My team and I talk frequently talk with couples who want to recruit a relative to be their wedding photographer or a friend with a flair for design to handle their flower arrangements.

Generally, our wedding and event venue discourages couples from replacing professional vendors (wedding goods and service providers) with friends and family, but we try to accommodate couples’ wishes.

The situation gets stickier, however, when couples decide to bring in amateur wedding planners, whether it’s someone close to them or a hobbyist who promises to save them money.

What we’ve found, time and time again is professional planners—those who commit to planning weddings as a full-time career—are integral to achieving our primary goal. Working in tandem with them, we’re better able to deliver excellent events that no one will ever forget.

But when we work with part-time or “some time” planners, we often deliver excellent events despite their involvement, not because of it. In those cases, we often wonder if the event couldn’t have been even better if we had been teaming up with a professional.

This is why The Bell Tower on 34th is a fan of Houston’s Association of Wedding Planners (AWP Houston), a professional organization created by wedding planners for wedding planners.

For members, AWP Houston provides networking and collaboration opportunities, education programs designed for business and personal growth, a business listing on the association website, a members-only Facebook group, and social media recognition, among other benefits.

And for engaged couples, the association is a resource that connects them with approved AWP wedding planners.

Experience has shown us that AWP Houston members are true pros: They know and understand the ins and outs of weddings, and it shows.

True Pros Do Their Homework

Professional planners like the members of AWP Houston are consistently successful because they have more to offer than an interest in weddings, experience—or even familiarity with other vendors. They produce superior results because they combine their extensive wedding knowledge and professional relationships with a commitment to helping their clients create the wedding they want. Professional planners are willing to do what it takes to deliver the best possible results, and that includes a desire to help all parties involved perform their parts successfully.

When professionals plan weddings that will take place at The Bell Tower on 34th, they see us as an ally, a partner that can help them achieve a shared goal.

With that in mind, they take the time to read our client agreement and familiarize themselves with the terms their clients will be responsible for, from making payments on time to the process they’ll need to follow if they want to schedule a food tasting. Basically, by carefully reading the client agreement, planners make sure their clients have the information they’ll need to work successfully with our venue.

Professionals Meet Their Deadlines

At The Bell Tower on 34th, we ask also professional planners to work with their clients to ensure the timely delivery of three important wedding components: the timeline, the floor plan, and a list of the participating vendors.

We rely on each of these components. We need them to schedule wait staff—from deciding how many people to line up to telling them when to arrive. We need these documents so we can provision valet parking and security, order supplies, and make numerous arrangements that will influence the success of the event.

Essentially, when we do not receive the information we need on time, we cannot provision properly for the event, which in turn, makes delivering excellence extremely challenging.

What’s more, by letting clients’ commitments to their venue slide and waiting until the last minute to give us vital information, a planner creates difficulties for the wedding vendors as well. If a planner is slow to deliver the wedding’s final timeline, for example, we can’t provide vendors with clear instructions on when they should arrive at our venue and start bringing in equipment. If a wedding is days away, and we still don’t have the seating plan, our staff doesn’t know where to tell a band or disc jockey to set up in the reception area. And, when we can’t communicate with vendors, important details can slip through the cracks.

Clearly, delivering the bride’s choices on a timely basis is an important way for a professional planner to encourage a successful event. (The same principle, by the way, applies to corporate event planners sharing their clients’ preferences.)

We understand that asking a paid client to meet their deadlines and obligations can be a delicate balancing act for service providers. That’s where professional training, experience, and the support of organizations like Houston AWP prove valuable.

Working with professional planners who respect venues’ deadlines and understand how interconnected wedding professionals are is critical. They’re an invaluable part of our ecosystem.

Yes, we have policies and processes in place to ensure excellent events, whether a planner is involved with a wedding or not.

But if we are going to be working with a planner, the ability to team up with a true pro makes all of the difference.