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    01/10/2018

    10 Reasons to Hire a Full-Service Wedding Planner

    Call us biased, but we happen to think that there are tremendous benefits to hiring a full-service wedding planner for your all-important big day. In fact we have 10 great reasons you should consider it.

    Sure, you may have attended a few weddings and may have even been part of a wedding party or two, but until you are all up in it, you don’t always know the extent of involvement in planning arguably the biggest, most expensive party of your life.

    As full time planners, we guide you in every decision you make from day one, from determining a budget to creating a schedule for sending out invitations to providing bridesmaid dress options to coming up with the perfect floor plan to creating an innovative ceremony backdrop to helping you chose your first dance song. I’m here to tell you that enlisting the services of a full-service/planner designer is the way to go! If you’re on the fence about whether or not to enlist a planner/designer and at what level of involvement, here are some helpful points to consider:

    1. Planning your wedding is our full-time job

    No joke, planning a wedding is a full time job. Perhaps you and your fiancé already have one of those and the idea of adding another one to the mix is giving you major anxiety. Don’t worry, we actually do this for our full time job. Do you know that, on average, we spend about 900-1200 hours planning a single wedding? That equates to thousands of emails that we personally send (on average around 5,000 per wedding for us) and hours of in-person meeting and planning time. That doesn’t include the additional thousands of messages that we read through from our clients and vendors. It’s a lot of time! We’re not complaining about it, we’re just simply making the point that it is a very time-consuming process and one that we can focus our time and attention on every week so that you can focus your time and attention on the things that you need to do to make your living and keep your sanity. At RMBO Collective, we personally take on only a handful of weddings each year so that we can devote the time and attention to every one of your wedding needs.

    Our expertise in the industry and system efficiencies mean the process is quicker and easier for us to manage than it likely will be for you who might be doing this for the first time. It’s just a simple fact. And time, as we know, is a valuable resource.

    2. We create a game plan from day one to wedding day

    To keep the wedding planning process manageable, we create an extensive planning timeline and checklist for completing each task from day one all the way through to wedding day and beyond. Before you can stress over when to book your transportation, when you should schedule your tasting and how far out to send your invitations, we’ve come up with a blueprint for how to tackle each and every task along the way. And we’re by your side to guide you through the whole process.

    3. We help you budget your dream wedding

    Before planning your own wedding, it can be difficult to know how much each element of a wedding may cost. We, however, know exactly how much the wedding you are envisioning will run in our region of the country, and those costs can definitely fluctuate from region to region. In Southern California, we see wedding costs that far exceed the national average of $35,000. We work with you to set and maintain the budget with which you and your family are most comfortable. Based on your top priorities, we allocate funds to each area of the wedding which helps to keep costs manageable across the board.

    Because we are vested in the entire process, we can help shape your decision-making early on with your venue selection so that we can ensure there is enough of the budget left over for the extra bells and whistles you want to add to enhance the party, such as a cigar roller or photo booth.

    4. We navigate the pitfalls of wedding planning

    Selecting a venue is one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle and it’s also an area where couples struggle the most. For that reason, we HIGHLY encourage you to hire your planner before contracting with a venue. As the foundation for every other decision that will come after it, locking in the right venue is crucial. First time wedding couples might not think to ask some of the questions we are trained to ask and look for in a venue. What are the existing power capabilities? Are there enough restrooms? How much time is allotted for setup and strike? What is the rain contingency plan? These may not be the pretty ideas that pop into your head when daydreaming about your wedding day, but they are really important elements to learn about in your venue before you sign on the dotted line.

    Ordering the correct quantities of items is another pitfall of the process. For example, do you order the number of invitations needed for your total number of households or your total number of guests? Answer: Households with a few extras just in case. See there, we just saved you from overspending. For rentals, you order a few pieces beyond your guest count to account for items that may drop to the floor during dinner service.

    These are just a few examples of a long list of places where a full service planner’s guidance can make a huge difference in the overall wedding experience, costs and aesthetics. When you’re tackling the planning partially or fully on your own, you won’t always see the pitfalls until it’s too late to do anything about them.

    5. We guide you away from tired trends

    Being so engrained in the wedding industry, we see the trends that come and go and work with you to build your event vision in a way that feels authentic to you and timeless rather than trendy. Of course, we want you to express your taste and interests and work in a space that feels fresh, but we will certainly point out if you start veering into cliche territory (a la mason jar mélange of 2010) and remind you that you’ll want to look back on your wedding in 10 years and feel that it’s timeless rather than dated to the trend that was happening at that time.

    Top reasons for choosing a wedding planner

    6. We have established vendor relationships

    Many vendors want to know you’re working with a planner because it makes their job tremendously more efficient. They want to know that all bases are covered and all logistical details have been thought through by a professional who has done this before (preferably many times before). In fact, I know a number of photographers, rental companies, stationers, etc. who will only take on projects where a planner is involved.

    As comrades in wedding planning, we build strong relationships with various vendors and do our best to work with those companies we know know will deliver stellar service every time. Vendors appreciate the continued referrals from planners and often times will offer special incentives to our specific clients.

    7. We keep eyes on your event vision at all times

    We develop your design boards and use them to communicate with each vendor in every aspect of the event, from stationery to lighting to furniture to floral. Many vendors on your team work with a much higher volume of clientele than a planner does. We take on about 10 weddings per year vs. a rental company which does multiple events in a weekend. We keep our eyes and your vendors’ eyes on your specific event vision throughout the process so the finished products is exactly what you had envisioned.

    8. We help create a buffer for you in difficult decisions

    One of the perks of working with a full-service planner is that we’ll be the point of contact with all of your vendors. We’ll be the bad guy when it comes time to choose one vendor and let another go. We’re here to help you justify specific budget expenses to your parents; we’ll go to bat for you to try to get extras added into a vendor contract. We’ll be the ones to respectfully remove your guests from peeking into the dinner space early because the photographer is shooting the room. Basically, we’re a buffer for you in all of those tricky and difficult situations so that you don’t have to be the bad guy.

    Top reasons for choosing a wedding planner
    9. We are always looking at the big picture

    Let’s say your dream is to enter your wedding reception from a flower cocoon that descends from the ceiling. That’s amazing! And I’m sure you’ve envisioned how that will look. We’ll do the same, but you best be sure we’re also going to determine how to make that scenario feasible from a mechanics, cost and logistical perspective. We’re always looking at the big picture and assessing how one decision will affect a number of other areas of the event.

    10. We are your advocate every step of the way

    Throughout the months of planning together, we build a strong relationship. We are here to advocate for you and ensure your vision is achieved and you see tremendous value for your investment. And we’ll never get sick of talking about your wedding with you! Basically, we’re your best friend, guidance counselor, big sister, fashion consultant, accountant, therapist, designer and planner rolled into one.

    If you’re on the hunt for your own full service planner/designer, we’d love to chat. Book your free consultation HERE!

     

     

    Top 10 reasons to hire a full-service wedding planner

     

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