Muriel Saldalamacchia
For more than 10 years in the destination wedding business, travelling the world for weddings, Muriel is France based, but has also rocked in Italy few years ago.
Why you need a specialized wedding-planner when planning you destination- wedding.
As today it’s not only trendy to work with a wedding planner to organize your wedding, we now know that it is now absolutely mandatory to work with a wedding planner who is an expert in destination wedding, when you plan a get away.
Where ever you decided to get married away from home, the question of the planning comes immediately.
Then, come three steps of reflexion:
« Do I have to look for a wedding planner who is living near me? – Do I have to look for a wedding planner on the location of the wedding? – And when I find the answer, do I need an expert in destination wedding, or not? »
As I am convinced my mission is to give you the whole informations to help and guide you as carefully as I can, let’s check together the pros and cons of each approach.
Can I hire a wedding-planner who is not on the wedding location?
For sure you can.
You will build a day to day relationship as you are in the same area, with no time zone to manage. You will spend time together so your wedding planner will have time to discover you deeply.
Be careful: Wedding planners are professionals, not best friends you can call each day and nights. Refer to the contract you signed with him/her. Wedding planners are caring and friendly by nature. But as they offer many different services, if you want to be entirely ( and emotionally) supported while the process, hire the wedding planner for a full service planning.
All services are professionals. While your wedding planner is not on the location, you are take the risk of he/she will not know each secret treasures of the area you choose with your lover, your soul mate. The wedding planner will have to make new connections with new local professionals to create the wedding of your dreams. As professionals, most of them can feel comfortable with this way of working. And others, really do not!
When you contact the wedding planner for an inquiry, be honest.
- Tell him/her everything single things you have in mind for your wedding. Do not try to arrange him/her to be friendly. The first contact, the first approach is the most important for your upcoming work together.
- Ask him/her if travels are included. If so, is he/she planning to go there before the wedding, how many times, with or without you…
- Ask the wedding planner the tools he/she’s working with.
- Does he/she use medias, phone, text, mails to have exchanges? Is it 24 hours a day or is the relationship is based on a strict number of appointments? So, you now know: just ask, ask, ask!
Then if he/she doesn’t the place, it is not crippling. A wedding planner must have a wide network. The main thing is that he/she must tell you when it is not possible for him/her to cover the area you are looking for. It is not a bad or bungler wedding planner. Quite the opposite, he/she is honest.
Tips: ask this wedding planner whether he/she can introduce you to a wedding planner on your destination wedding area. Being recommanded facilitates connexions.
Is it better for a couple to hire a wedding-planner on their wedding destination?
Definitely, you made the choice to live smoothly your wedding planning experience. And you are right!
The first great decision you made was to get married, the second one is to hire a wedding planner. Being secured, this is why you both decided to hire a wedding planner.
Feel comfortable to work with a professional who is not living near you. Looking for a local wedding planner is a great choice. Because it is easy for her/him to create and build the wedding you are dreaming of on her/his land.
The local wedding planner knows the place. He/she also works with a network daily. He/she knows the treasure of his/her land. All the best things of the area? Your local wedding planner will know what to offer you. How to customize your dreamed wedding.
Tip: please, pay attention about the difference of a wedding planner in a venue and an independant wedding planner. The Venue’s wedding planner is more a coordinator of the reception as the independant wedding planner will handle all the sides (even the darkest ones) of your wedding planning. For sure, the fisrt one knows exactly how to take advantage of the hotel or restaurant you choose for your wedding. But maybe this will not be as customizable or original as you could wish. The independant Wedding planner is all of this: unique and different weddings each time.
Left one last question: how about my guests, the accomodations, the travels, touring…
Why destination wedding planner are ultimate specialists for your getaway?
These last years, we have seen the appearance of destination wedding planners experts.
It’s not a secret: more than 30% of couple decided in 2014 to get married away from home. Depending the country, this percentage is much higher. When you think about the United States of America, a couple living in Wisconsin who is getting married in Florida, made the choice of destination wedding.
A destination wedding planner is an expert about your wedding for sure, but also for accomodations, making travelling your guests, tours organizing. The destination wedding planner is an expert of every single details that builds your wedding away. Travelling with 10 or 120 guests is the same thing to handle. Not for your money, of course, but the same thing to organize for this expert. Your destination wedding planner knows perfectly how people react when they are jet-lagged, so he/she will guide you about the scheduling of your big day, about the best day for your guest arrivals. Adults, kids, babies.. Everything.
Then, the greatest thing to live with your destination wedding planner ? He/she looooves travelling. Everything is possible for him/her. He can also say « NO ». He/she your best friend ever. Last thing to know about destination wedding plannersexperts: they are geek! > Viber, WhatsApp, Skype, Facetime, timezone managing.. nothing scared him/her! So.. what are you expecting from your wedding planning experience?
For sure, the best one ever!
