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thePeorian.com
USING PROFESSIONAL PLANNERS
Nobody sees that more than
wedding planners and in the
last two or three years using
professional planners has grown
substantially, O’Shea and Ragan
both said. For better or for worse,
they agree the industry may have
been influenced at least in part
by the 2003 movie “The Wedding
Planner.”
“
There is no question more
brides are using wedding
planners than ever before,” said
O’Shea, who started working
in the bridal industry while in
college and has been a wedding
planner for five years. “I
think more people are getting
accustomed to it. But still only
10
percent to 15 percent of
all weddings are planned by
professionals. People still think
it is something more for the big
cities or that it is too expensive.”
Ragan, who has been in
business more than five
years, said she is finding that
more couples want to use a
professional planner when they
live outside the town or area
where the wedding will take
place. “It is much easier for a
couple that lives say, in Chicago
but the wedding will be in Peoria,
to use a wedding planner who
can take care of everything for
them leading to the big day,” she
said.
One of the biggest, and yet
unwritten, services a wedding
planner can provide is comfort,
Ragan added. “We provide
what we call sanity checks, or
least present the persona of one.
Sometimes it is also the parents
who need it. This is their one big
day, perhaps the biggest day of
their entire life, and everything
about it can be overwhelming.
We ease that as much as we can,”
she said.
Many items are factored into
the cost of using a wedding
planner and the prices weren’t
something they are much willing
to talk about except with a client.
There are packages available that
brides and grooms can peruse
and decide upon and each of
those packages can then be
further customized.
In most cases the wedding
planner will be at the bride’s side
from start to finish, including on
the wedding day. They can be
seen attaching ribbons to church
pews, fixing floral arrangements
near the altar, zipping up the
wedding gown or aligning the
train as the bride starts down the
aisle.
Wedding planners obviously
work weekends. “We enjoy it or
we wouldn’t do it. And seeing
everything come together is so
special when it makes the bride
happy,” Ragan said.
From their vantage point,
therefore, wedding planners see
the latest trends and indeed, must
stay atop of them. Those include
everything from attire to colors to
flowers to wedding locales.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
Lisa Ragan, owner of Happily Ever After Weddings, a Peoria wedding planning company, tends to the sash on a bridal client’s gown
before she walks down the aisle. Such detail is just one of the many duties a wedding planner sees to for a client, Ragan said.
The Present
