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The Pros and Cons of Hiring a Professional Wedding Planner
Hiring a wedding planner seems like a no-brainer for a lot of people. After all, you probably don’t have the time, experience or knowledge needed to plan a wedding, even if your partner says otherwise. You could probably get some help with the process, but nothing can beat the professional services of a wedding planner. Yes, it’s an additional cost, but the pros it can offer you are often worth the price.
But many people have had successful weddings even without the use of a wedding planner–so do you really need one?
It’s hard to say. Many people are content with skipping the wedding planner and just going with a prepacked service with a venue. This is similar to having a wedding planner, only there’s a limited choice of food and entertainment, and they won’t provide you with help for anything that’s not on their premises. This means you’ll still need to contact different vendors and services for some decorations and entertainment. On the other hand, some people prefer to skip the use of a wedding planner because they want all of the control in their hands.
To help you make a decision, we’ve prepared a list of pros and cons of hiring a wedding planner. There are more pros than cons, but for your situation, the cons might just outweigh the pros and make you think twice about hiring a wedding planner!
Pro: Wedding planners have a lot of contacts in the industry
One of the biggest pros of hiring a wedding planner is getting access to all of their contacts in the industry. This might not sound like a lot, but they can quickly and easily search through their network to find a specific service, type of dress, catering service or entertainment option that you want.
Pro: Wedding planners can get you discounts
Thanks to their contacts, wedding planners have an easier time searching for discounts that can help you save a lot of money. In some cases, the savings might be enough to offset the cost of actually hiring the planner in the first place.
Pro: You’ll have a lot more choice to pick from
Be it catering choices, entertainment services or venues, your wedding planner will grant you access to a lot more choices for your wedding. This is crucial if you’re looking to follow a very specific theme or really want certain types of wedding entertainment to be available on your big day.
Pro: The planning process becomes less stressful
Planning a wedding is stressful due to all of the considerations that you need to think about. Since the planning process can easily be managed by a planner, you personally don’t need to invest as much time or effort into planning your wedding. You can simply give suggestions and let your planner know what you’re looking for, then they’ll do their best to try and meet those expectations.
Pro: Wedding planners troubleshoot issues for you
Wedding planners are excellent at troubleshooting various issues. For instance, if a vendor doesn’t have a specific product or if the venue isn’t able to support all of the guests you’ve invited, your wedding planner will come up with some kind of solution to help solve the problem.
Pro: Wedding planners ensure you don’t miss anything
Wedding planners pay a lot of attention to the small details. This means that they can ensure you don’t miss any small details for your wedding, and they’ll keep track of all of the vendors, services and entertainment options you’ve hired in the event you accidentally double-book something. Everything from designing a wedding thank you card to covering dietary needs will be covered by your wedding planner, so you don’t need to worry about missing certain details.
Pro: The legal aspects are taken care of
There are also some legal aspects of getting married that you can’t forget. This is something that can usually be taken care of by a wedding planner, helping you free up more time.
Pro: Wedding planners can inspire you with unique ideas
Wedding planners are also a great source of inspiration. Having experienced many weddings and seen countless different themes, they become a much-needed source of inspiration that will help offer some fun and kooky wedding ideas for you to consider.
Pro: Wedding planners can keep you in check
It’s easy to get carried away when planning your wedding because you’re very likely to overspend or hire too many services for your wedding. It’s incredibly important to have someone keeping you in check because it allows you to step back and look at your current wedding plans to see where you should be focusing on next. It also helps to create a balanced wedding that isn’t too heavily focused on one or two aspects.
Pro: Managing your budget is easier
If you’ve got a really strict budget, having a wedding planner at your side will help make things a lot easier. As mentioned above, wedding planners can help keep you in check so that you don’t overspend, but they’ll also help you spread out your expenses.
Pro: The cost of a wedding planner is offset by the time you save
Most people don’t realise that the value of hiring a wedding planner comes from the amount of time it saves. Instead of having to take time off work or spend hours researching and contacting vendors, you can simply rely on your wedding planner to do it for you.
Pro: You can free up your time
And in addition to the costs saved by freeing up your time, you also get to enjoy more peace and relaxation while your wedding planner focuses on your big day. This is a great way to ensure you have time to relax on the big day.
Con: Your wedding might not feel as personal
One of the cons of hiring a wedding planner is that you might feel like it’s not as personal or meaningful. In fact, giving your wedding planner too much control can make you feel detached from the entire planning process.
Con: Everything needs to go through your planner first
If you have any ideas or suggestions, you can’t just go and make changes to your wedding plan without speaking to your planner first. This can feel like control has been taken out of your hands and it might be difficult to work with.
Con: You might have to give up some of your ideas
If some of your ideas are a little difficult or impractical, your planner will shut them down and say that they can’t be done. Of course, if you put in the right amount of money and effort, it’s probably possible (unless it’s a truly ridiculous wedding idea) but many planners will try and go for options that have the lowest chance of failing or being disrupted.
Con: You have to give up some control
You can often feel like you’ve been left in the dark when a wedding planner is involved. For instance, you won’t have a chance to speak to most of the vendors and services they hire which can make it feel like you’re not participating in the planning process as much as you should be.
Con: There is an extra cost associated
We can’t forget that hiring a planner does cost money. This might seem like a fairly small expense, especially considering the amount of time it saves you, but it’s still an expense nonetheless.
Con: Your wedding planner could introduce new and expensive ideas
Your wedding planner might introduce some amazing ideas, but expect to shell out some extra money or raise your budget if you want to have all of them. They might be full of unique wedding ideas that lead to more choices, but they can also tempt you to spend more than you’re willing to.
Con: You need to find a wedding planner you connect with
It’s also vital that you find a wedding planner that you are friendly with. After all, you’re both going to be spending a lot of time together so if you don’t immediately become friendly with each other, it’s going to cause some problems later in the future. Considering speaking to planners before you hire their services and learn more about them before entering a contract.
Con: Your wedding planner isn’t perfect
Your wedding planner might make mistakes, they might pick a choice that isn’t the best and they might even show up late for a meeting. They’re human beings, after all, so don’t expect a flawless service every time no matter how reputable they are especially if you’ll be working with them for several weeks or months.
This is a fairly comprehensive list of the pros and cons of hiring a professional wedding planner. What you decide is ultimately your decision and it’s worth weighing up each pro and con to see if hiring a planner is suitable for your needs. If not, then you can always go with a simple option such as a package service from a venue, or seeking help from friends and family members to help plan and organise your big day.
