Article by Anne Lim

There are so many things to do and you have limited time. The list of tasks that you need to work out has piled up like a mountain and you have no idea on where to start!

Even a simple beach wedding requires countless hours of careful planning and a wedding planner might just be the solution for the both of you. Wedding planners are professionals who have countless experience in setting up a memorable wedding. They know where to get the best bargains and the best venue that you should choose. They advice you on the possible areas where things might go hay wire.

You can either engage the full services of the wedding planner or to get them to do specific tasks. This all goes down to how budget you have on hand. If you are tight on budget, you might want to choose the option to engage a wedding planner to be in charge of certain tasks such as to coordinate the event on the big day and to look through your contracts. One of the tedious things to do in planning for a wedding is to look through contracts. Sometimes it might be easier to get help from a wedding planner to look through and negotiate on contracts.

If you have decided to engage the services of a wedding planner, you might want to note the points below:

- Look at the resume of the wedding planner.
How many years of experience do the person has and what is his or her forte? Does he specialize in planning for beach wedding?

- The professional fees.
How does the wedding planner charge? Usually the fees are a percentage of your wedding budget. But if you are asking the wedding planner to perform certain specific tasks, you might want to negotiate the price upfront to avoid misunderstanding.

- Chemistry.
This is important. If you do not ‘click’ with the wedding planner, you might find it difficult. The wedding planner might not be able to meet your expectations and you find yourself having problems in communicating to each other on the needs.
Find someone which both of you are comfortable with.

If you do not have the budget to seek the services of the wedding planner, the next best thing to do is to look for friends who can help you. You might be surprised to find that some of your friends might have good connections with the vendors and help you secure a good deal. Your friends might double up as the coordinator for big day too.

Thus it all voices down to whether both of you find that there is need to engage the services of a wedding planner to help you plan for the big day!

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Planning a wedding can be overwhelming, confusing and stressful – despite all the excitement of organising your special day, for many brides it can all get too much. A wedding planner can be a solution – no matter what your budget is – and help you to save money, plan efficiently and most of all, get the wedding you want.

Consulting an expert takes the pressure off you as the sole organiser (let’s face it, not many men take an active role in the whole process!) and can be a welcome change from pushy and conflicting advice that you might get from friends and family.

If you choose to go with a wedding planner, make sure you research them and their company carefully. Word of mouth recommendation is a great way to find someone you can trust, and meeting someone in person can help you get a feel for whether you can get along with this person for the next few months! When you’re looking for professional guidance, you need to bear in mind that your ideas might not be feasible for your budget – you want to strike a balance between being able to trust your planner’s experience and knowing that they will do their best to accommodate all your wishes. Also make sure they have insurance and that their fee is all inclusive so you don’t get stung with any extra charges later on. Some wedding planners will be on hand all the way up to and including your wedding day, so they are available to deal with any last minute issues or wobbles.

A wedding planner can help you in the following ways:

- Save time. On average, brides spend around 200 hours organising her wedding, which adds up to nearly six weeks in total!

- Save money. Add ‘wedding’ or ‘bridal’ onto pretty much any product and you can be assured that a significant price mark-up will also be added. Sad, but true. A wedding planner can help you to get the best deals, the best prices and show you how to cut corners and save some pennies.

- Provide an honest opinion. You might have your heart set on releasing 100 white doves at the peak of your ceremony, or wearing a princess dress to rival Katie Price’s pink meringue, but whereas your friends and family may not want to hurt your feelings by telling you it’s a bad idea, your wedding planner will be honest and find a way to compromise on cost and feasibility. Especially where your wedding dress is concerned – it’s great to have an objective eye to help you find the right one.

- Give you direction. You might know a great florist, a wonderful caterer and have your wedding dress bought and accessorised, but there are often areas of wedding organisation that brides are clueless about. A wedding planner can fill in the gaps in your knowledge and help you to achieve your goals.

- Help you make decisions. If you have a tendency to be indecisive, or are simply reluctant to make a big decision about your wedding without help, a wedding planner can help you to make the right choice – from wedding favours to your venue.

- Be your back-up. Wedding planners are generally creative, enthusiastic and very well organised people! They may come up with ideas you haven’t thought of, and have experience of situations where you need a back up plan or emergency fixes. Having someone who knows exactly what they’re doing can ease a lot of the stress of planning your wedding.

- Negotiate. Wedding planners are there to do the hard work while you’re busy at work, busy with life or otherwise unable to do it yourself. They can negotiate better prices and work out contracts with suppliers.

A wedding planner can be a worthwhile investment and end up saving you money on your overall budget, even including their fee. If you feel you need professional organisation to help you plan your wedding then start looking into reputable wedding planners – check out wedding website forums, message boards, listings and reviews to get an idea of reputations and styles and find someone who’s right for you and your wedding.

This video demonstrates the use of a Negotiation Planning tool which is designed to assist sales negotiators to determine the impact of concessions given to customers and the concessions received from customers in order to reach an equitable outcome.
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