Altar Ego Wedding Ed: Why a wedding planner is a NEED, not a WANT!

Congratulations!  You’re engaged!  Have you been dreaming of your wedding your entire life?  Have you had a picture of your dream day in your mind since you were six years old?  Whether you have or haven’t, there’s a level of wedding planning and coordination services you NEED!  That’s right, not want – N-E-E-D.

Here’s a brief overview of why.  Have you ever planned a wedding before?  Do you know what a wedding costs?  Do you enjoy googling “wedding photographer” and coming up with 5,000,000,000,000+ names to search through?  Do you like wasting time, money and effort?

One of our wonderful mentors, Shari Johns, shared the following analogy with us.  When you build a house, do you build it yourself?  Do you manage everything and everyone yourself?  No, you hire a reputable general contractor who hires and manages specialized companies.  Your general contractor listens to you and knows or finds plumbers, electricians, dry wall specialists and painters that will do the best job for you.  They know which businesses will best meet your style, personality and budget requirements.

A wedding planner is like a general contractor.  We have relationships with vendors.  We’ve spent time getting to know our vendor friends, their design styles, working styles and prices.  If you like loose, organic styled flowers, we’re not going to send you to the florist who specializes in modern, structural designs.  If your budget is $30,000, we are going to send you to different vendor partners than we’d send someone with a $100,000 budget.  Our expertise is what you pay us for.  We will listen to your ideas and desires and pair you with the perfect vendors for you. 

Let’s talk about the wedding day.

What should your job be on the wedding day?  Organizer?  Vendor-wrangler?  Drink-getter?  How about just being “bride?”  Sound good?  That’s all you need to be on your wedding day. 

At Altar Ego Weddings we feel that on your wedding day, you and your groom should focus on the commitment you’re making, enjoying your special day and having tons of fun with your friends and family.  You should NOT be doing any of the following:

• Checking in with vendors as they arrive
• Verifying the correct amount of chairs are at each table
• Dealing with Uncle Bob who said he wasn’t coming but decided to come anyway
• Setting up anything.  That’s right, anything.  You do not set up.  Your job is bride and that’s a big enough role on its own!

Here’s what you should be doing:

• Getting pretty with your bridesmaids
• Drinking champagne or something else tasty
• Having special moments with your mom and best friends
• Anticipating seeing your groom for the first time
• Relishing the moment when you’re announced husband and wife
• Reveling in the joy you feel when you’re introduced into your reception and seeing your closest friends and family
• Celebrating
• Dancing the night away
• Eventually riding off into the night in newlywed bliss!

We want to give you this experience!  We pride ourselves on seeing our brides become stress-free, both in their wedding planning process and on their wedding days.  Your wedding is too precious not to enjoy every last second of it!  Let us help you get the most out of your day!  We offer packages ranging from month-of coordination to full-service wedding planning.  If your needs are somewhere in between those options, we can accommodate that as well.  Many of our clients book our month-of package plus one or two a la carte planning services.  We’ll help you figure out what you need.  Every bride is different and has different needs.  We will meet with you either in person, over the phone or digitally via Skype, Facetime or Google Hangout.  Tell us what you’ve already completed, what’s still outstanding and what you want.  We will LISTEN!  We want to give our clients exactly what they need and nothing they don’t.  If you love going to vendor meetings yourself, but would enjoy having a professional planner’s recommendations, we have a package for you.  If you have all the planning under control, but need some help putting your design vision together, we can help you.

2017 is booking up quickly, so don’t delay!  Our fabulous brides tell us over and over again that hiring us was the best investment they made in their wedding planning.  See for yourself on Weddingwire!  Look at our gallery to see our beautiful, carefree brides!

We are looking forward to meeting you!  If you are planning a wedding in Austin, the Texas Hill Country or Dallas-Fort Worth, contact us today!  We can’t wait to chat about your wedding!