You’re engaged… Congratulations! Now it’s time to decide if you and your family want to plan a multi-day South Asian wedding on your own. The average American style wedding takes approx. 300 hours to plan. A multi-day Indian or South Asian wedding with 4-5 (typical) events can take upwards of 800+ hours to plan. To put things in perspective, 800 hours is 100 – 8 hour works days – that’s third of the year. Most couples and their parents work full time. Do any of you, even combined with your parents, have 100 days to take off work to plan a wedding?
Your family members may know what events they want to host, but do they know where to get started? One can do online research to find the reputable and award-winning vendors, but that just adds more time to the estimated 800 hours of planning. An experience Indian/South Asian wedding planner has done the research, vetted vendors, and know which ones have South Asian wedding experience. Your family members don’t plan weddings for a living or have the resources to manage any unforeseen issues that may arise.
For example: everyone is in the middle of the ceremony and the baker arrives to the venue. The delivery person is accidentally hit by another person walking out of the elevator and sends your 5-tier cake to the floor. The delivery person can’t get a hold of (any) you since you are in the middle of the saptapadi, nor do they want to leave. They’ve left you a voicemail and a message with the venue contact, but they have 8 other deliveries around the area and not enough staff in the kitchen to bake and make another substitute cake for you. Do you have a plan to resolve this… aside from wanting your money back?
A wedding planner’s focus is your best interest and have all the tools to plan a multi-day wedding. They have an arsenal of vendors who provide anything from multi-space venues to horses with Indian décor for the Baraat. And… they have multiple vendors options for the services and supplies at your wedding. Experienced wedding planners will work with vendors who offer perks and discounts. Through you are a paying a fee to the planner, the planner’s perks and/or discounts can offset the planners fee + save you additional time to research what vendors to meet with, much less hire.
Here’s an example of some savings for a Client of mine:
Normal Client pricing
Venue = $50,000 food & beverage minimum
Linen rentals = $5982.74
Photography = $8900
S. Asian Weddings planner pricing & discounts
Venue = $43,000 food & beverage minimum + 2 conf rooms at no charge for hair and makeup and a Pooja
Linen Rentals = $5340.61
Photography = FREE hour of coverage worth $350
Your experienced wedding planner can coordinate and manage all the logistics so you and your entire family can relax and enjoy EVERY aspect of the wedding. Why would you want to ask or sacrifice your family members by delegating them duties on the wedding day? They are there to see you get married and enjoy the wedding, not to work. Leave it to the professionals! The best gift you can give yourself is an experienced wedding planner. I promise you and your family/friends will reflect back on your wedding and appreciate all the excess time you had since no one had to lift a finger.
