Wedding Wizards
Sheila Anne Feeney
Wish you had a fairy godmother to wave her magic wand and - swish! - pull your wedding together? Why not do as 15 to 20 percent of today’s brides – hire the next best thing, a wedding consultant. Even brides of modest means pay these wedding wizards to help them with everything from etiquette to orchestra selection. The reasons? An increasingly mobile culture, the unraveling of the traditional family, and the fact that the bride and her mother are often busier than the bridegroom. In addition, explains Gerard J. Monaghan, president of the American Bridal Consultants, the wedding “is their first big party and they don’t know how to do it. A consultant can save you time and help avoid the mistakes of inexperience.” Claudia Hanlin, of Claudia Hanlin's Wedding Library, cites the following reasons to hire professional help: * Your event is huge, complicated, or logistically challenging. * You and/or your mother are just too busy to do it all yourselves. * You simply want someone else making sure all the bows are tied and candles lit on the Big Day. * You need guidance on matters of taste, style and site selection. * You want someone to help you spend your time and money wisely by vetting selections for your final approval. THE STATS ON BRIDES WHO HIRE CONSULTANTS According to Monaghan, brides who hire consultants tend to have more lavish affairs. Planner fees generally total about 10 to 15 percent of the overall cost. But not all the festivities arranged by professionals are pageants full of grandeur. Susan Holland, the power behind Susan Holland & Co., says one of the best weddings she ever worked on had a budget of $15,000. “The bride and groom had a passion for zydeco music so they spent $10,000 to fly a zydeco band up from Louisiana.” That left $5,000 for everything else so the guests dined on beer and hot dogs from paper plates. The bride wore a white tank top and mini skirt with a huge burlesque of a veil. The party totally rocked, says Holland, because it was so personal and specific to the interests and spirits of the bride and groom. When you pay for a planner, you should expect to get ideas you couldn't come up with on your own, sensible, soothing solutions to difficult problems, and fantastic ideas. “My role is to figure out what’s unique and different about someone and to translate it into party language," says Holland. “It’s easy to make it different because you’re already different from everyone else.” BANG FOR THE BUCK So how do you make sure you get the most for your money if you do decide to hire a wedding planner? Pay arrangements vary dramatically, and you should make sure to discuss such details in detail. Hanlin’s Wedding Library, for example, provides vendor references for free, but receives a commission for referrals from the vendors. Members of the Association of Bridal Consultants are not banned from receiving vendor commissions, but the Association recommends against members accepting them. If vendor commissions are accepted by ABC-affiliated planners, they must be disclosed to the bride or whoever it is who signs the checks. THREE PAY STRUCTURES Here are samples, though variations on these are endless: * One flat rate that guarantees a certain number of hours, for example, 80. If the consultant works more than the agreed-upon hours, he or she goes back on the clock for additional wages on an hourly basis. * The planner may take a percentage of the overall amount you spend on the wedding. This approach is not recommended for people determined to stay within a tight budget. * A set fee for the planner to supervise and troubleshoot on the day of the event, plus hourly fees for whatever work she does before then. The planner may have assistants who bill at a lower rate for simple tasks, or, again, you may be able to hire your own, cheaper runner to perform many of the less complicated, but still time-consuming chores. Mr. Monaghan recommends that consultants be members of his organization, which demands that planners adhere to a code of ethics that he says, “basically translate into ‘don’t cheat the customer.’” Attending a successful event often inspires a bride to select the same planner for her wedding. If you’re shopping blind, however, here’s a tip: Ask the potential consultant for the last three clients for whom he or she has worked. If you just ask for three referrals, you’re bound to get hand-picked clients who will give an enthusiastic evaluation of the consultant’s work. Of course, you always can sit around waiting for your fairy godmother to appear or hire a consultant to provide you with a happy ending to your special day.