How to Hire a Wedding Planner
Wedding Planning
Elettra Wiedemann | Executive Director of Mama Farm
September 21, 2023
Your wedding day is a monumental occasion, a celebration of your love and the beginning of a beautiful journey with your partner. With so many decisions to make, details to consider, and people to coordinate, we highly recommend hiring a wedding planner. Engaging a wedding planner will ensure your Big Day is just as you dreamed it and will help to keep your stress low in the months, weeks, days and hours leading up to your wedding day. This comprehensive guide is designed to help engaged couples and their families understand the role of a wedding planner, navigate the process of hiring one, and ensure that every aspect of the planning journey is seamless and unforgettable.
The Importance of Hiring a Wedding Planner
A wedding planner is your guiding star throughout the entire wedding planning journey. They bring expertise, experience, and a passion for creating extraordinary celebrations. They also bring connections in the industry – from caterers, to entertainment, tents, rentals, florist and more. A wedding planner ensures that your big day will run smoothly, allowing you to savor every moment without stress. By having a professional handle the intricate details, you can focus on the excitement and joy of getting married.
Overview of the Process
Hiring a wedding planner involves a series of steps that empower you to find the perfect professional who aligns with your vision and preferences. Mama Farm has an on-site person who can act as your wedding planner and we also know wedding planners who are excellent and have executed wonderful weddings on Mama Farm. Working with our on-site person or one of our preferred wedding planners will ensure that the planning leading up to your wedding and your wedding day will flow easily and be a fun experience for everyone, most importantly you and your partner.
Identify Your Needs & Establish a Budget
Before you start your search, identify your wedding planning needs. It might be helpful to start with your wedding budget as that will create parameters around your wedding day. You can see our helpful wedding budget infographic here to better understand the various things you’ll need to consider when establishing a wedding budget. Once you have your budget, you will better understand how big or small your wedding will be. You will also be able to allocate budget to events like a reception dinner or brunch the day after your wedding. Having this information before talking to a wedding planner will help you to be efficient and communicate clearly to the wedding planner to get their quote and understand their process. If you have any special traditions you wish to include in your Big Day be sure to tell the wedding planner about them up front and ask if they have any experience with such traditions and if they can offer any ideas or special vendors to make that happen. If you are having a small wedding, you can also engage a day-of coordinator, insead of a full-service wedding planner.
Meeting Potential Wedding Planners
Mama Farm offers wedding planning services for an additional fee. In the event our onsite person is not available, we also are happy to recommend and arrange meetings with wedding planners that we have worked with in the past and have had tremendous success with. Having executed many weddings and events at Mama Farm, we know we have connections with all the hidden gems of talent in our community and we are happy to share this information with you to ensure that the wedding planner and team you are hiring for your wedding day are the best of the best. We also know that these people are not only supremely talented, they also happen to be incredibly kind and are lovely and easy to work with! We are happy to share our preferred wedding planner portfolios and to share client testimonials so that you are assured you are working with someone who comes highly recommended.
Interviewing Wedding Planners
When meeting your wedding planner, you should feel chemistry. Your wedding planner is someone you will work with closely and be in touch with very frequently throughout your wedding planning process and on the day. Make sure they are someone you and your partner and family can have a good relationship with and trust. Their communication style should put you at ease and you should feel listened to and inspired by their approach and ideas. When you ask a question or express a concern, they should be open with their process and how they handle challenges. Our onsite wedding planner has 5-star reviews from many couples who have had their weddings on Mama Farm and we are happy to share those reviews with you. Our preferred wedding planners are also excellent options and we are happy to share information about them with you.
Review & Compare Proposals
Once you have communicated your vision to the prospective wedding planner, they will come back to you with a proposal. Be sure to carefully review the services included in the planner's proposal to ensure that they align with your needs and preferences. This is another opportunity to make sure that the wedding planner was listening to you carefully and integrated these considerations into their proposal. If anything is incorrect or misunderstood, talk with them so that the quote can be revised and accurate. Wedding planning fees can vary significantly. Make sure that you are considering the person’s experience when reviewing their quote and proposal. An experienced wedding planner is money well spent and invaluable to the process of wedding planning and execution.
Sign the Contract
Carefully review the terms and conditions outlined in the contract. Make sure you understand the scope of the wedding planner’s services, expectations, and responsibilities. Every service the planner will provide should be clearly detailed in the contract. If you have questions or are unclear about something, please ask and communicate! This is helpful for everyone and prevents misunderstandings later on. Be sure to include a Cancellation Policy: Life is unpredictable, and circumstances can change. Ensure the contract includes a clear cancellation policy that outlines the terms for canceling the agreement.
Collaborate with Your Planner
Establish a Communication Plan:
Once you have decided who your wedding planner will be, we recommend establishing a communication plan with them: Clearly define how you and your planner will communicate. Do you want to have daily emails or a weekly meeting? What is realistic for you relative to your family or professional obligations? Establishing this early on ensures that you're both on the same page throughout the planning process and being efficient with time.
Share Your Vision and Preferences:
Your wedding planner is here to bring your vision to life. Share your ideas, preferences, and any specific details you want to incorporate.
Provide Necessary Information and Documents:
Furnish your planner with essential information documents, such as your marriage certificate, details about your wedding party, any relevant information about your family members or guests attending, etc.
Hiring a wedding planner is a decision that paves the way for a stress-free and memorable wedding planning journey. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you'll be equipped to find the perfect planner who understands your vision and can execute every detail with precision. Remember that this journey is about more than just hiring a professional; it's about forming a partnership that will make your wedding dreams a reality. The right wedding planner will bring expertise, creativity, and a genuine passion for making your big day as extraordinary as your love story.
