10 Things Couples Need to Know About the Wedding
Industry That the Media Will Never Tell You
1. We spend WAY
more than 4 hours on your wedding.
Couples are often shocked at the price tag attached to
their wedding services. “But I’m only hiring you for four hours!” is a
common reaction.
What you don’t know is that we spend many hours outside your wedding day timeline on
planning, communication, rehearsals, meetings, travel and all the logistics
necessary to make that “four hours” look easy. This doesn’t even take
into account the necessary time investment in training and education to keep
our skills sharp.
Let’s take photographers as an example. According to
this
recent
survey, the average photographer spends 65 hours invested in each wedding;
when all the hours invested in a wedding are factored in, a typical wedding
photographer makes an hourly wage only $37 per hour before expenses! DJs,
florists, officiants, planners and other pros are in a similar situation.
Most wedding professionals are not living large on “wedding
ripoffs,” a charge often lodged by the media. While the average wedding
in the US costs around $25,000,
a
recent survey of our wedding professional audience revealed that 48% of
wedding businesses make less than $25,000
in
an entire YEAR.
2. If you
hire an amateur for your wedding, expect an amateur result.
Wedding professionals are not a commodity item.
You’re hiring a unique personality, talent and experience set. We charge
more because we are worth it.
Those amateurs you can hire for a dime a dozen? They’re
worth the price you pay, too.
Sure, you might luck out and find the next undiscovered
Preston Bailey for your wedding, but you’re much more likely to get sub-par
performance along with that bargain price.
3. You pay
more for wedding services because you get more.
Much has been made of the so-called “wedding markup,” a
phenomenon that occurs when secret shoppers get quoted a higher price for
identical services when they are booked for a wedding as opposed to another
type of event. While this certainly can occur, journalists neglect to
address the very real reasons WHY this happens.
Providing any service for a wedding is far more involved
than a similar, non-wedding event. Wedding pros make themselves available
for planning meetings, calls and consultations, and may well send hundreds of
emails back and forth with a single client in the year or more of planning up
to the wedding.
This type of time and attention isn’t expected or required
for most non-wedding events; the time investment alone is enough to justify a
higher price. The quality of wedding services often requires a greater
degree of skill and specialization, not to mention the stress and risk involved
should something go wrong.
4. We stay up at
night worrying about your wedding, too.
We may participate in dozens or even hundreds of weddings
per year, but yours really IS important to us.
Each and every wedding can make or break our
reputation. We worry about what can go wrong and we sweat the details
because it’s our responsibility. If we mess something up, we know that in
the age of viral sharing on the internet, it may very well destroy our
business.
5. Listening
to our advice will save you time, money and stress.
We love your ideas and your enthusiasm. Please know
that when we suggest changes to your dream wedding scenario it’s not because we
want to take over your wedding; it’s because we have your best interests at
heart.
We probably made a lot of mistakes when planning our own
wedding, and it’s inspired us to ensure that pain NEVER happens to you.
We’re wedding experts. If you take advantage of our
knowledge and experience, we will save you time, help you avoid mistakes and
make your wedding even better. But only if you let us.
6. If you
only have $10,000 to spend on your wedding, we can’t make it look like you
spent $100,000 no matter what we do.
Weddings can be expensive, and you certainly don’t have to
spend a lot of money. But if you’re going to trim your budget, please
don’t expect it to be a carbon copy of the Royal wedding.
It’s not because we don’t want to do it for you…it’s just
impossible
7. We love
what we do, but that doesn’t mean we want to do it 24 hours a day.
Working in the wedding industry is HARD. It’s
stressful. There are deadlines, timelines and lots of pressure to make
sure everything goes perfectly.
You know that anxiety that’s giving you nightmares?
We get them, too, and sometimes we need to take a break.
Yes, your wedding is important, but we can’t be available
for you 24 hours a day 7 days a week without losing our sanity. Remember
that the next time you’re tempted to call your planner at 2am or before
freaking out when s/he doesn’t answer your text immediately.
8. It takes
WAY more time and money to imitate those DIY projects and wedding inspiration
shoots than you think.
We love that wedding porn as much as you do, but it sets up
unrealistic expectations. Wedding blogs and wedding reality TV
misrepresent the details of what’s actually possible for a typical wedding with
an average budget…one that doesn’t have a team of expert designers and planners
working magic behind the scenes.
The media accuses the wedding industry of encouraging these
unrealistic expectations so that you spend more more money. The truth is
that we hate it as much as you do!
It makes our job more difficult, and it puts us in the
uncomfortable position of telling you, “No,” when it can’t be done on your
budget.
9. DIY
projects are NOT a bargain.
Think you’re going to save money by having the wedding in
your backyard? When you add up the cost of the tent, rentals, food, booze
and silverware, you end up spending MORE than you would hosting it in a
traditional wedding hall.
The same thing goes for your favors, centerpieces and
flowers. It’s going to take you 10x longer and cost twice as much in
reworks and mistakes than you think—especially if you’re a perfectionist.
Please don’t choose to DIY your wedding for the savings;
make sure you actually like being crafty, and that you can adjust your
expectations to accommodate less than perfection.
10. Your
wedding day will not be perfect, but we’ll be there to make sure it’s as close
as possible.
I haven’t seen a single wedding where at least one thing
didn’t go wrong. Your bridal party will be late, the weather won’t
cooperate, or the guests will forget to take home those favors you agonized
over. There are simply too many details and too tight of a timeline for
everything to be completely perfect.
But when something goes wrong, we’ll be there to help you
make it right.
Sincerely,
Bruce Witherell –
Aries Entertainment – 413-7434-4246 The Wedding Experts.