Two (The Couple) Plus One (The Planner) Makes The "Perfect"

Nichole Anderson
Wedding That’s All About The Bride

A marriage is not a relationship with oneself.  It is a melding of two personalities, styles, families, groups of friends and lives.  In that same respect, the planning of a couple’s wedding should not be a task handled by one. 
Weddings have held the connotation of the ‘bride’s day’.  A bride often incorporates her dreams, excluding her husband-to-be, in the majority of the efforts.  Commonly, many men remain on the side-lines of wedding planning because they don’t expect their opinions to be taken seriously and they often don’t like the idea of handling so many of the “feminine” nuances of wedding plans.     Married since 1999, Anthony Robertiello shared his view, “As a guy it can be hard to speak up during the planning process.  You don’t believe anyone cares about what you think.  When Adrienne and I were planning our wedding, she included me and valued my opinion.  It made me feel good.”
The truth is that a wedding is an observance of the unity of the bride and groom.   Weddings celebrate couples.  Having a wedding that isn’t a joint venture is a big mistake and an unsound way to begin a marriage – a true partnership between equals.  But men and women inherently have different characteristics and interests.  Often, it is very difficult for an engaged couple to unite their individual methodologies and weave together their separate ideas and goals, likes and dislikes, customs and traditions.  But there is hope for the “his wedding, her wedding” divide – a wedding planner. 
   Upscale and celebrity couples reap countless rewards by hiring wedding planners to assist in blending their dreams, creating weddings full of glamour and elegant impressions.  But many other couples miss out, perceiving a wedding planner as an additional, enormous expense.  A competent wedding planner is an informed and experienced professional, trained in everything from wedding-style consultation to effective budget management.  And the costs incurred for a planner are often offset by the money saved from the expertise of professionals who have working knowledge of the best people to go to for value. 
There are so many things to coordinate before the wedding day – choosing photographers and videographers, coordinating the rehearsal banquet, arranging the honeymoon, renting big, tricky items like outdoor tents or exhibitions, selecting entertainment, setting up a carriage, trolley or limousine.  A wedding is one of life’s most momentous occasions, the success of which is hidden in myriad of minutiae.  And these time-consuming and intricate details should not be left to chance.   Having a qualified wedding planner to handle these types of tasks, most often, minimizes last-minute complications and provides more effective use of a couple’s funds and resources.
An experienced wedding planner is also skilled in handling such burdensome and difficult responsibilities as guest-list management; familial intricacies and obstacles; budgeting constraints and hospitality, entertainment and transportation negotiations.  Couples rely on these specialists to effectively bring together the many complexities of designing a truly collaborative wedding.  A competent firm will be able to blend the bride and groom’s ethnicity, heritage and traditions into the ceremony and reception.  They are able to incorporate a style and experience that characterizes the uniqueness of a bride and a groom – what makes them unique as individuals and what characterizes them as a couple.  And, not to forget, their ability of making the event romantic and memorable for the couple.
There is one more important and often unsaid value of having a wedding planner.  Prior to their marriage, it is crucial that a couple spend some time alone talking about things not related to their wedding and doing the things that they both enjoy. This is fundamental to paving the way for a more calm and smooth transition into marriage.  In the midst of all the emotional and physical preparations for their marriage and the many stresses of wedding arrangements, a couple needs to be inspired by those very things that brought about their decision to marry.  The time and energy saved on the wedding planning minutiae handled by a wedding planner, will inevitably help to enrich the couple’s relationship. 
Walter Payton once said, “We are stronger together than we are alone.”  Helen Keller avowed,  “Alone, we can do so little; together we can do so much.”  A marriage requires plenty of cooperation, understanding and compromise.  The preparation for a wedding is the perfect time to learn how.  Benefiting from the resources and skills of the wedding planner, a couple can genuinely join forces to create a truly collaborative and impressive wedding event.   For great ideas and tips on wedding planning or to find wedding planners nationwide, visit:  www.partypop.com .