Let’s cut right to the chase: planning a wedding these days is a significant financial commitment. And when you’re saving up those hard-earned dollars; whether it’s for a big vacation, a home renovation project, or, in our world, the dreamiest, most important day of your life, you deserve to know that your investment is protected. You would never embark on building a new home without first hiring an experienced project manager to advise and see you through the entire process, right? Well, planning a detailed, largescale wedding is no different.
Just as you entrust the coordination of design details, selection of dependable contractors and budget management to a build manager, so, too, should you wisely choose the team who will guide you through your entire wedding planning process before spending thousands of dollars! At Elevate, we believe that our role as your full service wedding planner is to guide you through every decision, detail, design and logistical consideration in your planning journey, to ensure that your investment is protected, your vision is brought to life, and your expectations are not only met, but exceeded.
However, amidst all of this investment talk, we also absolutely understand that there are a lot of buzzwords flying around these days – luxury v. intimate // partial v. full // designer v. planner v. coordinator – all of which make the research and selection process feel that much more confusing and intimidating. In an effort to shed more light on what a full service planner actually does for you, we have rounded up a short list of the various reasons why we believe it is such a worthy and critical investment.
So, why a full service wedding planner?
01. We Help you Set Expectations Right Out of the Gate
You’ve just gotten engaged, spread the news with the world, and are now sitting down to hash out the first things the internet tells you you need to establish: your guest list and budget. You build out your initial budget based on what Google tells you most weddings should cost, then you start reaching out to those “big ticket” vendors who are high up on your priority list. You enjoy beautiful conversations and feel like they are definitely “the one,” then they send along their proposal for services. Sticker shock sets in.
Does this feel like you?! You aren’t alone. In fact, many of the initial conversations we are having with our new clients are based on the exasperation they are feeling before they really even get into the really FUN part of planning. And exasperation is the very last thing we believe you should be feeling when planning your day!
As veterans in the industry with hundreds of connections and stacks of information on baseline pricing, it is our belief that hiring and collaborating with your full service planner right away will help you tremendously down the line. We are there from the start to help you understand what things cost, develop your budget, plan for the items you most definitely need (and strike those you don’t), and work with your team to ensure we are stretching your hard-earned dollars in the very best ways. By carefully choosing your full service planner right out of the gate, you won’t end up venue-poor, you won’t be making decisions you later regret, and you can rest assured knowing the work is getting done while you’re able to be out there living your busy lives and enjoying your engagement.
02. We Are Laser Focused on your Vision, and Considering Your Photo Gallery From Day One
- Outdoor / Whimsical / French Blue
- Ballroom / Modern / Black & White
Do these descriptions bring about a certain kind of image in your mind? They certainly do for us! From the moment we meet you, hear your love story, and gain a better understanding of your overall wedding vision, we are already constructing your details and envisioning the imagery in the back of our minds. This is extremely beneficial to the overall aesthetic of your day, because it ensures both continuity around the imagery, as well as a cohesive and well thought-out story, told through photographs. When you bring on a full service planning and design team, we are able to support you through the hundreds of decisions by always keeping our eye on the big picture: something that may sound lofty in theory, but absolutely invaluable in practice.
03. We Take the Communications and Busy Work Off of Your Plate
Captain obvious here, but this major perk of a full service planner simply cannot be overlooked. Many of our clients are career-driven professionals with already busy calendars – so between celebrating your engagement AND planning a detail-focused wedding, it can all become a lot, rather quickly!
Hiring a full service planner allows you to lean on our insider knowledge, pre-established relationships and efficient methods of communication to handle all of the in-between conversations and negotiations that are all part of a typical life of a wedding. In fact, we believe that it is our duty to avoid burdening you with logistical questions and the many minute details that come with a highly designed, logistically complex day, and instead let you enter your wedding feeling confident in your plans and free of stress and worry!
04. We Are Your Innovators… and Your Editors
We often joke that we have a love/hate relationship with internet searching and databases like Pinterest. We love ’em for the beautiful inspiration they provide (it’s true; we use them all the time to build out our own design boards!), but we absolutely despise how much pressure and unrealistic expectations they can put on couples to a) make every detail picture-perfect and b) make them believe that all designs are created equal.
Because we have been with you since the infancy stages of your wedding plans, we already have intimate knowledge of your priorities, your overall vision, and of course, any of those more grey-area categories, such as whether upgrading certain design features or flexing the budget is a possibility…or not. Because of this, we are here to simultaneously share with you everything that can be achieved based on your budget and priorities, but also help you edit down those thousands of notes, ideas and pins to what is both realistic AND will help to elevate the overall aesthetic of your day.
05. We Can Support you Through Sticky Situations
By bringing on a collaborative team of veterans in the industry, chances are… we’ve probably seen it before, and can help answer those random questions or issues that will inevitably come up throughout our time together, such as:
- Do I need event insurance?
- How do I eloquently indicate an ‘adults only’ event?
- What happens when a family member crosses the line?
- Who should be paying for what?
- Do my vendor contracts allow for COVID and other related issues?
- … among many, many others. 🙂
Regardless of the circumstance, whenever an issue arises, we believe that it is our responsibility to troubleshoot and provide solutions for you, so that you can remain in the moment and focused on enjoying your planning process and dream day!
06. No Brainer: You Have an Army at Your Disposal
Truly nothing can explain the feeling of knowing that your planning team has completely taken the reins on event day – taking command of the many vendor deliveries and questions that may arise and coordinating all logistics, sound checks and visual details. Should any issues arise during production, it is our top priority that you two are none the wiser, and are able to blissfully enjoy your day, feeling confident and assured that your team knows exactly how to advocate for you and allow the day to unfold the way you have always dreamed.
After months (sometimes years) of careful planning and detailed discussions, your wedding day is the ultimate culmination of all that you have envisioned and focused on – by choosing a trustworthy full service planning team, you can rest assured that your day will be flawlessly executed; exceeding both you AND your guests’ expectations at every turn.
At Elevate Events, we would be honored to collaborate with you on all aspects of your wedding design and planning, and look forward to working with you to create the design and experience that best suits you. Please contact us today to start your wedding planning journey – we can’t wait to tell your story!
