Today on the blog, we’re thrilled to introduce our featured day-of coordinator for The Big Fake Wedding Austin, Stephanie of Events With Heart. Once upon a time, Stephanie decided to try and plan and coordinate her own wedding herself. You can read all about that below, but spoiler alert: she wouldn’t do it again. Stephanie is here to tell all you engaged ladies that are on the fence about hiring a planner why it might be a good idea to go for it. Enjoy!
Meet Events With Heart. Formerly Head and Hands Design, Events With Heart is the creation of Biologist, fashionista and entrepreneur Stephanie Henry. After successfully helping a dear friend with her wedding, Stephanie caught the planning bug and Events With Heart was founded. Since then Stephanie and her team have coordinated and facilitated unique, fun and personal events for all of their clients. With deep Texas roots, a long list of local vendors and the credentials to back them up, Events With Heart is the go-to event design team in the Austin area.
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Reasons why a wedding planner didn’t hire a planner for her own wedding but wished she had…
Why I didn’t hire a planner.
In 2012 I planned and successfully executed my first wedding for a dear friend from start to finish. One year later my small business was born and with it came the flood of experience and knowledge, which would have been helpful when I naively decided to plan my own wedding. I had such a great time helping my friend and, of course, wanted to handle my wedding. “I could do this again,” I thought. “I’m good at it.” So I set off on planning one of the most challenging events I have ever coordinated.
Why I should have (and you should) hire a planner.
Planning isn’t for the faint of heart.
Carrying out your wedding to-do list may not be what you would consider “fun.” There are cake tastings, decor decisions and appointments galore. Leave the behind-the-scenes activity to the planner and step back to have the most enjoyable bridal experience. Trust me, the cake tastes a lot sweeter when you didn’t spend 30 minutes on the phone setting up a tasting slot.
Wedding planning is stressful.
The list of wedding-related stresses could seem endless. Not to mention the countless details to take care of, there may be family members that interfere more than they are being helpful, and the extra stresses of communicating with vendors. All of these ended up being the case with my wedding, but it shouldn’t have been. Let a professional take the wheel.
Planners have an established vendor network.
There is a reason why you hire a wedding planner. They have a network of reliable and experienced vendors to take care of every little detail. I didn’t know what to look for in a vendor, which is the main reason why I never hired any. Additionally, I tried to do things myself that an outside vendor could have done better for the same amount of money. The lesson here is to find a wedding planner whose vendors match your aesthetic.
Wedding planning takes time.
If you have never coordinated a wedding from start to finish, it is next to impossible to know how much time and work is involved in working out the details. When full time jobs, children, pets or even hobbies are thrown in to the mix, your schedule is up in the air and for some that may not work.
Things *do* go wrong in the last minute.
This is inevitable. It could be something small as to as forgetting to make that final payment with one of the vendors or as big as asking “where are the desert plates for the cake cutting that’s happening in ten minutes?”
Friends and family can only help so much.
Without a planner you will either ask friends and family for help or do everything yourselves. It is beneficial to weigh your options of which areas you could use professional help in, and which areas you would be less interested in and able to outsource.
Even though you hired a planner, you can still take all the credit.
You’re the bride, after all, and you are the one who chose which napkins you wanted and the length of your veil. Revel in the fact that you had someone do all the dirty work for you and were able to not only enjoy your wedding day but the stressful planning parts as well.
Photo Credits:
I Meg Your Pardon
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