How to Choose Your Wedding Planner

I’ve always known that I wanted to hire a wedding planner when the time came. I’m too Type A and detailed to handle it myself. I’m sure these sound like the perfect qualities to plan a wedding, but sometimes when you’re too close to the situation you can become consumed.

Also with my busy work schedule, I wouldn’t have the time to reach out to vendors and negotiate great deals like a professional would so, in short, that is why I am choosing to hire some extra help.

As a Type A person, I’ve done a lot of research into each wedding planner I reached out to and after speaking with several I’ve come up with key things to consider when it comes to choosing one. I hope this list helps all of my fellow brides out there because choosing a wedding planner can be overwhelming.

Click here to check out my other wedding-related content. I’ll be sharing everything along the way.

WHAT TO THINK ABOUT WHEN CHOOSING A WEDDING PLANNER

Your First Interaction 

They say first impressions are everything and it speaks true even when it comes to choosing a wedding planner. I had a bad feeling about a wedding planner whose first email was less than friendly and unfortunately when I had to cancel our meeting I was proven that my gut feeling was right.

Is your first interaction professional and friendly? When they respond to your email do they provide you with a brochure that lists their services and pricing and do they encourage setting up a time to speak? These small details let you know if they run a professional operation and value you as a potential client.

Answering your Questions

Your first phone call will about what you’re looking for, your vision, and their overall process. During this call, there should be a lot of questions asked on both sides. They want to better understand your expectations and you want to understand what they do.

They should explain to you their structured process on how they plan events and be able to answer most questions you have. I really appreciated when they asked questions about what my vision, what I looking for in a planner, and what’s important to me because that meant they were actually interested in me and didn’t just see $$$.

Budget

The obvious is that your wedding planner should be within your designated wedding planner budget. Duh! Another important thing to think about is if they understand your budget. If you only want to spend $30,000 and this wedding planner is used to working with weddings that cost $60,000+ they may have trouble keeping you within budget and may not have relationships with vendors that you can afford.

Portfolio

When I was in the process of narrowing my list of wedding planners I made sure to look at their social media (especially Instagram) and their portfolio on their site. I wanted to see if their events matched my own style because everyone has their go-to look.

If they repeatedly work on rustic weddings but you are wanting a sophisticated city wedding then they may not be able to create a wedding that goes well with your style. You want it to be as seamless as possible.

Reviews

Reviews from actual customers are so important to fully understand how this wedding planner operates and how the event went after the fact. Read reviews on multiple different sites to get a more authentic picture. I looked for keywords that were important to me such as detail-oriented and organized.

I personally also looked at The Knot for wedding planners that had won awards year after year. To me, that means they run an efficient operation and know what they are doing.

Their Office

This goes along with professionalism. There was one wedding planner I spoke to and ended up being in my top two because I loved her personality and she was well-priced. However, upon more research, I realized her office location was listed in an apartment complex.

There is nothing wrong with working from home (hello I did it for over a year), but this worried me that she may not have the resources or connections to plan a full-scale wedding. I wanted to hire someone who can do something that I can’t.

Venue Familiarity

A big thing for me was finding wedding planners that had worked at many of the venues I was interested in. To me, that means they can offer real experience about what works at this venue, who to reach out to, and can potentially negotiate a better price.

They also will have ideas for the room layout and should have worked out the kinks with other weddings so when it comes to you it will be tried and true.

If you’re married did you hire a wedding planner or do it solo? If you aren’t married which route would you take? Let me know in the comment section below!