Are you planning a Key West wedding? Here at Plan Your Key West Wedding agree that this is the best choice you could make… aside from marrying your dream partner. The island is a fantastic and magical spot to celebrate your wedding. See, there’s nothing as immensely fulfilling as having the perfect wedding you’ve always envisioned.
As seasoned wedding professionals, we see a bit of everything in the wedding arena. From complete do-it-yourselfers to couples who are 100% hands-off during the planning process, we have seen it all. Wherever you fall on the spectrum of involvement, don’t assume you don’t need help, especially when planning a destination wedding.
Weddings are difficult enough to plan. But trying to plan a destination wedding — a wedding in another location far from where you live — has a whole other set of challenges.
Because of this, we recommend that every couple has a wedding planner.
The bad news? This feels like one more expense to add to the growing list.
The good news? Hiring a wedding planner can actually save you money because they know the local area and can give you all kinds of useful insider tricks.
So, is a wedding planner worth it? Yes, absolutely.
However, one question remains; how do you choose a wedding planner? This guide will tell you what to look for in your planner and what questions to ask before hiring one.
What to Consider When Choosing Your Wedding Planner
As you start looking for a wedding planner, it can feel overwhelming — after all, Key West is full of amazing wedding planners. To make the process easier, let’s look at what to consider when choosing your wedding planner.n.
Budget
The first step for any part of wedding planning is to set your budget. But make sure it is realistic.
How much are you willing to spend on your wedding planner? You need to set your budget and then find potential planners who fall within your price range and can work within the constraints of your budget. Be willing to be flexible with this as you may find, as you start your research that your initial budget was too low.
You also want to ask if the planner has a minimum budget that they work within, as some planners do have a minimum budget.
Personality
What type of personality are you looking for in a planner? Chances are, you want someone who makes you feel at ease and someone who is good at communicating. But you may also find that you are looking for other characteristics too. Do you want a consummate professional or someone who is laid back and up for a cocktail after the cake tasting? Or maybe you want to find someone who keeps you laughing because you know you will be a hot mess the day of the wedding. Think through what type of person you think you would work best with.
Fundamentally, finding a planner you’re comfortable with is critical. Remember, you’ll be spending a lot of time with them and the worst is if you don’t like your planner.
You also need to check on their communication, listening, and, most importantly, enthusiasm. Having someone who makes you feel excited and cheerful throughout the planning process would be best. Look for someone organized and ready to help you with whatever you need.
To gauge their personality, engage them in a real conversation. Get your planner on a call or schedule in-person interviews before hiring them to see if they’ll be a good fit.
Services offered
First, you must understand what you need and what the planner can provide. Some planners only offer full-service packages, while others specialize in certain areas, offering partial planning. If you know you don’t want to worry about all of the small details (or are just too busy also), you may want to consider full-service planners. They take care of almost every single element of your wedding.
However, if you want to plan most of the wedding, you might prefer the partial planning service. That way, you can pick out which aspects of your wedding you’d like help with while still being free to tackle tasks yourself.
The other common service option is hiring a day-of coordinator (or some people call it a month-of coordinator). This type of coordination is the bare bones of planning but is great if you want to take care of all of the details, leaving them to coordinate the vendors and the wedding party on the day of the wedding.
You can find a whole blog on this topic here.
Questions to Ask Your Wedding Planner
As you start narrowing down the candidates for your wedding planner, you’ll want to make sure you get enough information about them to make an informed decision. While these aren’t necessarily questions you need to ask outright, these are questions that you should have answered, whether through their website, through a phone call, or in any information they send over.
Make sure you know:
1. How many weddings have they planned? Also, make sure you see examples of weddings that are similar to your vision.
2. What is their preferred planning style and how would they handle unexpected challenges?
3. Make sure you know a breakdown of all of their fees and any additional costs that you may be charged.
4. How long do they take to respond to emails or phone calls?
5. Can you book only the vendors that the planner recommends or are you free to hire someone else?
6. How many weddings do they handle each weekend, and will they personally oversee your wedding?
Knowing the answers to these questions will give you a sense of their experience, practical skill level, and adaptability to your needs. It will give you a feel for their work ethic and whether or not the three of you will be able to form a solid working relationship.
Picking a wedding planner may seem challenging, but with these considerations in mind, you’ll be closer to finding the perfect Key West wedding planner.
Start your search today by looking through our directory of Key West wedding planners.
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