Wedding planner or wedding committee

With more Kenyans yet to embrace and appreciate the value of a wedding planner, most resort to creating a wedding committee to handle wedding arrangements.

For some reason, couples believe a committee made up of friends, who may at times help raise funds for the wedding, have all the knowledge to execute a wedding either because they got married recently or they have been in several committees before.

To get more insight on this, I spoke to several couples and for some, the word ‘wedding committee’ brings a sour taste to their mouth. For others, they would do it all over again using their wedding committee.

Take Maina for example. He needed to raise Sh350,000 of the Sh800,000 wedding budget. For this reason, he got close friends and colleagues together to help fundraise and plan their special day.

Not showing up

Maina recalls how some of his friends would at times fail to show up and switch off their phones. Those who showed up took that as an opportunity to catch up and drink with very little being done yet he was footing the bills.

Come the wedding day, they had the wrong flowers, the food was cold and one of his friends who had promised him two bridal cars failed to show up. To add salt to the injury, they did not raise the intended money and he had to take an overdraft, which he is still paying for.

As for Grace and Jack, they cannot thank their friends enough.

"Our friends went out of their way to help us plan all the details and make our day perfect," says Grace.

They say this happened because they carefully handpicked their friends and gave each a role. Every week they met to reconcile all the information and come up with pending issues to be followed up over the coming weeks.

"Being organised and hands-on is what helped us achieve this and, being a manager, I am result oriented and take planning seriously. We knew what we wanted and whom to give those responsibilities to. Luckily we did not need to raise money. This saved us time as decisions were made fast and service providers paid and booked early," a happy Grace reports.

Jack is keen to also add that after their honeymoon, they took their committee for dinner to thank them, something most couples never think of doing.

In short, the decision to have a committee or not depends on who you choose to include.

The purpose of having a wedding committee should be laid out clearly. Don’t coerce people into joining especially when money contributions are part of the agenda. So many people have fallen out because of wedding committees. Think of the future and look at the bigger picture.

Reasons to have a wedding committee:

• You get to work closely with your family and friends.

• You can trust them.

• They can help raise money for your wedding.

• They can chip in whichever way they can, for example, some can offer to give their cars for the bridal party while an auntie or friend may offer to bake your wedding cake, thus cutting the wedding budget.

Reasons to have a wedding planner:

• They are professionally trained and have the skills required to plan a wedding.

• Due to repetitive business with vendors, they can get for you the best people in the industry within your budget and negotiate discounts on your behalf.

• They are at your beck and call throughout.

• They help bring your wedding dream into reality by putting all the crucial elements together.

• They help manage and stick to the budget without compromising on quality.

• They have the skills and expertise to handle emergencies on the wedding day.

• They help save on time by running around for meetings with service providers.

However, be careful when choosing wedding planners as well. Do a background check on whether they are trained and get testimonials from previous clients or see pictures of weddings done. Be sure to sign a contract as well to help you get the agreed services.