Alexa Kay Events
wedding planner
Planning your own wedding is an admirable feat, but for some, it sounds less than ideal, overwhelming or just not feasible due to distance, work or other obligations. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help, but hiring a wedding planner could also turn your big day into something better than ever before! There are so many great things about having a coordinator by your side every step of the way while planning your wedding. We asked nine North Texas wedding planners why you absolutely need a planner or coordinator on your big day and they gave us all the inside scoop! Read on to hear what these wedding pros had to say about just why you should hire a planner to bring your dream wedding vision to life.
1. Bring Your Dream Wedding Design and Vision to Life
From Alexa Kay Events
“Firstly, there is not cut and dry, cookie-cutter answer that makes every wedding a success. Just like how every couple is unique and has different wants and desires for their special day, every wedding is unique. This is where I come in. I take couples through my design process to gather all information, so I know exactly what they are looking for. Throughout this fun-filled journey, we discover what the client does and does not want at their wedding. This usually is the result of showing photos, looking through Pinterest boards, vendor Instagrams, and them filling out a long-winded questionnaire. I try my best to understand every aspect they are wanting for their wedding day in order to reveal my client’s musts and must nots for their very own tailor-made day.
I find that this has a HUGE stress-relieving component for nearly all of my couples. Because more often than not, the choices just seem overwhelming! With hundreds of choices for something as small as floral accents, I have found that funneling down those options not only to what fits my clients but to what they love the most has been extremely helpful for them.
Above all else, this is YOUR day, YOUR vision and YOUR dream – not mine, not a venue’s, and if you don’t go back and read this article to your future mother-in-law… it’s not hers either (but we’ll keep that to ourselves). I am here for you – I often work with clients who are just so nice they feel bad speaking up and being vocal about little details that they want from vendors or venues or whoever it may be. Being pressured or rushed into decisions for your wedding is a real thing, and those often are not the choices my clients actually want. That’s what I’m here for – to work for you, negotiate for you, problem-solve for you, and especially, to find the perfect options for YOU. So whether it is with me or whoever fits each couple the best, make sure your wedding planner brings YOUR vision to life.”
Featured Photo: BeatBox Portraits // Also Pictured: Love Letters Handmade, Place at Tyler, Prim + Lovely, Top Tier Event Rentals & Staffing, Accent Decor Inc.
2. Manage Your Budget
From Angela Marie Weddings and Events
“Wedding budgets can be stressful, but hiring a wedding planner is one of the best investments you could make to ensure a perfect wedding day for you and your bank account. As a wedding planner, our goal is to make the planning process as smooth and stress-free as possible and managing your wedding budget is one thing we’re well experienced in.
Wedding planners are there to get you the most bang for your buck which means finding the best vendor deals, negotiating prices and finding the right vendors to match your vision. With having a good planner, we’ll know how to make the most of your wedding budget no matter how big or small. Our job is to make sure you have a complete overall budget breakdown that includes everything from your venue costs to the final tax and gratuities.
First, we’ll ask who’s paying for the wedding. If it’s you and your fiancé, it gives you a little more flexibility in where you want the money to go. If a family member is paying for your wedding or a portion of it, that’s amazing and something to be super appreciative of. Bottom line, whoever is signing the checks will most likely want to be involved in one way or another, so it’s really important to let them in on our budget conversations to ensure everyone is on the same page and of one mind.
Second, we will categorize your wedding expenses into three different groups. You have your A group which are the main components of a wedding, such as your venue, photographer, floral, catering, your wedding attire and things of that nature. For this group, it’s important to decide on three top priorities you and your fiancé want for your wedding day. This could be great music, the food or a dress that really gives that wow factor. We will list out how much of your budget to allocate towards those items. Then we have your B group which are the things you’ll want included on your wedding day, but not the first thing to send a check to. These things are your tables and linens, glassware and flatware, signage, wedding favors, place cards and other details that will really give it personality and make your vision come to life.
Lastly, you have your C group which are things you don’t necessarily think about but need to be included in your overall budget. That could be the lighting, a setup crew, lodging for out-of-town guests, gratuities, parent and bridal party gifts or your wedding day perfume. All these things you want to consider when discussing the wedding budget, but also important not to get hung up on.
One thing that’s important that I tell all my couples is to allot 5-8% of your wedding budget to a ‘just in case fund.’ Things come up and life happens, and it’s great to have this buffer to remove any unnecessary stress if any unexpected expenses arise. Wedding planners are there for you in the most important time of your lives to make your most important day as incredible as you always dreamt it would be. We want you to not stress about your budget, but rather to enjoy this season with your fiancé as you plan your forever.”
Featured Photo: Rachel Driskell // Also Pictured: Unforgettable Floral, Hochzeit Hall, Robbins Bros
3. Crucial Vendor Connections
From Maxwell + Gray
“We’ve worked diligently the past several years to develop amazing vendor connections and relationships, and these benefits are hugely beneficial for couples. 1) We recommend vendors who are not only insanely talented in what they do but will also go above and beyond on the wedding day. We trust them and they trust us, so it helps make the wedding day go so so smooth and effortless because we already know they’re doing to do a stellar job AND go the extra mile for you. 2) Having those relationships established means we can connect you with the team that we think will fit best for YOU and your specific design and personality. AND it saves you time! Rather than having to spend endless hours searching the endless lists online, we give you an amazing vendor connection pool to choose from that covers different design styles and budgets. We believe the planning process should be fun, which means having great relationships with your vendors! We will help connect you with those people!
We make sure that the day of your wedding is all about you enjoying the actual celebration – the meaning behind the wedding day. It’s so important to be able to focus on each other and your family and friends rather than the logistics of the day – that’s our job! Vendors won’t come to you with questions, they won’t interrupt your party time, and you won’t be worried about making sure everything gets packed up and sent home. You get to just enjoy the day, celebrate with your favorite people and have FUN, while we take care of the rest!”
Featured Photo: A Sea of Love // Also Pictured: The 4 Eleven, Bilie Ball & Co.
4. Keep You on Track with To-Do Lists
From Blissful Weddings & Events
“A lot of engaged couples will hire Blissful Weddings & Events as their wedding planner and coordinator to assist with the overall planning process to ensure everything they’ve always envisioned and dreamed of their big day to be will be fully executed smoothly so they can ENJOY their wedding celebration. We understand couples have work and family lives as well and are not always able to meet with vendors that fit their style and budget requirements, or create beautiful design layouts and color schemes to fit their vision. With us they are able to stay on track with monthly checklists and reminders sent to them personally, any updates to their vendor meetings, catering menu sampling, cake taste testing, vendor contracts, budget analysis, and more are fully managed by us so the couple can relax knowing that even the smallest of details are being taken care of!
The benefit of having a certified wedding planner work for you is to save time, help you invest wisely to stay within your targeted budget and alleviate the overwhelming feeling and stress that may come along with several details and logistics to planning your dream weddings.
It’s not every day an engaged couple gets to plan their big day leading up to their I do’s! We understand the significant importance and meaning behind getting married and spend time getting to know you on a personal level to be able to serve you better and work with you to understand your needs, expectations, vision and what really matters most to you most! Having a wedding planner on your team really helps keep you on track with wedding checklists, executing details in a timely manner, staying within your targeted budget, investing wisely in reliable vendors and bringing everything together for you, so you are able to marry your sweetheart and dance the night away with your guests on the day of your wedding!”
Featured Photo: Kalyn Shae Photography // Also Pictured: Bridal Boutique, Firefly Gardens, Jessica Stoughton
5. Take the Stress Off of You
From Celebrate Dallas
“People always ask, ‘Do I really need a wedding planner?’ And simply put, the answer is no. You can have a perfectly lovely wedding without a full-service coordinator. What we do at Celebrate Dallas is give you peace of mind. The wedding planning process can be dreamy and rewarding, but it can also be absolutely draining, and we’re there every step of the way, cheering you on, giving you advice or taking the reins when you need us. We’re not just your planner. We’re your wedding BFF or full-time BFF if you’ll have us! We provide stress relief in the form of years of expertise talking you through decisions, being your sweet but strong advocate, lending our keen design eye and making sure you and the love of your life have the wedding of your dreams.
We want to take care of you and make sure you’re taking care of yourself. Getting overwhelmed and feeling bogged down in the wedding planning minutia is no fun. We want to keep your wedding planning clean, organized and stress-free so that you can focus on the big picture: walking down the aisle and partying all night with the people you love. We adore watching the vision come together, the vows exchanged and the happy tears shed, so we work hard to get you there.
Additionally, we take the stress off of our couples by working with venues and vendors to make sure that they get the very best out of their wedding days. We also keep the needs, wants and inspirations of our couples in the forefront of our minds. On their wedding day, their vision is our vision. Celebrate Dallas also loves to build relationships with our couples. When we get to know (and LOVE) them, it builds trust, and our couples being able to trust us with your wedding day is the biggest stress reliever of them all.”
Featured Photo: Reigh Walker Photography // Also Pictured: The Cliff House, AM Linen Rental, Lulu’s Bridal, Jubilee Flower Co., Autunm Heart, Beautiful Event Rentals
6. Look at Proposals, Quotes & Legal Contracts
From Julep Events
“One of the most important things that we do as planners is to review the contracts and proposals that our clients get from potential vendors. It helps us as much as it helps them: we get all the details on what to expect from each vendor throughout the process, and we also have the opportunity to educate our clients and help them get exactly what they want. There are so many small details that can potentially become big issues if left to fall by the wayside (Do I need to return my florist’s vases after the wedding, or are they coming back for teardown? Do I need to ask my caterer to clean up at the end of the night, or will my venue take care of it?), and our job is to catch them so that no one ends up scrambling to put fires out on the wedding day. Just imagine realizing the morning of your wedding, when you’re two mimosas in, that your wedding cake is missing – and when you call the bakery, you find out that you signed a contract for pick-up rather than delivery!
A friend of mine got married recently, and I offered to recommend some vendors and check over contracts for her. She had her heart set on a caterer – a local restaurant that she and her fiancé love – but I reviewed their contract anyway, and thank goodness I did! She was about to sign a contract for the restaurant to drop off food and leave rather than to stay and serve. Not only does that mean no setup or service – it also means no dishware provided, no bussing of tables, no cake cutting, no taking out the trash at the end of the night. If I hadn’t caught that before she signed, she would’ve shown up to her reception to a giant pile of food in take-out containers on the venue’s kitchen counter, and her big day would’ve ground to a halt…
And we see this so often. Couples know what they want but don’t necessarily know how to articulate it, or what to look for in a proposal. It’s so easy to make assumptions about what vendors are and aren’t going to do for you, but when you have a planner on your side, you can rest easy knowing that you have an experienced, knowledgeable teammate who is working purely to make sure that you get exactly what you want.
In the wake of coronavirus and a spring full of postponements, I was really reminded how vital contract review is. So many of our clients were coming to us asking, ‘Will my vendors let me postpone? Do I still have to pay for x, y and z?’ And I’m sure some of it was panic and the need for someone to step in and take over (another pro of having a planner!), but the thing is, all those answers are right there in the contract! We were able to give our clients a Plan A, and Plan B, and a Plan C for how their vendors would handle any postponement or cancellation decision that was made, and it brought so much peace of mind to our clients during a truly overwhelming time. We were so happy to be able to be that helpful resource and advisor to our clients in order to make their nightmare of a situation a little easier, and to have definite answers when so much was up in the air. And that’s really what having a planner is all about!”
Featured Photo: Melanie Julian Photography // Also Pictured: Bridal Boutique, The Emerson, Studio Tersilla
7. Friends and Family Should Not Have to Work Your Wedding
From Lyons Events
“Your friends and family had the privilege of watching your love story unfold. Let them be your support system on your day by inviting them to join in on your celebration, rather than using them for setting up or working the day. There is so much work that goes on in planning a wedding, with so many details to consider and execute. (There’s a reason this is a full-time job!) Letting us do the work will ensure a truly seamless and stress-free experience!
Lyons Events specializes in design, and taking your ideas and transforming them into real life. We are your biggest advocate, and work tirelessly to make sure that you and your fiancé are able to enjoy and soak in the celebration with your family and friends.”
Featured Photo: Allen Tsai Photography // Also Pictured: Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, Angelica Fleurs, Q Makeup Artist
8. Knowledge of the Industry from Problem Solving Pros
From MK Event Boutique
“Did you know that planning a wedding can take 500+ hours for couples who aren’t working with a planner? There are a lot of perks to hiring a planner but the time-saving factor is a big one! By having strong vendor relationships, we are able to make vendor recommendations quickly, and we guide and direct our clients on the best way to spend their time when it comes to planning.
As a wedding planner, we are problem-solving gurus! And with any big event, it’s pretty inevitable that there are going to be some hiccups, so having a planner on your team is going to come in handy so that you (or your mom or bridesmaids) aren’t having to deal with those issues… You won’t even know that there were any hiccups! If the wrong linens are delivered, your chargers arrive broken or a vendor no-shows, we have other vendors in our back pocket that we have strong relationships with that we can reach out to to get the problem fixed as soon as possible. We are always quick on our feet with problem-solving and will do whatever it takes to fix any problems that could potentially arise. Weddings are our full-time job and passion so our experience from all of the weddings that we have executed definitely plays a part in our success, as well.
Hiring a wedding planner should be one of the very first things (if not the first) you do after you get engaged. Let us be your emergency fixer, dress bustler, stress reliever, guest manager, secret keeper, lipstick carrier and your wedding wing-woman! We are going to be with you throughout the whole planning process and will help you make the most of your budget, fight for your wedding vision, take the stress away so that you can focus on preparing for your marriage, execute your vision perfectly the day of and so much more! We want you to be able to fully enjoy every aspect of the wedding planning process and be able to be fully present your whole wedding weekend!”
Featured Photo: Megan Kay Photography // Also Pictured: Root + Bloom Floral Design, The White Sparrow Barn, Junk & Disorderly
9. Timeline Professionals
From Tami Winn Events
“We use an online planning system which allows our clients to always have access to their portal. They can view vendor information, task lists, budget information and the wedding timeline itself. A couple can share that information with their parents or anyone helping them with the wedding plans.
Timelines are extremely beneficial to not only the couple, but all vendors involved. It is what allows us to clearly communicate the details of the day and avoid confusion. We create very detailed timelines that include the room diagrams, all ceremony and reception information and anything a wedding party member or vendor would need to know about the wedding weekend.”
Featured Photo: Stephanie Brazzle Photography // Also Pictured: BEYOND, Grand Events Texas, Stage Works
Find the right North Texas wedding planner for you here or browse our full variety of North Texas wedding vendors here. Cheers!
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Other Local Vendors: Tami Winn Events, MK Event Boutique, Julep Events, Maxwell + Gray, Lyons Events, Celebrate Dallas, Blissful Weddings & Events, Angela Marie Weddings and Events
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