Cinderella And The Fairygod Mother.........The Wedding Planner

Lilian Isah Chinke

Oh my!!! I do not have enough time to plan my dream wedding. I am confused as to what ideas will work.

I most definitely need the help of my fairy godmother to advice me and help put my wedding together. In comes the WEDDING PLANNER.

            A wedding planner is a professional whose task it is to help organize a wedding. The planner can organize everything from the choice of Aso-ebi, organization of the engagement party to booking key vendors. When dealing with the wedding planner, there are certain things you should know on your ride to your ball.

            Draw out a BUDGET before your first meeting with your planner. This is important when discussing your ideas and expectations with your planner. It is also very useful when planning your wedding because it will help when you want to cut down on your expenses. If you find it difficult drawing out your budget, no sweat. A good wedding planner should be able to draw out a budget for you.-

Decoration by Event Masters

    Do not assume that your planner will do everything. SPECIFY exactly what you expect your planner to do as some planners will not want to do certain things like running your dry-cleaning errands..

Cut your planner some slack .Allow her/him some level of CONTROL. Giving total control might be difficult because, this is an important aspect of your life, but you should trust her professional
advice and allow her do her job without overriding all her decisions .Even though you can not give her or him 100% control, trust your planner to make the best decisions on some aspect of the wedding preparation.

            It is okay to have mind blowing out of this world ideas, after all you are Cinderella and it is your ball but, discuss these ideas with your planner. If you have a theme tell your planner, seek his or her opinion and if you both have conflicting opinions on some ideas, try to reach a truce but, try as much as possible to separate FANTASY from REALITY. Some ideas will work and some will not be executed successfully. When your planner tells you that combining some colours for your hall decoration will not come out well, trust his or her judgment on that one. When I see some halls I am amazed at the COLOUR RIOT on display. For some adventurous brides, they have dreamt of having ice sculptures at their wedding reception, but no matter how powerful the air-conditioning system around the sculpture is, it will melt under Nigerian temperature, and leave a mess.

            Assign someone to liaise with your planner. Just incase you are not around to check certain things, there should be someone to hold forth for you. The person should be a trusted friend or relative, who should be there right from the first meeting.

            It is okay to be anxious and expect everything to be PERFECT, but try to calm down and relax because when you are stressed you will put enormous pressure on your planner .Try as much as possible to have a cordial relationship with your planner at all times. This works and will be beneficial to both of you on the long run.

            Above all commit the wedding preparations and the wedding itself to GOD. As you enter a new chapter in your life, you need his guidance all the way.

                                                                                                Yve