Most people call us wedding planners, or wedding stylists, some like to call us wedding coordinators, event managers and personal assistants. It’s pretty safe to say that at Girl Friday Weddings we tick all of those boxes. Our profession has evolved because finally couples are realising (a) how much work goes into the day and (b) how much stress it actually entails. Well at least, they are the two most common things we hear when we first meet our couples.
Many dismiss our service as a luxury, but it may really surprise you to learn that consulting with an expert will not only give you peace of mind but you will have access to experienced professionals who can work together with you to help save you money, helping you to cover the initial investment in the first place. It’s not rocket science; it’s working smarter – not harder.
Advice.
You don’t know what you don’t know! Period. It’s comforting to all of our couples to know that they are able to turn to us for advice whenever they need it. Whether it be running your quotes by us to find out if they are reasonable, short-listing a hard to find vendor, or locating the best vendor or navigating your way around formatting your formalities for the reception. We can help.
Consolidating Your Vendor Bookings.
Because we do this all the time, we’re good at it. We know it. In fact, one of the more frustrating parts of our job is reviewing our clients’ vendor list, only to discover that money could easily be saved by merely choosing one vendor instead of booking 3. We know the tricks and traps of the trade. While it may cost you a modest amount to engage our services, we’ll quickly prove our value to you. Sit down with us to talk through your vendor bookings for the day, and we’ll talk to you about consolidating as many as possible to help save you money.
Contract Negotiation.
Even if you’re adamant that you don’t need a planner for the day, you’re biggest spend will usually be booking your venue. For such a significant investment, wouldn’t you prefer to have a professional review your contract and negotiate on the final inclusions and investment. We often meet with couples who find out about additional expenses like cake surcharges, additional venue hire, and service fees after the fact. If you have an experienced professional on your side, you’ll not only know about your inclusions (and exclusions) but you’ll have our help with negotiating the cost.
Confirmations and Runsheets.
With our half and full day coordination packages we offer a vendor confirmation service. We’ll get in touch with each of your vendors and put the run-sheet together for the evening – helping you structure your formalities. This is a great opportunity for us to immerse ourselves in the running of the day and usually the point where we’re able to identify anything you may have missed, or haven’t considered. We like to call it our “sanity check”.
Rebecca and Jeremy get married over the new year period and used our help to pull it all together over a very busy time. Image courtesy Blue Tulip Imaging.
What you DON’T want to deal with on your day. We’ve said it before but we’ll say it again. Are you really prepared to take on the stress of being bride and wedding planner on the day? Wouldn’t you rather delegate, than do? We’ll be as “present” or as “invisible” as you want us to be. And just in case you think that you don’t need a helping hand on the day, here are a things that have gone wrong on the day, and our couples have been blissfully unaware while we work behind the scenes:
1. Missing centrepieces.
Florist has not delivered all the centrepieces for the reception. We are missing 4 out of 10 centrepieces. Solution. Girl Friday Weddings calls the florist, florist comes back in to open shop, we quickly make up some remaining centrepieces and hand deliver to reception with 5 minutes to spare.
2. The over eager guest
This guest has consumed far too much and was quickly becoming very ill. Solution. Girl Friday Weddings quietly removes the guest to the outside of the building. We then work with the caterers who had the liquor license to decide whether to call the ambulance or a cab.
3. One wedding and a funeral.
We arrive much earlier than necessary to McKell park to set up for an outdoor ceremony. We discover another older couple dressed formally with a folding table inspecting the same area. They are expecting 100 guests for their son’s memorial service in around an hour. They claim they booked the park with the council but have no paperwork. Solution. A very sad situation, but we do have the booking and the paperwork. We were finally able to encourage their group to move to another area of the park.
Rebecca and Jeremy get married at McKell Park Darling point, despite the “double booking”. Image courtesy Blue Tulip Imaging.
We really could go on and on about why you need a wedding planner. We’ve simply produced enough weddings to understand how much work it takes in the lead up and on the day. And more to the point, we love what we do. We understand how much of an emotional and financial investment producing a wedding can be. If you want to speak to the experts, than we’d love to have an initial no obligation chat about whether we’re right for you.
