Planning a wedding sucks, and this is how hiring a wedding planner can help. Philadelphia based wedding planner, Angela Malicki, of Angela MALICKI events, shares advice from real brides on planning their dream wedding.

Who would of thought planning a wedding was a full-time gig. In between working your stressful job, attending grad school, dealing with family and ofcourse, your fiancé that doesn’t show interest because its not “HIS/HER” thing. This wedding planning is not what its cracked up to be. Since starting Angela MALICKI events in 2008, we’ve seen an influx of clients that can’t handle the planning due to a heavy workload and daily stress of getting everything done. This year alone we’ve had many mother of the brides reach out to us , “where do I begin” is the first sentence during our consultation.

After 10 minutes in our conversation the feeling of relief that everything is going to be OK is clear in the tone of her voice .  We outline what the wedding “Day of” process looks like by asking questions that will then be utilized for their timeline.

Wedding planning has several moving parts, and putting them all together will give you an unwanted headache that will have you giving up. Christina, our bride who recently moved from California back to Philly, has a stressful career in Hollywood. Planning her 300 plus wedding, booking personal appearances for her clients and writing thank you notes  from her recent shower, this wedding thing has her stressed to the brim.

Here is what Christina has to say:

” As much as you’d like to think planning a wedding is fun (and it totally is), it can be quite stressful. There are certain hiccups that you come across that are certainly fixable but can stress you out more than you’d know. Having a planner can not only fix those, it protects you from those itty bitty details that everyone forgets about. The planner also helps you make decisions. Because trust me, by the day of your family and friends aren’t going to want to”.

We recently coordinated  Emily and Jay’s wedding that was referral from a past client. Emily, an occupational therapist, juggling a million to-do’s with her January wedding, from her wedding dress alterations not getting done, coordinating schedules with her vendors and last minute make up challenges. We  jumped right in with no hesitation, thinking of the client firsthand was our priority.

This is what Emily has to say:

“I needed a wedding planner to alleviate the “day of” stress, coordinate our day, create a schedule and make the final calls to vendors. My hotel, ceremony, and venue were in different locations, and I couldn’t be in 3 places at once. I was unable to get to my venue the night before due to my rehearsal, so I wasn’t able to setup or coordinate my decorations. I also had a large bridal party and large family that needed to be “refereed” . Our venue also required that we clean up anything we brought that evening (including leftover alcohol) and my husband and I did not know how we would be able to do all this, make it back to our hotel, and get up in time for our honeymoon the next morning! All of these things were executed flawlessly by our wedding planner and her assistant”.

Something that we deal with as Emily nicely put it was “refereeing” the family. Planning a wedding stirs a lot of tension from all aspects, especially family issues. We listen to both parties and work together, if it has to be at 11:00 p.m. or mid day, we are always listening. When I started this business  many years ago, you really learn a lot about yourself and others, especially emotions. There are many “opinions” when planning a wedding, but in the end, the couple needs to be happy.  Months before the wedding  I receive message like – Can you talk to my MOM please, I cant deal with her right now. Vanessa and Jeffrey are planning their “destination wedding ” in Philadelphia. The couple lives on the West Coast and need eyes and ears locally when planning their wedding. Vanessa, a powerful attorney, living the dream started her new practice, planning this wedding has been exciting and stressful. Our phone calls usually take place in the evening (time difference) , I listen to both Vanessa and Jeffery express frustrations regarding family differences and why planning a wedding is causing so many headaches.

This is what Vanessa has to  say:

As soon as my future husband and I settled on a wedding venue, we knew that we would not have the time or ability to plan our wedding without the help of a planner. At the time, I was working close to one hundred hours a week at a law firm and had no time to answer the flurry of questions and e-mails I had begun to receive at all hours from my mother and future mother-in-law, both of whom are wonderful and generous, but also possessed of strong opinions and personalities. Within a week, I began to feel as though I was drowning in wedding logistics. Similarly, while I deeply respect, admire, and love both of our mothers, I began to realize that they were so thrilled with planning the wedding, and so opinionated, that I found it incredibly difficult to assert my own desires when faced with theirs.

So, after rather prolongued argument with my mother regarding the cost of my dream wedding dress, for which I intended to pay, and since our mothers had offered to cover the cost of most of our wedding and related events, Jeffrey and I asked my mother to speak to Angela and give us her opinion regarding whether or not she thought that Angela would save us all time and stress.

She was highly impressed. After they spoke, my mother called me and said: “Vanessa, we have to hire her. You and I may otherwise kill each other trying to cope with the wedding planning if we don’t.”

The reality is that wedding planning is insanely time-consuming and that I could never have found the time to create our dream wedding without Angela. Not only has Angela provided us with advice, wisdom, and guidance, but she has forcefully supported my needs and opinions when necessary over those of our wonderful, yet sometimes overbearing mothers.  From our original concept to creative venue design, Angela has reminded us of necessary details we would otherwise have overlooked, been a calm voice of reason in moments of sheer panic, informed us when vendors have acted inappropriately or attempted to charge far more than what she finds reasonable, and provided us with guidance regarding etiquette, all while negotiating the relationships between my future husband, myself, and our mothers. In the end, she has saved us all from many an argument, and spared us great expense.  

I cannot count the number of times that Jeffrey and I have looked at each other after Angela has come to our rescue and agreed that we would have been entirely lost and deeply stressed without her, but they have been many. We would not have been able to enjoy the excitement of planning a wedding without Angela’s ability to relieve us from the burdens and stresses and infinite questions that accompany that joy. She has been truly, truly indispensable.

… and this is what Jeff has to say (thanks Jeff for you input):

“I think one of the things people don’t really talk about with weddings is how much harder they can be to plan when you’re getting married somewhere you don’t currently live.  My wife and I live 2000 miles from our wedding location and that has made so many of the tasks involved in planning the wedding that much more difficult.  Having a wedding planner “on the ground” so to speak to put us in contact with the right vendors coordinate communications and make the most out of our trips to our location has been a life saver.”

 

xoxo,

Ang