Part 4 -What Does A Wedding Planner Really Do?

So the bride has safely made it down the aisle, the wedding is progressing nicely and I’m exhausted, but there is no time to rest. While the wedding finishes up the Willrich team is still hard at work. Half my team is busily gathering all of the bride’s items to be packed in the getaway car, grabbing the sign in book and heading over to the reception site. Those of us left, including myself get in place to open the doors as the new Mr. and Mrs. return down the aisle. As the new couple and their bridal party come out of the church we send them back to an area out of sight of the guests to wait for pictures to start. We stop groomsmen that have to go back down the aisle to escort out family members, put them in the correct order and send them back down the aisle to bring out Mom and Grandmom.

Once the recessional ends and guests start to move out of the sanctuary, we are stationed at the doors to hand out directions to the reception site and answer questions. As soon as all the guests have left, we move the bridal party back into the sanctuary for pictures. As the pictures begin, we start packing up anything in the sanctuary that needs to be moved to the reception, left over programs, coloring books for the kids, and pew markers. We are also the ones bending over picking up all those beautiful rose petals that the flower girl just dropped, under the watchful eye of the priest. Yeah that’s right; someone has to pick up all those petals. Bet you hadn’t even though about that (another thing the florist does not do.)

As soon as the pictures are underway, church cleaned and we’re sure the limo is in the parking lot, the rest of the team, (except the one assigned to stay with the bridal party during pictures, to keep them on the 30 minute time schedule) leave and head to the reception.

When I arrive at the reception, I am pleased to see my team that arrived earlier has lit all the candles, put out the sign in book, and has started taking gifts from arriving guests and placing them on the gift table. Another member of the team is patiently helping guests find their escort cards and places at the tables. Of course friends of the bride have been assigned these duties, but as usual they are no where to be seen. Guests don’t enjoy doing these things when the bar is open and there are friends to talk to and I don’t blame them.

More tomorrow….

Part 3- What Does A Wedding Planner Really Do?

Meanwhile, back at the hotel the other half of the Willrich Bridal team is busily steaming dresses. Most of the bridesmaids were from out of town and gotten their dresses badly wrinkled during their trip into Greenville. After the steaming was complete and everyone was dressed, two of the bridesmaids stepped on the hem of their dresses and pull out some of the tiny tucks in the skirts. Lucky for them, some of my team sews and the damage was quickly repaired.

Earlier we had picked up the body flowers (florist term for flowers carried or worn by a person) at the church and delivered them to the hotel (another thing the florist forget to mention he didn’t do). Once everyone was dressed and the photographer had arrived the flowers were passed out and pinned on by my team. When the bridal party had left to go to the lobby and take some quick pictures, my team started straightening up the room and gathering up the bride’s clothes and bags so that we could take them with us to the reception and pack them in the get away car. As soon as this was completed it was time to go watch for the two limos that were coming to pick up the bridal party. Pictures were finished and bridal party limos arrived. The bridal party was placed in one limo and the bride and her father in the other. Once they were prepared to leave, my team jumped in their car and hurried to the church.

By this time, the whole team was back at the church. The groomsmen arrived and were placed at the doorways to greet guests and usher them to their seats. This particular church had two entrances, one the front main entrance and one on the side nearer the parking lot. Since we wanted the guest to enter by the front entrance only, we stationed a team member at the side door to send guests to the front entrance.

At rehearsal it had been carefully explained to the groomsmen and ushers, exactly where the family was to be seated and where guests where to be seated. Unfortunately as the church filled up, apparently one of the ushers forgot and filled the grandmother’s row with guests. We quickly and quietly moved in and asked the row to please slide over into the next section of seats. Disaster averted.

At this point, the minister had been mic’d and somehow the sound person had forgotten to turn the mic off. I suddenly hear the minister’s voice over the prelude music. Quickly we rush to find the minister and have the mic shut off.

Now it is time to line the wedding party up for their trip down the aisle. The bridesmaids are back in the bridal room happily waiting for their grand entrance, groomsmen are busily directing guests, but wait suddenly the bride’s limo (which had pulled up earlier) is gone. Now this is one of my biggest peeves with brides. I understand not wanting the groom to see you before the wedding, but there is no tradition about bad luck if a guest happens to see you. Do not worry about a guest seeing you in your dress. BIG DEAL. But because guests were walking near the limo, she had decided to drive off rather than come in as planned thus throwing off the whole schedule.

I now have musicians wanting to know if they should start the wedding music. A mother of the bride panicking that the bride is not in the room where she was supposed to be, we are behind schedule and no way to contact the bride since neither she, nor her dad, nor the limo driver have a cell phone with them. I decide to go ahead and line everyone up. Hopefully the bride has read her own invitation and knows what time this wedding is to start. I tell the musicians to just keep playing until we have a bride, my team lines up the wedding party minus bride and father. Luckily just at the time the mother reaches full panic mode the limo pulls up. We race down the hill, open the limo doors and a smiling calm bride exits the car and takes her place in line. (Glad she’s calm, I’m a wreck). The procession starts, everything goes off as planned and half my team gathers up the sign in book, emergency kit and brides clothes and leaves once again for the reception site. The rest stay behind to clean up after the wedding and get pictures going.

More tomorrow....

Part 2 - So What Does A Wedding Planner Really Do?

After we are certain everything is set and ready at the church, my team moves on to the reception site to do setup. We arrive at the site and I meet with the site planner. They have set out the tables and I immediately notice that we are one table short. Since this was a plated dinner, with assigned seating this would have been a big problem if it hadn’t been caught. But once I proved the headcount by showing them the bride’s seating chart, another table was quickly added.

At this point, the florist’s assistant arrives and begins to decorate the tables. I had been given candles that I was told to give to the florist and he was going to arrange in the windows of the site. When we hand the candles to the assistant florist, she of course has no idea what is to be done with these candles. So we discuss, decided on a plan and place the candles.

We place the escort cards on a table for the guests to pick up and quickly realize with the wind blowing through the site the cards are so light they are blowing off the table. No problem, I take some ribbon I happen to have in the wedding colors in my emergency kit (thank goodness for that kit) and we pin the ribbon in rows on the table and slide the cards underneath. Problem solved. Oh and did I forget to mention that the cards had not been given to us in alphabetical order, so we also took up some precious time getting them in order.

At this point, half of my team leaves and heads to the hotel to meet with the bride and bridesmaids and start steaming dresses. The rest of us continue setting up the guestbook, favors, etc at the site. About this time a few of the band members arrive and start setting up. A few minutes later I notice that cars are backing up on the road in front of the site. The band has parked their truck in the middle of a public road and just left it there. I have to drop what I am doing and track down the band member who owns the truck and get it moved.

The site’s setup crew comes to me with questions about the buffet setup for the cocktail hour. Seems since we had to add an extra table it has thrown off the plan for the placement of the bar and buffet. We discuss and come up with a workable plan for everyone. We are also missing a table for the gifts, so we round one up, find linens and get it in place.

More tomorrow…..

So What Does a Wedding Planner Really Do?

Ever wonder what really goes on behind the scenes at a wedding? Are you wondering “do I really need a planner” or “what will a planner do that my Mom or I can’t do at the wedding”? Well maybe I can answer those questions for you by telling you just a little of what we handled at a recent wedding.

This particular wedding was a “Day Of” wedding, which means Willrich Bridal, was not the wedding planner from the very beginning. We were hired by the bride to step in at the wedding and reception and make sure her plans went smoothly. “Day Of” planning is tough for a planner. Basically it means you are coming in at the last minute to handle all the mistakes and problems that wouldn’t have happened if they had hired you in the very beginning. It easy to see why “Day Of” planning is not being done by many planners. As a planner why set yourself up to get blamed for problems that come up that you have no control over.

So, for this particular wedding our day started out at 8:00am packing the car with all the bride’s items she wanted us to set out at the wedding. This included 200 favors, programs, memory candles, unity candles, card box, flutes, portrait, easel, candles, marriage license, rings and all of our wedding day equipment. We bring the emergency kit, the steamer, sheets to cover the dirty floor for the bride to stand on, umbrellas, sewing kit, extra garters, socks, stockings, and just about anything else you might need at a wedding.

By 10:00 we are on our way to the wedding. We started out at the church to make sure everything was set. The night before at the rehearsal the florist had argued with me about the time he would be allowed in the church. He was just certain the priest would allow him in earlier. I tried to explain that I had already been over this with the priest, but the florist wouldn’t listen. Can you say attitude? (This is same florist that I had repeatedly called and left messages for and never heard back from. He had no email, or website, no way for me to contact him.) He ended up hunting the priest down and (haha) the priest told him I was correct about the time. So I wanted to be sure he was there setting up. Well he wasn’t (in fact this particular florist did not show up even once the entire day). He did have an assistant there putting flowers in place. Everything looked beautiful except for two not very attractive arrangements the church had in place, which needed to be moved out of the way. The florist had assured me, the night before, that these would be moved, yet the assistant had no idea these were to be moved, so my group ended up moving them. We set up the memory candles and the unity candles. We artfully placed programs in the lobby and removed church supper signs out of the entrance way. Now keep in mind that the bride had no idea giant orange signs advertising the church supper where even there and if we hadn’t come in to set things up, these signs would have been in all her photos walking down the aisle. We also removed a podium that was placed in the center of the lobby that would have blocked everything coming in the front door.

More tomorrow…..

Wedding Planners vs. Site Coordinators

I was at a wedding show not to long ago and I heard a DJ telling a bride, “If you hire the right DJ, you won’t even need a wedding planner”. All I could think of is that poor, poor bride if she believes that comment. Not that there aren’t a lot of good DJ’s out there, I work with some of the best. But a DJ is NOT a professional wedding planner, not even close.

The same can be said for a site planner and an actual wedding planner. No matter what they claim, they are not the same thing at all. Want to know how to find out for sure? Ask the person that is telling you they will handle all your planning, when they are available to go on vendor calls with you, what their plan for transportation is, when can you call them to discuss the colors of your bridesmaids dresses or when will they be contacting your other vendors with timelines or even if they will be available to you through out your whole reception. Most site planners (and don’t get me wrong, there are some great ones out there), only stay at a reception until dinner is served and then they are out of there.

Ask any of these questions and I bet you get a shocked look and a stammer of “well we don’t handle that”. Well guess what, a professional wedding planner does. She handles all this and more. Real wedding planners are invaluable to a couple. We are hired to look out for your best interest. A wedding planner is a liaison, someone who steps in and coordinates all your other vendors, along with your plans and produces your one of a kind event. Wedding planners are there to help you make an educated decision on what is best for you. We are not selling the site, trying to make a quota on a food sell or trying to please our corporate boss. You are our boss. As planners we help guide you into the right decisions for your wedding and budget. Remember the site coordinator is only responsible for that one site. Her responsibilities stop at the door. The plans for your wedding do not stop at that same door.

Don’t get caught in the trap of believing that your site coordinator, whether it’s church or reception site is going to be there for you to call with questions, just try getting hold of one on a Saturday or Sunday. If you’re having problems with your future mother in law, or invitations or seating decisions, your dress, or accessories your site coordinator is not going to be there with the answers.

So many brides figure this out too late and end up a stressed out mess. They end up figuring out a month or two before the wedding that as the bride they can not handle everything and enjoy their wedding. Suddenly they are drowning in details and need help. I feel so bad for brides that call me frantic a few months before their wedding searching for help. So often I’m already booked and can’t handle it or I see so many mistakes that have been made, mistakes that wouldn’t have been made if they had hired a planner in the beginning.

Don’t let this happen to you. Know what you are looking for and ask the right questions next time someone tells you, you don’t need a planner.

Getting Great Candid Shots of Your Wedding

Here’s a cool idea to get those candid photos of your wedding. Set up a Shutterfly or some other photo site account for guests to upload all the pictures they take at your wedding .

You just need to set up the account and then print the information on a blank business card and place them on the tables for the guests to take home with them. Since so many guests now bring their digital cameras or camera phones with them to weddings, you should get tons of great shots that guests have taken. You can always encourage guests to bring their cameras if you think your crowd isn’t made up of a lot of shutterbugs.

This so beats the idea of those disposable cameras brides have been putting on tables for years. These cameras are usually picked up by the kids at the weddings who have a great time taking pictures of walls and ceilings and each other. So you spend tons of money developing pictures of the walls, ceilings and close ups of your nephew’s nose.

Save the money on the cameras and the developing and set up a Shutterfly account instead and let guests spend a few minutes uploading their great pictures for you to enjoy.

Romantic Wedding Gowns with a Twist

Want to see something really different in the wedding gown arena? Check out Alisa Benay, Fairy Godmother . I saw her on Get Married, the television show this morning. I was blown away by her designs. Maybe because they are so different, maybe because of the luscious fabrics and colors are maybe just the romantic in me was touched. Whatever the reason, I wanted to give you the opportunity to check it out.

Marriott Wedding

We did a really nice wedding this weekend at the Greenville Marriott on Pelham Road. The staff at the Marriott was great. Joelle Davis, Catering Sales Manager (that's Joelle in the picture with the cake)did a terrific job and everything turned out beautifully. This bride wanted to do a candy bar and I sent her to talk to Lori Suchanek, owner of Candy Catering. Lori comes to your event, sets up and takes down the candy bar for you. As you can see from the pictures, she did a wonderful job. Thanks again Lori.

Which Side Am I On In The Processional?

You know over and over I get the question at weddings from mothers and grandmothers, “during the processional, which side of the usher should I be on?”

Lots of older ladies want to be on the right side of the usher. Yes, when you are dating, this is the correct arm that a gentleman should offer, but during a wedding processional it is different. It is the left arm. (Opposite is true for the Jewish Processional.) I once read that this started when men still wore swords. They needed their right arm free to defend their lady if anyone attacked the wedding party.

Anyway, as you can see from the illustration from Elegant Bride Magazine, spring 2007 edition, ladies are on the left, (brides side of the sanctuary) and ushers or groomsmen are on the right (grooms side of the sanctuary). This also helps avoided the “do-si-do” affect when bridesmaids and groomsmen get to the end of the aisle if they come in on the other arm. And of course the whole thing is reversed for the recessional.