Whether you are planning your own wedding or hiring a Wedding Planner, doing your research through the right book is essential to create a truly magical and relatively stress-free day. There are so many details and so many things to check off of your list that learning resources such as books on Wedding Planning and Event Planning can be indispensable.
If you are looking for the ideal book, there are four that come to mind. These are:
- The Wedding Book: The Big Book For Your Big Day,
- The Ultimate Wedding Planner & Organizer,
- Event Planning: The Ultimate Guide To Successful Meetings, Corporate Events, Fundraising Galas, Conferences, Conventions, Incentives and Other Special Events
- The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner: Worksheets, Checklists, Etiquette, Calendars, and Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Through these four books you will come to fully understand and appreciate the details and work that will go into planning a great and joyous wedding.
To begin, read the Big Book For Your Big Day. This will give you a complete overview of what is expected of the bride and the entire wedding party. It will review details about the ceremony as well as the rehearsal activity, choosing dresses and suits, and most of the information that you will need to plan a beautiful event down to the last detail.
Moving on from the Big Book, read through the Event Planning book of successful meetings. While you may feel that these types of events are very different from that of a wedding, nothing could be farther from the truth. Not only are they similar, but this book will delve into many of the details around event contractors such as the DJ or band, caterers, and house staff. This book will give you a solid understanding of the expectations of each of these independent contractors and help you to better negotiate rates, manage liability, and ensure that all hired players understand their role in the day’s activities.
After reading through the Big Book and the Event Planning book, turn to the Knot and the Ultimate Wedding Planner & Organizer. Both provide excellent check lists and can help ensure that every last detail of your wedding is planned and executed to perfection.
Your choice of wedding planner organizer depends on your particular taste. In general, most brides and a lot of professional Planners like the resources of the Knot over the Ultimate Guide. This is not necessarily due to content, but more often is because the Knot is such a comprehensive online resource. In fact, the Knot Organizer compliments TheKnot.com website perfectly and is designed to expand the resources available on the website beyond the virtual Wedding Planners and into the real world.
Virtual Wedding Planners
If you love to coordinate extremely complex events and have a good grasp of what is taught in the books mentioned above, then planning your own wedding can be a great experience. It is however, not without its stresses.
In fact, planning your own wedding is one of the most stressful celebrations that most women will ever experience. Most women have difficulty accepting that things are going to go wrong and that even the most well-planned events will still have a large number of glitches.
During these hiccups, it is important to realize that as long as most guests don’t notice, it is really not that important. Your day will still be beautiful and will still be one to remember for a lifetime.
If you are not a person who can easily let go of overwhelming stress when things go wrong, then you may want to employ the services of a virtual wedding planner. These are generally remotely-located professional Event Planners that can be retained to do much of the coordinating and back-end work involved with pulling off the wedding.
Depending on the particular virtual planner, their level of involvement may be as simple as negotiating lodging for your guests, or as complex as coordinating each aspect of a destination wedding. Their participation all relies on how much work you want to do and how much control you are willing to delegate to these professionals.
Regardless of the number of Wedding Planner Books that you read, the actual planning of the event can be overwhelming. Not only do you have the stress of dealing with the family and interpersonal conflicts that will arise from the event, but if you are planning it alone, then you also have the entire weight of the event fully on your shoulders. Keep this in mind as you decide who and how your wedding day will be planned.
Instead of doing it alone, find a virtual planner that you can comfortably delegate your event to. There are countless professionals available in every geography for every type of wedding. To find them, use the resources of theKnot.com and get references for every contractor and planner that you employ. Don’t forget to actually check the references to ensure that you enlist the very best help.
These planners are indispensable when creating the perfect wedding day, and although the guides and organizers may help to keep you and them on task, it is a lot easier when you have a seasoned professional in your corner.
Wedding Planner Costs
Although indispensable, the services of A Wedding Planner are not free. The costs generally depend on the type and scale of the event as well as the location, the services that you expect the professional to render and their fee per event. In short, it all depends on the venue and the individual planner.
To give you an example, the cost of a virtual planner who is simply coordinating catering, music and hospitality at the venue may charge as little as $800 for the event. However, they are giving relatively little service and loading you up with most of the stress. By contrast, a planner that has been hired to host a several-hundred person gala may charge in the range of tens of thousands for their services. However, in this instance they will likely have a complete staff that will manage every aspect of the day as well as the earlier meals, rehearsals and even the behavior of the guests.
For most brides, the cost of a good planner that will coordinate all aspects of a fun, local wedding will range between $1,000 and $10,000. At these prices, these coordinators will have access to their own staff; generally they will know the caterers and other service providers and be able to create a wonderful and memorable day.
As an alternative to hiring your own Wedding Coordinator, many reception facilities offer the services of a staff coordinator as an included cost. These individuals are often available, are very familiar with the venue and can be relied upon to manage most aspects associated with the reception.
Because this is an included cost, most brides choose to hire their own independent coordinator; then have them work directly with the staff Event Managers at the reception hall. By using this strategy, you can save a lot of money on the cost of your Event Planner and enjoy a fantastic and wonderful day.
