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BRIDES (special section) Helping To Set Your Style And Tone: Wedding

Consultants Can Help

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

There aren't 1,000 details to deal with when planning your wedding day.

There are 1,001.

To ease the strains of wedding planning, some couples are now using wedding

consultants to help them handle the myriad details associated with formal

nuptials.

Consultants organize the activities within the parameters specified by the

bridal couple. Wedding consultants also provide their clients with a range of

choices, offering services with varying levels of complexity and cost.

Such planning may involve organizing caterers, bartenders, valet services,

music, transportation, photography, videography, florals, make-up, tents,

chairs, tables, linen, formal wear, invitations, programs, clergy, justices of

the peace, favors, giftware and honeymoon planning, among others.

Lois Pearce, the proprietor of Beautiful Occasions in Hamden, has done wedding

consulting from Georgia to Massachusetts. Ms Pearce is the Connecticut

coordinator of The Association of Bridal Consultants, holding the title of

master bridal consultant. Ms Pearce has been involved in wedding planning for

more than 26 years. She formed Beautiful Occasions in Hamden in 1987.

Of the services provided by a wedding consultant, Ms Pearce said, "It can be

as much or as little as a bride or groom would like it to be."

Ms Pearce said she provides full-service bridal consulting to about 20 to 25

couples annually, and partial services to about another 15 to 20 couples per

year.

Consultants may be involved in all aspects of wedding planning or may help

fill "gaps" which couples encounter, such as finding sites for the wedding

ceremony or the wedding reception, Ms Pearce said.

Also, one of the most valuable services a professional wedding consultant can

offer is providing sound advice to couples on bridal planning. After all, a

wedding consultant is experienced in regularly planning such events, while

couples generally are having their first -- and, they hope, only -- wedding.

A consultant can provide a planning overview of wedding day activities to

prevent any mixups that might occur, Ms Pearce said. If requested, wedding

consultants can function as "wedding directors," stepping in during the last

few weeks of wedding planning to ensure the ceremonies go smoothly.

Expect Some Flexibility

"There are various ways you can work with a wedding consultant," says Ms

Pearce.

Some couples' fears that a wedding consultant will leave a couple's ideas out

of the wedding planning picture are unfounded fears, she said. Consultants

will do as little or as much as the couples want them to do, she noted.

"A good wedding consultant has a wide portfolio" illustrating the variety of

wedding-related services in a given area and their respective costs, Ms Pearce

said.

Couples who employ a consultant should both be comfortable with that

consultant and with the vendors they hire on the consultant's recommendation,

she said.

One area in which consultants can be especially helpful to couples is in

setting the "overall theme" of the wedding day, she said.

For example, an engaged couple may have seen another couple's high-quality

wedding photos which picture the newlyweds at an aquatic setting such as a

waterfall, she said. It would be good for the couple to be wed to know whether

the photographer they have chosen can successfully photograph them in such

aquatic settings to produce equally pleasing results, Ms Pearce said.

Costs

In Connecticut, wedding day ceremonies cost in the range of $10,000 to

$25,000, with a typical wedding costing somewhere between $17,000 and $19,000,

she said.

"It's a lot of money to spend one day," she said.

Although both still photography and videography are two important ways to

remember a wedding, Ms Pearce notes that still photography remains the

preferred medium for most couples. For quality still photography, couples can

expect to spend about $1,500 to $3,500, and possibly more. Videography

typically costs somewhere between $1,000 and $2,500, depending on quality.

Costs for wedding services in Connecticut typically increase as one gets

geographically closer to New York, Ms Pearce noted.

Fees charged by a wedding consultant will also vary. Such fees are based on

the amount of services provided. Consultants may receive an hourly rate, an

overall percentage of all services provided, or a combination of an hourly

rate and a percentage, or a flat fee, Ms Pearce said.

Typically, couples don't shop around in selecting a wedding consultant, she

said. Most consultants do not advertise, so couples often learn of them by

word-of-mouth or by consultants' listings in the Yellow Pages.

"It is important, that when choosing a bridal consultant, a bridal couple

selects someone who has had experience. They should see evidence of the

experience, and not be afraid to ask for references," Ms Pearce said.

"A wedding is a personal statement. Everyone sets their own style and tone,"

Ms Pearce said.