Ten Reasons to Hire a Wedding Planner for your Destination Wedding

Planning a destination wedding can be vey stressful and time consuming. Whether you are planning an exotic Caribbean getaway, or a continental US getaway, hiring a trusted professional can help make the planning process much easier. Stacy Horn, a destination wedding planner located in beautiful Northern Michigan and owner of Juniper + Lace Events, is sharing her top 10 reasons to hire a wedding planner for your destination wedding on the blog today. 

 

          1. Enjoy your own party.
Trust me, the last thing you want to be doing on your wedding day is fielding calls, hanging garland, wrangling the bridal party, and setting out all those hand-stamped ribbon-tied favors. Hire a planner so you can be present in the moments that matter and really enjoy the people who have traveled from afar to celebrate you and your soulmate.

 

          2. Give Mom, Aunt Betsy, and the rest of the family the weekend off.
You might think it’s a good idea to just delegate all the things to your type A family members. Many a lovely wedding has been achieved with this strategy. Many a family member has also been traumatized from the experience. Hire a wedding planner to handle the details so that your mom, your friends, and all your aunts can experience the day as guests and not workers. Trust me, it helps keep those relationships loving for years to come.

 

          3. Leverage the insider intel.
Having a great Pinterest board is one thing. Finding all the pieces that go into making a great Pinterest-inspired experience is a whole different animal. Linens, lights, those pretty wooden chairs, the vintage china, the watercolor menus, the alpaca…the list often reaches twenty different sources to bring just the right pieces into play. A wedding planner knows the local and not so local resources and has the vendor connections to bring your vision to life.

 

          4. Bring out the best in your budget.
Definitely a bummer when you’ve spent half your budget on an awesome band from two states away, remembered you needed to give them food and hotel rooms for the night, and find yourself coming up short on the bar budget. A good dance party usually needs both and a good wedding planner is savvy with costs before the checks get signed. Hire a planner to help direct budget decisions and get the best impact for the elements of your party that matter most to you.

 

          5. Preserve your sanity.
Sometimes it’s all sunshine and rainbows from the moment that diamond ring comes out on bended knee until the last guest drives away from your wedding weekend Sunday brunch. Once in a while (ok, more than once in a while), family and friends chime in well-meaning opinions that throw a wrench in the idyllic planning process. And once in a while, (occasionally twice) you might get a little tired of the menu, napkin, and flower discussions taking over date night conversations and so many of the conversations. And on rare occasions, unnamed people feel like someone else has taken over their body and they hear murmurs of “bridezilla” behind their back. Mostly in movies, of course. Don’t let that be you. Hire a wedding planner to be a neutral third party during the planning process, someone who helps navigate the opinions and emotions before they bring drama.

 

           6. Send in your stunt double.
You live eight states away from the dreamy destination of your upcoming nuptuals and you just need a pair of eyes on that fireplace mantle to make sure the 24”x36” love poem art and the asymmetrical floral will look balanced with that adjacent bar and that the mahogany chairs aren’t too dark for the black and gold carpet. Cash in on your airline miles or, better yet, hire a wedding planner, aka stunt double, to be your “feet on the ground”, present when you can’t be to work with vendors in the planning and execution of your vision.

 

          7. See your Pinterest board in real life…only better.
We love your Pinterest boards, I promise. They actually inspire a lot of greatness. BUT…if you’re seeing your dream vision all over Pinterest, chances are we and half of your guests may have seen it, too. Let’s take it up a level, make it personal, bespoke, conversational. Hire a wedding planner to take your vision to the next level with his or her expertise on trends and knowledge of resources. Then yours can be the wedding on Pinterest, inspiring others.

 

          8. Stay in front of the curtain.
Magic happens on wedding days. The happy vibes, the pretty décor, the jammin’ music, the really incredible food. Magic takes a lot of people to accomplish and magic has a backstage, behind the scenes, secret life that doesn’t show up, even on Instagram stories. A couple linens arrive stained and we re-work the escort card display to share the gift table and no one is wiser. A hot box of filet mignon gets loaded onto the wrong catering truck and everyone gets another round of wine poured over a lingering salad course and no one is wiser. There are stories that we vendors swap at happy hours in quiet winter months. They shouldn’t be your stories, though. Hire a wedding planner to help solve any issues that may come up on the wedding day without your or your guests knowing that there was ever a problem. Magic.

 

          9. Keep it lively.
A good celebration balances anticipation with delight, makes space for guests to enjoy an experience, and then moves on to the next moment. Seamlessly. Before the crowds get restless and thinks about leaving early. Hire a wedding planner to be the director, making sure that the energy and momentum of the party stays lively.

 

          10.  End the night on a high note
Drunk Uncle Joe should not be on a ladder at the end of the night taking down décor. This one is a no brainer. Hire a wedding planner to pack up your personal items, cards, gifts, and décor at the end of the night so that you and your guests can all get to the after-party. Or so you all can get to bed. Either is a worthy goal.

 

Venor Credits:

Photography: Carrie House Photography

Venue: Black Star Farms

Planning: Juniper and Lace Events

Décor and Rentals: Monstrey MacDonald 

Draping and Chandeliers: Sensational Events

Florals: 307 Events

Glassware: Gigi & LaClede