What is a {Certified} Wedding Planner and Why Do I Want One?
With so many options available to you when choosing a Wedding Planner or Day-of Coordinator, it can be hard to sift through the endless possibilities that are shown to you through popular wedding sites like WeddingWire, The Knot and Wedding.com to name a few. Personally, I believe it is EXTREMELY important to look for a Certified Wedding Planner. That would be my very first question before even meeting a Wedding Planner for a face-to-face meeting. Wedding Planners can transform weddings into something extremely imaginative as they bring to life all kinds of themes! Dependable and trustworthy, wedding planners are essential help to any wedding and proved to be a constant strength for any bride-to-be. As wedding planning gets more popular these days, Wedding Planners are also trying to gain more experience and recognition by getting certified by well-established Wedding Planner associations, such as The Bridal Society. 
It is a very important detail to keep in mind when considering your choice. A Certified Wedding Planner is an individual who is a industry leader, someone who has gone above and beyond to learn, train and gain an elevated level of education and involvement in their profession. Is it required to become a Wedding Planner? No. There are no set requirements that one needs to become a WeddingPlanner, therefore, why not offer yourself that extra layer of security? The only person who will tell you that being a Certified Planner “isn’t that big of a deal”, or that it’s “really not important” or discredits it in anyway, is someone who is not Certified themselves, so pay close attention to this topic and be cautious of any rebuttals.
Certified Wedding Planners see the value in investing in the hands-on training we receive from industry leaders each year. They will always be up to date on the latest trends and have formal training on creating and executing timelines, creating and managing budgets, maintaining vendor relationships {which will in turn help you when it comes time to booking your vendors and being able to take advantage of special pricing and offers due to this well maintained relationship}, how to properly word invitations, how to create seating charts, amongst a plethora of tricks and tips acquired through personal experience over decades in the business. This is not to say that there aren’t some great Planners out there that aren’t certified, but when you don’t even legally need a business license or an insurance policy to be a “Wedding Planner”, why not take the extra step and hire a Certified Planner and offer yourself the peace of mind of knowing that you are investing in a professional that has already invested in themselves to gain hands-on training, knowledge and experience to better serve you and to offer you a better, higher quality of service? It’s the little-something-extra that sets us apart that can be what you need to make a decision you feel good about.
