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You are cordially invited to be a guest at your own wedding

It’s your wedding day. It is two minutes until you walk down the aisle. The flower girl is hiding under the steps, your Aunt Marie just left a bright pink lipstick mark on your mother’s dress, the best man is not sure he has the rings and you are tangled in the train of your dress. Quick. What should do you do? I recommend you do absolutely nothing.

 

If you are a smart bride you’ve hired an experienced wedding coordinator to handle the unexpected. Kelly Balfour, owner and principal coordinator of Eventology Weddings routinely handles such crises with aplomb. 

 

On a recent Saturday night, Balfour calmly coaxed the flower girl out of hiding with a butterfly sticker to apply after the ceremony. A pen sized Tide-To-Go stain remover took care of mom’s dress. She tapped her left side to remind the best man in which of his pockets she had deposited the rings 15 minutes earlier. And finally, Balfour cued the music as she smoothed the bride’s train, pictured at left, ensuring a flawless grand entrance. Photo courtesy of Monkey Tree Photography.

 

What’s the charge for such services? That varies. What’s the value of such services? If you’re the bride, the only correct answer is “Priceless!”

 

Brides are busy people with busy lives. They already have personal and professional commitments before the engagement. Then they have to plan the most important event of their lifetime. Most brides understand that having a wedding coordinator is a valuable tool. Many brides however fear the cost of planning and coordinating services is beyond their means. They’re embarrassed to call and ask. So they do it themselves. Or their mothers do it. Or a friend helps out. The groom is enlisted to perform duties for which he may have no interest, experience or, let’s face it, talent. The stress levels mount. Words are exchanged. Mistakes are made. The basics are overlooked. The couple does get married, but at what price to the relationship?

 

One way to start the marriage on an even keel it to hire a professional to make sure the wedding is a day for celebrating your love.  That day should not include worrying about removing lipstick stains. Wedding planners typically offer various service levels to meet a variety of needs and budgets. At Eventology Weddings, services range from full blown planning to what those in the industry call Day Of services. An Eventology Weddings Day Of service package starts under $1000. Even if something else has to be scaled back, at these prices, most brides could afford to hire a pro to help bring everything together.

 

Eventology Weddings’ Day Of services actually start two weeks before the wedding day. Balfour’s approachability and extensive list of services are among the reasons Eventology Weddings was voted Houston's Best Event Planner by The Knot Magazine's Best of Weddings 2008 and 2009. Balfour and her team also ranked among the Top 5 Best Wedding Planners for 2009 by the Click2HoustonsBest online survey.

 

Eventology Weddings has substainly more than 100 weddings under its belt since Balfour founded the firm in 2003. The company offers a range of service levels from the very simple to simply everything. For a full service package, prices are understandably higher. But as do most planners, Eventology Weddings will customize a package that includes only the services you want and then charge you accordingly.

 

An Eventology Weddings planner meets with the bride and groom to understand the couple, their style, their personality, their vision and their budget. For a full service package, the planner then puts together a timeline, a budget breakout and a list of proposed venues and service vendors that are a good fit for the couple’s style and budget. After another review with the couple, the planner starts making appointments. 

 

In the full planning package, Balfour or a member of her staff attends vendor appointments with the bride. As an experienced planner Balfour has rapport with a wide range of service providers and knows the questions to ask and how to negotiate a deal. The vendors view Balfour as a repeat customer. They want to please their individual bridal clients, of course. But Balfour is a bride times 100. Vendors know that if they treat her right, she’ll be back next week and the next and the next. Balfour demands the highest levels of service and quality from her vendors and she gets it. The beneficiary of all this experience and repeat business is the bride.

 

For her full service clients, Balfour also routinely keeps track of deposits and payment due dates. She communicates important information to the entire wedding party. Out of town guests require consideration and Balfour can make arrangements for their lodging, meals, transportation or special accommodations. Tradition and etiquette take center stage at a wedding. From which fork to use to who marches down the aisle first, Balfour is the go-to girl for all questions of propriety.

 

The last two weeks before the wedding are a whirlwind of activity. Whether your wedding planner comes on board at the beginning or takes the reigns at the end, the magnitude and scope of tasks that must be performed during the final weeks preceding the wedding should not be underestimated.

 

With two weeks to go, Balfour kicks into high gear, finalizing the preparations. She makes a room layout for the reception, shares it with the vendors, schedules the vendor load-in times while coordinating the room availability, the vendor dependencies on each other and other commitments they may have for the day. She answers last minute questions, confirms guest counts and plans for the unexpected. (See flower girl, lipstick, ring, train crises above.) She confirms the details of the ceremony with the officiant, musicians, florist and any others involved. The list of tasks goes on.

 

On the designated day, the Eventology Weddings planner makes sure the vendors setup crews for the wedding and reception sites have arrived with the right components and are working together toward the scheduled completion time. Balfour checks in with the bridal party to make sure hair and makeup are progressing on schedule. Typically she is back and forth between key locations throughout the day.  Balfour puts lots of miles on her car and spends lots of cell phone minutes on wedding Saturdays. In the middle of the frenzy, Balfour has to stop and get dressed. Balfour appears as a well healed guest at the wedding but that night she is the hardest working woman in the room. Throughout the reception and until the last piece of décor is taken down, Balfour is on site to make sure the evening goes as planned.

 

If Balfour has done her job right, the bride is blissfully oblivious to everything but her own wedding day schedule. The bride wakes up, pulls out the schedule Balfour has prepared and simply follows the time line. The bride just shows up when and where Balfour’s schedule says she should. At 7:30 she says “I Do”; at 8:30 she parties like a guest – no she parties more like a princess – at her own wedding.  And that’s it.  End of story.

 

Oh, one more thing: She lives happily ever after.