7 reasons why you need to hire a wedding planner

Weddings are one of life’s greatest milestones. A lot of women have dreamed or fantasized about their wedding day since they were little girls and most likely created a secret wedding board on Pinterest before they even had a fiancé. It’s ok, it will help a lot!!! Especially when you are preparing for your perfect dream wedding to come true.

Preparing your wedding day requires a lot of work, which can be stressful. As I mentioned above, weddings are one of life’s greatest milestones and you need help preparing it. You have one wedding day in your life and you certainly do not want that day to be ruined by fatigue and stress.

Wedding planners are here to help you with all the decisions you have to make. They will guide you through the process and help you materialize your vision. Consider wedding planners as guides, they know the road ahead and every pot hole in it. They will hold your hand for the entire wedding preparation. It is by far the greatest wedding gift you can give yourself and here is why:

1. TURNING YOUR VISION INTO REALITY

Wedding planners are a great resource for creative ideas. They listen to your personal vision, they walk with you through your desired theme and get a good feel of how you envision your wedding, and then turn everything into reality. They bring their experience into the mix to help enhance your ideas and offer suggestions and alternatives in case any issues arise.

2. STAYING ON BUDGET

In a hectic economy like the one happening today, it is very easy for a couple to go over a desired budget. The real challenge lies into properly estimating the cost of every detail that goes into a wedding and allocating funds properly. In addition to that, keeping track of billing amounts and due dates is extremely important and might become a burden when it adds up to your daily activities. A wedding planner will handle these details for you and keep you updated with all the insights. Moreover, a wedding planner has a better knowledge of specific market pricing and can keep you from being swayed by vendors who are trying to up sell you. Staying on budget can be a stressful challenge that a wedding planner can take off your shoulders.

A good wedding planner will help you set budgets that are consistent with your desires, priorities and most of all means.

3. WEDDING PLANNING EXPERIENCE

Experience, experience, experience… As the name suggests, a wedding planner has experience planning weddings. The chances are, it is your first wedding to plan. The experience of wedding planners is invaluable. They will help you make good decisions and advise you who are the best vendors in town and cut through the painful research of vendors.

4. SAVING TIME

Planning a wedding takes time, a lot of time. Experts say an average wedding takes 200 to 400 hours to plan. When both the bride and groom to be are working full time, it can become difficult to meet all your obligations in your personal life while planning your entire wedding.

A good wedding planner will work with your schedule and break down a to do list for you so you don`t get lost in unnecessary details. Again, the experience of a wedding planner is invaluable when it comes to saving precious time for the bride and groom to be.

5. WEDDING DAY COORDINATION

Congratulations, your wedding day has finally arrived. You have worked very hard to prepare the most important day of your life and now it`s the time to look fabulous and enjoy your day without stressing out about the timeline and details.

Even thought it might look like the tough part has passed, there are a lot of important things that need to be done and coordinated on the wedding day. You need someone to make sure the timeline is being followed from set-up to tear-down. Vendors must be on time, last minute decoration needs to be properly placed and a handful of other details have to be taken care of, and let’s not forget dealing with unforeseen issues. That someone should not be the bride or groom but a wedding planner. It`s time for you to be a guest at your own party and not worry about anything.

6. PLANNING YOUR WEDDING SHOULD BE A FUN EXPERIENCE

Planning a wedding should be as enjoyable as dreaming about it is. Researching vendors, venues, figuring out prices, can be time consuming and very stressful. Let’s face it, for a wedding, emotions run high and if you add stress to the equation, the result might be compromised. Wedding planners are here to help you through that journey and share in their expertise so you don`t have to feel the downsides of it.

7. HAVING A MEDIATOR AND A SPOKESPERSON

You dream about your wedding your whole life and you know exactly what you want but sometimes, family or friends are not on the same page. Your wedding should be about you first of all and it is important to know that you shouldn`t try compromise to satisfy everyone. Sometimes, close family members or friends can have different opinions and may not be afraid to share them and this might create unwanted tensions. Making an objective point might prove difficult for both sides since the whole experience is charged with emotion and personal perceptions. Therefore a debate might turn into an argument. A wedding planner is neutral and can present objective reasoning in case a difference of opinion arises. Being able to see things objectively helps wedding planners come up with strong suggestions when it comes to finding a middle ground.

Although many brides believe that a wedding planner is an unnecessary expense, hiring one might be the best investment you make towards your wedding and most of the times, the costs of having a wedding planner are covered by the money you are saving by using an already established network of vendors that the wedding planner has and all the discounts and advantages that he or she can access based on recurring collaborations. In addition to that, some of the most important things you will save besides money are stress and time.

 

 

 

Happy National ‪‎Read Across America‬ Day!

Today is the celebration of the birth anniversary of Theodor Seuss Geisei or known as Dr.Seuss a famous children’s book writer. His birthday has been adopted as the annual date for the National Read Across America Day as an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association

The NEA couldn’t have picked a better day to encourage reading. Who could be better than the famous Dr.Seuss who has published 46 children’s book. His books are so well-known that some of them were adapted for TV series and movies such as The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, and the famous movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas as well as many more. You might wonder why today is important to share your love of reading with someone. Well if you take a moment to learn about literacy in America, some of the facts are chilling. It is hard to believe there is such a high number of kids who either can’t read or partially read in America in the year 2015.

According to do something.org

1. 2/3 of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare. Over 70% of America’s inmates cannot read above a 4th grade level.
2. 1 in 4 children in America grow up without learning how to read.
3. Students who don’t read proficiently by the 3rd grade are 4 times likelier to drop out of school. Start a badass book club to keep your peers reading. Sign up for Banned Books Club.
4. As of 2011, America was the only free-market OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) country where the current generation was less educated than the previous one.
5. Nearly 85% of the juveniles who face trial in the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate, proving that there is a close relationship between illiteracy and crime. More than 60% of all inmates are functionally illiterate.
6. 53% of 4th graders admitted to reading recreationally “almost every day,” while only 20% of 8th graders could say the same.
7. 75% of Americans who receive food stamps perform at the lowest 2 levels of literacy, and 90% of high school dropouts are on welfare.
8. Teenage girls between the ages of 16 to 19 who live at or below the poverty line and have below average literacy skills are 6 times more likely to have children out-of-wedlock than girls their age who can read proficiently.
9. Reports show that the rate of low literacy in the United States directly costs the healthcare industry over $70 million every year.
10. In 2013, Washington, D.C. was ranked the most literate American city for the third year in a row, with Seattle and Minneapolis close behind.
11. Long Beach, CA was ranked the country’s most illiterate city, followed by Mesa, AZ, and Aurora, CO.

I know today is a monday and many of you won’t have a chance to participate in this event unless you are a teacher. Therefore tonight why don’t you take a moment to read a bedtime story to your kid. For non-parent, if you have the time to spare, check with your local library, many of them are participating in this event and share your love to read with a local kid.