5 Questions To Ask Your Wedding Planner To Ensure You Receive A 5 Star Service
5 Questions To Ask Your Wedding Planner To Ensure You Receive A 5 Star Service

5 Questions To Ask Your Wedding Planner To Ensure You Receive A 5 Star Service

5 Questions To Ask Your Wedding Planner To Ensure You Receive A 5 Star Service

What differentiates you from other Wedding Planners?

We’re lucky to work with some amazing clients who are looking for experiences that genuinely reflect who they are.  We approach each event with fresh eyes and take the time to get to know our clients and push boundaries, ensuring we can design, plan, and create something truly unique to them.

5 Questions To Ask Your Wedding Planner To Ensure You Receive A 5 Star Service

To maintain our high level of service, we purposely only accept a limited number of wedding clients each year, and while we’ve planned hundreds of weddings over the past 14 years, I always have the same mantra of quality over quantity.  In addition to this, while I have an amazing team who work alongside me, I still remain incredibly hands-on which is so important to deepen the relationship I have with our clients.  This all enables us to provide the unfaltering dedication required to create something special.

How do you define luxury?

The word ‘luxury’ is used far too often and unfortunately has watered down its meaning as a result.  So, what makes an event ‘luxury’ and what’s the difference between a luxury event and just an ‘event’? The key to luxury in my opinion is centred around a number of factors, including exclusivity, quality and the highest level of service.

While cost is naturally synonymous with luxury, it’s not just about quality and its price tag, it’s the price tag. Exclusivity is key and the feeling that not everyone is able to access or have the experience that the Wedding Planner is offering.

5 Questions To Ask Your Wedding Planner To Ensure You Receive A 5 Star Service
5 Questions To Ask Your Wedding Planner To Ensure You Receive A 5 Star Service

Exceptional service throughout the planning process is something that our discerning clients expect, but not only for themselves – this needs to extend to their guests as part of the experience.  While the large-scale aspects of the wedding celebrations are incredibly important, it’s also just as important to consider the small personal touches that make each guest feel valued right from the beginning.  This could be personally liaising with them regarding travel plans; arranging personalised welcome gifts to organising their favourite cocktail to be delivered to their hotel room prior to the welcome party.

How do you approach the planning process?

As luxury event planners, our aim is to deliver the unexpected and create an experience that goes above and beyond our client’s vision, and genuinely reflects who they are.  Depending on our client’s requirements, we tailor our service to suit but no wedding is the same, so we start afresh each and every time. 

We like to see the planning as a collaborative process, where our clients can be involved as much or as little as they like. It needs to be a fun and enjoyable experience and part of our role is to alleviate the stresses that coincide with a wedding.  We work around our client’s busy lives and keep them fully updated and feeling in control throughout.

5 Questions To Ask Your Wedding Planner To Ensure You Receive A 5 Star Service
5 Questions To Ask Your Wedding Planner To Ensure You Receive A 5 Star Service

To be able to offer truly 5-star service, we must understand our clients on an intimate level, so that at times it may feel as though we’re reading their minds.  Making our clients feel special is also a key aspect of the planning process and showing our dedication to their celebration. 

It’s important to have an open and honest dialogue with your Wedding Planner and ensure you raise any worries you may have as soon as possible so they can address this quickly.

How many weddings do you take on each year and how many people would be working on our wedding?

We purposely limit the number of wedding clients we work with each year, alongside our private events.  This is pure to ensure our high level of service and detail can be maintained throughout.  I have a core team who work alongside me, however, it’s not uncommon to work with 30+ different suppliers as an extension of our team throughout the planning process. If you delve deeper and look at the number of people physically working on a high-end wedding day itself then it could easily be over 150 when you factor in the size of the production team; the marquee build; the number of band members etc.

Do you offer any additional levels of service that go above and beyond?

Alongside the typical budget planning, personalised timeline and supplier sourcing aspects of the planning, we also offer an RSVP management and concierge service; we personally write the content for the invitation suite; create CADs and visuals in a variety of styles to help convey the design concept just as a few examples.

5 Questions To Ask Your Wedding Planner To Ensure You Receive A 5 Star Service
5 Questions To Ask Your Wedding Planner To Ensure You Receive A 5 Star Service

For our very high-end clients, we take the detail to a whole new level where everything is truly bespoke, and nothing is too much trouble.  This may involve having a family crest designed which can then be used throughout the wedding celebrations, including bespoke buttons and cufflinks. Similarly designing a bespoke tartan that’s then used for the men’s accessories. We’ve had perfumes created for our clients and included these in each of the guest’s rooms which have made the most delightful welcome gift.

One of my favourite aspects of our service is accompanying our brides to couture dress appointments and being involved in the intricate process from start to finish.  On the less glamorous side, we manage the travel plans to and from the wedding celebrations for each guest in intricate detail.

Melanie Helen Director of Cranberry Blue Ltd www.cranberryblue.co.uk

Image Credits John Nassari.