The Value of a Wedding Planner

The wedding industry is not immune to the current economy.  Venues and professionals are all seeing cutbacks in bookings.  I’ve spoken to photographers who are booking more “basic” packages than ever before.  Services like video are being cut out completely, DJs are replacing bands, and everyone is talking about how clients want to negotiate their prices downward.

It seems to me that while quite a few brides want a wedding planner it’s the first item to go as the budget shrinks and costs for other services rise.  There are lots of different kinds and levels of wedding planners from very expensive (think David Tutera and Colin Cowie) to not so expensive (think someone who has no actual experience but took a course, put up a website, and now calls themself a wedding planner) to all price points in between.

Keeping in mind that I’m a wedding planner – I can honestly say that having the right wedding planner adds value to your event.  How you might ask??  Let me give you some examples.

A recent full service clients saved almost $4,000 after I went over their contracts with all their vendors and professionals.  When her guest count fell short of their minimum guarantee I made sure they didn’t pay for meals no one will eat while still keeping the venue happy.

A day of event client paid more for her flowers and transportation services then she should have because she wouldn’t pay the minimal amount to add these services to her contract with me.  I am confident that I could have saved her close to $1000 when the additional services would have cost her much less than that.

Some of the professionals that I work with will add services at no charge or waive some fees for my clients. I’ve been able to negotiate deals with other professionals as well.  It’s all about relationships.

I had a consultation recently with a mother of the bride for day of event service.  I love the venue where the wedding will take place and really thought the consultation went well.  After receiving my service proposal she decided not to book my services because she felt she didn’t need the amount of work that I was proposing.  The items she felt she didn’t need were the very essence of my day of event service and she was looking to pay substantially less then what I proposed.  While I was disappointed I wished them well.  I heard after the fact that quite a few things didn’t go as planned ……

I truly believe that you get what you pay for.  In the past when I’ve tried to work with clients on pricing it’s bitten me in the butt big time.  All the wedding professionals I’ve spoken to agree that those who want to pay the least usually end up asking for the most.  Please keep this in mind when you’re looking to book the professionals for your event.  I will speak only for myself when I say if you’re price shopping I am not the planner for you.  I’m not saying my prices are higher than everyone else because they’re not, however, 25+ of experience comes at a higher price then someone who just took a course.

If you want value added to your wedding here at the Jersey Shore give me a call.  The consultation is free!  See?  You’re saving money already!!

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 18th, 2009 at 8:02 pm and is filed under Budeting, Day of Event, Entertainment, Planning, Site Visits, Weddings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.