Tips for Planning your Wedding! Interview with Jessica and Nadine, Wedding Planners with Les Petit Details, LLC

I interviewed Jessica and Nadine from Les Petit Details LLC, a wedding planning company based in Orlando, FL, to talk all about the wedding planning process. They explained why having a wedding planner is so important, how they help their couples through difficult components of wedding planning and offer a few quick tips if you're currently going through the wedding planning process! I’ve summarized some of our discussion but you can check out the full video interview below! You can check them out on Instagram @les_petits_details_llc

Why do you think it’s important to hire a wedding planner?

The wedding day is already a stressful experience so you want to make sure there’s someone else taking care of everything for you so that you can just enjoy your spouse, family and friends on this big day. Also, planning such an extensive event can be really overwhelming if you’ve never done it before. There are a lot of details to think about and a definite best order to do things in, so it can be a lot to take on yourself without knowing where to start. When there isn’t a wedding planner or coordinator, that puts pressure on the other vendors to make decisions about the timeline on the day of the wedding, which detracts from their ability to do their job well.

What’s the difference between a wedding planner and a day-of-coordinator and which types of couples need which type of service?

Wedding planners are with you from the very beginning, sometimes even attending menu tastings or other vendor appointments, really getting to know every detail of the wedding from the beginning. The day-of-coordinator isn’t a part of the wedding planning process, but just helps implement the plan that the couple creates themselves. So it really just depends on what the couple needs. If it’s a wedding with a lot of DIY elements, the couple might just need a day-of-coordinator, but if it’s someone who is really overwhelmed with the whole process, they might want a full wedding planner. Les Petit Details LLC provides both!

What are some things your clients struggle with the most with during the wedding planning process and how are you able to help?

The biggest thing clients struggle with is the timeline of the day. Jessica and Nadine walk their couples through all of the possible components that they might want to include in the day (private time for the couple during cocktail hour, parent dances, first look, etc) and they combine that information with any timelines that other vendors may have and work it all together to create the perfect day. For photography, we typically have a minimum amount of time we need for each component of the day and it changes based on the size of the wedding party, who you want included in family photos, whether you want pictures of all of your details, etc. The other struggle their clients have is just getting started in the first place trying to decide where to start, which vendors to hire when, deciding which vendors they even need, etc. They recommend that hiring and schedule a date with your dream venue is the first step you need to take in planning. Until you have the confirmed date and location, you won’t be able to hire any of your other vendors. The venue also helps determine the guest list due to capacity and also can inform your theming depending on what the venue looks like. Jessica and Nadine are there to make your day as stress-free as possible!

From my perspective as a photographer, wedding planners and/or coordinators are crucial to have present on the day of the wedding to help make decisions as the timeline changes. Sometimes things run late or maybe even run early and the wedding planner/coordinator is the only person that knows the time constraints of every other vendor. And when there isn’t a planner/coordinator present, either the couple has to make those decisions themselves or the other vendors have to step up and take a stab at it. But it’s really unfair to expect that of them.

What are 3 quick tips you would give a couple planning their wedding right now?

The first tip is to hire professional vendors and not rely on family or friends to be the photographer or be the DJ. Professionals have the extensive knowledge about how to make your day even more special! You also don’t want to risk damaging relationships with friends or family if things doing go well on the wedding day.

The second tip is to really let go of all the details a few days before the wedding and just enjoy that time. Don’t run yourself ragged or worse make yourself sick to where you can’t enjoy your friends and family who are there to celebrate with you. You’ve done everything you could and now it’s time to relax and enjoy!

Do your best to just enjoy your wedding day - it goes by so quickly, don’t waste it stressing over the details! Relay on your vendors to make it happen! Try to allocate some point of the day to just be for you and your spouse, whether it be a first look or a private cocktail hour moment.

Recently, a lot of my photography clients have wanted to enjoy more of their party with guests and want to attend as much of cocktail hour as possible. One possible solution is to have a first look and do all of the family/wedding party photos before the wedding ceremony itself and then as soon as the ceremony is over you’re free to par-tay! Obviously doing a first look is a very personal choice, so I totally understand if that’s not something you want to do, but it does have its pros!

Are there any new trends being forecasted for weddings in the next couple of years? Colors/special ceremonies/designs, etc?

Covid-19 is really impacting a lot of decision-making right now so it’s hard to recognize any trends outside of that. Some couples have had to reduce guest lists to accommodate social distancing at venues. Some ceremonies have had to turn into a combination of seated and standing options to let everyone feel comfortable with how close they are to other guests. Table placements are now more about people from the same household all sitting at the same table, which brings up challenges in finding ways to seat friends. Some have lost deposits due to cancellations and are needing to rearrange their budget. So far the biggest trend they’ve noticed is couples using garland in their decor as a more cost-effective option.

Thank you so much to Jessica and Nadine for joining me! You can watch our full video interview below!