in the direction that will bring what’s in your head to life. The right planner will save you more money than you could have ever saved on your own. As a matter of fact, the right planner should never charge you more than what she can save you. Keep that in mind when you expect to find a planner who will work for $2,000. Wouldn’t you rather save $6,000?!!