Choosing a Wedding Planner

Choosing a reputable wedding planner is critical to the success of your wedding day. Unfortunately, our industry, along with many others, has its fair share of fly-by-night operators ready to offer you the “deal of a lifetime”.

Please bear the following points in mind when considering quotes from the different wedding planners:

• Current economic issues are driving many new and inexperienced wedding planners onto the scene.
• Some of these one man show or ‘family’ planners are not properly registered companies and you have no legal protection if they were to go bankrupt, or disappear on you during your planning
• In Scotland, ALL planners have to be VAT registered. If a company does not quote VAT, our advice is to stay well away as we know from experience that it is a matter of time before the government investigates and risk dissolution because of back taxes/fines.
• Companies desperate for your business will cost cut, and there are a variety of ways to do this in our industry such as using cheap suppliers, or friends and relatives who are often below standard.
• You may also find that they tend to push the venues closest to them (which saves on travel) and you will not have access to a network of planners across Scotland whose real interest is in finding you the right venue for what you have in mind. So the question is – are they listening to you?
• No real knowledge of the legal process - no ‘inside’ contacts to help you out of a problem.
• We have also noticed that you may be presented with a decent budget at the beginning, and as time goes by, costs start to spiral upwards and it is difficult for you to exit the process having paid non-refundable deposits.
• Capacity: does your planner have the resources and back-ups in place to ensure that you are not getting a factory wedding – do they really have time for you as an individual?
• Anyone who claims to be able to “beat any quote” is an organization that we would steer clear of in our industry –everyone knows that doing business properly has a set price, below which you cannot go without seriously cutting corners.
• There are also smaller providers who use the same venues, and do not constantly re-evaluate the venues on service, watching management changes and trends.

If you are planning on a dream wedding in Scotland, please:

• Use a wedding planner that gives you honest feedback – even if it’s not always what you want to hear.
• Make sure your photographer and videographer are actually professionals, and not chancing it by testing out their newest hobby on your wedding
• Check that the venue you have chosen is really what you want, and something you can afford
• Check that your agreed budget is being respected, and don’t allow yourself to be hassled for additional business
• Check that you know know exactly when you are adding costs to your plan and how much this is going to be
• And make sure you see recent, real testimonials and comments from brides and grooms in the same market as yourselves

When you work with HCW, you can be sure that we have been in the wedding industry for many years and have had the time to build a large network of reliable and cost-effective suppliers who network together, sharing a wealth of knowledge and experience.

We are a reputable company, registered with Companies House in Edinburgh, and VAT registered in Scotland, and we are interested in the long term success of our industry. We have no interest in cookie-cutter weddings or fast sales. Our business approach is open and up-front – we run live Facebook pages and our web site testimonials are updated throughout the season.