Wedding Planning 101: Hiring a Wedding Consultant

“In addition to helping make your wedding dreams come true within your budget — and perhaps saving you from costly mistakes — a consultant will save you time. With today’s hectic lifestyles, many bridal couples and their families do not have the time for the detailed planning and work that a beautiful wedding requires.”

— Association of Bridal Consultants.

Not only is the above statement 100 percent true, but an educated wedding consultant can do much more for a bridal couple than the couple could ever do for themselves. For starters, a seasoned wedding consultant can work within any budget for wedding essentials. Whether you and your fiance have $5,000 or $500,000 a professional wedding consultant will put in the man hours that it takes to make your wedding day dreams come true. That’s because they take the time to get to know their area, the vendors, the tricks of the trade, up-and-coming trends and much more. Wedding consultants do this by networking with local wedding essentials vendors, not just caterers, photographers, etc, but rental companies, wholesale glass companies, linen companies etc; they even take classes on wedding trends, and contracting. When you hire a consultant he or she pulls resources together to make all wedding dreams happen—and all within your budget.

Another reason for hiring a wedding consultant is because they can save couples lots of time by suggesting vendors for the bridal couple. As part of the wedding consultants duties, not only will he or she, find vendors that fit in that couple's wedding essentials budget, but also ones with great customer service and talent to do the job right. Couples that rely on the Internet or the yellow pages often end up spending way more time than they should on their wedding and they take the chance that the vendor they hire won’t do the specific job that they need them to do.

Wedding consultants act as wedding essentials advisors; they don’t make your wedding day theirs, instead they are there to support you and your family on your special day. During the education process, wedding consultants must learn specific etiquette practices—from invitation planning to grand exit techniques—that prepares them for how to serve in a supportive role to their clients. One of the most important tasks for the wedding consultant is to serve as the point per for helping vendors get the information that they need to do their job correctly. Consultants communicate the couples needs and wishes, ensuring they get everything they ask for on the wedding day. Consultants also make certain that wedding essentials vendors are on time to set up for the wedding ceremony and reception, and in some instances, they even serve as mediators between family members, both old and new.

Couples shouldn’t think of wedding consultants as an extra expense, but instead as part of their entire budget. As part of your investment, the wedding consultant will work hard to make their client’s dreams come true (which is not always easy). However, no matter which wedding consultant you ask, they’ll always tell you that the best thing about their job is succeeding and watching their brides, grooms, and families have a wonderful time. So, if you are getting married and think you don’t need a wedding coordinator — think again. Let Aunt Sally have a good time rather than handle wedding essentials coordination of your wedding. Hire a, professional wedding consultant for your wedding planning.

Veronica Foster, PBC, is the owner of Behind The Scenes Inc, a full-service wedding planning company located in Greensboro, North Carolina. Veronica is a member of the Association of Bridal Consultants, the Triad Bridal Association and the North Carolina State Coordinator for the Association of Bridal Consultants.

Image courtesy of Fort Mill Photography.