planning a wedding can be overwhelming
especially in this age of Pinterest
Instagram but there is help a wedding
planner can guide you through the entire
process or just part of it our friend
rich rice is the founder of the event
planning company Detroit by design and
has four things that you should consider
when hiring a wedding planner rich
welcome back how you doing good
first thing let's set it off what is a
wedding planner yeah well what in
planners should really be whatever your
needs are right so depending on what
kind of wedding what is your wedding
venue they're gonna be really they're
your key supporter but they're also
helping you with all of your logistics
with all of your costs with your vendor
relations a little bit of everything all
right so what's the first thing to
consider well the first thing you want
to make sure you're matching up with
someone that you're comfortable with so
you want to look at kind of the
personality in the character of this
person that you're going to be sharing
one of the most special moments in your
life with so this is kind of like their
bedside manner the same way you would
want to see if you fit with a doctor
right absolutely so you just get them
talking and you kind of want to want to
kind of read in between what you're
discussing and just get a sense is this
someone that you're comfortable with is
this someone that you feel is listening
to you and that really kind of has your
best interest in mind and that you can
really enjoy the process with and do
they get you alright so the next step
has to do with their experience let's
talk about that yeah weddings have
changed so much in the last ten years
and I think the social media and the
Pinterest boards everyone wants to
really personalize their wedding a
little bit more and that adds a lot of
different layers from the conventions of
services that were provided so if you're
at a country club or a banquet hall you
have one set of services that you might
need so you kind of need to match up
with the venue a little bit what your
needs are if you're doing something at
one of these cool new kind of DIY rustic
market warehouse venues like in Detroit
like the eastern which is my favorite
wedding venue you need someone who
really understands rigging and
production and service logistics and has
a whole nother kind of set of
experiences so have a little
conversation and start to get a sense of
what you're looking for with your
wedding and make sure that your wedding
planner has the experiences to take care
of that for you
right what a good point you wouldn't
necessarily think of that so next is
deciding if they will be an advocate for
you or determining that I should say
what does that mean like maybe is it
fighting for your interest looking out
for prices for you what does that entail
yeah all the above so this isn't your
normal kind of service provider you have
someone coming kind of taking care of
the plumbing for your house this is
something that's deeply personal but
also but something that's a big
financial cost so you want to make sure
that this person is is really listening
to you and understanding what it is that
you're looking for they're not just kind
of presenting services to you but
they're responding to what your needs
are but also you want to make sure
they're advocating for you with your
other vendors making sure they're
providing all the services that they
need and making sure that there's not
any extra cost that they shouldn't be
paying for that's a good one right there
so what about keeping tracks of ideas
for the big day and like organizing
overall yeah this one is huge and this
is something to that that is really
evolved with the times ten years ago
people didn't really use Google Drive
for project managing now you really need
to fight how are you communicating how
are you sharing this information and you
really want it to be well organized in a
place that you're able to participate
and be part of the process so you've got
technical scripts and site plans and
your run of show and your vendor
contracts and your wedding planner
should really organize all that really
nicely for you so you can have good
conversations about it and you can have
the right information at your fingertips
to make those decisions
Wow it's so much to think about but let
me ask you this where can people find
you if they're looking for someone to
plan something like an event or a
wedding cuz ain't no party like a rich
rights party I'll say that you throw a
great party yeah thank you well I'm
Detroit by design so I'm Detroit by
design and pretty much every social
media platform you can find us at
Detroit by design or get Gmail or any of
your favorite social platform right and
this guy could take care of all it for
you rich thanks so much for hanging out
with that great invite