The mission of planning your wedding will become very overwhelming if you are doing it alone especially if you are inexperienced, unless you have a group of very dedicated bride's maids to help you with the legwork. Some couples are not so lucky, and will have to consult a wedding planner in some capacity. You should definitely consider hiring a wedding planner in some capacity if your budget allows for the cost. The excellent news is that Raleigh is stacked in great wedding planners, one will be a great candidate that will suit your needs specifically. We have a helpful guide which should prove very useful in your search for the right candidate.
You should first establish the capacity of work you will need out of the planner, it all depends on your specific needs. You will have three options to mull over. The first type of planner is the always venerable full-service planner. This sort of planner will coordinate the reservation of venues, booking vendors, essentially they will plan the whole wedding for you if that is your preference and your budget will allow it. The second type is the partial service planner, which coordinates or advises you in good vendors and venues, and helps where you deem you need it. The last type is a day-of coordinator, which actually start about a month ahead of the date of the wedding, and handle all the duties that you task to them.
Once you establish the capacity of work will need, you can start searching for the best planner available. Commence with the recommendations of your friends, family, and your best colleages, in particular, those who have been recently married or have been involved in a wedding in some fashion. It is also worth researching on online wedding directories for candidates as these websites are usually a good source of information on wedding vendors including such details as pricing, reviews, bridal testimonials, etc. You should have a couple of details taken care of before you start calling up these candidates, you ought to have the details of how many guests you will be inviting, the date preferred for your wedding, and your vision for the day. Call and ask about their availability, and if they are too busy, you should consider a different option.
You will definitely want to come prepared with an abundance of questions for the candidate, topics pertaining to their personality and business. Ask about how much experience they have, how many weddings they plan on average a year, and what their most strenuous wedding was they've ever planned. You really need to trust this person implicitly, and should be completely comfortable with them. If you seem like a candidate is just not suitable for you, go with a different option. The last thing you will want to do before the end of each meeting is ask for a sample invoice. Wedding planners will charge different rates, some may charge you by the hour, the percentage of the total costs of the event, or just a simple flat rate.
You will want to compare the candidates between each other so you can determine which one is going to deliver your money's worth to you in the form of wedding planning, it helps to deliberate with your partner or your parents in this matter.. Once you've got the right planner in mind, get a contract outlining every detail with them, and sign it with them. Now you can go forward, and handle all the aspects that are not going to stress you out! If you trust your planner completely to handle their jobs, your diligence will pay off, and so will theirs when you are able to have the wedding of your dreams!
Check out some great Raleigh area wedding planners:

