Thursday 12 May 2011

What does a wedding planner actually do? Part 6


via French by Design (awesome blog, check it out)

When I set up my wedding planning & styling company a lot of people - friends, family, randoms responded with, 'Oh, okay, so.. what exactly do you do'? Which being slighly paranoid, I heard as, 'Oh, okay so you charge people for things they could do themselves'?

Now fast forward a couple of years and I'm less sensitive about this issue. It's true, and I've said it before, wedding planning isn't rocket science. It falls into two main categories - organisation & research (the planning), + creativity and an eye for detail (the styling). Which require skill and ability sure, but we're not exactly doing brain surgery over here.

In many ways I see being a wedding planner as similar to being a mum (not that I am one so it's kind of conjecture but anyway). You work damn hard and are excellent at multi tasking, staying calm in a crisis and so on and yet in the eyes of many, it's not a real job.

I'm not saying this to whine about how misunderstood we wedding planners are, but just to draw your attention to the quote above, (found via Amma from Beyond Beyond on Pinterest incidentally, cheers for that).

Common sense is not that common.

Damn straight.

So yes, wedding planning isn't rocket science and yes most people can manage it. But that doesn't mean they're good at it. Or it won't stress them out.

And if you're wondering whether hiring a planner is worth it, and whether you can do it yourself, well yes you can probably. But the key skill, if you'd call it that, that wedding planners possess, is common sense. Which is among other things, what wedding planning is really. And as Voltaire wisely put it, that ain't that common.

3 comments:

  1. great post as ever! loving your work, from a not so common wedding wedding, with plenty of common sence (well i think so anyay!) xxx

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  2. Brilliant post....totally agree. It isn't rocket science and anyone can do it, as long as you have plenty of time to research and learn about all the little intricacies that someone who has years of experience in planning events already knows. These things that have become common sense to us, like how long certain aspects of a day will take, how much it costs to hire in x number of chairs, etc etc. All becomes our own brand of common sense, but to others is mind-boggling and something they have to research and learn about and will probably never need to know again. This is what people are paying for, their own walking-talking events encyclopedia.

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  3. Hiya! I'm starting an interior designer bachelor course this fall and I love what you do! Love this post, it's so true. I don't know if I want to become an interior designer yet. There's so many opportunities working with aesthetics and I've dreamed about everything from running my own shop to planning weddings and being an interior designer! Can't wait to follow and read on in the future! :) xxx -your newest follower!

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