After we congratulate an engaged couple and offer them our services, we often hear them say, “Oh! I’m going to plan the whole thing myself, thanks though!” as they push us away. If only they really understood what a wedding planner does, especially if they knew how much coordination was required on the actual event day, then they would have a different outlook!

We try to educate engaged couples as early as possible, but sometimes they don't realize they need someone else to run the event until a little later in the game, and that’s okay! We have our very popular Two-month Out Planning Package for that! Other times, we constantly hear our couples say, “I only wish we would have hired you sooner!” because before we even get to the wedding day they begin calling us their super heroes. Why does this happen? Because we have executed weddings and dealt with all the challenges that come with it for 15 years, our experience speaks up in every conversation, and can save you time and money around every turn! But, only if you are open to it!

What are the duties of a wedding planner?

The wedding planner is a person hired long-term to assist and guide a couple in creating an impeccable ceremony & reception masterpiece. However, every couple has different priorities and needs. Planners dig into a couple's vision, budget, style and guide them through the process of creating their perfect wedding day using our experience and network of vendors.

We can do vendor research and attend vendor meetings so that there is someone there to ask the right questions, point out any red flags, and find out if there are any hidden charges to watch out for. The vendors you choose to go into contract with can make or break your event, so a planner can give you references to ones who you can trust. Imagine hiring a DJ and not realizing that they do not do the emcee work! It has happened! Or, imagine hiring a live band and finding out the venue doesn't allow live music one week prior to your event! It has happened!

Planners can also maintain a budget spreadsheet and review contracts for the couple to confirm if there are set-up restrictions etc that need to be accommodated. For example, the DJ requires shade but didn’t ask for one, and during the setup, he took the umbrella that was intended for the musician and now they are fighting over it. Hiring a planner can prevent things like this from happening as we can weed out these issues in advance. Planners can walk into a room and envision what would work and what wouldn’t. This prevents issues from popping up on the event day. For example, how do you decide where to place the bar? It needs to be easy for guests to find, easy to load in/out near, and somewhere with space in front of it so there is room for a line. Your guests don't want to be at the table in front of the bar and bothered by the line all night.

Lastly, a planner knows how to document and communicate the details to the team before the day happens, especially about parking and load in/out details. Overall, when there is a planner in charge, there are less costly mistakes that interrupt the flow of the day. We have also noticed that the sooner a wedding planner is involved, the smoother the event day will be. "I wish we had waited longer to hire a planner" said no one ever!

What is the difference between a wedding planner and a wedding coordinator?

A wedding planner can be involved in creating the event vision, finding vendors, asking for quotes, and generally helping find the pieces to make a specific vision come to life. A coordinator is the person present on the event day making sure all those plans are being carried out. He or she supervises the event, directs vendor arrivals, assists with setup, cues events, and makes sure the team stays together and on track with the timeline throughout the night. If things get behind schedule, it can cost the bride and groom a pretty penny (or waste their pretty pennies). For example, if the cake cutting is late and occurs after the photographer's scheduled end time, they will charge extra to stay for the cake cutting overtime, or the couple will miss their professional cake cutting pictures. Coordinators will gauge the time and make adjustments to the event schedule based on time restraints and guests' needs. In most cases the wedding planner becomes the coordinator on the event day. In some cases, when the couple feels confident in their planning skills, they can hire a day-of coordinator to help execute all their plans on the event day! That’s our Radiant Package! With a coordinator's help, you can absolutely be a guest at your own wedding!

Is it worth getting a wedding planner?

Absolutely! A wedding planner may feel like an extra expense, but in some cases, we save the family more money than they had paid us! Sometimes, our couples also get offered special deals or freebies from our preferred vendors just because of the relationships we have built with some of them. They want to work with us again because we make their lives so much easier, so they will offer a deal to make it happen!

Or, sometimes a planner can suggest a vendor who can bring everything the couple needs from one place to minimize setup and delivery charges. In one case, we negotiated with the venue on their security charges to save a couple thousands of dollars. A planner can show you what expenses to expect from a venue before even booking it, which makes it easier to compare venues to one another and prevents any additional surprise expenses. Most importantly, we save the couple a ton of research time and prevent plenty of headaches! An experienced planner can do research and find available vendors to fill a couple's needs while they are at work all day. Imagine coming home from work to a list of options presented to them in a detailed email so they can make easy & informed decisions on what vendors they are interested in! No need to waste time researching just to find out that vendor isn’t even available. We save you time and money in the long run! No bridezillas here!

Can you plan a wedding on your own?

You could plan a wedding on your own, but it would take you so much more time and money than if you hired some professional help. For example, if you were building a house, would you do it yourself? You could, but you would need to find supplies, tap into the network, figure out how to write up the blueprint and work with the city, hire the right vendors, etc. How much time is it going to take you to do all that? Are you going to go to school for it first? Would you really want to live in a house you built in your first shot, straight out of YouTube school? Your next house you build would be even better, because you learned a lot of things the first time around. But are you going to need another house? You only need one. There is a reason you hire an expert to build a house for you. They have the network, the tools and the experience to bring it to life correctly and in a reasonable amount of time. When it comes to your wedding, it's the same thing. Your wedding is one day that will only happen once. You need to be the guest of honor and enjoy every investment you put into it.

A wedding is a living and breathing puzzle to compile in an allotted amount of time. Things can and will pop up or go wrong. How will you handle it when you are busy being the bride? Our happily married couples still don't know about the majority of the day-of issues we dealt with at their wedding to this day! If you spend your wedding day running around, putting out fires, trying to smile when all you can think about is what you forgot to do or wish you knew how to fix earlier, it will be difficult to remember to enjoy the good times! We’ll be there with our 15 years of experience and our emergency kit supervising your vision, directing the vendor team and improvising for the best solution in the moment as needed. Meanwhile you are over there tearing up that dance floor with your besties!

What does a wedding planner cost in Southern California?

Wedding planners might vary in price, but our experienced team charges around $2000-$5,500 depending on the event size and how far in advance you want us to jump in to help. You’ll see wedding planning can range from $1,500-10,000 in the LA and OC area. Be sure to ask your planner if they have insurance, and how long they have been in business, and how they run their operation. Depending on the event size, we run our weddings with a team of 2-4 people who are always communicating via two-way radios (which are magic to keep everyone on the same page during the event in real time). Aside from insurance, other expenses include maintaining our emergency kit, home office, transportation, website, and marketing!

As a quick start into some of our experience, don't forget to download your instant wedding planning checklist here and contact us for your Southern California wedding needs. Happy planning!