Is a Consultant Necessary?

Is a Consultant Necessary? 

            Before you say "I don't need a wedding consultant, thank you very   much", let me ask you a quick question or two. 

            When you don't feel good you seek a doctor's advice, right?  Or when  you have a legal dilemma, you probably will go see a lawyer,  and if you   want financial advice you seek out a financial planner, correct? 

            Well,  here's a news flash,  those professionals are all basically   consultants,  wouldn't you agree?  So lets just say to keep from having a   wedding dilemma you merely consider hiring a professional wedding   consultant,  because weddings can be very stressful especially when you  are trying to please a lot of people all at once and you want to stay within   your budget. 

            Like aforementioned, weddings can be stressful and totally time   consuming.  To determine if you should seek the services of a professional  wedding consultant, sit down with all parties concerned and see if you have  the means to hire competent vendors.  Also consider what the wedding will  cost within a reasonable budget.  Will you be able to arrange a schedule so  your vendors, wedding party, and parents know when and where  to do their  assigned parts?  

             Yes,  wedding consultants have a fee, but sometimes they can   actually save you some of your hard earned money.  A young lady who   works with my wife recently got married and she of course handled all of her  wedding arrangements. She told my wife about all the money her and her  fiance paid for the DJ.  They agreed to pay $400 for this guy to play   music at their reception and he had over booked so he called her the week  of the wedding and cancelled. So there she was having to book another DJ  at the  last minute and not surprisingly had to pay $600 more plus all the   stress. Do you think a DJ would have done that to a professional wedding  consultant?  Probably not.  So with that one example you can see how easily  it is to have unplanned expenditures. 

            After talking over the need for a professional wedding consultant, you  will need to discuss whether or not  you can afford one. Because this is a  formal occasion, not to mention the most important day of your life, you have  only shot to get it right.  

            So, do you want to spend all of your free time putting this whole thing  together yourself with little or no opportunities to enjoy the experience or   maybe hire someone to take on the responsibility for the details freeing you  up to relish the event. 

            With that said, let's look at some tips on choosing a competent   professional wedding consultant.  I don't throw out the term "professional"  loosely because there are incompetent  wedding consultants out there. For  instance, the woman who after planning her own wedding, where everything  went perfectly, thinks she is now a pro and gets business cards and a sign  and basically becomes an accident looking for place to happen. 

            To find out if the consultant is competent, ask where they received   their training. Then you can check out the agency or organization simply by  asking for the phone number. If the state of residence requires a license that  can be verified by contacting the appropriate state agency. 

            For further assistance find vendors in your area and ask them who  they have worked with in the past. Their opinions are just that their opinions, but they can give you a good start. 

            This article was written to give you information on why you might want  to consider hiring a professional wedding consultant,  not to promote them. Just be aware there are always people ready to take advantage of you. Be  diligent do your homework and remember, if it sounds to good to be true it  probably is.

By Bob Ragman. For a free e-book and video goto