You have decided to go for a wedding planner. Good!

You have selected a number of agencies and professional wedding planners. Good!

How to evaluate the WP’s expertise?

• Visit his/her website; it will give you an idea of his/her personal tastes.
  
• Send an e-mail. If they answer later than 24 hours, it is a bad sign…. a very bad sign!
  
• Arrange a meeting and study their look, attire and approach. These will give you lots of clues. He/she will be with you on your wedding day, so has to be nice looking, well-mannered and wisely reassuring to your relatives and friends’ eyes, NEVER grabbing the spotlight from the wedding couple!

• If he/she looks like a flight assistant or a real estate agent, give up: no imagination and standard events
  
• If he/she is branded head to toe, caution – he/she will not mind if you spend more than it is due! 
  
• If he/she looks sloppy, leg it: if they cannot care for themselves how could they care for every single detail of your wedding?
  

Look for someone who has great taste, grace and self-confidence that you can see in his/her body language, eye contact and firm voice.

What to ask?

You speak first. Explain what you are expecting, your ideas about style and mood of ceremony and reception. This will let you assess his/her listening ability that is essential to avoid finding yourselves in an event that perfectly matches your WP’s taste but not yours!

Then ask her/his opinion.

• If she/he does not comment upon what you have just said, she/he does not trust you and believes it is better not to give you any idea or suggestion before you sign the contract. Dreadful!
• If she /he develops your ideas with advices and recommendations you do not like, alarm bell! Anyway, go on asking. If your tastes are definitely different, say goodbye and go on searching.
  
• If her/his replies make sense to you and suggestions are enlightening, do not let her/him go! She/he is your key person! You will be working together for many months, sometimes talking to each other also 10 times a day – the chemistry has to be perfect and immediate.
  

You may ask how long has she/he been working as WP, but do not ask how many weddings - it is easy to lie about numbers!

When they ask me, I use to say “Enough to have the required experience, not too many to have lost my enthusiasm”
Hurrah to the newlyweds!