Why don't you offer just Day of planning as part of your services?

                  Why don't you offer just Day of planning as part of your services? 

Recently, I found myself making tons of changes to my business. Changes that I know will be overall beneficial to my clients now and those in the near future. Changes that I knew would better me as a planner and changes that I know will overall be so much more rewarding to not just myself but, also to my clients big day. I recently stopped offering just "Day of" planning and coordination... Why? To be very honest, I am very type A and detail oriented individual and I do feel that the title itself doesn't really justify to what a true professional wedding planner job fully entails. At the end of the day, my ultimate goal as a planner is providing my clients with superb customer services and experiences and moving this direction allows me to fully provide just that and so much more to each and every single client. Allow me to explain the differences. See... Day of planner really means: Someone whom you hire for the day of the wedding to oversee all your vendors, details etc right? But, let's be honest... How many times beforehand do you contact your Day of planner? (Before your big day)? Ok, my point!... 

I recently found myself working with "Day of" clients a month out even a few months before depending on the needs of the client. It became exhausting and to be fair to myself and business ethics, I changed my entire concept and now offer "Month of" planning combined with "Day of" planning. It's been a world of a difference. I am more involved, educated and aware of all your wedding logistics and not just playing the guessing game. While being more involved I can offer and take over on some or most vendor communications (I, of course, copy my couples in all correspondence so that we are all on the same page) and this way, I allow my clients to chime in on communications overall. Believe it or not, the more your planner knows the better the flow on the day of and, after all doesn't this just makes more sense now that I elaborated on the differences right?. 

I know when planning a wedding budget is everything, but let's be honest would you cut corners on the one vendor that brings you peace of mind? The one vendor you are trusting to bring together your entire wedding and flow. I know depending on the services you will hire your planner for that it comes with a fee of course,.... but you are paying for peace of mind, experience and their expertise so invest wisely and assure that your planner offers you all the services that will guarantee to bring you peace of mind. A certified planner also has a few extra perks you really know they are well-trained and educated. So invest wisely my friends.

See, we are trained to look over all the logistics that maybe you wouldn't even considered thinking about like for example: Would you know how to begin to contact vendors and obtain copies of their COI's? (We do).. What is even a COI? You are probably saying to yourself right now, most venues will require all vendors that work on the property to provide a copy of their (Certificate of Insurance). Would you know to assure your rental companies and sometimes catering companies assure to take care of set up of tables, chairs and rentals, etc? We look and  review invoices and contracts to make sure nothing is overlooked. And, while you might get a lesser expensive proposal from another vendor on the rentals will they just deliver these items to the venue and take care of set up? Then you find yourself asking who is going to set those up to your client? Our jobs is to guide our client, educate you through this planning process and make sure nothing is overlooked or off from any vendor and if something is missing then our job is to advice you on the proper protocol. 

See how it's so much more than just Day of planning is in the title? Here's a list of just some services a planner will take care of for you while working with you for the very least a month before:

-We conduct a venue walk-through, at least a month before the wedding

-Depending on the venue we might be required by the venue to attend your final planning meeting at the venue

-We also depending on the venue need to request Certificates of Insurances (This is something we can't do in a week or at least shouldn't be doing the week of your wedding).

-Some venues make vendors sign waiver policies for the venue and this is part of a planner's world.

-We like to review contracts before hand, meet with you before hand to go over details etc. 

-We prepare timelines, distribute and communicate with all vendors, 

-We also create schedules for load-in and load-out for each vendor depending on the venue and at times find ourselves creating floor plans of your venue to scale. 

-Communicate with all vendors to assure timeline and schedules are received and answer any questions they might inquire about. And, of course everything else involved for the day of itself.

I, also create new packages to reflect these changes and we are now offering planning for "Month of" as early as 3 months before along with "Day of" planning and, I also created a new package for clients that will like for us to be involved in pre-planning logistics as early as 6 months before the big day. It's just so much more beneficial for you as the client and for us as the planner and it makes the world of a difference believe me. During my changes, I came up with this concept for packages, because I honestly put together the amount of time, energy and labor involved beforehand, and I factored all this together. so I made sure the new packages covers the necessary time needed for these new package experiences.

These are just a few bullet points on things and items we as planners take on before the big day so "yes" there's no such thing as just "Day of" planning without doing some leg work before the big day.. 

I hope whoever reads this can benefit fully from this post and choose to invest in the vendor that brings you peace of mind at the end of the day!

Happy Planning~ xoxo Jess

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