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Jan Silver Maguire
Are you feeling overwhelmed by the items on your wedding checklist? Let a professional wedding planner take the pressure off your shoulders.
One glorious day several summers ago, I attended an outdoor wedding ceremony in Chicago. The temperature was perfect, the garden setting sublime. My friend, the quintessential glowing bride, floated down the aisle to the flawless strains of Bach’s Arioso. The groom awaited her arrival in front of a draped canopy awash in a lustrous arrangement of perfumed roses and gardenias. Everything was perfect, that is, until five minutes into the ceremony when, to the bemusement of the guests, the bride suddenly started furiously scratching at the ivory satin and tulle covering her legs. The culprits: a swarm of angry red ants on whose nest she was inadvertently standing!
Chances are you also have personally experienced a comic or disastrous wedding scenario — one that might even rival the wackiest wedding blooper on America’s Funniest Home Videos. Comic relief aside, when you are ready to plan your own wedding, you want everything to be as perfect as possible. Once thought of as a luxury, more and more couples are turning to wedding planners (also referred to as consultants or coordinators) to help them get hitched without a glitch.
Moreover, when you consider the amount of time it takes to plan a wedding (200 hours, on average), wedding planners can be worth their weight in gold, as they attend to the endless minutiae involved in arranging everything from selecting invitations to coordinating the ceremony and post-nuptial events. If you are concerned about the extra expense that hiring a wedding planner will add to your budget, consider that an experienced wedding planner with an established network of suppliers in place can actually save you money by leveraging discounts with vendors and avoiding costly mistakes.
“A good wedding coordinator should be able to save their client money to afford their services,” notes Laurie Lund, owner of The Events Department, a full-service event management company in Palm Desert. “A good coordinator has strong negotiating skills and works with certain vendors on a continual basis,” adds Lund, who also chairs the board of the Greater Palm Springs Wedding Association, a marketing and networking organization with more than 80 members in businesses that focus on the wedding industry.
“A wedding consultant can do as little or as much as a couple wants them to do,” states Ann Nola, director of the Association of Certified Professional Wedding Consultants headquartered in San Jose, “from simply providing referrals to handling everything the day of the wedding.”
Joe Scarna, whose Indio-based events management firm, Events by Joe Scarna, oversees more than 70 weddings annually, affirms this.
“The long and the short of it is to assure the bride and groom that their special day is a day they can flow through, not work through.”
We can do everything from walking a couple through their ceremony to helping them select cakes, invitations, and the design of the reception in terms of colors, linens, and floral arrangements.” His company is unique, Scarna adds, because it rarely needs to outsource, which translates into greater savings for clients. Its 40,000-square-foot office/warehouse complex maintains separate departments for florals, linens, lighting, and audiovisual equipment. It even provides custom-built props.
The Events Department also offers a wide range of comprehensive coordination services for weddings, ranging from locating venues for the ceremony and reception and assisting with menu selection and catering negotiations to orchestrating the wedding rehearsal and overseeing the crucial timing of all deliveries and setup. Services may also include providing guidance regarding wedding etiquette, arranging hotel-room blocks for destination weddings, coordinating gift baskets and professional transportation, and packing up personal items and gifts after the reception.
Event coordinator Joey Lizotte, owner of Artisan in Cathedral City, has arranged several novel wedding-party excursions that capitalize on area attractions, such as desert Jeep tours and hot air balloon flights culminating in rehearsal-dinner picnics.
Starting with the initial meeting that often takes place months or even a year before the wedding, planners work very closely with clients to assess their individual personalities and needs.
“Every event is different because every person is different, and I get a lot from meeting with the bride and groom,” says Lizotte, who has arranged everything from an intimate candlelit dinner for 12 to a country club bash featuring a full-scale Renaissance motif. “It’s very important to feel what they like, because you want to reflect them.”
Ember Newell, a wedding planner who works with Scarna, is often very involved in assisting brides with showers, spa days, and dress shopping “basically everything a maid of honor would do.”
To keep everything on track, wedding planners develop personalized time lines that vary depending on the size, complexity, and type of celebration. Everything is accounted for and professionally scheduled, right up to the minute the last guest departs.
In addition to acting as confidante and über-organizer, two of the more significant — and understated — roles that wedding planners play are those of therapist and diplomat.
“People don’t know what it really means to oversee an event,” says Lund, who once had to function as a mediator between individual family members who weren’t speaking to one another. “It means you need to see 360 degrees at all times. You need to feel what’s happening so that you can head off a potential situation with tact and discretion.”
Joe Scarna agrees. “A wedding planner takes the pressure off, helps maintain civility, and sets the tone. My staff [members] are not ‘panic-seekers.’ … We keep the atmosphere calm, which certainly gives confidence to the bride and groom and the family. Even the guests feel more comfortable. … We strive to keep them calm, so that everyone can enjoy the day.”
When it comes right down to it, enjoying the day is really what hiring a wedding planner is all about. Wedding planners are there to turn your dream into flawless reality.
“The long and the short of it is to assure the bride and groom that their special day is a day they can flow through, not work through,” Lund says. “No worries, no stress — simply the opportunity to thoroughly enjoy the experience, because it is one of the most precious in their lives.”
And the biggest reward, according to Newell, is to see their faces at the end of the night.
“They give me a huge hug and tell me that they couldn’t have done it without me.”
Pick the Perfect Planner
Check references
Wedding professionals agree that one of the most vital tasks when choosing a wedding consultant is to check and verify credentials. Thoroughly review his/her portfolio, look for experience and vendor connections, and ask for at least three references.
Engage someone you trust
Set up an initial face-to-face meeting with a planner so that you can acquaint yourself with his/her style and personality. Most consultants will meet with you for an initial consultation at no cost or obligation to discuss your options. “You need to be comfortable with the person you hire,” notes Palm Springs planner Joey Lizotte. “If you don’t feel like you can turn everything over to the planner and trust him/her, this planner is not the right person for you.” Plus, you are completely dependent on this person to provide the answers you need, says Palm Desert planner Laurie Lund.
Compare the cost
The cost of hiring a wedding planner varies; and “each consultant charges differently, depending on their experience and credentials,” says Ann Nola, director of the Association of Certified Professional Wedding Consultants. Some planners base their fees on a percentage of total wedding costs, others charge hourly or flat-fee rates, and some offer separately priced packages, based on the types of services desired. In the Coachella Valley, you can expect to pay anywhere from $1,000 to $15,000, depending upon the size of the wedding and extent of services desired.
Internet resources
Artisan
www.artisanjoe.com
Events by Joe Scarna, Inc.
www.eventsbyjoescarna.com
The Events Department
www.eventsdepartment.com
Greater Palm Springs Wedding Association
www.weddingspalmsprings.com
Here Comes the Guide
www.herecomestheguide.com
Association of Certified Professional Wedding Consultants
www.acpwc.com
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