20 Questions To Ask A Nigerian Wedding Planner Before You Hire Them
When hiring any wedding vendor, starting with your wedding planner, it is important to know the ideal questions to ask that favourite wedding vendor of yours, before hiring them.
This article will help you understand the important questions to ask a wedding planner before hiring them for your special day.
These questions are to give you an insight as to what to expect from your wedding planner and to also know if they would be a right fit for your special day.
Questions to ask Nigerian Wedding Planners before hiring them
Some of the questions you may want to ask may include:
1. Availability of date: This is probably the very first question to ask. You definitely want to know if your preferred wedding planner is available for your wedding date before going further in your conversations with her.
2. Can the planner work with your wedding budget. It is important to know if the planner can work with your wedding budget.
Even if the budget is not a realistic one, it also shouldn’t be way over the top, except if your expectations are outrageous or you haven’t done your due diligence to know how much local vendors charge in your area.
3. If they work out of state: That is, if your wedding is not within the same state the planner is located in. You may want to know if the planner can work out of their comfort zone and if they have done out-of-state jobs before.
4. What Wedding Planning Packages the planner has, that is the services the planner offers… how much their services cost.
5. How many face-to-face meetings the planner will have with you before your big day.
Many Nigerian Planners have limited face-to-face meetings with their clients. It all depends on the wedding package and what comes with the package.
Also in light of the pandemic, you need to know if the planner won’t mind Zoom meetings as physical meetings may not be possible.
Wedding Contracts
6. Contracts- What does the planner’s contract entails.
You really want to know what the client’s contract entails, as this would give some eye opening details as to what to expect from your planner and what the planner expects from you.
You also want to know if contracts will be signed for all the wedding vendors. A contract should also contain some of the planner’s terms of service.
Please take your time to read and digest any contract sent to you.
7. How involved the couple will be in the planning process.
Here you get talk about how involved you want to be in the planning process, because some clients prefer to be fully involved while some would prefer to have everything sorted out for them and come as a guest on their wedding day.
It is also important to note that some planners do not allow full involvement in the planning process.
While some do not handle some certain things like outfits and personal items for the couple. So it is important to ask ahead of time.
8a. How long they have been in business, number of events their company has handled and guestlist that has been handled by the planner in the past.
8b. You also want to know if wedding planning is a full-time job for them or if they do other jobs apart from wedding planning.
8c. You also want to know the kind of planning they do. Some plan strictly corporate events, while some plan burials, birthdays and the likes…
8d. Ask for a portfolio of some of their works or events handled by them. It could be a social media page or a brochure or even a website. Just anything to show some of the events they have handled in the past.
This is basically trying to know if the planner is experienced enough to handle anything that may come their way.
Although, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they can handle your event. For instance, if the highet number of guests that the planner has handled is 300 and your guestlist is 1,500 plus, the planner may not be the best fit for your event.
Handling Wedding-Day Stress
9. You also want to know how the planner handle stressful situations.
It is no surprise that wedding planning comes with it’s own level of stress and anything can go wrong on the wedding day.
You definitely want to know how your planner will be handling these situations.
You can name a few and they can also share similar experiences with you.
10. Number of planning team that would be working on your big day. Their roles and what they would be responsible for.
This is just to ensure that you have the right number of professionals at your event and knowing that there are people handling major aspects of the event can give you some peace of mind.
11. What the planner will be handling, the extras like rentals, cleaning, personal items for the couple etc…
You definitely want to know if all these are inclusive of the fee or of you would need to hire the services of another vendor to handle these or handle them on your own.
12. Timelines, budget breakdowns, moodboards, reception event flow etc: you definitely want to know if your planner will be creating these for you and your vendors, to help have a seamless event.
Multiple Jobs On The Same Wedding Date As Yours
13. You defintely want to know if the planner has multiple jobs for your wedding date and if she does, who will be responsible for your event… perhaps an event manager or a coordinator from the planner’s team.
You also want to know how many jobs they take on in a year.
You also want to know what would happen paraventure the planner is sick or just not available for some reason, what happens then?
Note: The Wedding Planning company may be able to handle more than one event, if they have a capable and large team. This may not necessarily be a deal breaker, but if you are keen on the Head Planner being present at your event, then you may need to start looking for another wedding planner for your big day.
14. If you have a themed event, having a meeting with your planner may be the best time to go over some of the ideas the planner may have to execute your theme or any other of your wedding dreams to perfection.
15. Post-event services
You want to know what the planner will be responsible for after the event. If their services end on the day of the event or if it extends till after the event.
You want to know if your planner will handle the returns of all rentals and also your deliverables from your photographer and cinematographer amongst other things.
16. Payment and cancellation policies: you want to know how the planner charges. Do they charge a flat fee or do they charge percentages?
What percentage is to be paid pre-event and when balances are to be made. You also want to know what happens if for some reason, you want to terminate the planner’s contract. All these should be in the planner’s contract. Please take your time to read and digest.
17. Handling of vendors payment: You want to know if your planner can handle payments to your vendors and if you can also handle the payments yourself, especially in cases where the couple would like to handle payment themselves.
Note: Some Nigerian Wedding Planners do not allow clients handle payments to vendors.
Related: Wrong Assumptions Nigerian Couples Make When Planning Their Wedding
18. Add- on’s: You want to know if the planner’s wedding packages come with some complementary services and what these complementary services are.
For instance, if a planner’s package comes with 10 wedding hostesses, you definitely want to know about this before going ahead to book for another set of hostesses.
19. You also want to know how many people are allowed in group chats, where discussions about the event will be taking place.
A lot of Nigerian planners, will only allow a minimum number of persons in a wedding group chat. Too many people in a group chat may lead to delayed responses and a lot of unnecessary opinions on certain matters.
20. You definitely want to know about the kind of vendors your planner will be working with. You can ask for a few vendors they work with, to see some of their works. This should give you an insight as to what to expect in terms of expectations and delivery.
I hope you find this helpful.
You can also read: Celebrity Wedding: Seilat and Lekan