Planning Your Wedding: What’s It Worth to You?
Planning a wedding often trips up new couples who have never been through the process. They are shocked when they realize planning an event of this magnitude takes far more time, resources, and know-how than they had expected. Wedding planning is essentially project management: the scale and scope of the project extends across multiple months (sometimes years), involves a multitude of stakeholders and experts, and requires a knowledgeable and personable manager to pull it altogether while keep the train moving down the tracks through establishing and meeting deadlines.
All this being said, I often hear on social media the train of thought that “I would much rather save the money and do it all myself”. For serious Type A folks with time on their hands, this is a daunting but achievable goal! But for the vast majority of couples who hire me (many in medicine, tech, graduate school, lawyers, etc.), time is in short supply and their weeks are already packed. They need the help of a trusted professional and an easy approach to planning to make it happen. This is why we designed a “menu” for our internal vendors, where couples can choose their floral, place settings, furniture, decor, bar menu, and cake with a simple PDF form. This, in addition to highly curated options for each couple for their catering, photographers, music, and more, results in a positive and fun planning experience.
Once recent couple that came to ALTAR needing planning services had a tall order: both lawyers, with a baby on the way, and about six weeks to make it all happen. Miraculously, we pulled off a 65 person wedding overlooking the valleys of Kohala, and the refrain I heard from the family and couple was: “that was easy”, “total peace of mind”, “I can’t believe how much your team did!”. In the end, not giving up ample amounts of time (along with the massive amounts of stress) or needing to call on their busy families for help was far more worth it to this particular couple.
When you go to plan your wedding, what will be worth it to you? Discounts or coming in below budget? Finding the most aligned vendors? Saving time and stress? Having fun, being relaxed, and enjoying the process? Before you begin, establish a budget with your fiance, and hone in on your shared values for this experience. You won’t regret taking the time to do so!
