TLC Design & Events

Hiring a wedding co-ordinator can be a great way to help maintain your sanity when the wedding planning looks like it’s getting out of control. However, to get the best out of your partnership for this hugely important event, it’s important to continue to keep track of what’s going on. Here are some suggestions for vital questions to ask your wedding planner as the big day approaches.

Progress updates

You’ll probably want to be in increasingly close contact with your co-ordinator as the months, weeks and days count down. Ask if you can have meetings scheduled well in advance at times convenient to you. If you are happy with email updates and the occasional phone call, make sure you’ll get your updates on the same day every week or fortnight. It’ll reassure you about what to expect when.

If you’re someone who likes to be able to pick up the phone at the drop of a hat, it’s worth asking if there are limits on the number of phone calls you can make per day. It may be set out in your contract, but if not or if you think you’re likely to go over the limit, ask about charges for more frequent contact.

Budget updates

A good wedding planner knows how to manage a budget, within the limits you set out.

Although avoiding headaches and details is a major reason why people hire wedding co-ordinators, you should still keep a regular check on expenditure. It’s your money (and quite a lot of it) so don’t be shy about asking how the budget is going, and whether your planner is (hopefully!) securing vendor discounts. Every little bit helps!

Which vendors?

No doubt you’ll have consulted over the florists, catering and other services, but it’s wise to check that the agreed vendors have in fact been retained.

Should your co-ordinator suddenly come up with a different vendor without being able to give you a good reason for the change, it may be that a commission or referral fee is involved.

Always ask if you are unsure why a change is being made. If you don’t ask, there’s a risk your big day could be let down because the florist or caterer isn’t up to the job. Make sure you get the services you want!

When there’s more than one co-ordinator involved

You may find you’re dealing with more than one person if you have employed a planner for the overall event, and your reception venue employs a reception co-ordinator. The key question here is to make sure these two people are in regular communication and on common ground. Best to speak to each of them separately to find out whether anything looks likely to fall into a gap between the two.  Statements like: “Your reception co-ordinator assured me…..so I’m leaving that to her/him,” should ring warning bells. Always check with the other party.

Risk management

Ask about contingencies. Sometimes the unexpected happens. What’s the plan if you trip up on your way into the ceremony, and tear your dress? What happens if your reception co-ordinator or wedding planner is ill on the day? Who will fill in, and how are they briefed?

The big day

Don’t assume that your wedding planner is going to be there all day. Make sure. Ask for a walk through and check timelines, musical cues for the ceremony, and plans for the cake cutting.

Have you assumed the planner will take care of post-event clean-up or logistics such as taking care of getting wedding presents somewhere safe, returning rented items and getting vendor deposits back? Don’t assume it will happen – ask what the plan is, and if there isn’t one then you’ve a chance to do something about it before the day.

Even when you’ve handed arrangements over to other people to manage, it’s always wise to regularly check things are happening, as you wish.

The Wedding Designer

At Hunter Bride, we know that most women lead busy lives – juggling work, social, and family commitments. If this is you, and you’ve just added complex wedding arrangements to the mix, we understand you may be feeling just a touch overwhelmed.

You may be able to sustain the extra demands on your time and energy over the months to come, but let’s just press pause for a moment.

Naturally, all the planning and preparation is focused on one special day, but, and it’s a big but, wouldn’t you prefer to enjoy the process of getting there? Instead of trying to hold the thousand threads of a wedding, while juggling the rest of your life, wouldn’t it be nice to let someone else take care of the details, once you’ve made the major decisions?

Even if career and family aren’t already making demands on your time and energy, planning a wedding is a huge undertaking. That’s why we’d suggest you seriously consider hiring a local Hunter Valley wedding planner to take the strain.

Cost versus benefit

You might wonder whether you can justify hiring a professional wedding planner, but it can be an excellent investment. You will typically be saving a great deal in terms of your time, energy and stress levels. You may also find that a professional wedding planner is able to get discounts you wouldn’t be offered. We think those are both great reasons to investigate a little further.

What does a wedding planner do?

Essentially you can get as much or as little help as you need. You can hand over the entire event, or just certain elements of the planning, such as organising the reception. Let’s face it, detailed planning is not everyone’s cup of tea. So why turn yourself into a frazzled, stressed bride-to-be when a wedding planner could be the secret to serenity?

Rest assured that you’ll still make all the decisions, it’s just that a Hunter Valley wedding planner can take care of all the details involved in turning those decisions into a fabulous wedding.

What’s involved in detailed wedding planning?

It’s a professional wedding planner’s job to have a little black book brimming with a tried and trusted network of suppliers and contacts that can be tapped on your behalf.

Your wedding planner knows who to contact, when things need to be booked and how much they are likely to cost. You’ll see quotes and make the final decisions, but you won’t have to worry about getting it all done or the logistics of who needs to be where at what point during the day.

Enjoy restful nights

From sourcing and sending out invitations to organising a personal trainer for you, a wedding planner can be worth their weight in gold. Typically you’ll also have the benefit of their considerable experience of what works well, and what doesn’t.

A wedding planner can also take on the responsibility of constantly checking with suppliers to make sure nothing has been forgotten and alerting them to any changes in your plans. This means you’re spared the 1am wakefulness that goes with wondering whether anything has been forgotten!

Ready to relax?

Have we convinced you that handing your wedding arrangements over to a professional co-ordinator just makes sense? If you’re ready to let a Hunter Valley wedding planner take charge of your wedding arrangements, click on through to our directory of wedding planners, and you’ll soon be in very safe hands.

TLC Design and Events

Planning a wedding is a big job. No matter how much you may be a naturally organised person, there is still a lot of detail to be considered and it can all become quite stressful. If only there was such a thing as a company that already had every contact you need in one place, and the time to do the running around for you … but of course there is! TLC Design and Events to be precise.

The best part of using the help of a company like TLC Design and Events is that you can get as little or as much help as you need. If you are simply looking for some advice and inspiration they can provide this, alternatively they can also assist with the planning of the entire wedding itself. Are you a bit unsure whether you would need a planner to help you? Read our previous article Should You Use a Wedding Planner for the pro’s of having a wedding planner before you make a firm decision either way.

Take one look at the TLC Design and Events website and you will see this company is both classy and elegant. But they have also combined this class with the perfect amount of personality and are very friendly to deal with. Check out their facebook page as a testament to how much they truly care about each couple they work with.

The wedding inspiration section is a delightful showcase of photos and products that will do exactly as the title suggest – give you inspiration. Getting started on planning your wedding will be fun with TLC Design and Events.

As discussed above, TLC can help you with as much or as little as you need for your perfect wedding day. Take a look at the packages they offer which can be found on their website and you will see you can enlist help with just the ceremony if you like or you could have them assist with every detail from budgeting through to actually planning the wedding.

Even if you haven’t decided just how much assistance you are looking for, get in touch with TLC for a free consultation to see what they can do for you. If nothing else, you will be impressed by the individual treatment you will receive and the inspiration they can help provide.

Should You Use a Wedding Planner?

Are wedding planners a luxury? Or a necessity?

Perhaps they are a little bit of both.

These days we get help with all aspects of our lives – a cleaner for our house, a personal trainer for our body, a dog-walker for our pet – so why not use someone to help with planning your wedding? It could be the thing that helps make your important day a little less stressful.

Not convinced? Here are some points you might want to consider while trying to decide:

Time saving – Planning a wedding is very time consuming and on average takes about a year of preparation. If you are working, studying or looking after kids it can be quite difficult to find the time you need to get the details in order. A wedding planner is a one-stop shop to organising your special day. Let the right planner do the groundwork for you while you continue with your daily life and don’t worry, you still get complete control over the outcome.

It’s all in the detail – Sure you’ve just got engaged and you can’t wait to start trying on wedding dresses. You might even be excited about cake tasting. But what about all of the details that you just don’t have time for? There are flowers, seat covers, photographers and cars. And there are also the things you can’t see, such as liaising with the reception venue on timings and the running of the actual day to stay on schedule. A planner helps keep your mind at ease so you can focus on the important parts of the day, such as having fun.

Expertise – A wedding planner has been a part of many weddings. They have seen most themes, decorations and trends played out on the big day. They know what works and what has gone wrong in the past. And best of all, they have all of the contacts at their finger tip for pretty much anything you require. If you are getting married in the Hunter but don’t live near there, it is also helpful to have a wedding planner that is familiar with the area. They can give you some great local insights and save you a few weekend trips.

The type of wedding – If you are having a wedding at a venue that offers a wedding co-ordinator on the day, you may feel you don’t need to pay another person to do the planning in the lead up. You might feel comfortable doing it all yourself and just having someone there on the day to help make everything run smoothly. But if you are having a wedding where there are a lot of people to co-ordinate, and no venue person to help – such as a marquee set within a vineyard – a wedding planner could be worth their weight in gold in the lead up to the event as well as on the day.

You might have dreamed of this day for years and be perfectly happy to set everything in motion yourself, or you might be more than willing to hand it all over to an expert and only have to worry about making the final decisions. All in all, it’s a personal choice and one you and your partner should talk about together once you are ready to start planning for the big day. Talking to a wedding planner does not mean you will lose any control over the wedding, in fact, with the time and space you get back you may find you are more in control than ever!

Just remember that a wedding planner is there to help and they will do as little or as much as you want them to, and it is still all in your hands.