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Wedding Planner

10 Tasks Wedding Planners Do So You Don’t Have To

What was once considered a luxurious, over-the-top wedding service is now becoming more and more commonplace among couples, and for good reason! Wedding planners were once thought of like butlers – only for the rich and fancy! Now we know that navigating a wedding alone isn’t ideal, and there are so many reasons why wedding planners can be great assets for your wedding vendor team. We talked to Oklahoma wedding planner Savannah Shades of Savy Social Co. and got all the tea on wedding planners and what makes them truly the MVP. Read on!

(guest post written by Savannah Shades of Savy Social Co.)

wedding planners

Photo // Ashley Sunderland Photography

 

“Yes!” – The one-word answer to the best question you’ve ever been asked and changed your life forever. You’re now engaged to your fiancé and excited to start the rest of your lives together. You are more than likely eager to start planning your wedding, and the word “yes” is about to start being used much more frequently in the foreseeable future. 

Between being bombarded with ideas on social media, advice from friends and family, plus your own wedding guest experiences, it might be a little overwhelming on what you should say “yes” to. Whether you are a Type A kind of person or someone who likes to go with the flow, hiring a wedding planner can be one of the best investments and decisions you say “yes” to. 

In the busy world we live in, hiring a wedding planner is no longer seen as a luxury, but a necessity in the wedding planning process. A full-service wedding planner will not only help handle the logistics of your wedding day, but they also help with all the details leading up to your big day, as well. 

Wedding planners do a lot behind the scenes to help bring your wedding to fruition. A wedding planner will cover a wide array of services within their packages that you would have to handle on your own without a planner. These services not only help to bring you peace of mind when it comes to your decision making, but also provide you with extra time to fully enjoy and relish in your engagement season. 

Still on the fence about saying “yes” to a wedding planner? Check out the list below of ten things a wedding planner does so you don’t have to.  

 

1. Help Set a Realistic Budget & Stick to It

It is important to set a budget at the beginning of the wedding planning process. A wedding planner will create a realistic budget for you based on their knowledge of the average costs of the various vendors in your market, your overall budget amount and what elements of the big day are most important to you and your partner. By having a realistic budget, you will have a better idea of how your budget will be spent and will help limit any overspending on one specific vendor. Your planner will oversee your budget and keep track of the total costs for each vendor and when payments are due. Your wedding planner can even help you find ways to save money and stretch your budget further. 

 

2. Source Vendors, Schedule & Attend Vendor Meetings

There are so many amazing vendors in the wedding industry, and it can get a little overwhelming to choose the right vendors for your big day. Your wedding planner will help you narrow down your vendors based on your preferences and budget. Additionally, your planner can help recommend vendors that they have worked with and trust to execute your wedding day. Sometimes those connections can lead to discounts, but knowing you’re working with a trusted vendor also protects your overall budget. 

From the initial consultations to the final details’ meetings, your wedding planner will be with you every step of the way when it comes to vendor meetings. Your planner will not only attend these meetings with you but will communicate with your vendors to schedule these meetings based on your availability. Having a wedding planner to attend these meetings is key because they will be able to spot any potential red flags during initial consultations, keep you on track with your budget and they will know what questions to ask to make sure that no detail gets missed. 

 

3. Create a Cohesive Design

In the age of Pinterest, Instagram and other social media platforms, it is easy to get overwhelmed with all the ideas you could do for your wedding. A wedding planner can help you create a cohesive design that will not only pull off your dream day, but also stay within your budget. Your wedding planner helps you find your wedding day aesthetic by creating a mood board that details your color palette, design elements and rentals and other ideas to bring your vision to fruition. Even if your planner doesn’t offer these kinds of services, they can help you locate a design event specialist and other vendors that do and coordinate with them on your big day.  

 

4. Wedding Invitations 

Probably one of the more time-consuming tasks in wedding planning comes with preparing and sending out your wedding invitations. Your wedding planner may offer wedding invitation prep within their services. These services could include helping to find the perfect invitation suite that matches your wedding, offering advice with stationery wording and even the process of stuffing, stamping, and sending off your invitations.   

 

5. Track RSVPs

Once your invitations have been sent and your response cards start coming in, your wedding planner will help you keep track of your RSVPs to your wedding. Whether you want the RSVPs to come directly to you or go straight to your planner, the wedding planner will help keep all the RSVP responses, and meal choices if applicable, organized. Having an organized document of all these responses is key for final guest counts for your vendors.

 

6. Curate the Best Guest Experience

If you are doing a destination wedding or have a lot of out-of-town guests coming in for your wedding, it may be a little stressful to make sure that they are all taken care of. Your planner will not only help you find hotel room blocks for your guests, but they will also help your coordinate any transportation you may want to provide on the wedding day. If you choose to provide your guests with any kind of welcome bag, your planner may help you put those welcome bags together and drop them off at the hotel.

 

7. Create & Execute Your Wedding Day Timeline

The timeline is one of the most important parts of the wedding day. Even if everything doesn’t go exactly according to plan, having a timeline provides structure to your day. Your wedding planner will communicate with all your vendors to create your wedding day schedule and make sure that the vendors arrive on time on your wedding day. 

Your planner will also help execute your timeline on your wedding day to make sure that you, your wedding party and your vendors stay on schedule. If for any reason you get off schedule, your wedding planner will be able to work with your vendors to move different elements of your day around to get you back on schedule. They will also make sure that all your vendors, family and wedding party are where they need to be at any given time so that no part of your special day gets missed. 

 

8. Design a Functional Floor Plan

Once all your RSVPs are in and a firm guest count is in hand, the next item on your to-do list is creating a floor plan that will accommodate your guests. It is important to not only have space for enough seating for your guests but to also include any additional tables or items needed for your vendors. Your wedding planner will work with the venue to create a floor plan that will not only realistically fit all these elements into the space but will also create a functional flow for the evening. Having a functional floor plan for your event sets your night up for success. 

 

9. Manage Any Issues Day Of

As much as you can plan for any scenario, sometimes problems can still come up on your wedding day. Weather, vendor questions or unruly guests are just a few of the issues that could potentially arise on your wedding day. A wedding planner will be able to mitigate any issues and find solutions if needed. Having a wedding planner to manage anything that may come up on your wedding day will reduce any additional stress that you or your family would have to handle otherwise.   

 

10. Coordinating the Grand Exit

The exit is the grand finale of the evening and the last memories that your guests will make at your wedding. Having a wedding planner on-site to coordinate the grand exit will ensure that guests are left with a lasting impression. 

Prior to the big day, your wedding planner will help you source any items needed for your grand exit based on the requirements and rules of your venue. On the wedding day, your planner will make sure the items are organized, line your guests up correctly (and safely if necessary), pass out the grand exit items and work with your photographer to help get the perfect shot.

Lastly, your planner will ensure that any of your personal items, overnight bags, and maybe even a piece of cake will make it into your getaway vehicle. 

 

Alternatives for Full Service Planning That Still Give Overall Relief

Even though full-service wedding planners offer services that take items off a couple’s to-do list, sometimes it is not the perfect option for everyone. If you want to do the bulk of the wedding planning yourself, or a full-service planner isn’t in the budget, we still strongly encourage you to say “yes” to a month-of (or day-of) wedding coordinator. Though coordinators are not a part of the wedding planning process, they are able to step in on your wedding day as the point person and make sure that your wedding goes according to schedule. 

No matter which type of wedding planning service you say yes to, having a professional wedding planner/coordinator on your team is the best way to ensure your wedding day is a less stressful and more enjoyable affair for all. Your initial decision to say “yes” to a wedding planner to focus on all the big and small details on your day allows you to focus on the most important yes of all, saying “I do.”


There are more benefits to hiring a wedding planner than we could ever list, and Savy Social Co. is one of the best in the business! Connect with her via her vendor profile directly here. Cheers!

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