How to Ease Stress when Planning Your Wedding?

We’re engaged, now to set a date and start planning that dream wedding!

I think we’ve all found ourselves dreaming about our wedding and how we’d carefully craft our special day, but until wedding planning is upon you it’s hard to know exactly what to expect.

With all the blogs out in internet land, there’s a lot of great information to help us along in our wedding planning adventure. Let’s face it, what it comes down to is time. There are only so many hours in the day, work obligations still exist, and we deserve to still have some fun on the weekend with family and friends! Until the rest of the world observes the 6 month holiday of “Full-Time Bride” we need some help!

As a wedding photographer, I make it a priority to help educate each of my couples on what they can expect on their wedding day, what to have prepared beforehand, and I always make myself available to offer suggestions when they need guidance. I started thinking about what else could make wedding planning easier and more enjoyable for my couples. I decided to dig in and explore the options of wedding and event planning. What can a wedding planner offer couples? Will couples still be able to craft a unique wedding that defines their style and craft a one-of-a-kind event? Will you ever look back and feel like you missed out on the entire experience of planning your wedding?

Today I’m sharing a recent conversation I had with Fiorella Neira, lead planner at Neira Productions – Event Planning & Design based out of Wisconsin Dells. It’s apparent Fiorella puts her heart into this. She is passionate about connecting with her couples and giving them a memorable experience. I’m excited for you to get to know Fiorella better and hear what she has to say about wedding planning.

How and why did you get started in wedding planning?

There are so many reasons! I’m originally from Peru and in my culture we celebrate almost everything. Our birthdays always included entertainers, DJ’s, big cakes and lots of people and dancing… lots of dancing. Growing up here in the U.S. I missed that a lot. I always knew I wanted to work for myself and I wanted to be a part of this industry as well. So long story short, I started planning an annual event for my current employer (at that time) who would then call me for her personal and social events. But there is another side too! My husband and I got married young, and because we were young we didn’t have much. Our wedding took place at the court house with me wearing a tea length dress… that’s right. I live my dreams through my clients dreams, and I think this is why I tell my couples to do whatever they want for their big day. After playing with the idea of being an entrepreneur I finally made the leap in 2014 to do this full time and the journey continues.

What services do you offer?

We are an event planning company. We offer full service planning, day of (month of) planning and design. We also have clients who have special request and sit somewhere in the middle of those two. On our design side we offer floral design and some rentals.

How do you establish a connection with your couples and make sure your visions align?

In so many ways because everyone is different. Truth is it takes time to get to know them, depending on the service we are providing we will ask certain questions. We tend to ask what is important to them because everyone is so different. I like to know sometimes even where they buy clothes so I know their personal style. Some of our couples really need help steering them in the right direction, and some don’t want to do all the research. Others because they listen to my podcast and know that I will back them up for traditions they will or will not do.

We both know there’s a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into wedding planning: coordinating with various vendors, knowing venue restrictions, crafting a timeline, etc. Do you have an idea how many hours you save your average couple?

LOL a lot! When looking at hours it’s anywhere between 30-195 hours depending on the service we are providing. This is using what we know from experience. As a newbie, or planning your own wedding, you have to add research time, and meetings with potential vendors and that doubles your invested hours.

When hiring a wedding planner, what can a couple focus more of their time and energy on?

Enjoying days off and being engaged! It is so important to enjoy this time together. It goes fast and sometimes stress can dampen the excitement. You will still be in wedding planning mode but a lot of the leg work will be picked up by your planner.

What do you wish every couple would know before they start planning their wedding?

I love this question. I wish they knew that there is not much that can be done without a “Happy Number”! (This is what I call a budget.) Most people have a bad feeling about the word “budget” so I renamed it. If you just make deposits without knowing your budget it adds up quickly.

What encouragement do you give for couples afraid of not having full control over all the logistics?

Oh gosh! You can do whatever you want. We have couples who are very involved and some who simply want us to do everything for them. I can usually tell how involved they want to be, and if I can’t I ask. I would also double check that your planner will allow you to make final decisions as you go. That way you can have an idea of what has been completed and what is left.

What are some of the biggest challenges a couple will face when trying to plan their own wedding? How do you help couples overcome these challenges?

The budget and the guest list can both get out of control very fast. Make it cohesive.

We can create a budget for them with a matching vendor list based on what is important for them. We probably ask our clients 5 times throughout the process if their guest list is actually a list. I want to make sure that when you say 250 you actually mean 250 and not 300 once you actually make the list.

We get a lot of people who know what they want but have no idea how to make it their own or cohesive so we provide a design plan to help them visualize the big day.

Let’s talk bucket list. Do you have a Wisconsin wedding venue you’ve always wanted to work with?

This is a hard one. But my dream is to have a wedding at a place where no wedding has been held before (not a residence). Something that would require a multi day set-up and lots of amazing vendors and logistics. I’d love a challenge.

What else would you like to share?

Um yes, two.

1. I’m crazy in love with work and I’m so thankful I have so many people who have allowed me to be a big part of their special day and other meaningful events.
2. If anyone is interested in listening to me talk about weddings, I have a podcast on our website called Fiorella Talks Weddings or you can find it on the iTunes podcast app.

Oh and one last thing for those getting married. I know that you will have many friends and family giving you advice on what your wedding should be like. Repeat after me “thank you, but that is not what I had envisioned for my wedding.” It’s okay to have your wedding be your wedding!

Thank you so much for allowing me to share a little bit of me with you!

Fiorella