Hi! Today, we’re going to talk about all the questions you have about choosing your St. Thomas Wedding Planner! We’ll cover everything from when to book and why you should book a coordinator!

First, let’s consider the time of year you want to have your wedding. Busy wedding season for St. Thomas Wedding Planners is between April 1st and July 1st. We also have a small season in the fall. October tends to be fairly busy as well.

Do you have your wedding date in mind? Now, think of how many guests you’ll have. If you’re having a small wedding, like less than 10 guests, you can do everything fairly quick. That said, the sooner you book and plan, the more prepared everyone is for your big day. Just because your wedding is small doesn’t make it insignificant. If you have zero guests, your wedding is just as important as a wedding with hundreds of guests.

Now let’s answer all the questions!

WHO: Choosing your St. Thomas Wedding Planner is as important as choosing your wedding party. You must click with this person. While I want ALL the business, you and I may not be a great fit for each other.

Here are some questions to ask your Wedding Planner before hiring him/her:

1. Is our date open?
2. How many weddings have you done in your career as a wedding coordinator?
3. Why did you choose to be a wedding planner in St. Thomas?
4. Will there be a helper at our event?
5. Do you plan more than one wedding/event per day?

When talking to your wedding planner, it’s important to feel comfortable. Here are some questions to ask yourself after speaking with your perspective wedding planner.

1. Did I feel like he/she listened to my concerns?
2. Can I picture myself working with this person to plan one of the most important days of my life?
3. Do I feel like they can execute my vision?
4. Did our personalities mesh well?
5. Do I like this person?

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’, I would move on.

WHAT: When choosing your planner, it’s nice to have somewhat of a vision chosen for your wedding, so they can see it and get an idea of your taste. This part isn’t as important of some of the other aspects of choosing your coordinator, but it’s nice when I’m presented with a basic vision of the day. Even just a general idea of what you expect out of your wedding planner is ideal.

WHEN: When should you book your St. Thomas Wedding Planner? The answer to this question is going to be a little bit different than weddings that are local to your state.

For destination weddings, your invitations should be sent out 6 months prior to your wedding. This will give your guests time to prepare to travel. That said, your Wedding Planner should be booked before that, so they can answer any questions about your invites. Your venue will also need to be booked prior to sending out invitations, so I would book your planner about 8 months out. That said, if your planner is a rock star, they can pull your wedding together in way less than that! I just got an inquiry for a wedding in that’s 3 months away for 150 people! I’ve got this!

WHERE: Where do you want to have your wedding? This is an important question to ask. Perhaps you’re not positive where you would like to have your wedding. Give you planner an idea of what you want and a good planner can give you options, pros, and cons about different locations, and help you choose the perfect venue for all of your events.

WHY: This is my favorite question. I believe that you should always have a wedding coordinator, even if you’re extremely familiar with the area and you know all of your vendors. I–as a St. Thomas Wedding Planner–will have a Month Of Coordinator for my own St. Thomas Wedding. Here are some reasons to have a coordinator for your wedding:

• You don’t want all that stress on the day of your wedding. You shouldn’t have to deal with setting up your wedding or answering mundane questions that your vendors have. Your planner will deal with all of that.
• You don’t need to know EVERY SINGLE issue that comes up. It will only make you more anxious and wedding stress is no fun. Problems WILL happen during the wedding planning process. On the day of your wedding, you don’t need to know them unless they’re not fixable. Your coordinator will take on each problem and solve it without your knowledge.
• A wedding planner will learn your budget and stick to it.
• They will also be able to make your planning experience enjoyable; this is how it should be. Weddings get a lot of flack for being stressful to plan, but they should be fun! A good planner can help make the experience fun, not stressful!
• Your wedding planner has done this before. They know the drill better than you do.
• Here’s a great article on Huffington Post from a real bride who regrets not hiring a wedding coordinator!

I could go on about this all day. Let me know if you have any other questions about why hiring a professional to plan your wedding!