Planning your wedding day means taking on a LOT of details on top of your already full schedule. That's where having a wedding planner comes in handy! We talked to Jutta Lammerts of California wedding planning company, A Day Like No Other, to get the inside scoop on why you should definitely hire a wedding planner for your wedding and to dispel any myths that may have stopped you from hiring a planner in the first place.
1. What are the benefits of hiring a wedding planner from the beginning of the wedding planning journey?
A wedding planner is at the couple’s side from day one, helping with the most fundamental decisions: What is your vision? What are your hopes and expectations for your wedding day? What venue(s) would be the perfect fit to realize this vision within the desired location and budget? A planner can offer recommendations based on their personal experience and knowledge and can likely connect and negotiate with venues on the couple's behalf. Once the venue(s) have been booked, the planner guides the couple from decision to decision, step by step—easy and stress-free. With the planner’s connections and network of trusted collaborators, couples do not need to agonize over the selection of vendors they don't know.
2. What would you say to couples who think hiring a wedding planner is too expensive?
In many cases, a wedding planner more than pays for themselves! First, we know the “secret gem” vendors that will execute the couple’s vision within their budget. Second, we know the tricks of how to save on pretty much every aspect of the wedding. Finally, we save enormous time and energy and avoid costly mistakes—it’s basically a no-brainer!
3. What are the differences between a full-service wedding planner and a day-of coordinator?
Full-service wedding planning starts even before a date and venue have been chosen and takes the whole burden of planning off the couple’s shoulders. They do all the vendor contacting and negotiating from the very beginning and the couple only has to worry about choosing their vision and favorite vendors. For month-of or day-of coordination, the couple does all the planning and design work themselves and the coordinator pulls it together to one cohesive timeline and takes over for the actual wedding day so the couple doesn't have to worry about anything but getting married that day.
4. Are there times a day-of coordinator might be better for a specific couple?
For couples who are wedding planning professionals themselves, they will likely do all the planning as they already have those connections and the necessary experience so they would only need coverage for their wedding day. Even wedding planners should not have to work on their own wedding day!
5. What are some things a wedding planner helps with that couples may not realize?
A full-service planner will keep the couple on track with their necessary decisions and advise on the required sequence and timing of these decisions. For example, I would suggest you send your save-the-dates right away, but you also want to make sure they match the invitations you'll be sending months later. So you'll need to start thinking about your overall wedding style and design immediately!
6. What is a wedding planner's number one responsibility?
Definitely to ensure the couple’s peace of mind so making sure they know everything is being taken care of and nothing is falling through the cracks. Plus, guaranteeing the whole planning process and, most importantly, their wedding day is joyful, not stressful!
Anything else you'd like to add?
So far, all of my couples have told me that they could not have pulled this off alone, and the ones who had booked month-of coordination all said they should have brought me onboard way earlier in the process!
Now that you’ve been inspired, you can watch tons of real wedding videos featuring real couples who used A Day Like No Other to plan their weddings. Or check out our vendor directory and find a wedding planner near you.