What Your Wedding Planner Can’t Do For You (And Why That’s a Good Thing!)
Here at Oh Happy Day, we believe that we do our best work when we both design and plan your event with you – because it becomes a seamless and streamlined process that way. Our luxury wedding planning package is fully comprehensive, allowing us to combine all our specialties – the design process, the planning process and the coordination process – into one offering. With that being said, there are still some things that lie outside of our scope that we need our clients to be aware of.
Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll still need to do, even with the Oh Happy Day girls by your side:
1. Create Your Guest List and Gather Guest Addresses
Working out your guest list is probably one of the most stressful parts of planning a wedding. We can help guide you on guest management strategies, but creating the guest list is something only you as a couple can do. You know your friends and family dynamics best, and obtaining addresses is a task that will be personal and requires your input. Just remember, your guest count will influence your venue size, catering and of course, your budget. Which leads us onto point number two.
2. Decide on Your Budget
The second most stressful part of wedding planning is working out your wedding budget. Here at Oh Happy Day, we can provide you with realistic budget projections based on your vision and the current costs of vendors, but ultimately, it’s up to you to decide how much you are willing (and able) to spend. Conversations with family or other contributors are key before you finalise what your total investment will be, as is having a creative consult with our director Joe.
During your consult we run through budget projections based on your vision, and offer insights into where to focus your spend on, depending on what you want your big day to reflect.
Learn more about Oh Happy Day’s creative consults
3. Sign Contracts and Pay Vendors
Over the past ten years, we’ve built up some wonderful working relationships in the wedding industry. Our vendor library stretches across South Africa, including wedding vendors based in Durban, Cape Town and Gauteng.
But while we can oversee the process of recommending and securing vendors like your caterer, florist or DJ, you must be the one to sign their contracts and make payments. These agreements are legally binding contracts between you as the client, and your suppliers.
As your wedding planners, we will ensure you understand what you’re signing and help you stay on top of payments, but we won’t be handling the payments for you and because of the legal nature of service level agreements, we can’t sign on your behalf.
4. Make the Big Decisions
At OHD we strongly believe that your wedding day should reflect your personal tastes and love story, which means you’ll need to make some key decisions before you brief us as your wedding planners.
Your OHD girls LOVE the design phases of wedding planning and during our months together we will present you style options, make recommendations, and help navigate the mood board process. However, the final choices on style, design, and other details must come from you. Afterall, it’s your day bridefriends and we want you both to be happy with your final look!
5. Follow Venue Rules
Yes – you read right. As your wedding planners, the OHD team will always advocate for your needs, but venue rules are there for a reason, and we cannot break them. Whether it’s a restriction on open flames, specific closing time guidelines, or noise ordinances, it’s crucial that you respect the rules set by your venue to avoid penalties like additional overtime charges or potential breakage fees.
As your planners, we are responsible for making sure that your venue rules are adhered to especially when they are venues that we have working relationships with, but we need our clients to respect these boundaries, too.
6. Make Guest Table Assignments or draw up your Seating Plan
At OHD, we make it a rule to get your final guest count from you a month ahead of time, so that you can spend time assigning guests to tables. Believe us when we say that every single wedding has its own unique family dynamic (and you are not alone).
Our primary goal when it comes to reception design is the table layout for your wedding and this is included in our service offering, but seating Uncle Bob next to Cousin Linda is something only you can figure out. We suggest tackling this task with plenty of time to spare to avoid any last-minute stress!
7. Obtain Your Marriage License
This one’s all you, bridefriends! You’ll need to handle the legal aspect of your wedding by applying for and obtaining your marriage license.
We can point you in the right direction for local requirements and Oh Happy Day has loads of celebrants and marriage officers in our library of vendors who can help you, but the process itself needs to be handled by you and your partner.
8. Create Your Gift Registry
Raise your hand if you – like us, think that this is one of the most enjoyable tasks for newly engaged couples! Our gift registry repertoire is extensive, and although we can offer suggestions for popular registry stores, we can’t choose your gifts for you.
Selecting items for your gift registry is a personal task that you and your partner should handle together but we say – have fun doing it! Schedule a date night, crack open the wine and start setting up your home (or planning your honeymoon).
As wedding planners, we know you wish we could handle everything for you – and we truly aim to make the process as smooth and stress-free as possible. However, there are certain tasks that fall outside of our scope, and it’s important to be aware of these so you know where your responsibilities lie as a couple. Why do we say this is a good thing? Because it’s still important to remember that this is your day, your way – and your Oh Happy Day girls stand behind you on this.
To find our more about our service offering (and all the things we can do for you), HIRE US HERE
