Frequently asked questions

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
about our bespoke wedding planning
and event services

Statistics show that the average wedding takes approximately 800 hours to plan (that is equivalent to over 20 full work weeks). Bespoke wedding planning can be stressful if you lack the know-how or don’t have the time that is needed to put into it.

Hiring Oh Happy Day means that you (and your family and friends) can relax and enjoy all the amazing experiences and emotions that come on your wedding day, without being stressed.

As soon as a potential client contacts us via email or phone to talk luxury wedding planning, we first congratulate them on their engagement! We set up a meet and greet to hear about our couple’s story and make a personal connection. It’s important for both of us to feel comfortable with each other before even considering working together (after all, we will spend many months working together). After our first meeting, you will receive your invoice and wedding contract; you sign and return this to us along with your booking fee, and your Oh Happy Day adventure begins.

Our initial consultation is free, so we are available if you would prefer a quick meet and greet to say hello in person and talk through about how we can help you (these are limited to 40 minutes). However, if you would prefer to discuss specific elements of your event with us, we offer once-off consultations and these are charged at an hourly rate of R900. Consultations are held at the Oh Happy Day office between Tuesday and Thursday, at a time that suits you best.

Our wedding planning package is fully comprehensive, allowing us to combine all our specialities – the design process, the planning process and the coordination process – into one offering. 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.

Firstly, we love working with venue coordinators. While there’s some synergy between our roles, they are still very different.
You will more than likely meet your venue coordinator twice in your wedding planning journey: first, when you book the venue, and second, on the day you get married. In addition, the person you meet when you book the venue may not necessarily be the same person who runs the venue on the day of your wedding. Their main priority is to oversee the wedding details pertaining to the venue itself and make sure it’s running smoothly for you (ensuring that the lights work, the floors are polished, that the kitchen is in order and that the toilets are kept neat and tidy for you and your guests).  Your venue coordinator will have minimum involvement in the planning of your wedding because the venue is their point of focus.
When you hire Oh Happy Day as your wedding planner, we become your friend and advocate, representing your best interests. We offer a personalised service and we are with you every step of the way during the months of the planning process. Our team is completely focused on you and your vision and we’re there solely to ensure that all the elements of your design (not just the venue, but the caterer, entertainment, cake, flowers etc) come together for your wedding day.

According to wedding industry survey company, TheWeddingReport.com, the average couple will spend 11 to 14 months planning their wedding. 

Oh Happy Day can save you time spent researching, planning and designing your day. We help you prioritise your vendors, formulate your budget, provide qualified vendor referrals, accompany you to vendor meetings (if required), negotiate on your behalf, and save you money. Creatively, we help you with your colour palette, mood board design and set up your mock-ups for you – leaving nothing to chance. In the final month prior to your wedding, Oh Happy Day will confirm your vendors, create a production schedule, compile a timeline and be there to make sure that you, your family, and friends enjoy a beautiful, stress-free wedding.
The question really is, can you afford not to have a wedding planner?

The sooner the better, of course. However, anytime throughout your wedding planning process, we are happy to jump in and help. It doesn’t matter if you are starting from scratch or have already chosen all of your vendors – we would be happy and honoured to be of service. Please keep in mind however, that we take bookings at least 18 months in advance, and we limited ourselves to 22 bookings per annum, so it’s important to reserve your date as soon as possible.

We request a 40% payment upfront with your signed Service Agreement. The remaining service fee and travel costs are itemised in your invoice, with the final payment due 5 working days before your wedding.

Following our initial meeting, we can meet with you as many times as necessary during the lead up to your big day. These meetings are included in your investment for our services. We will keep in regular contact via email and phone throughout your planning process, too. You can contact us at any time if you have a question or are worried about anything. We don’t keep track of hours spent replying or chatting with you, so feel free to send all your thoughts our way.
Please note that meetings are booked between Tuesday to Thursday only. Between Friday to Sunday, we are setting up and striking down our clients’ weddings, so this means that we treat our Mondays as a day of rest.

Oh Happy Day offers both design & styling and planning & coordination services, which are all included in your investment.
As your designers, we take the role of translating your vision, personality and style into the overall look and feel of the wedding. 
As stylists, we make sure your tablescapes are perfect before the guests arrive, making sure the place settings are correct, cutlery is facing the right way, place cards are perfectly centered to the plates, etc. We ensure everything is picture perfect.
As your planners, we source and manage the correct vendors for your unique vision.
As your coordinators, we manage the day of your wedding according to our agreed-upon timeline, making sure vendors are briefed and arrive on time, any surprises are handled with minimum fuss, that the kitchen and MC are briefed correctly, and that nothing runs over time.

We choose your vendors according to who we think will best suit your style of wedding, and your unique needs. It has taken us a long time to establish many of our vendor relationships and it is this priceless intellectual property that distinguishes our service from the rest. 
We always provide our couples with three or more quotes for each vendor service, so that you are able to make an informed decision that suits your style and more importantly, your budget.

Sometimes! We have a wonderful list of talented vendors that we have been fortunate enough to get to know and work with on multiple occasions.  Because we have built these relationships over time, some of them have been gracious enough to give our clients special pricing. This might include discounts on rentals, just to give an example.

We generally make a team of two (lead planner and assistant) on the day of your wedding in order to ensure that your day unfolds flawlessly. 

We are typically there 1 to 2 days before the wedding according to our production schedule, to handle deliveries, unpack décor and arrange your stationery. On the day of your wedding we are usually at the venue from 8.30am. We do not have a set number of hours but we average between 10 and 12 hours. We leave your wedding once the formalities are over and the party begins. The day after your wedding, we are there in the morning to take down the flowers and pack away the décor (taking note of any damages that may affect your refundable deposits).

On average, you will see about 10 different people in the venue in the days before your wedding. We are blessed to have amazing people in our team who love designing and creating beautiful experiences for our couples.

We don’t offer floral styling, however we have an extensive vendor list of floral stylists that are not are not only based in KZN but in JHB & CT too. We do however pride ourselves on the ability to design your look that your chosen florist will re-create with our guidance.

We are primarily based in KwaZulu-Natal but we do work in other provinces and countries as well, 30% of our weddings are produced in Cape Town. Please inquire for availability (additional fees will apply). We love our destination couples. About 40% of our clientele comprises brides and grooms who do not live in KwaZulu Natal. For them, the planning process usually begins with a Skype consultation so that we can get to know each other better. One of the hardest things for the couple to deal with is not seeing their venue sometimes until right before the wedding. In order to help with this, we take videos or Zoom / Whatsapp Call them while we are on a venue tour. WhatsApp’s, photos and videos go a long way!

Yes. We believe that everyone should be able to celebrate their love. Love is love!

Oh Happy Day is different to other planning companies because we offer both designing & styling, as well as planning & coordination. We are also very selective about the number of weddings we take on per year in order to ensure our couples receive the personal attention they deserve. As an exclusive wedding design business, we are committed to making ourselves unique and pride ourselves in the fact that no two weddings look the same.

– Winning Top Wedding Planner 2017 at the Top Vendor Wedding Awards.

– Being named one of the country’s Top Wedding Planners by Wedding Album Magazine.

– Winning Best Wedding Concept 2018 at the Top Vendor Wedding Awards.

–  Having our work published in some of South Africa’s best-known wedding magazines including SARIE Bruid, MAD LOVE Magazine and Wedding Album Magazine. 

-Featured internationally on; Martha Stuart Weddings, Green Weddings Shoes, Ruffled Wedding Blog and June Bug Weddings.

-Successfully postponed  42 weddings during the Covid-19  pandemic.