Tuesday, November 27, 2007

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…..

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