Why even the ‘Type A’ bride can benefit from a wedding planner

Advice

Apr 15

Where are all of my ‘type A’ people at?

I get it — you’re the kind of person who is organized, detail-oriented, able to juggle multiple things at once, and are more than capable of handling the many moving parts of wedding planning. You probably love lists (I know I sure do!) and you’re maybe even a bit of a perfectionist. AND you probably feed off of some level of control. Does any of this ring a bell?

Well, if that person I’m describing sounds a lot like you — just know that it is very ‘me’ too.

Houston Wedding Planner | Lexie Nicole Cochran

In everything I do, I like to be in control, and wedding planning was certainly no different. I was going to be involved in my process in every way; handling everything from booking vendors, to taking care of payments, coordinating with family members, you name it. Juggle all of the things? Check. Make all of the decisions? Yep. Make all of the design decisions? Yes, yes, and YES. (And doing all of that while including my fiancé in the decisions of course.)

So the initial thought of hiring a planner worried me because I was afraid of losing the autonomy of my choice and I certainly didn’t think I needed any help with design (*not to say I am the be-all end-all in this department, but I was confident that I could design the day that would reflect me and Taylor to a T.) But on the other hand, I had obviously never planned a wedding before and had never really stepped into the wedding world. I didn’t know when certain things should be done and when. I didn’t know how much things cost. I didn’t know the exact vendors that should be on my team to best carry out my design vision (though I had an idea on a few.) And when we were to get to the coordination phase of things, I had no idea what all that entailed.

So we hired a wedding planner to do partial planning and coordination for us. It was an investment that I would make over and over again. Here’s why:

For starters, our planner educated us on a variety of aspects of wedding planning. The big one being budget! How was I to know what the standard costs of different services are, or how much to allocate to certain vendors based on my priorities and budget? I didn’t, but my planner did. And she was able to steer us in the right direction based on the elements that were most important to us, and the guest experience we were trying to create. There were times when we chose to spend more in certain areas, but having the knowledge to back it up and knowing the value of what we were getting was huge.

Our planner provided structure, and boy oh boy do I love structure. I was not afraid to make initial contact with vendors, to request quotes, have conversations about services, and make design choices. But knowing the order of how I should take care of things and when — this is where having a planner brought structure, order, and ease to knocking off my to-do list. They guided me throughout the process, instructing me on what should happen before the next call and other things to have on my radar. It left the guesswork out of everything, which I very much appreciated looking back.

When I hit my inevitable road blocks and pain points, I had a source of encouragement and support in my planner. I was able to bounce ideas off of them and talk through different scenarios, giving me clarity of choice and peace of mind. This left the stress out of planning — which was worth the investment alone!

And when things started to come down to the wire, I had my planner to pass the baton onto. They got me organized in the coordination phase of my project, answering questions I didn’t even know were questions, checking contracts, and developing a fool proof timeline. In the last 30 days, it was difficult for me to feel like my work was truly ‘done’, but it was. So instead, I put my full confidence and trust in my planners to execute our wedding day, allowing me to focus on the task at hand — getting married! That’s the whole point anyways. What is the purpose in expending all of this time, money, energy, and excitement, if you can’t be in the moment to truly enjoy it?

I say to my clients and prospective clients that if you don’t have a wedding coordinator at the very least, you might as well throw your money in the trash. Harsh, but true. But the added investment of a wedding planner is a worthy one — and that’s a big statement coming from this ‘type A’ gal! I’ve been there and I know: you won’t lose your autonomy of choice. You can still do the majority of it on your own. But you will gain education, structure, encouragement, support, organization, peace-of-mind, and most importantly, the ability to be present in your once-in-a-lifetime day.

-LNC