Wedding Reception Planner: Do You Need One?

Weddings are a huge undertaking, especially the traditional kind of ceremony.  These days, most brides or couples avail themselves of the services of a qualified wedding planner to help relieve the bride of the burden of making sure of all the hundreds of little details, and making sure that everything goes just  right.  It’s a valuable service, as the bride will have plenty to worry about on her wedding day besides making sure that everything and everyone are where they’re supposed to be.  Most people are familiar with wedding planners, but now there’s a specialty called a wedding reception planner.

As you might’ve guessed by the name, the wedding reception planner focuses strictly on handling and arranging the events and details of the reception, while leaving the ceremony itself and everything related to it in the hands of the wedding planner.  Should you hire one for your own wedding, or should you let the old fashioned wedding planner handle all the details?  Well, there are several things to consider before making the decision.

One consideration is your budget.  Although if you use two specialized planners, you won’t pay the wedding planner as much as the traditional kind who handles both the ceremony and the reception, if you go with two separate planners their combined fees are likely to be higher than just one all around planner.  But, because they each know their side of the wedding much more thoroughly, there’s less chance of them making a mistake, and the odds are better that your wedding and reception will go off without a hitch.

Another consideration is how elaborate your wedding and reception will be.  Will there be a lot of guests?  Is the reception on site or in a nearby location?  For a big, elaborate wedding and reception, it will certainly be easier to have a planner attached to  both the ceremony and the reception.  And how far out are you planning your wedding?  If it’s coming up soon, it could be a good idea to delegate the separate events to different planners.  A wedding reception planner isn’t necessary for all weddings, but if yours will be elaborate, and/or it’s coming up soon, the investment might be well worth it.