Without a doubt, credit is due, to the women who serve as the glue between an engaged couple, hired wedding professionals, and the momentous task of pulling off a wedding. The wonder women of weddings, also known as wedding planners, carry a weight on their shoulders to keep the day organized, vendors on task, and the bride continuously calm throughout the day’s emotional ride. While hiring a coordinator used to be a luxury, more and more couples realize the dire need to have a professional planner on their side.
The typical responsibilities of a wedding planner are to assist the couple in planning the details of the day (décor, budget, vendors, timeline, etc.) leading up to the wedding and then executing the details of the planned timeline the day of. However, these wonder women do a plethora of unsaid duties to ensure your day is perfect. Here are some things a wedding coordinator handles without you ever knowing.
Works with the wonders of nature
Rain or shine, your wedding must go on; and the person responsible for ensuring your day is as perfect as can be has taken it upon herself to battle Mother Nature. A planner is regularly the person wiping down wet ceremony chairs, refolding wind-blown napkins, or making an ice water for your grandma on a hot day, making them the wonder women of weddings.
Knows the detail photos you want and stages the pieces beautifully
While you are sitting amongst a cloud of hairspray getting your makeup carefully applied with your bridesmaids, all the while, your planner is collecting your personal pieces to be photographed. Pictures of your dress, wedding rings, jewelry, and invitations are excellent keepsakes and make a beautiful introduction to your wedding album.
Steps in as a janitor in the bridal (and groom suites)
Prepping for a wedding gets messy quick, and when the time comes to leave for the ceremony, the last thing on the minds of the bridesmaids, and especially the bride, is to tidy up the getting ready suite. A planner doesn’t want their clients to return to their honeymoon suite to a mess of scattered clothes, bags, and discarded tags. Nor do they want their client to be charged by the church for leaving the ready rooms in disarray. A planner pulls up her sleeves and cleans the room, collects personal belongings that have been left behind and restores the bridal and groom suites to suitable order.
Is the designated “shusher” of the ceremony
After reminding the moms to light the unity candle tapers, releasing the bridal party down the aisle one-by-one, successfully bribing the ring bearer to walk to the end of the aisle in exchange for a cherry sucker, and situating the bride’s dress perfectly as she enters her wedding, a planner’s job is not done yet. She is now in full-on “shush” mode, ready to eliminate any ruckus that may cause disruption to the ceremony. This could be quietly escorting guests that arrived late to the back row, finding a cry room for a mother and her baby or going outside to ask the mower across the street to delay progress by a half hour.
Carries a bottomless Mary Poppins bag
It is as if the planner already knows you are going to forget the cake cutting set at home. The bag(s) that they endlessly tote around all day is filled with the thrills and frills of wedding day décor and emergency kit must-haves. From a sewing kit to candles, champagne flutes, and clothespins, there is something in that bag for everyone and when the time comes that you need it, she is there, ready to offer up all that she can to make the day run more smoothly.
Knows how to cure a cake problem
Aside from baking, decorating and delivering, a planner knows her cake stuff. And while it doesn’t sound like there would be anything left to do, a planner reveals her improvising spirit when it comes to a cake problem. Forget to order a cake topper or have an eager kid put his finger straight into the icing? A planner can pull blooms from your other arrangements and assemble the perfect cascading floral display that will appear as if it was planned all along. Forget to add the cake cutting service with your caterer? If they can’t sweet talk the serving staff into cutting it, they have the expertise to be able to grab a knife, dismount, and plate up perfect slices.
Serves as a middleman for unique family dynamics
If there is one thing that can save the day, it is helping to diffuse a family conflict. Planners have a unique skill set in this type of work and know how to adapt day-of to prevent confrontation.
Is a family photo wiz
Family formals are a necessary, yet extremely chaotic event, both for the newlyweds and the photographers. Planners are a crucial component to ensuring that the correct family members are wrangled back from cocktail hour, all people are placed evenly around the bride and groom, and that youngsters have a distraction to look at to make them smile. Now all the photographer has to worry about is capturing the perfect shot.
Sets the mood all evening long
Ask a planner and they will know the location of the light switches in venues they have worked at. That’s because the wonder women of weddings assumes the task of setting the mood throughout the reception. They know the suitable lighting level for a dinner conversation, the scheduled time for when the first dance is expected to start, and the appropriate time (after the old folks leave) to turn down the lights for an epic dance party.
Takes care of inebriated guests
A planner not only has your best interests at heart but your guests as well. They monitor and take care of those that have enjoyed the reception to the utmost level by conversing with the bar staff, notifying loved ones, and calling safe transportation if needed. During your sendoff, planners act as an eagle eye when sparklers are in the hands of your inebriated guests. Damages and lost deposits are most commonly related to the last few hours of the event, and a dedicated planner is doing everything she can to protect the integrity of your event (and your damage deposit).
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