The ultimate purpose of hiring a planner for your wedding is to have a stress free wedding planning. One key point is when you are talking to your candidates check if your personalities match. You will spend about a year or more working with this person and they will be at the best day of your life... so pick someone you actually like!
There are some questions everyone knows to clarify with their potential wedding planners. We collected 5 not so obvious questions that you may have not thought of for your interview:
1. How many weddings do you plan a year, and why?
The ideal planner does not take on more than what they can chew. Planning a wedding is a lot of man hours where details are important. The best planners only take on a select number of weddings, so that they can be available for you whenever you need them.
2. How do they communicate & share information with everyone involved? (you, vendors, venue, key people in your wedding)
Communication is always key when wedding planning. 1) everything is better confirmed in writing. 2) there are now great project management platforms where everyone
can be kept in the loop real time, so you know exactly where you are at and what is the next task.
3. How do they handle pressure?
When you ask this question you can even ask your planner to bring you examples that happened to them previously and how they handled it. Ideally you will find more out of their personality and professionalism.
4. What is their backup plan for inclement weather or illness of their team?
As most planners are self employed or sole traders it is good to know who they work with and what is their backup plan for anything unforeseen. I personally work with an assistant and even if this question is not asked when I first talk to the bride I always tell them what to do should anything render me unable to attend. I do not take more weddings than what I can personally manage, attend to, however it always is a good idea to let my clients know I do have a back-up plan.
5. Will they be present at your vendor meetings?
This is especially important when you wish to work with someone who they have not worked with before.
They should still accompany you at the meetings (or be part of the zoom call) even if they know them, so they can support you to ask the questions you might not know to ask. Your planner should also be kept in the loop so yes, they should always be part of the conversation and cc'd in the emails. Some planners do limit the amount of meetings they will accompany you so it is always a good idea to ask them about any limits to this. However, there will some meetings you will not need them for these could be for example hair and make-up trial just to name one.
Photo: Daniel Mustos