As a successful Destination Wedding Planner attempting to every little detail of the wedding we often listen to these line from our couples “we couldn’t have done this without you”, read on to know why .
Its 2019 and fortunately the time when the profession of “Destination Wedding Planner” doesn’t need an introduction but thanks to those cheesy Bollywood Movies about Wedding Planners, that may not be all what a Destination Wedding Planner’s role is in putting together your Big day for you.
For many of us, traditional wedding is still about “decoration” and “Bride’s Dresses & Jewellery”. When it comes to a Destination Wedding, what changes is from a massive list of unknown guests to a handful of close family and friends but isn’t it the high time to look at wedding as a celebration as experience and not exactly judging its success by “decor and the designer’s label on Bride’s Lehenga?” .
If your Destination Wedding Planner”s formula for a successful Destination Wedding is “Decor, designer’s label outfits and flimsy circus entertainment acts then its time ask them what kind of challenging situations generally they are confronted to as planners and coordinators and you will have your answer.
This blog aims to give you a little peek into what goes in ensuring a successful Destination Wedding which way beyond the visual aspect.
Here are some incidents where we have helped our couples to turn some awkward situations into best of experiences, they may appear small but the stakes were large if you understand carefully.
Pulling a White Wedding rehearsal with no time in hand
While planning for 9 months remotely our couple never mentioned about having a plan of various entrance sequences linked to certain music being played for a particular period and matching that up with overall walk distance, position in which everyone would stand, the pre set microphone etc.
Surprisingly during the final meeting before celebration starts we got to know that this is a last minute plan and needed to be pulled off. To complicate it further, we had no time available to plan this rehearsal and if at all we have time, it just allows one rehearsal.
Taking risk, we committed to setup a rehearsal in the morning of white wedding day. This meant keeping the “venue to be sufficiently setup before time”, setting up Music early, gathering all the participants in time, getting DJ arrive so early to take notes, having all music at one place as so on.
The couple being very particular that we dont want to see any funny situation like music being over played, anyone crossing in frame of Photographer during entire ceremony etc was cherry on top to further add to challenge.
Finally, we had this rehearsal session of 35 minutes top and we tightened our belts to deliver. A fantastic “no retake” with wedding lasting 50 minutes from entrance sequences to several readings, bride & groom’s most planned picture to keeping champagne glasses ready as soon as guests enter the Cocktail area was delivered flawlessly.
We have more guests joining in the Reception Dinner but we would not know their names until that afternoon. Don’t mess up the seating plan!!
A very high profile and sophisticated couple had their Wedding hosted at one of the most beautiful Palace in Udaipur. The Reception Dinner was planned to have “pre assigned” Seats with their personalised name cards and also “Table assignment” displayed on seating chart, very common scenario! isn’t it?
Now imagine we are being told a day before Sit down Reception that there are 5 unknown guests joining in and the names aren’t known until few hours ahead of event. Those guests would NOT be on separate table but would be joining in existing tables.
Challenge,
to chase for final names and their seats in already designed Seating Chart, changes in seating plan, printing of new Name Card etc and all this to be pulled in just couple of hours bearing in mind the Venue is 90 minutes drive away from main town. Furthermore, mother of Groom was very particular about not goof up with seating plan :-))
Piece of cake,
We immediately came up with new design of Seating Chart where we could re-print list of names of only few tables as against making changes in whole seating chart, asking printer to be ready to print some stuff urgently, having a team member dedicated just to run this task in time and Bingo! everything worked out in time.
Besides our Photographers, we would have a commercial production team to shoot entire wedding for showcasing on a national TV Channel
A week ahead of a Destination Wedding we planned for this cross-culture couple, we were given information that they have invited a commercial production team to shoot the entire wedding which shall be showcased on a TV Show on a known TV Channel in Europe.
Challenge,
Seeking permissions from the Venue, contacting and understanding requirement and expectations of this production team, coordination between the main Photo and Film crew for no overlaps and unfair situation of who will take main spot etc, a descriptive briefing for production shoot crew as they were shooting an Indian Wedding for first time. Again to top up, a personal note from couple “please ensure that they dont ask many questions to us during the events”. :-))
And we did it!
Immediately a senior coordinator from our team was deputed only to take care of this TV production crew to understand their requirements, arrangements were mades, permissions were sorted, papers were signed, briefing got ready, they were at a help of our coordinator all the time explaining them what is best way to shoot next event, sync was done between the shooting teams and so on.
These situations may appear small but the stakes were large if you understood them carefully.
Last minute design changes, requirement of exotic flowers for Bride’s hair, Aunt not happy with the composition of floral Centrepiece for Tables, Guest’s luggage getting exchanged at Airport …
Last minute additions in list of Guests to be received at Airport, flight cancellation or delays, unexpected early checkins …
Last minute requirement of a Projector with connectivity with MAC, requirement of a choreographer to hold practise session, mosquito repellent spray on every table …
Name it and we have had an experience to take care of it swiftly 🙂
Let me conclude this be reiterating …
If your Destination Wedding Planner”s formula for a successful Destination Wedding is “Decor, designer label dresses and flimsy circus entertainment acts then its time ask them what kind of challenging situations generally they are confronted to as planners and coordinators and you will have your answer.
Words like below of a client in an international publication like “Vogue” are not coincidental, they happened only because situations much more than decor and entertainment were handled efficiently.