So you think you can plan your wedding yourself?! Well, of course you can, and many people do plan a destination wedding or elopement in Central Park all by themselves, without the help of a wedding planner like myself. When it comes to planning a wedding far from home, social media and internet searches can be a huge help. Lots of answers and photos of possible ceremony or reception locations can be found online, so you can do this all by yourself with the help of Google! But I am about to make the argument in this blog post that it can take a huge amount of stress off to get a wedding planner involved, and not only can it save you huge amounts of time, but also save you money, and help you to make the day go much more smoothly. It can also help take away much of the uncertainty about whether the services you’re paying for will be any good, because destination wedding planners cannot survive with bad online reviews, so they ensure that their people are fantastic.
I always ask for feedback from the couples I work with, and I listen to what they tell me. I usually get very happy newlyweds telling me how they felt relaxed in the lead-up to their wedding and that they could trust that I would deliver the wedding day they asked for. In many cases they tell me that their wedding day went even better than they expected. There have been times when I get some great suggestions from couples on how to improve, and where possible I take those suggestions on board and make changes. I’ve planned hundreds of weddings, and I have adapted the process over that time to make the whole thing go as smooth as possible.
How many weddings have you planned? What have you done several hundred times? Are you better at it now than you were the first time or the second? I have learnt a few things over the years of helping others to get married in beautiful Central Park. I am efficient and organised, and it is very unusual to be asked a question that I’ve never been asked before. I have checklists and a logically ordered planning process, designed to guide couples through making the decisions required to make their dream day happen. We start with the big stuff, and eventually get down to the smallest details.
If you do this yourself, you can shop around, look for great photographers, officiants, musicians, florists, hair and makeup people and everyone else you might need to make your wedding special. New York offers a fantastic and wide choice of awesome people who offer their services for a wide range of prices. But all that searching and pricing up does take up a lot of time. How can you be sure each of the people that you find will be great? That’s a long list of people to find. And for some couples, time is money. Many of the photographers and other vendors who I work with offer me preferential rates in return for the number of weddings that they do for me each year, so by purchasing a package from me, you are likely to get a better deal on the whole.
If you book all of the service providers yourself do you think that you might worry that they are reliable? Do you think someone might be more likely to be unreliable in a city where you don’t live and will not provide repeat business? Vendors cancelling on visiting couples does not happen often, and with the use of online reviews many businesses would be crazy to do it, but I do hear of it. If the people I work with aren’t providing a great service for any reason (and I ask every couple to provide feedback after a wedding) then I stop working with them. You can rely on my people, and you can check our online reviews to reassure yourself.
Over the years of planning weddings I have developed a method that broadly guides me in how I plan each wedding with my couples. I use this tried and tested process to guide people through their wedding planning in a structured and well-defined manner. Couples tell me that this keeps them feeling organised, in control and relaxed in the run-up to their wedding. There aren’t many questions that I haven’t already been asked. Crucially, I will give couples answers to questions that they haven’t though to ask yet. If you haven’t planned a wedding in Central Park before, there are just things that you might not have thought of! I have been to City Hall to get my own marriage license. I have also picked up the marriage certificates for myself and for other couples. I have applied for hundreds event permits for weddings in Central Park, and some other NYC parks. I have lots of experience in dealing with the staff at the Central Park Conservancy. I can usually predict how long it will take to process any applications, and what a couple’s chances are of getting their first choice of date, time and location depending on how much notice they have left to get their permit.
I can talk about the intricacies of your wedding day plan for as long as you like. How long will it take to get a cab from here to there? What route should you or your guests take through Central Park after the ceremony, either to get the best photos for you, or to take the easiest route to where those guests can enjoy a cocktail while the couple have more photos taken? I know the park, I used to live nearby, I got married there myself and I have attended lots of weddings there. I can have a couple describe the kind of location in which they would like to have their wedding ceremony; in terms of its size, views, privacy, distance from other locations, shelter and amenities. We can work together to choose the right locations in Central Park for your ceremony and also for your photographs.
Of course I’m very biased in saying that I’d be better at planning your wedding than letting you do it yourself! But I do advise that you spend some time thinking about the pros and cons of DIY-ing your wedding versus having someone else deal with things. And of course I’d suggest myself rather than any of the other planners out there. How much do you DIY in other areas of life? And how much did you enjoy it and how well did it work out for you? Be sure to know what your choices are, and make the right decision for your wedding. I wish you lots of luck with your planning, however you choose to do it!
If you would like me to help you with planning your own Central Park wedding or elopement, visit our website, and check out our reviews. Keep updated with our news and see lots of beautiful photos, (even if you do decide to DIY and plan your own wedding!) “like” us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and follow us on Pinterest.
