What your Wedding Planner Wants You to Know

Making the decision to hire a wedding planner or coordinator for your special day can be difficult. Your desire to save money and be self sufficient collides with your lack of time and expertise. After all, if you're not in the industry, planning a wedding is usually a once (or twice) in-a-lifetime event. In the beginning of the planning journey (and it is a journey), you feel limitless. You have resources at your disposal like bridal magazines and Pinterest that deliver inspiration and guidance on how to plan the biggest party of your life. When you're riding that post-engagement feeling of euphoria, all you want to do is plan, plan, plan. And while you're designing your wedding budget, it's tempting to skip out on hiring a wedding planner because you are enjoying the creative control.

But, what if we told you that hiring a wedding planner can actually save you money in the long run? And that you can still maintain your creative control, but by hiring a planner, your creativity will be financially managed. You will also have a behind-the-scenes advocate, ensuring your day is flawless. Need a second opinion on color schemes? Check. Need someone to confirm 20 vendors? Check. Looking for someone to vent to about your mother-in-law's request to create the table seatings? Double check. There are so many things that make a wedding planner irreplaceable. Will Pinterest attend food tastings with you? Will your wedding app work out the details with all of your vendors? By hiring an experienced wedding planner, you are hiring someone to design and deliver all of the things you dreamed your wedding would be. Consider your planner the Olivia Pope of weddings. "It's handled."

So what is it exactly that a wedding planner does for you? We asked some of our favorite wedding planners to summarize the value of hiring them.

"Your wedding planner works for you, ensuring every detail of your day is flawless and orchestrated exactly as you've planned. From the initial planning stages (providing venue options, reviewing contracts, researching and recommending vendors) to wedding weekend management (creating a detailed timeline, organizing your ceremony rehearsal, confirming details with all contracted vendors, your wedding planner can be present for every decision."

-Tara Nicole Weddings and Events, Noblesville, IN

Tara Nicole Weddings and Events is a full-service event planning company where they create one-of-a-kind designs to make your day unique and unforgettable. They specialize in multi-cultural weddings that infuse tradition with personal elements to create gorgeous, detailed and luxurious designs.

"Wedding planners do so much more than just coordinate your day. We help alleviate stress and anxiety by being there for you and making sure everything is just as it should be on your day. No bride wants to walk away from their wedding, wondering where the day went because they had to deal with problems, it should be the one day you get to be relaxed and pampered. Having us there will put everyone at ease knowing the day will be just as you wanted. Maybe you have this amazing wedding in mind, but you are stuck on how to get it what you want it to be—that's where our full-service plan can come into play and design your dream wedding from start to finish.

-Social Butterfly, Bloomington, IN

Social Butterfly specializes in wedding and event planning from rustic to elegant. They create your day based on your dream wedding while keeping it within budget. Their weddings are known for their charm, special surprises, and their overall ability to make the client feel at ease on their wedding day.

"As a planner, my best compliments are always that we make everyone feel calm throughout the planning process and day of the wedding."

-Cathy Teeters Beautiful Weddings and Design Studio, Unionville, IN

Cathy Teeters Beautiful Weddings and Design Studio specializes in both special event florals and wedding planning. Cathy Teeters is a wedding planner and designer with over 35 years in the floral industry and 15 years planning and coordinating weddings.

"A great wedding planner does not pick their favorite florist, photographer or venue for a client. If they do, they're not doing their job. A full-service planner guides each client carefully and entirely individually.

People ask me daily, in fact, "Who is your favorite ____ (fill in the blank: vendor)?" While it's not a matter of being PC or a matter of playing nice in the sandbox, I don't have a "favorite." I really don't. I have a favorite for EACH client. It's entirely based on three things: product, price and personality. The best photographer for one couple is not and never will be the best for another. They might be perfect because they're wonderful with natural light, their personalities just click, their religions match, the budgets work out, or everything is just zen. That's my "favorite" for each client. An entirely different photographer may be my "favorite" for another family because they shoot clean, crisp imagery and their style is energetic and bold. The budget may be very different and the dates work out and for this client, it's the best fit.

For any particular facet of the wedding, I build a team of professionals that I think works for that client. Those are my "favorites" for that wedding. It's based on a group of factors. Going at it alone would be nauseating. Planning a wedding should a time of great joy and excitement. My job is to create the team that is best for that family and creates the most exciting, most impactful, and best experience for the couple and their guests."

-Monica Richards, Mon Amie Events, Inc., Indianapolis, IN

Mon Amie Events, Inc. is a couture full-service wedding planner and event planner based in Indianapolis, plannin gevents throughout Indiana and destination locations. Monica has won awards both locally and internationally for the weddings and events she has helped families create.