Wedding Planner FAQ’s

Why do I need a Planner?

Whether you need a planner or not will depend entirely on your personal situation and your plans for your wedding. For example, if you are not based in the country of your wedding, you’re daunted by just the thought of the organisation, terrified of dealing with the stress, don’t speak the language and do not have a lot of spare time due to work and home schedules. Then I would certainly recommend hiring a wedding planner in Spain.

Hiring a wedding planner is no longer an extravagant luxury for large, elaborate weddings. Instead, it’s simply a sensible option if you’d prefer to benefit from the guidance and reassurance that working with an accomplished wedding planner brings.

It might be that you’ve got a demanding job, young family, live overseas or want to marry in an area you don’t necessarily know.  You might well have seen my work at another wedding or heard about me from a friend. In order to plan an event like a wedding can take in the region of 200 hours of dedicated time to  ensure everything is in order and your day runs smoothly.

A planner will help free up time for you to enjoy your engagement to wedding experience, a time to enjoy trying on the dress of your dreams, knowing that someone else is chasing up your floral designs, arranging your menu tastings and booking Spanish speaking vendors.  We will help manage your budget, weddign venue, catering, wedding suppliers, design and décor and most importantly be there on your wedding day to co-ordinate, implement and ensure everything goes to plan.

Aren’t Wedding Planners only for the rich and famous?

I would personally say that wedding planners are more for people who have busy lives, juggling families and demanding careers or as I mentioned above they are planning away away from their home town or country.

Our service provides all bridal couples with expert knowledge and you have the benefit of our years of experience. We are planning lots of weddings and events in any one year, this gives us buying power as well as industry knowledge that you are simply unable to access, meaning we can advise you on your use of your budget wisely and effectively because we are able to obtain preferable rates from suppliers who want to work with us regularly and sometimes purely because we know who offers which level of product/service at the best quality and price.

Our service is about putting our bridal couple first. To maintain quality and integrity we never exclusively use any one supplier or venue.  This means we can advocate for you without bias if things need questioning and thus quality can be assured.

Wedding Planners used to cost 10’s of thousands of Euros, but these days they usually work to a % of your wedding spend, dependent on experience and the service, this could be 10% to 20%. Usually they will cost between 5,000 and 15,000 Euros. For over 200 hours of work, its not a huge price to pay, we work very hard,  but for a job that we love.

I have a venue coordinator, why do I also need a Wedding Planner?

We have addressed this statement many times and have answered a little bit above why it is important to have an independent wedding planner who will work alongside a venue coordinator/or venue wedding planner.  The fact is simply that they are employed by the venue to sell and book weddings at their venue (as many weddings as is possible- sometimes 50, 100, 150), including up-selling their food and drink packages and even suppliers who they sometimes (not all) make money from as well as from the bridal couple.  Now there is nothing wrong in making money, after all a business has to make money but the pressure on venue coordinator to up-sell their bridal couple means they can sometimes back you into a corner and take your choices away from you when it comes to sourcing your own suppliers.

They also work to difficult time constraints, working on multiple weddings (50, 100, 150) their role is to show you around the venue and deal with issues surrounding the deliverables expected from the venue and that’s where it stops.  They are only paid like the rest of the population to work a 35 hour week (or a lot less in Spain, usually a part time role of 16 hrs!) which means they are not on hand at all times when you need something sorting. Anything external from the venue, they are not obliged to deal with and any problems you are having with the marquee not arriving, the Florist is stuck in traffic, they will not deal with. A wedding planner like ourselves, deals with all this and more. As we only take on 20 weddings a year , we have the time to manage all that you need us to.

We will not only manage all aspects required to plan and organise a perfect wedding day for you, but we will also create and produce all of the styling and design elements required to ensure your day is beautiful, well organised and problem free!  Please do not misunderstand me, venue coordinators are invaluable, but their time is very limited and they are in a sales role not a planning role, our number one objective is keeping you happy and theirs is keeping their boss happy!  We ask you to just bear that in mind when they tell you that you do not need an external planner!

How much will it cost me to get married in Spain?

How much your wedding costs you in Spain will completely depend on which wedding elements you wish to have. Whether you book a package or choose to have a bespoke planned wedding, like the ones that we create. It will all depend on what Wedding Venue, Menu, photographer etc… that you choose. So the cost all boils down to the selections that you make.

If you would like to know roughly how much it will cost, then you can make a budget estimate by working to between 400-500 Euros Per Person, this would cover all of the elements you require. For example, if you have 100 guests and you choose a good quality Venue and Photographer, beautiful but not extensive Flowers and Decor etc…400 Euros per head a total of 40,000 Euros for your wedding day. If you are adding extra days of activities and meals then you need to consider more budget.

If you would like a  luxury, premium, 4/5 star, boutique Venue then you need to be thinking bigger, 450-700 euros per person plus.  So 45,000 to 70,000 Euros upwards for your wedding day costs. The less guests you have, the more cost efficient your wedding will be, but many costs will not change e.g. Photographer, Wedding Officiant, Venue costs, Videographer etc… these will all stay the same price. The best thing to do is get in touch with us and we can give you an estimated Budget for your wedding.

How do we work?

We receive your enquiry and arrange a meeting with you via Skype or over the telephone (as we are in Spain and you are usually across Europe, UK, Canada, US , Ireland, Australia, New Zealand or Dubai) and we have an informal conversation about your wedding dreams and ideas (this helps us build a picture of your perfect wedding day!).

With your initial enquiry we understand you are looking for general venue ideas, a guide to the costs of hosting a wedding here and information about getting married in Spain. We can send you some initial costs, useful information and our wedding planning services to have a look through which we hope will be informative and help you to see what is available to you. If you wish to progress your enquiry further and book us to be your wedding planners, you will pay a deposit and we will immediately start work on your Wedding Planning, Designing and Styling!

We understand, through experience, some of our clients wish to make sure they have the perfect venue, a good idea of suppliers available and the budget involved before committing to a wedding, however, this takes a lot of time to provide you with detailed information, narrow down venues, check availability for you and generally set out your wedding before you commit to us.

Should you wish us to help you find your dream Venue  and carry out a Venue Search, without hiring us as your full wedding planners, we charge 750€ Plus IVA to provide the following services:

• Help you find a venue based on your requirements, guest numbers, location and type, beach, rustic, etc. In some cases if the venue is not familiar to us this will include an inspection trip to the venue, an extra charge will be levied if the venue is over an hour travelling from our office near Malaga.
• Check availabilities for each venue to make sure they are available for your date.
• Send up to date information regarding catering and suppliers according to your requirements.
• Offer advice to you with our on the ground knowledge, timings, paying suppliers.
• Organize a venue viewing Day trip should you wish to visit Spain or attend a venue viewing visit on your behalf if you cannot visit prior to your wedding and send you as much information, photos, etc. to you. (ONE DAY ONLY INCLUDED)
• Our aim with this service is to assist you as much as possible in locating the right venue in order for you to then book and progress to the next stage of your wedding.

We will supply you with a proposal that will include full costing’s and payment details so you have no surprises along the way.  Our pricing will be clear and transparent. If you are happy with the proposal you will pay a deposit for our full services and then the work can begin on your key wedding planning.  We will have regular meetings, updates and you will have access to us 24/7 during your booking so no matter where you are in the world we will be on hand to answer any questions you have.

  I have already started my Planning

Congratulations on getting through some of the planning process and that is fine we can help as little or as much as you like! Sometimes clients like to start the journey and then soon realise it is all too much with work and family commitments, or simply they are just getting lost in the process and are scared of missing that important detail. We can jump in and start looking after things whenever you need!

 Will you take over?

Absolutely not!  The main reason The Boutique Wedding Co. was founded was for the reason that we believe your wedding day should be all about you, your personality, your choices, dreams and wishes for the most special day of your lives! Many Wedding planners and venues offer ‘All in one packages’ at marked up prices. Enticing for couples, but quite often they then find themselves at the mercy of the planner or venue who actually started dictating the choices for the day (simply reproducing every wedding they hold there, with horrendous dated low quality décor packages!).

We are here to advocate your freedom of choice and ability to source the best deal and quality of service for you.  We can assure you there are venues and suppliers out there that want to deliver your dreams not up-sell you to deliver what they want you to have.

The Boutique Wedding Co. is here to make your whole wedding experience a positive one!

To find out more about our Wedding Planning Services  Click here now.