I can save you reading the whole blog!
My spoiler is to tell you that the answer to the question “should I use a wedding planner, or not?” is that it is your choice! However, things are not necessarily so cut and dried.
To start you thinking, I suggest the following:
Reasons NOT to hire a Wedding Planner
- Budget is an issue; hiring a planner even for on-the-day management would mean no funds available for wedding essentials
- You have the time and desire to source and hire all suppliers independently
- You haven’t clicked with any Wedding Planner, as they may not share your vision
- The venue has an amazing co-ordinator whom you trust, or you have a family member happy to take on the role of planner.
Reasons to Hire a Wedding Planner
- You have booked a dry-hire or a marquee wedding. It’s a much greater challenge than a hotel or standard venue because you have to organise everything from scratch.
- A Wedding Planner (WP) may be an outsider, but they can look at issues objectively, and make time-saving and money-saving suggestions. The fact that they have opinions does not imply that the process will be more complicated. it may even be the opposite.
- A WP is not necessarily more expensive than doing it all yourself. The WP is likely to have professional contacts who may offer a better price than those on the open market. Moreover, if your budget is tight, you can usually engage a WP for just a day or a week, although that obviously limits the offering.
- A Wedding Planner has a database of tried-and-tested wedding suppliers, ensuring you have a fabulous team working in synergy on the wedding day. And they can often negotiate discounts due to the repeat business.
- A good WP will work in an advisory role, and not impose their ideas on you! Their experience will allow them to make informed suggestions, but they know that the ultimate decision is down to you. Having said that, the WP may well be able to offer ideas for something unique. The ultimate decision is the couple’s, but the planner will showcase NEW ideas to them.
- Most importantly, perhaps, the WP offers the route to peace of mind, which is invaluable. The WP has that all-important check-list (on paper or in their head) and it is down to them to organise and confirm that everything is in order. This covers a huge range (from caterers to décor, from celebrant to photographer, from florist to make-up artist, and so on).
- The WP pre-empts issues and resolves disasters that might arise due to reasons beyond anyone’s control (and sometimes due to reasons within suppliers’ control too!).
- You might not be the most organised couple in the world and could be feeling frustrated and overwhelmed by the amount of work you need to put in to finalise the plans. The thought of organising a wedding is bringing you out in hot sweats!
- In some cases, couples organise a wedding themselves, but do need support co-ordinating all the suppliers. In these situations, a planner might come on board a few months beforehand to assist the couple.
Conclusion
As I said at the beginning, the final decision has to be down to you,
There may well be justification for arranging things yourself (or with the help of friends and family). In the majority of cases, though, as you’ll guess, I recommend using a WP, if for no other reason than the fact that they will take the weight of worry off your shoulders, not just on the big day but, potentially, for weeks in advance.
You can find reputable Wedding Planners at https://www.ukawp.com/directory-uk-wedding-suppliers/
You might find this article helpful: https://www.ukawp,com/should-i-hire-a-wedding-day-coordinator-
And this one:
Do I need a wedding planner, and what do wedding planners do?
