Do wedding planners ease stress?

Now this is something she should have been responsible for if she was contracted to be at the event.  Was she a professional or someone who claimed to be a planner?  I know plenty of planners who have planned an event when they were pregnant but we have staff to assist at the event and we always have a back up available in case of emergency (regardless of whether you are pregnant or not).   

People like this give planners a bad name.  You should be making sure the vendors who what is going on, that they are in the room and ready to shoot for any of the major formal activities.   When I am running a reception, I barely get time to sit down until the dancing begins because I am too busy (myself and my staff) running around making sure that the Bride and Groom, Bridal Party, parents and guests are okay.  

Did you follow up with her to express your dissatisfaction?   I am sorry you had a bad experience but she does not represent the profession.  There are many of us who are reputable and do our jobs as contracted. 

Hi Denise.  My name is Deidre and I am a Wedding Planner.  Your question is not a simple one believe it or not.  There are a lot of parameters to consider when answering that question.  It depends on what services your daughter contracted with her planner (are the things she is stressing over a part of her services or outside the scope of her contract), is the planner a professional and is the area she is stressing over something someone else can resolve for her.?

I always tell my clients, if you have financial stresses, I can't really relieve you of that because I can't pay your bills; however, I will try to reduce your stress by keeping you within your budget.  The problem comes in when clients choose to spend outside the budget or not accept the professional advice that was offered. 

Overall we are the stress reliever in most cases.  There are times when we serve as the mediator between with mother and daughter, Bride and Groom-to-be or wiith that uncooperative bridal party member who is just stressing out the Bride. We also come up with solutions to last minute emergencies that most others wouldn't know what to do.  I once had a Bride's officiant back out three days prior to the wedding.  She was a wreck but within 20 minutes of notifying me, we had another minister locked in and the wedding was beautiful.  I just wished she would have called me first before stressing out for an hour and then calling me. Things like that are what we specialize in.  You will probably never find that listed on anyone's site but it's reflected in our clients testimonials.  Wedding planners do so many different things and it's hard to put it into one description.   Most who have used a planner agree that their money was well spent and would not do it any other way. 

Planners are there to assist and help everything run smoothly so the Bride and Groom can enjoy their day.  Some are contracted just for advice, some for the day, some for a certain number of hours and others are full service.  It really depends on what services the Bride has contracted.   If it is getting to be too much, see if your daughter can upgrade her services so that she can relax a little more.  

I hope this helps and I wish you your daughter the best with all the best.   If I can be of any futher assistance, please feel free to contact me. My website is www.alwaysapositiveimage.com 

Deidre Gray

My husband and I had a relatively small wedding (only 60 people attended), and we got a wedding planner (b/c my mom insisted on it). She did a lot of ground work in the beginning, but as the wedding got closer, she sluffed off. (Not to mention that she didn't tell my mom she was pregnant and due around the same time as my wedding until it ws too late in the game to get a new wedding planner!)

Then the day of the wedding, I barely saw my husband during our reception because he was too busy running around and telling the vendors where they needed to be. I assumed this was the wedding planner's job, but she didn't care that the videographers weren't in the room for our Best Man's speech!

But I would assume a wedding planner, just like any other event planner, should take a lot of the stress off by handling all the little details and managing the to-do list?

My mom was in charge of planning my wedding. I never cared too much about the ceremony and she did, so I let her plan it. It was a huge relief but you need to be indifferent to the small stuff in order to really let go and let someone else do the planning. Maybe Jenn cares too much. 

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Yes, I'm a mommy blogger ( http://momgrind.com/ ).

I also write the UpToUs parenting blog ( http://blog.uptous.com/ ).