I find that the most frequent question I’m asked is “Why should I hire a wedding planner, what are the benefits of hiring someone to plan my special day over planning the wedding myself?”

There are the regular, simple answers such as “Have you ever planned a wedding before?” “Do you have the time to plan a wedding?” “Do you have any contacts abroad?” “Do you have any experience checking contracts, vetting suppliers, visiting venues, verifying their insurances and credentials and what assurance do you have of their professionalism at your wedding?”

However over the past few years we have had several instances that really highlight the importance of hiring a wedding planner, especially if you want your wedding day to be a success. Even when mother nature works against you!

The importance of hiring a wedding planner

• In New York our most popular wedding location is the gorgeous Central Park. If there are 20 people or more at the wedding you need to have a permit. This gives you exclusive use of your venue at the chosen time. The important thing here is not the amount of people in your wedding party, but the fact that it gives you exclusive use of the venue. At such a small cost, just $25 (about £15), it makes complete sense. We include this for all our weddings no matter the size as we believe you should not have to share the limelight on your wedding day whether there is just the 2 of your or if you have 40 guests.However, in two separate instances this year, our wedding planner has arrived to complete her pre-wedding venue inspection before the wedding party arrive and other wedding parties have had to leave the area midway through their service. Luckily for the couples our wedding planner is a star and knows the park so well that she was able to recommend other venues close by which both the couples could use get to married at.This is such an awful situation to be placed in, a circumstance that could have been so easily avoided if a permit had been ordered either by the couple or the wedding planner they had hired. What was even more shocking is that both of these couples had hired wedding planners that should have advised them about this!Such a simple detail could have saved 2 wedding days from unnecessary upset. By hiring a good wedding planner you foresee these potential problems. Thinking ahead is all part of this business, it’s what our clients rely on us to do!
  

• The second situation was in New York also, when Hurricane Irene was storming its way up the east coast of America. To everyone’s surprise it was heading to New York, the first in many years. The problem was the storm surge and the possibility of flooding which meant that all public transport including the subway was closed.Our wedding was due to take place on the Tuesday, however 45 of our couples guests were stuck in the UK because the airports in New York were closed due to the storm. Some quick thinking and planning by our New York vendors, who always go the extra mile, meant we managed to rearrange everything (including the park permit) for Wednesday. This gave enough time for the guests to fly out for the wedding and our bride and groom had a fabulous day.Can you imagine planning your wedding alone and having to make the decision to either cancel your wedding or reschedule it? Where would you start? This is the standard service we offer, good wedding planners excel themselves when things go to plan, but the real experts and professionals show their talents when things don’t go to plan even when mother nature works against us.
  

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