Planning a wedding from A to Z: The do's, don'ts and wedding day advice from the experts

You may have planned a birthday party, a Halloween party or even been the host of a Christmas dinner party, but you’ve never had to plan something as big as a wedding. And you’re the most important person in the wedding—the bride. Here are some tips from wedding professionals and wedding planners in the Chicago area about how to make your wedding the best wedding it can possibly be from A to Z.

 

“One of the things I do is customize wedding accessories, and that is the African-American jumping broom, the ring pillows, flower girl baskets. Brides want the colors of their weddings, very vibrant colors…I take a swatch of what they have or some other item to create customized items. I use cowry shells, very beautiful ornate type of beading, fringe, anything that really catches my eye.”

 

-Leeta Liddell, owner of Diamonds & Lace EventScaping

 

 

“Upon booking us, the Makeup Bar of Chicago is a mobile makeup party. We bring out the professional makeup artists, the bartenders, as well as the photographers. Makeup Bar Chicago is a mobile makeup party where we bring the party to you. We definitely want them to come away thinking this is something I’d like to do around the holidays or for me and my girlfriends.”

 

-Relana Johnson, Creative Director of Diamonds & Lace EventScaping, principal instructor and owner of Good Gyrrl®

 

 

“The videographers will kill me, but sometimes if you’re working with a $5,000 or $10,000 budget, maybe you should not get a videographer. Maybe you should devote that money from your videographer to your food and alcohol so you don’t have to have a cash bar. Cash bars are a breach of etiquette. It’s like inviting somebody to your house and saying, ‘You want a drink? Give me $5.’ People do it anyway, but it’s a breach of etiquette.”

 

-Geralyn Hopson, owner and principal event designer of Red Carpet Events

 

 

“If you have a $5,000 budget and 200 guests, that’s too many guests for your budget. When you start thinking about paying for a cake, paying for a photographer, paying for all the vendors related to a wedding, you don’t have enough money for 200 guests.”

 

-Geralyn Hopson, owner and principal event designer of Red Carpet Events

 

“It all starts with the hair and the fashion. Regardless of race, skin tone, or culture, every face has a natural look for them as a person, as a woman. A lot of times, in the beginning, I had clients who were very apprehensive. [Clients asked] ‘Can you make me look beautiful?’ ‘Can you make me look natural?’ Once that first client left my chair everybody else was ready. The challenge was to make that woman look her best regardless of whatever fad or contemporary look was out.”

 

-Kimberly Pleasant, makeup artist, photographer and owner of A Pleasant Face

 

 

“I’ve known people who have had $5,000 budgets and hired a wedding planner for the day of. There are people that prefer to have a wedding planner on the ‘day of’ because they want their parents and friends to enjoy the wedding. And a wedding planner is a neutral person so if you have Drunk Uncle Sam, I’ll manage Uncle Sam where Mommy might not want to say anything because that’s her brother and she knows he’s a drunk. I think a planner is a personal preference. I think if you have a smaller budget, then you should be looking at a day-of [wedding] coordinator and not a full-service [wedding] coordinator. The minimum that I would consider being a day-of wedding coordinator is $800, and that’s depending on the size of the wedding, whether it’s all going to be in the same place or are you going to have to go to a different venue. I have a staff of 10 people that work with me.”

 

-Geralyn Hopson, owner and principal event designer of Red Carpet Events

 

 

“I would ask [the wedding couple] what wardrobe they look best in. Bring pieces that describe who they are, whether it be two or three of their alter egos or the person they’re trying to portray. I would encourage them to do what they know will relax them in front of the camera. I don’t believe in poses. I don’t believe in traditional compositions of a photo. I’d rather take them somewhere where they can laugh and be free. I laugh with them. I get them to talk back. I find those shots that do the trick.”

 

-Kimberly Pleasant, makeup artist, photographer and owner of A Pleasant Face

 

 

“When I tell you get there at four o’ clock, that doesn’t mean five o’ clock. Get there on time. Those churches and those venues, they’ve allowed you to have your wedding there. You might be paying them some little stipend to say thank you, but the fact is sometimes they have weddings booked behind you. We’ve got to get through your ceremony and get the place cleaned up so the next wedding can go on. And some people get angry and say ‘It’s my wedding day.’ It is your wedding day, but you were told that you had this amount of time to use this facility. It’s disrespectful to everyone around and it’s imposing to the people behind you if you feel like showing up when you want to because it’s your wedding day.”

 

-Geralyn Hopson, owner and principal event designer of Red Carpet Events

 

 

“The full planner starts from scratch, from ‘I’m getting engaged. I want somebody to plan my wedding.’ The day-of planner is really kind of a misnomer. In my case, I like to get started at least two months ahead of time. We manage the rehearsal as well as the wedding day. We manage the rehearsal—what are they supposed to do, where are they supposed to be, everybody gets a timeline of the day’s activities for the rehearsal as well as the wedding day. You contact all the vendors about what the wedding day plan is. The industry calls it ‘day of.’ Some people use the term ‘month of’ because the bride has planned out her wedding, and she just wants you to manage it.”

 

-Geralyn Hopson, owner and principal event designer of Red Carpet Events

 

 

“Some clients think that since they’re coming to you that they can’t say no, and so they get reticent and they want to hesitate. It’s okay to say no to your wedding planner. You may not like every idea that I come up with, and that’s fine. I worked with a young couple that I just loved. They were like an old married couple and had been together since high school. They were forthright. They were honest. The day of the wedding when you see all the work that you’ve done come together, when you see those flowers on the table, when you see those favors in place, when you see that couple walk down that aisle and say, ‘I do,’ when you see the whole thing, everything just come into place, there’s nothing like it.”

 

-Geralyn Hopson, owner and principal event designer of Red Carpet Events