Hi all you beautiful brides! How has wedding planning been for you? I mean, really…how has planning been going for you?
Are you stressed? Overwhelmed?
Trust me, I know the feeling. My name is Ashlee Kautz, and I am the Owner, Creative Director and Lead Planner of Treasured Heart Events, a wedding planning and coordination company in Fort Worth, TX.
Yes yes, I know, I am a wedding planner, so it might seem weird that I am the one writing this blog post that is conveniently titled “4 mistakes brides make when they don’t hire a wedding planner”…but let me explain. I wasn’t always a planner. My big sister got married back in August of 2015, and at the time, I was a TCU Freshman Math Major with no idea where to even start with helping plan a wedding! So when I say I understand the stress and overwhelming feelings, I can truly say I experienced it first-hand. I want to explain to all you lovely Mrs.-to-be’s what you are missing out on if you don’t hire a wedding planner.
You go over your budget.
Does this one sound counter-intuitive? I bet it does. Planners cost money! Trust me, I know. It’s how I make a living! But did you know that on average, brides spend 15%-30% (and sometimes even 50%!) more than they budgeted for their wedding days!?
Here’s where the planner comes in.
We do weddings every single weekend and work on them tirelessly during the weeks, so we know how much things realistically cost. You want top shelf alcohol? Great, but add $3000 to your bar budget. You want specific flowers that are out of season? Amazing, they’re going to look great, but add another $2000 to get them shipped in from the other side of the world. Do you see where I am going with this?
As a planner, I always start with “give me your total number you want to spend on your wedding”, and we break it out from there. We give you realistic numbers to look at based on your budget, and we show you where you can save more. We also know vendors that fit your pricing, and we also can pull some strings for you if you love something in particular, but it doesn’t quite fit in the budget.
Because we work with these vendors all the time, we can normally cover the cost of our own fee in discounts we get you with other vendors!
We are also the sounding board of reason when tough money decisions come into play. Do you really need that envelope liner on your invitations? Do you really need those extra large centerpieces on every single table in your reception? Answer: Probably not. But we will help you find a way to still get the look you want without going over budget!
The Pinterest Wedding Trap.
Pinterest is an amazing source of inspiration for your wedding! Did you catch that?? Inspiration! I love pinterest, I use it for every single wedding when designing the ceremony, reception pieces, invitation design, and what kind of cake we are going to use. The issue that brides without a planner run into though is instead of being inspired by pinterest photos, you end up copying them as a whole. When you copy, you can accidentally lose your personality. Your voice gets lost somewhere amongst the picturesque styled table with $87 flatware next to each plate. There are plenty of ways to use pinterest to help spark your creative side, but you need a planner to help call you on your copy! Those photos are so beautiful, and of course they deserve to be there because of how special they are!
Go one step further with me: how can we use those photos to bring in bits of your personality to the wedding?
Do you and your fiancé love drinking wine together? Let’s talk about doing custom wine corks as a favor! These are little things that can be missed (that you will look back on and appreciate) if you don’t hire a planner to help you push past the urge to copy those pinterest pictures.
Your Wedding Day Becomes Stressful For Your Entire Family.
I know this one from experience. If you are a bride (or a sister of the bride trying to help her out like I was) money talks, style types, and food tastes are going to grind some gears in the process. As a planner, I have seen this SO many times, and planners often have great recommendations to keep everyone happy!
Here is an example for you: I have a bride who is getting married this summer, and she wants a clean, elegant, and neutral wedding. She wants white and cream florals, white linens, gray napkins, and simple centerpieces. Beautiful! Great ideas, it’s going to be gorgeous! But your mom might have some other ideas that are very different from yours. Mom wants lots of pops of color, big elaborate centerpieces, colorful napkins, the whole shebang. Also, so beautiful! Also, great ideas! However, this is polar opposite of what the bride was envisioning!
When you have a planner, she can really combine both ideas to keep the peace, but still give both sides what they want!
Here is where we landed: bridesmaids in mauve, groomsmen in black suits, white table linens, mauve napkins with gold chargers, only white flowers for the bride and groom, colorful bouquets for the bridesmaids and mauve-infused boutonnières for the groomsmen, one-fourth of the arrangements are tall with color and three-fourths of the arrangements are small and neutral! When I showed them these ideas, they both loved it! Planners have the ability to objectively look at all the ideas, compare them with wedding trends, and show you something that truly makes everyone happy on wedding day WHILE staying inside budget.
Your Wedding Day Becomes Stressful For You.
You’ve planned and planned and confirmed details with vendors and finalized the guest count and decided on the signature cocktails…now, who is going to make sure it all happens the way you planned it when the big day arrives?
When you don’t hire a planner, your mom, MOH, or family friend ends up trying to set everything up, bugging you multiple times when you are trying to get your hair and makeup done to check their work, and panicking you when the florist is 20 minutes late with the bouquets and centerpieces.
When you hire a planner, you free up all of your loved ones to also enjoy your wedding celebration just as much as you will! No one is stuck with “trash duty” or “play our ceremony music for us”, planners have you covered and also have the experience to do it well! Not to mention, when you don’t have a planner, your photographer normally ends up doing both jobs, which means they can’t fully devote their attention to your photos when they are making sure the right items got moved from point A to point B! You actually end up getting less photos, just ask Avery. (So let’s let Avery do the best she can do at her job!)
I know, this is a TON of information, and a LOT to think about, but that’s why planners do what we do! We are there for you to help you through the most joyful time in your life, and we make it FUN for you the whole way! We keep numbers in mind, but also keep love at the center of it all. We make sure your day is all about YOU and your future HUSBAND, and who knows…you might just gain a life-long friend along the way 🙂
With Love,
Ashlee Kautz
Treasured Heart Events
Owner | Creative Director | Lead Planner
C: 972.261.8900
