Having someone by your side who is one hundred percent invested in one of the most important days of your life is vital to your experience on your wedding day. I hear these words so often from brides,”Why should I hire a wedding planner or coordinator?” I understand that hiring a wedding planner is an extra expense, but it is well worth it! I look at a wedding planner as the vendor team leader and your insurance policy.  They do so much more than you can imagine and will handle the things that may not go smoothly so that you don’t have to. Things will go wrong on a wedding day. It is not a matter of if… it’s a matter of when, BUT when you have a wedding planner by your side you will be having the time of your life and may never even know what happened! I learned early on in my career that having a wedding planner or coordinator was the main thing bride’s regretted not hiring.

I was at a wedding earlier this year and the florist was running extremely late. She kept calling the bride over and over to update her, but it was causing unnecessary stress. A good wedding planner would have intercepted that phone call and took control of the situation.

Tricia Dahlgren is an incredible wedding planner in the LA area and we absolutely love working with her! She was so kind to give me her perspective on why you should hire a wedding planner…
1. Piece of mind. Knowing that everything is taken care of and you or your family does not have to be the ones taking care of it.
2. Experience and knowledge. Having someone who does this every weekend, knows the ins and outs of weddings and is experienced with problem solving and running an event. Even if you have family that wants to help set up etc, having someone there who knows the business is invaluable to having your event run perfectly. Professionals know what can go wrong and are able to stop it before it does.
3. In my case, having a sounding board while planning your wedding. In my day of service I offer unlimited phone and email. Its nice to have someone there to help when you need it and to bounce ideas off of. Bides have a lot of ideas, some work for weddings, some do not. Its nice to have someone there for you all the time to help work through those thoughts and ideas.
4. Your DJ and your catering manager are not your wedding coordinators. Your DJ and your catering manager are able to keep things moving from an MC point of view and a food point of view, but your coordinator’s first priority is your and your needs. Why have multiple people in charge of multiple things when you can have one person in charge of everything. This ensures a much more smooth and stress free day!

Jessica and Jordan hired Tricia and her team for their wedding day and here is what they thought: “My husband and I got married in April in Santa Barbara and hired Tricia as our day-of wedding coordinator based on a recommendation from our photographer who had worked alongside her on a few occasions. This was likely the best and most important vendor choice we made! Tricia and her team were amazing, professional and efficient from start to end of our big day, and we were so thankful to have them. Tricia is super organized, and her calm demeanor maintained the good vibes throughout the event. We knew we didn’t have to worry about anything since Tricia had it under control, which allowed us to truly enjoy the awesomest day of our lives!Our wedding venue was a rather large estate, and Tricia and her team worked seamlessly to move folks to where they needed to be. Tricia’s team also set up all of our ceremony, cocktail hour and reception décor perfectly with limited direction (and I’m pretty picky about that sort of thing).In the weeks and months leading up to the big day, Tricia was in regular communication with us, helped develop a detailed timeline and to-do/bring list, and contacted all our vendors a few times to confirm all was moving along. She even found our ceremony ukulele/guitar player, and had a number of other vendor recommendations when I needed them. For all the work Tricia put into this event, her rates are very reasonable; it was money very well spent for the peace of mind she permitted! A very big thanks to Tricia and her team!”