The History of Wedding Planners
The role of the wedding planner has changed dramatically over the years and evolved from friends and family assuming this role to professional wedding planners. Hired because of their skills and knowledge, the wedding planner maintains a growing share of new and upcoming careers.
Modern History of the Wedding
To understand the history and role of the wedding planner, one must first understand how weddings have evolved through recent history. For centuries, wedding ceremonies have been a time for family and friends to gather and celebrate this rite of passage.
Towards the end of World War II a new type of ceremony emerged from the relatively private and small gathering. Weddings began to take on a more elegant and formal meaning. In this new era of weddings, wedding gowns began to show up in specialty stores. Food at the receptions became catered affairs rather than calling on the family for cooking duties.
The Birth of the Wedding Planner
In 1981 the world watched the wedding of the century. The marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer captivated us all he. Little girls and young women began to dream bigger and focus more on a fairy tale rather than a ceremony.
These elaborate details required more than just a family to execute.
In the early 1980s the role of event planners, originally hired by resorts, hotels, convention centers and other large venues to plan and coordinate parties and other functions, sprang a new off-shoot – the wedding planner.
Wedding planners handle the myriad of intricate details, which come together on one special day:
- Wedding venues
- Reception halls
- Flowers
- Catering
- Music
- Reception entertainment
- Drinks
- Wedding colors
- Rehearsals
These are just a few of the things that a wedding planner arranges and coordinates.
With the average American wedding costing more than $28,000 and including approximately 15 different vendors to coordinate, no wonder brides eagerly hand over the organizational duties to a wedding expert.