ULTIMATE LIST OF QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR DESTINATION WEDDING PLANNER - PART ONE
Dear brides and grooms,
If you’ve decided on having a destination wedding, you must have a whole list of questions going through your head right now.
Considering you are reading this article, it is safe to say you have decided on (or at least thinking about) hiring a destination wedding planner. Good choice! Croatia has an abundance of wedding professionals (amongst them planners) who will be delighted to help you plan your perfect destination wedding. Not to mention making the wedding planning less of a hassle and more fun!
So, now all you have to do is choose the right wedding planner for you! Below is our ultimate list of questions to ask a wedding planner when interviewing your top picks. Don’t worry, you don’t have to ask them all 25 questions, just the ones that matter to you the most.
ARE YOU AVAILABLE ON OUR PREFERED WEDDING DATE?
You are probably set on your wedding date and are now looking to hire a professional to help you out. If the wedding planner you are contacting is not available on your date, no need to waste yours or their time asking other questions. Unless this is THE ONE wedding planner for you. If this is the case and they are not available on your date, the next question to ask is „When are you available? “
WILL WE BE YOUR ONLY CLIENTS ON THIS DAY?
There are independent wedding planners and then there are wedding planning companies which have multiple planners. Which one you choose is totally up to you and we have no specific insight into which option is better. The only thing you need to worry about is that you have your own dedicated wedding planner who will be working only for you on your wedding day.
WHAT SERVICES DO YOU OFFER?
There is a big difference between full wedding planning and month of/day of coordination. A wedding planner’s services include everything from budget planning, design (may do it themselves or hire an independent designer), vendor recommendations & hiring and coordination of the wedding day itself. A wedding coordinator will assist on the day of the wedding but is not in charge of sourcing the vendors or helping out with your budget. This is why it’s important to check with your wedding planner what services do they offer.
HOW INVOLVED WILL WE BE IN THE WEDDING PLANNING?
This is an important question when choosing to hire a planner vs. coordinator. With a coordinator, the couple will need to find and book all of the vendors themselves, while with a planner, they are presented with a preferred list of vendors to choose from. All of the decisions are made by the couple, the planner is there to give you the options as they have already done the due diligence of finding best locations, vendors, etc. On the other hand, you can choose to have your wedding planner make some or all the decisions for you, but what’s the fun in that?!
WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED/WHAT WILL WE NEED TO DO OURSELVES?
Planning a destination wedding has many aspects and most couples would like to have help with all of them. The question of airplane tickets, hotel rooms blocks, transfer from the airport to the hotel for you and your guests to name but a few. This is why it’s important to check with your planner if they can assist with these things as well or recommend someone if it is not a part of the services they offer.
DO YOU ALSO ASSIST WITH THE LEGAL PAPERWORK?
This is a really important one. The legalities of getting married in a foreign country can often be complicated and require some serious paperwork. We would recommend making sure that this is one of the services your wedding planner includes in their offer as it will save you a lot of time and hassle. Check out our article Legal requirements for marriage in Croatia for more information on this.
WHAT IS THE TYPICAL WEDDING BUDGET OF COUPLES YOU WORK WITH?
In order to better understand the standard of the location for your wedding and also the style of weddings your wedding planner does, it is important to know if the weddings they plan for the same number of guests as your wedding equals to your budget or are much higher. This will also give you a better idea if your budget is realistic or not.
HAVE YOU PLANNED A WEDDING WITH THE SAME BUDGET AS OURS?
If the answer is positive, it means that your budget is realistic and the planner can also give you examples of vendors used previously to stay within this budget, as well as share photos of said weddings for inspiration. If the answer is negative and the explanation for this is that the budget is too low, we recommend getting a second opinion and looking into either increasing your budget or looking for another destination (e.g. Dubrovnik and Hvar weddings might require higher budgets than Istria or Opatija weddings)
WHEN DO WE START PLANNING TOGETHER?
The answer will depend on the wedding planner and how far out you contacted them. Some wedding planners will start planning with you as soon as you sign their contract and some will wait until 1 year before the wedding as many vendors and venues do not take bookings more than 1 year in advance.
HOW OFTEN WILL YOU BE IN TOUCH?
This is just to know how often to expect to hear from your planner. Some planners update you consistently during the whole planning process, while other check in with you once a month until one month prior to the wedding date when they increase their communication.
HOW DO YOU PREFER TO BE CONTACTED?
Important as you need to know how best to reach your planner when you have questions or need help. Some prefer polished communication over emails, while others prefer a more personal approach and will answer texts through WhatsApp or video calls through Skype or FaceTime.
IS THERE A LIMIT ON HOW MANY HOURS YOU WILL WORK ON OUR WEDDING?
Some wedding planners include a set amount of hours in their wedding planning fee, while others do not limit this as their pricing is set up differently. It is important to check this to see if they will be available for consultations whenever you need or if they will charge extra for this.
In order not to overwhelm you with so many questions all at once, the second part of the list will be published in ULTIMATE LIST OF QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR WEDDING PLANNER – PART TWO. You will also be able to download the full list so you can have it at hand when interviewing your potential destination wedding planner. Stay tuned.
Happy planning!
Chantal
Ever since Chantal was a little girl, she knew all she wanted to do was to plan weddings. Fast forward to today, she has worked as an event planner & coordinator both in Ireland and Croatia, and is currently busy writing her blog Destination Weddings Croatia aimed to help brides that are looking to get married in her lovely homeland. Brides like you!
