Hello! And welcome to our 6th Q & A with Amanda Douglas Events post!
Firstly, thank you to everyone who submitted a question! It’s been a while since we’ve done a post, so we’ve got a lot of really great questions to answer.
We look forward to many posts where we can answer them all for you. We’ll try and answer them as they come in but we’ll be keeping each post to four questions (something to look forward to for the next post!)
Why should I hire a wedding planner if I have a friend that said they could do it for me?
That’s a great question, and there’s a lot of different answers that go on with it. But from our experience will let you know what we think.
When you have a friend being a part of your day, and it’s not something that they do professionally, there’s always the chance that there will be things that they will miss. If they’re a friend that has taken courses in wedding planning, and is looking to make this a career, and is getting started out, this might be a great opportunity for them, and you’ll also be getting work for free, which may not always be a bad thing.
But if their friend that just thinks it would be fun to do, that sort of another story. We always suggest letting your friends be your friends I’m going to your family your family, because it’s your wedding and you really want them to enjoy it just as much as you do.
When you hire a professional wedding planner you get someone that does this day in and day out. For us it’s what we eat, breathe sleep and, drink. It’s not something that we just dabble in or play around with. It’s something that we take very seriously.
With working with a professional wedding planner you get someone that’s committed to you, someone that knows the ins and outs of the wedding industry in your area, and has had many different situations, challenges, and times when they’ve had to troubleshoot and fix problems.
When we are at weddings or events, our minds are constantly going on what’s next, what can we do to fix problems, what can we do to make the experience better, make sure the lights are right, the sound is it too loud, the food is good, and that everybody is enjoying their time.
Our focus is you the whole time from the very beginning of the planning stages, to the very end of the night.
I LOVE crafting and doing DIY projects, and I want to do them for my wedding, but I’ve heard a lot of horror stories. What would you suggest when it comes to projects worth taking on?
DIY projects can be a ton of fun, but they can for sure also be a headache. My biggest suggestion, before starting with anything, is to really evaluate all the details you want to have at your wedding. DIY projects do take a lot of time.
If you want to do a few DIY projects because you find crafting relaxing then by all means do it, but if you’re not the type of person that already likes DIY projects don’t take them on. There’s a common misconception that DIY and it is a more cost-effective way to go. But often when it’s all said and done, if you haven’t shopped around and got good pricing, you’re going to end up coming out of Walmart and Michael’s spending way more than you thought you would have, and then you still need to put everything together.
If you are going to take on a few DIY projects my next suggestion, after laying it all out and planning the details of what you want at your wedding, is picking things that you know that you could handle. Don’t tackle something that you’ve never done before or something that you simply don’t have the time to do. If you’re not at least six months away from your wedding don’t tackle multiple DIY’s.
One of the biggest factors with DIY projects is simply having enough time to do them. If you’re going to do DIY projects take them on early on in your engagement. Then if you realize, which most brides do, that you need more time to finish, you still have time on your side.
My next suggestion is to never take on DIY projects by yourself. If you don’t have a creative team, like a wedding planner, your wedding party, or very crafty aunt or mother, it’s never going to be fun doing it all by yourself, unless you’re that exception of a person who just loves crafting. (Which is me, I can sit alone for hours crafting away)
What does a day in the life of a event planner look like?
Gosh, that’s a great question. Well our average day starts with getting into the office and sitting down at the computer for a couple hours to deal with emails and some planning work. It usually coincides with listening to a lot of dance music while working. We take little breaks throughout the day to do social media work, and get in some creative work as well, like reading wedding articles, creating inspiration boards for clients, and doing some pinning to show ideas of different elements for our different couples’ weddings.
We fit our office work around different meetings that are in and outside of the office. Stuff like floral or linen meetings, cake tastings, and venue viewing meetings. And then of course there’s all the planning meetings directly with our clients, doing all sorts of work from budget, design, all the way down to the wedding dress shopping, and earrings selection.
None of our days are really the same from the others but, we always try to have some sort of structure, so that we stay on top of all of our emails, communications, and work with our clients.
We always try and have little breaks in there to do things that inspire, recharge, and motivate us. Things like watching videos from Allison Howard or Maria Forleo, or just watching a few funny videos on YouTube to recharge our batteries before we get back to planning.
What are some good professional organizations to be a part of as a event planner?
To be honest I’ve looked into so many and it seems that some are better in some cities then others. There is the WPIC (Wedding Planner Institute of Canada) which I really like, and OF COURSE you should be a part of! (if you want to be a wedding planner this is a must!)
Have a wedding or event career related question?
Silly, serious, big or small, we want to hear it! Leave us a comment or sent it to us in an email to: amanda@amandadouglasevents.com
