Working With the Wedding Planner

You're engaged and the date of the wedding is set for a few weeks or so from now, but you and your husband-to-be are so busy with work that you can't possibly handle the wedding arrangements by yourself. So you've decided to hire a wedding planner to organize your wedding for you. Good. This should ultimately help you enjoy the wedding itself without becoming completely overwhelmed with the process. The wedding planner will take care of most things, but it is still your wedding, and it is important to give input and know what's going on with every step.

• Make sure you have a consultant who favors clear and frequent communication during the time spent setting up the ceremony and reception. Without good levels of communication, it will be tough to make sure the wedding stays on track in a way that you are happy with.
• If you do not feel comfortable around the wedding planner, it won't matter how good they are at communicating what is going on. In order to get the most out of their services and have the best wedding setup as possible, you must be able to talk openly and clearly with your wedding consultant and make your ideas and desires known.
• It is important to tell the planner what you are looking for, and the more specific you get, the less guess work and room for error there is. At the very least, while listening to the wedding planner's suggestions and ideas, let them know if there are things you will not want at your wedding at any cost. That at least will narrow down ideas and save them the trouble of suggesting certain things.
• Try to be as open to the wedding planner's ideas and suggestions, especially if you are unsure of what you personally would like for specific parts of your wedding. Wedding planners, especially ones who have been in the business for a long time, understand how weddings go, what is needed, and how to get the best quality at the best price. If they didn't, they wouldn't stay in the business very long.
• Have frequent sit-down conversations with your planner to go over everything, especially if you have changed your mind about something. Making sure the wedding planner knows exactly what you want is key to getting it. And in the case where you have decided to go a different route with the wedding plans, give them as much notice as possible to make sure they can accommodate the change.
• Consider making a sheet with all the steps needed to put together the wedding, listing approximate times for certain aspects of the wedding to be set and arranged by. Make sure that both you and the wedding planner do your best to stick to the list and remember to add extra time in case something comes up or in case of a drastic change to the plans for the wedding.

When everything is said and done, if the lines of communication between the wedding planner and yourself have been kept wide open and well-used, the wedding should be a success. Not to mention the fact that there should be a high level of satisfaction and accomplishment for everyone involved in the planning.