Tuesday, November 23, 2010

I am engaged now what?

We often get this question from clients and potential clients.. I am engaged, so now what do we do? This question epitomizes “pandora’s box”. What I mean is, is that no matter who you ask this question to you will undoubtedly get a different answer, and often more information then you ever wanted in the first place. Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I do know what my years of experience have taught me. I will share with you, our readers the answers I give.

These answers are in no way intended to replace or even usurp advice you have received from your wedding planner. This is just my opinion.

1) FIRST AND FOREMOST.. discuss the time of year you would like to be married, and then come up with a couple of dates you would like. More importantly come up with a couple of dates, that you would also be happy with as alternative dates. Too many times our clients have their mind set on one date and no other date will do, which also happens to be the busiest wedding day of the year, and then they are upset that they can’t have their dream venue or vendors. Flexibility is key!

2) Establish a working budget! Equally as important as #1 this needs to be done before you proceed any further. Sit down with every person who is planning to contribute to the overall budget or who will have a decision in vendors. It is imperative this is done before even getting out of the gate

3) BOOK A WEDDING PLANNER!! I am not just saying this because we happen to offer this service. I am saying this because I whole heartedly believe this should be the first thing, and not an after thought. Again I cannot speak for anyone else, but in our experience, the clients that sign us first before, venue, church, photographer, dj, etc benefit the most. We sit down and help review the budget, discuss pro’s and con’s of vendors and their price points, and make recommendations that often time the bride’s and groom’s haven’t even thought of.

4) After the Wedding Planner, comes the two venues. The ceremony venue and the reception venue, in many cases they could be one in the same. A full service wedding planner will make recommendations of venue’s that would be a good fit, and also are available on your date, in your budget. They have done the research for you, so as to eliminate you falling in love with something that A) you can’t afford or B) isn’t even an option for your day. See how steps 1 and 3 fold in nicely with step 4?

5) Next come all of the other vendors, ie..photographer, videographer, dj’s etc. Again step 3 will help you with this as well. A full service wedding planner will be able to call the vendors and find the perfect one for you.

I know this is not a full blown wedding plan, but it was intended more for our readers who might have just gotten engaged and aren’t exactly sure how to start. I find too many couples chose venues first before establishing a budget which leaves them no money for anything else. Or choosing a date that they are unwilling to budge on and therefore will not get the crème de la crème of vendors. But most importantly I find we get calls from people who have already done many of these steps but didn’t hire a wedding planner, and now things seem overwhelming.

Here’s to hoping that this will help at least a few brides from making the same mistake.