Begin Wedding Planning
This is an interview with a proffesional wedding planner and it is going to be broke down in to 8 or 9 posts. Enjoy!
Interviewer:Welcome. You’re about to learn the inside details and little known secrets of wedding planning. We’re here today with Catherine Porterfield, who is a wedding planner out of the Washington, DC area. Catherine, thank you so much for joining us.
Catherine Porterfield: Oh thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Interviewer: Great; now you know a lot of people think that wedding planning is such a–a comprehensive process and it–and it can be. You know there’s a lot of details that you need to pay attention to; so let’s start with the basics. What is it exactly that you do?
Catherine Porterfield: As a wedding planner and it–it varies from planner to planner depending on if they’re full-service or not–you basically can do anything from you know there’s wedding planners who just work the day of an event and just make sure that everything runs smoothly–that the bride has already kind of coordinated and–and done herself, or then there’s wedding planners who are there from the very beginning, sometimes even before the engagement, when–you know couples know that they’re going to get married and that they basically–you know so you’re there from the very beginning to work with the families on the budget, determine those things, and you–you do everything. You help with the flowers, you help with the invitations, the wording on the invitations; you basically take every–take care of everything as well as helping pick a caterer, the dresses both for the bride and the bridesmaids, flowers, music and going to all these appointments with the bride to check and make sure that you know she gets everything–and the family gets everything that they–that they want.
Some wedding planners also help with the bridal showers, the bachelor(ette) parties, the bachelor parties; they also help with the rehearsal dinner as far as handling all the logistics of that, as well–sometimes now there are you know toast wedding brunches and stay afterwards; so anything that is associated with the wedding some wedding planners take on all of that work.
Interviewer: And how long have you been working in this business?
Catherine Porterfield: About seven and a half–eight years now.
Interviewer: Great, great; so are there any particular career highlights that you’re especially proud of?
Catherine Porterfield: There’s definitely some; there are–you know it’s– what’s really special about wedding planning and I–I used to do corporate planning and what’s nice about doing something is that it’s so personal and you really are giving–you know no matter how crazy it may get and you know months and months of planning, it really is a reward when you do see a couple and you’re giving them a day that they’re always going to remember. And it’s such a special important day for not only them–and for their family and that your role is there to help take the stress off the family and off the bride and groom so that they can really enjoy the day and focus on what’s really taking place. You know they’re starting their lives together. So with each wedding there’s definitely a special moment when you get to watch especially when they–you know exchange with their vows or–or whatever kind of ceremony that they have, it’s just really nice to watch the couple really be able to enjoy the day.
I will have to say that one you know–just because it’s personal–would be one of my friends who got married and just–I was–she actually hired me as–I was in her bridal party but she also did hire me as the wedding coordinator and that was actually my first wedding that I planned; so it was a bit of a challenge. It was up in Cape Cod and having to do everything from being here in DC and having to coordinate over the phone and not see everything was a great challenge but it was also you know just perfect and the day went off without a hitch. That’s one of my most special memories. And then there was another one that was at the Mayflower here that was just a spectacular, huge event that was just beautiful and again everything just kind of went off without a hitch, so that was just really special as well.