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Owner of Weddings in Vieques, a destination-wedding planning company off the coast of Puerto Rico, Sandy Malone has helped countless couples plan their big day since 2007. Here, she's sharing what makes a planner dread working with a client — so you can avoid doing all of these things.
Your wedding planner is your consultant. It's his or her job to help you plan your wedding, attempt to stay on budget, and then execute all the very important little details on the big day. Wedding planners really do try to love all of their clients because we're so emotionally invested in making dreams come true. We have a fun job, most of the time.
Unfortunately, every planner has encountered clients who really push the limit, which is actually pretty hard to do with an experienced planner. To be able to make your wedding planner absolutely, positively hate dealing with you takes disrespect and a lot of crazy. Here are 10 things not to do unless you want your wedding planner to dread your upcoming wedding:
1. Don't read the materials and information she sends you. Send 50 extra emails asking questions she already answered in detail in the guide you were given at your first consultation.
2. Don't take notes about what you need to do in meetings and conference calls and email afterwards for a list of your "to-do" items, essentially treating her like your personal assistant.
3. Have your mom (or your future mother-in-law) contact your planner directly. You aren't paying her to talk to your entire family. Those who should have input should join you for meetings with the planner, not have a separate audience.
See More: 10 Questions to Help You Determine if You Need a Wedding Planner
4. Send 30 Pinterest links rather than emailing pictures of things you want as attachments. You have to give a planner a reasonable palate of ideas to work with — and Pinterest pages don't appear in the same order on every screen.
5. Dumping all the DIY projects you find online on your wedding-planning team to complete at the last minute. If you want to DIY then do it yourself. Or expect to be charged for our time.
6. Ask your wedding planner how you can reduce your budget but yell at her for all the ideas she gives you. You asked. She's trying to help. You can't reduce your spending without giving something up.
7. Miss prescheduled conference calls and fail to apologize. Your wedding planner was prepared for you, waited for you, and ended up wasting her time. You paid for her time, not to burn it. (Some planners charge for missed calls.)
8. Ignore the deadlines you were given for your vows, seating chart and other things your planner cannot do for you.
9. Disregard the forms and charts the planner sends you to complete and create your own spreadsheets. All you had to do was fill in the blanks, not re-invent the wheel and confuse everyone.
10. Send 10 emails a day demanding quick responses when nothing was actually urgent and you could have sent one comprehensive message.