What is a Wedding Planner?
When you think of the term “wedding planner,” what comes to mind? Do you think of a person that seeks to serve you well or do you think of a person with an ultra glam job? Do you think of a person who creates an overwhelmingly joy-filled, stress-free client experience or a person who plans an event with their own dreams and ideas in mind? Maybe you think planners are just too expensive or that you won’t get to plan your wedding.
A planner should be your advocate, your knight in shining armor. A planner should have your best interests in mind, and they can save you time, money, and stress. Let me be clear: your planner plans with you and not for you. So if a planner doesn’t eliminate your role in the planning process, then what does a wedding planner do?
Here is my list of 11 job duties of a Wedding Planner
1. A Wedding Planner Plans
Maybe this one isn’t surprising, but a wedding planner helps to plan your wedding celebration. I looked up the word “plan” on Merriam Webster, and I read several descriptions, and two stood out to me.
Plan, noun
1. An orderly arrangement of parts of an overall design or objective
Plan, verb
1 to arrange the parts of: DESIGN
A wedding planner’s full time job is to HELP YOU plan, arrange, create, and design your wedding. It is their full focus to help make your wedding celebration a reality and make the entire planning process stress free while allowing you the space to make final decisions. My mantra is to empower you to ditch the stress and wedding obligations; I’m just here to help along the way!
2. A Wedding Planner is a Full Service Experience
A planner is a full service experience, which can be either partial planning or full service. It totally depends on how much time you need with a planner. A planner is involved at the very beginning of your engagement (or when you’re ready to start planning) to walk you through the entire planning process. Your planner will address concerns, questions, anything you can think of during your planning process. You can think of your wedding planner like a coach or even a counselor; they are there to support YOU, advocate for YOU, and cheer YOU on.
3. A Wedding Planner Invests a Significant Amount of Time with You
Fun Fact: the average wedding takes about 250 hours to plan. Wow! Let’s break this down: if planning your wedding was your 40 hour a week job, you would spend just over 6 weeks invested in designing, planning, and executing your wedding celebration.
A wedding planner will spend anywhere from 80 to 250 hours on your wedding, which saves you time and headaches. Your planner will assist with many aspects of the planning process, including pre-wedding, day-of, and some post-wedding events. You typically book your wedding planner at the beginning of your engagement (or planning process), which means more time to ask questions and more time to build trust with your planner. That’s highly recommended!
4. A Wedding Planner Assists with Vendor Relations
So this is an obvious one, but your planner will assist with vendor relations. A biggie being vendor communication. Wedding planning requires a tremendous amount of administrative work (i.e. emails, phone calls, meetings), and communication is absolutely essential with planning. When you’re working with a team of 7+ vendors, it is helpful to have a responsible party that can help answer questions, seek information, and communicate changes. Oh, and nothing is worse than when you’re trying to track down that one unreliable vendor: talk about stress!
Your wedding planner can also provide you with vendor recommendations; I know there are a multitude of Facebook groups and online resources to find vendors, but a planner has professional relationships with top-notch vendors that are reliable and talented. They will provide you with recommendations that are within your budget, which saves both you and the vendors time from going through the motions.
5. A Wedding Planner Knows the Industry Lingo
Just like any job field, there is special lingo that exists. Have you ever sat with a group of people chatting banking? What about even school teachers? It’s like these people speak in code sometimes! The wedding industry is no different than other industries, which means vendors use a multitude of terms and language that are not used in your daily vernacular. I won’t discredit a good Google search, but your planner knows and uses the lingo.
6. A Wedding Planner Attends Meetings with You
Most wedding planner packages include a certain number of meetings with you, and the agendas at these meetings vary from planner to planner. However, they are usually designed to be intensive planning sessions with you to ensure that your wedding day is being planned the way you want. Some planners, including myself, will also attend a variety of other meetings such as tastings, venue walkthroughs, decor meetings, etc. Your planner can attend those meetings and provide much-needed support or ask vendors questions you didn’t even think of at the time.
7. A Wedding Planner Can Assist with Event Design
I’m confident you have a Pinterest board, and you’ve probably been working on it since before you were engaged. Am I right? Now you’re trying to decide what you could make or even outsource. Or maybe you can’t quite find what you’re looking for on the internet. Insert your planner. A creative planner can guide you in the design and styling of your event: they can offer vendor suggestions, create a color story, develop the ambiance, seek resources, and generate unique ideas that are specific to your wants and need for your wedding celebration. Please note that not every planner offers design services within their planning packages, so if you need design help make sure you ask!
8. A Wedding Planner Provides Budget Assistance
Every couple, even you, has a budget to adhere to, and by no means should it feel like a limitation to putting on a fabulous party. A good planner can help figure out your budget and help you stick to it. A planner can assist you with figuring out how to allocate your budget and can provide insights to where you can splurge or save. They’ll match you with vendors that provide you with the services you value at a price that fits your budget.
9. A Wedding Planner Will Review Contracts
One caveat to contract review is that, like me, most planners are not lawyers; however, we’ve reviewed many contracts. A planner can tell you if a contract looks great or if they notice any red flags. Since your planner will eventually make your wedding weekend timeline and they know your wants for your wedding day, your planner will also make recommendations on duration of services to contracts for vendors such as photographers and videographers.
10. A Wedding Planner Helps with Details and Reminders
This part means they will help you plan ahead for all the details that will happen at the last minute so you’re not stressed the last few weeks. Even on your wedding day, your planner will make sure to put out your escort cards, set out favors, and light candles. Your planner will take care of the little details, making sure that they will be setup to meet your expectations.
A planner helps you stay on track; they’re your coach! Because you are a normal person with a busy life, it is likely you’ll forget to do something, whether it is big or small. A wedding planner will help provide reminders about things that could be potentially forgotten.
11. A Wedding Planner Manages your Rehearsal and Wedding Day
Just like a coordinator or event manager, your wedding planner will be present during your wedding weekend to manage the rehearsal and wedding day, which will allow you to experience a joy-filled and stress-free celebration. Your planner will know the ins and outs of your wedding day, will have established vendor relationships prior to your wedding weekend, and your planner will have earned your trust and confidence.
Despite the great lengths you and your planner will go to plan your wedding day, things will happen that will require changes, flexibility, and communication. An event really cannot run itself without someone who is fully educated on the details, has experience, and is a confident advocate for you! Your planner, who has been involved since day one, is present to answer questions, make game day decisions, and communicate changes to all vendors throughout the entire wedding.
That’s my list, and I’m most likely forgetting to include tasks and responsibilities because there is so much that is involved with planning an event. When you have a wedding planner, you will be planning your wedding with knowledge, guidance, connections, and experience on your side. Make sure you find a planner that is a good fit for you: your planner is involved for the long haul, and you want to trust them To learn more about me, head over to my About page.
Hi, I’m Terra!
Founder of Plan it Terra
Born and raised in Missouri, I’m a grateful wife and dog mom to my rescue pups, Hildi and Lola. I’m a true believer in the pursuit of bold dreams, learning from mistakes, offering joy, and staying curious.
I'm a girl that lives in her Chacos during the summer, and I'm typically always wearing lipstick. Yes, red is my preference! When I'm not helping engaged couples plan weddings, you'll find me on stage teaching Jazzercise classes. Needless to say, creating engaging experiences that leave people feeling good afterwards is my passion. Seriously!
I’ve created this blog and my wedding packages to empower you to plan an awesome wedding day and put all of the stress and obligations straight into the dumpster! Now that sounds like a party.
