Episode 11: The Questions You Didn’t Know to Ask Your Wedding Planner

Episode Summary

What questions should you actually bring to your first meeting with a wedding planner? We break down four questions every couple should be asking. From how decisions get made to how Team JLE says no without actually saying no, this episode pulls back the curtain on the process behind the production. Honest, direct, and transparent as always.

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julianleaver.com | @julianleaver

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Full Episode Transcript

Hi friends and welcome back to Mind Over Matrimony. From the very beginning of my business, I thought it was really important to try to answer questions about wedding planning that people have in a written way. So we’re just gonna throw out the questions and then I’m gonna answer them.

How do we provide our clients safety in their decision making?

Decision making is such an integral part of the wedding planning business. We always say there’s 3,000 micro decisions. The way that our process is structured is that it allows you to look at the decisions in almost like a decision funnel. You’re gonna make some very big decisions here that have to do with how you want everything to feel. That’s a very deeply personal thing, and it’s about going inside yourself.

I always say the greatest adventure in life is actually to dive into yourself because it’s the only place that only you can go. If you’re connecting with the way that you want things to feel, then it will give you a North Star.

How do you know if I am the right client for you?

There’s a lot of information on the internet about me. You can go and you can find all of it. You know how you feel about me before you even reach out. I think for us it’s really important that you’re open to new ideas, that you are looking for something that really hasn’t been done before.

How do we tell you no?

We are much more a “no, and” or a “yes, but” company because we are never going to just flat out say no. We are gonna find a solution to make it work.

Let me give you a really good example about transportation. This father of the bride said, Julian, why would we use this company versus this company? I said, well the company that we like to use, we have been using for the last 10 years. They track those buses, so I can see that the bus turned left and it should have turned right. I have a text message from that bus company that gives me the phone number of that bus driver. I have the picture of that bus driver so that I can find and identify him very quickly. That’s why we use this company.

How do we balance advocacy and our vendor relationships?

We do not accept commission in any way from any vendor. And so we are not in a situation where we are on the hook to anyone with some weird relationship that you don’t know about. It allows us to sit in the middle and be an advocate for both parties.

You as the client always sign the contract. You see the contract. If we get a discount, you receive the discount. It is all passed through. Where things get messy is when you do not have access to your budget, when you do not have access to any of these invoices.

It’s your first wedding, but it’s not ours. We’ve been doing this again and again and again on repeat.