April 21, 2011

Wedding Planners Should Know Their Limitations!

The last few months have certainly turned out to be busy at No.10 HQ. With clients from both the UK and abroad, there have been plenty of supplier consultations to arrange and attend. Worryingly though, some suppliers have brought to my attention, both socially and professionally the growing trend of wedding planners doubling as designers! This subject was recently discussed by Preston Bailey in his excellent blog which you can read here.
Of course, we all know that for every event we co-ordinate, there will be an element of design within our role. Suppliers who I have spoken to though have told me of instances where they have been presented with multi-paged creative design briefs and been told to just copy them! In an industry which is relatively new to the UK, what we must remember as wedding planners, is that many of the suppliers we recommend often have many more years experience in their field of expertise than we do! That is after all why we recommend them! For any wedding supplier it must be insulting when a wedding planner offers unsolicited and uninvited advice on anything from how a photograph should be taken, how the food should be presented or which flowers should be used and how they should be arranged.

Here is my take on how we, as wedding planners shouldn’t see ourselves.

Don’t inflict a supplier with a design brief and say copy this! Remember that you have sourced and recommend this supplier for their talent, creativity and quality of the service they provide.

Don’t take away from the supplier their chance to present their services and expertise to your clients. These are industry professionals who you will hopefully want to work with again and, have the pleasure of developing a long and happy business relationship.

Don’t recommend suppliers to your clients if you, as their wedding planner know they cannot afford. It may look good on Twitter to say that you taking your clients to high profile suppliers; however knowing your clients budgetary limitations is one of the tasks you are paid for. Not only does this put your clients in an extremely embarrassing situation, it is also a complete waste of the supplier’s time. If you do this, then your name will soon do the rounds as a time waster!

Don’t try to take over the consultation, it’s unnecessary! Your client has already engaged your services so should be happy with their choice. If you go into consultations trying to prove something this will soon become irritating. Remember that your client has come to see the supplier perform, not you! This is the supplier’s chance to promote themselves and their business. It is of course our duty to present an overview of the wedding to the supplier by being helpful and showing that you know and understand your clients’ needs and wishes.

Don’t over involve yourself by telling the supplier how to do their job. This will only cause animosity and resentment which should never ever happen, particularly in front of clients. The same rule applies when dealing with venue staff. Remember that your are an ambassador for our industry and, that there are always other wedding professionals and even wedding planners that may be following you to that venue and, bad reviews travel fast!

One of my least favourite things to do as a wedding planner is telling a supplier that they didn’t get the job. Its never nice but it has to be done. Unfortunately you do hear of wedding planners who put suppliers forward for jobs and, who don’t let them know if their quote was successful. This is basic common courtesy. Worse still is the practice of asking a supplier to quote before they have even met the clients. What purpose does it serve to prevent client and supplier contact? (Unless you’re hiding something or charging commission)

We are only as good as our last wedding. We are paid to plan/organise the show, not take the starring role, I think most of us boast on our websites of our discretion! We should be consumate professionals, not Jacks of All Trades and Masters of None!