What does a wedding planner do?
What does a wedding planner do? Most answers talk about checklists. Ours starts somewhere else. For a wedding that runs over several days, in another country, with guests arriving from three continents, the answer is most of what nobody sees. It is Friday evening on a terrace above the lake. Your guests have flown in from Riyadh, New York, Mumbai and London. Each was met at arrivals. Nobody wondered which car was theirs. The welcome dinner starts on time, the musicians begin as the sun goes down, and the two of you are at the table, not at the door. That is the job. Everything that makes that evening possible, and every evening after it. What does a wedding planner do when the wedding is abroad? At home, a wedding is usually one day. Abroad, it becomes three or four: a welcome evening, the ceremony, the party, and a long lunch the morning after. Some of our couples celebrate in two countries, with one wedding in Italy and another in London. A destination wedding planner takes charge of all of it, so there is one person who knows every detail and one plan that everyone follows, from the first conversation to the last guest’s flight home. Finding the right venue Choosing the venue is one of the first things a wedding planner does, and one of the most important. Most of our couples marry in Italy, where we are from: on Lake Como, the Amalfi Coast or Capri, in Tuscany, Sicily or Puglia. Others choose Switzerland, Portugal, France, Austria or the Cotswolds. A planner’s job is not to show you the most photographed venue, but to find the one that fits your wedding. It needs to be big enough for both families, right for your traditions, and able to host a three-day celebration as easily as a single evening. We visit each place, ask the questions couples don’t think to ask, and tell you honestly when somewhere isn’t right. Planning the guest experience For many of our couples, how their guests are looked after matters as much as the wedding itself. So a large part of what a planner does happens around the celebrations, not only during them. That means arranging how everyone arrives, where they stay, and how they move between hotel, villa and venue, by car or by boat. It means planning the days in between, so guests who have flown in from Dubai or New York have something to look forward to: a day on the lake, a lunch in the Tuscan countryside, a morning at a vineyard on Etna. And it means thinking about each person, from older relatives who need an easier day to guests whose food or faith needs care. When it is done well, your guests are still talking about the celebration on the flight home. Bringing traditions together Many of our weddings join two families, two cultures, sometimes two faiths. A Gulf wedding may need a separate celebration for the women. An Indian wedding often runs over three days, from the haldi to the sangeet. A Chinese wedding may include a tea ceremony for the elders. Here, a planner’s role is to understand what matters to each family and build the celebration around it: the order of events, the menus, who stands where and when. Both traditions honoured, neither diluted. Design, and the party Design-led wedding planners and producers such as us, also bring the look of the wedding together. We work with florists, lighting teams, musicians and many more specialist supliers, so the welcome dinner, the ceremony and the party feel like one wedding, not the work of five different suppliers. That includes the moments in between: the outfit changes, the tables, the light as evening falls. And then the party itself: the band, the late-night food, the after-party nobody wants to leave. What does a wedding planner do on the day? On the wedding day, the planners team makes sure everything happens as planned, and handles anything that doesn’t. Roberta is there personally at every wedding, from the first arrival to the last car. She doesn’t hand you off: there is a team behind her, never in front of her. Suppliers know where to be. Timings move when the weather does. Problems are solved before you hear about them. And the two of you are guests at your own wedding. After the wedding For some couples, the planning doesn’t stop at the wedding. We also plan honeymoons, and private travel for family who want to stay on in Italy a little longer. What’s the investment? The cost of a wedding planner depends on the scope: the number of days, guests and locations. Every quote is written for one wedding. You pay suppliers directly, so you always see where your budget goes. There is no price list per se. Three days in Ravello asks for something quite different from an evening in the Cotswolds, so every proposal is written for one couple, after a first conversation. Suppliers are paid by you directly, which means the budget is always yours to see. What a wedding planner really gives you They give you back your own wedding. You spend it with the people you invited, not on the phone. And years later, your friends still call it “that wedding.” We take a small number of celebrations each year, by design. Tell us where you would like to marry.