The UK Alliance of Wedding Planners

If any­one can help with wed­ding plan­ning advice it’s the UK Alliance of Wed­ding Plan­ners.

Direc­tor Kelly Chan­dler has very kindly shared some of her expert wed­ding plan­ning tips with Eng­lish Wed­ding Blog readers.

Whether you’re plan­ning your own wed­ding day and need a cou­ple of point­ers, or con­sid­er­ing hir­ing a wed­ding plan­ner, these tips from the UKAWP should be very help­ful for you.

Top 10 Tips for Plan­ning your Wedding

It’s very dif­fi­cult to con­dense every­thing you need to know about plan­ning your wed­ding into a short post (we could write a book!), but here’s a start with some must-know tips which we hope are useful.

1. Check with your venues what other events they have in the venue on that day or will you have exclu­sive use? Fore­warned is forearmed.

2. Find out about any local events, road­works or refur­bish­ment plans in and around the venue/s you are think­ing of. These could impact your day.

3. Ask for basic con­tracts from your most impor­tant sup­pli­ers. This pro­tects both par­ties involved and is con­fir­ma­tion of pay­ment terms and deadlines.

4. Check with your caterer/venue when they need to know final num­bers. It is eas­ier to increase your num­bers slightly a week before the wed­ding than to decrease if you are con­tracted in, sav­ing you money.

5. When book­ing enter­tain­ment ensure that you ask for a demo CD to be sent and, if pos­si­ble, arrange to attend a live per­for­mance. Please ensure that when book­ing your enter­tain­ment that they have the nec­es­sary PAT cer­tifi­cates, Pub­lic Lia­bil­ity Insur­ance to £2 Mil­lion and a risk assess­ment and method state­ment. Most venues now require these items and pro­fes­sional bands should be able to pro­duce these with­out any problem.

6. Get approval on any orders of ser­vice from the mar­riage cel­e­brant before print­ing. They have the right to change any­thing they do not agree with.

7. Arrange food and wine tast­ings with your caterer/venue. Even if they charge for this, a tast­ing will reas­sure you of the quality.

8. Keep your seat­ing plan to your­selves. If you share the details with your guests in advance, you will invari­ably have some­body com­plain­ing which they are unlikely to do on the big day.

9. Ensure that you recon­firm all book­ings a few days before the wed­ding day. Make sure that all sup­pli­ers know deliv­ery details. Who are they deliv­er­ing to, where and at what time? Take names of who you cor­re­spond with.

10. Learn to del­e­gate as the day approaches. Your wed­ding is the largest, most impor­tant event you will ever per­son­ally organ­ise. Give fam­ily and trusted friends spe­cific tasks to over­see on the day if you do not have a wed­ding plan­ner. You don’t want to be deal­ing with phone calls on the day or car­ry­ing a clipboard!

If you’re ner­vous about plan­ning your own wed­ding you might want to con­sider hir­ing a wed­ding plan­ner. Think care­fully before you do, and choose some­one you can really trust with the most impor­tant day of your life.

Top Tips on how to choose a wed­ding planner

First of all, you may well be ask­ing the ques­tion, do I really need the help of a wed­ding plan­ner at all? In a nut­shell not every­one does but if you’re the kind of bride who has a demand­ing work­life, works hard and plays hard, a plan­ner at hand becomes more essential.

These days with cou­ples mar­ry­ing slightly later, it’s entirely nor­mal that the bride has a demand­ing career or the cou­ple might even have young chil­dren to take care of. And wed­dings are every year becom­ing more and more unique and per­son­alised (and that takes time and effort to pro­duce always).

Com­bine all of this together and you have a poten­tial recipe for major stress. There is another way; plan­ners are still niche in the UK but becom­ing much more under­stood and a pro­fes­sional wed­ding plan­ner will not only save you time, but nego­ti­ate cost sav­ings for you, give you sound and pro­fes­sional advice, access to tried and tested sup­pli­ers and pro­duce an event that looks and feels sim­ply perfect.

And how do I go about find­ing a great wed­ding plan­ner if I want to find out more?

One of the main rea­sons for the exis­tence of the UKAWP is to act as a reli­able ref­er­ence point for you, the bride. If you are look­ing for a pro­fes­sional wed­ding plan­ner, their mem­bers should be the first you see.

All UKAWP mem­bers have been vet­ted for their hon­esty, pro­fes­sion­al­ism and expe­ri­ence. They all offer a con­sul­ta­tion where you can dis­cuss your wed­ding in more detail and how they may be able to help you.

Please view the UKAWP code of ethics and entry require­ments to under­stand how seri­ous we are about the indus­try and the plan­ners we pro­mote. To fur­ther assist you we have devised some guide­lines below.

Research wed­ding plan­ners in your area

Look through wed­ding mag­a­zines or search engines to see which plan­ners are listed for your area. Start by read­ing their web­sites thor­oughly to under­stand how they operate.

Read the web­sites care­fully for typos and bad gram­mar. If they can­not proof­read their own work, then can you trust them with your stationery?

Con­tact them for more infor­ma­tion. Do they respond within an accept­able time­frame with clear and con­cise details?

Arrange a con­sul­ta­tion with at least two that meet your require­ments. This should be arranged at a time and place con­ve­nient for you.

First con­sul­ta­tion with your wed­ding planner

Dur­ing the con­sul­ta­tion, does the plan­ner ask lots of ques­tions regard­ing your per­son­al­ity and any ini­tial plans?

Do they under­stand your wed­ding vision? They should be enthu­si­as­tic and build on your ideas.

Do you have a rap­port and feel at ease with them? Remem­ber you will be in close con­tact dur­ing the plan­ning so you must actu­ally like them as a person!

What spe­cial touches can they rec­om­mend for your wedding?

How long they have been in busi­ness and how many wed­dings have they organ­ised? Can they pro­vide references?

Ask how they charge, for exam­ple do they charge a fixed fee or a per­cent­age of the budget?

Ask if they accept com­mis­sion from sup­pli­ers and are dis­counts passed onto you?

Ask to see proof of pub­lic lia­bil­ity insurance.

Do they have a port­fo­lio for you to look at from past weddings?

The pro­posal from your wed­ding planner

When this arrives, does it match your recent discussion?

If the quote is not accept­able, then con­tact the plan­ner to dis­cuss. Could there be any items that could be removed?

Check whether there are any extra charges, i.e. travel, accom­mo­da­tion, admin­is­tra­tive work.

Once you book a plan­ner, make sure you sign a con­tract. Read it carefully.

Don’t for­get to use your plan­ner as an infor­ma­tion source; they may be able to advise you on any issues of concern.

Keep in reg­u­lar con­tact with your plan­ner and update them of any changes.

The UK Alliance of Wed­ding Planners

For more infor­ma­tion regard­ing wed­ding plan­ners, please email info@ukawp.com or call 01483 282858, 01376 561 544 or 01442 828061.