Hi everyone!

I hope your February is off to a great start. In case you haven’t read my latest post, I had the opportunity to attend Preston Bailey’s PB Live for two days and it was incredible! To learn more about it, click here and stay tuned for the recap post coming soon. I also have a highlight on my Instagram stories with plenty of photos and videos. If you’re a wedding professional, you should definitely check it out!

One of my favorite parts of PB Live was having a chance to interview some of the wedding pros and ask them all of the questions that brides, grooms, and anyone interested in weddings would want to ask. My first interview was with Lauren Grech, CEO of LLG Events, an international event management and design firm. I first met Lauren a few years ago when I was working for a bridal designer and had the chance to see one of the weddings she planned at the Plaza in New York. It was the first luxury wedding I ever attended, and I was blown away. I also got to see her in action when a dear friend of mine got married as well, and I can tell you she is incredible. Not only is Lauren an amazing planner, but she was also nominated for Forbes 30 Under 30 as a social entrepreneur in 2018 and is the youngest adjunct professor to develop and teach NYU’s newest and the country’s only Masters in Science program in Event Management. In the interview we discuss why it’s a good idea to hire a planner if you can afford to do so, what her approach is when couples change their wedding day vision, and what her ideal time frame is to plan a wedding (honestly, I was shocked). I hope you enjoy it! And seriously, if you need a planner in the NYC area, I recommend Lauren.

Image courtesy of Michael George Photography

“No one ever runs the job the way a planner does.

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Any tips for brides for how to deal with anxiety before the big day?

Oh man, that’s always hard. Do something that is the most relaxing thing that you could think of. Like for me it’s just doing a spa day and nothing else. I just want to not have to deal with my emails, not have to deal with an appointment. So I’ll literally spend two to three hours at the spa, get a facial. You just have to relinquish control to try and calm your nerves. Honestly, you should have everything prepped for your wedding two weeks prior to your wedding date. This way the two weeks leading up to it you can just hang out, have a pajama party with your girls, do a spa day with your mom and sister, or whoever, and just try and relax.

And trust your vendors right? You need a good team of vendors you can rely on.

Oh yeah! If you’re still doing things up until the wedding day, then you probably had some issue with your planner or your vendor team. But I always say, find someone who is trusted and someone who has done this before. Find someone that you have a good rapport with, this way it feels and it should be easy. It shouldn’t be difficult.

What about when brides change their minds? Like when they see something on Instagram, which is my fault. They’ll see something and think, “Maybe I should do that instead.” And then they’ll see something else and think they should do that. How do you deal with the change in vision and guide them to stick to one thing?

To me a bride that is very back and forth is someone who hasn’t committed to her design. So first I would say what is it about your design that you feel is not indicative of your style or representing you as a couple? Because something about that design is not allowing that bride or that couple to be inspired by it anymore, which is why they are constantly trying to find new sources of inspiration. If you’re happy with the design, you stick with it because it’s a representation of you and your partner. So if anywhere in that process it falls short of representing you or your partner, that’s when you typically start to look elsewhere. So I would say go back to the drawing board. When a client does that to me, we go back to the style quizzes that we’ve done. We go back to our process and we say, “You know what, where is it in here that you want green and white when the entire time you wanted white. Why are we adding this color green? We didn’t add it in the invitations, it’s not in your bridal party…” And now we start validating or justifying the decisions she already made to make her feel comfortable with those decisions.

Yeah it’s definitely hard when everything looks good. It’s like what do you pick? Especially if you can appreciate the beauty in everything.

Exactly! Every event is going to be gorgeous. That’s why your event needs to be representative of you and your partner.

Image courtesy of Lost in Love Photography

What is an important question that a bride or a couple should ask before hiring a vendor? If they could ask one key thing, what should it be?

I would ask them how often they correspond with their clients. I think communication is so important and that when you under-communicate, that’s when your client feels anxiety. So if your vendor says, “We touch base a month or two before, and we’ll then figure out the logistics,” that may not make you feel comfortable. You might want someone that’s a little more involved, or that is going to reach out six months prior to your event date just to say, “Hey just touching base. How’s everything going?” That may be your type of vendor. But I always like to ask them how often they reach out to their clients, who am I corresponding with, and how am I supposed to receive that correspondence. Are you emailing me? Are you calling me? Just to get an idea of how communicative they are.

I’m sure you probably have people that give you only a few months to plan and then there are people who maybe give you a year or two years. What is the ideal time frame for you?

I love 8-months. (Insert my shock and horror here because you all know I’m type-A). Everything is wrapped up in the first three to four months and then the last four months is just all the logistics and all the final decision-making, but I find that in 8 months couples are more decisive. They already have a concrete budget, as opposed to someone who is spread out for a year or year and a half. Their budget is always moving based on the fact that they are increasing their wedding as they see new inspiration.

I’ll have to keep that in mind. I’ve always been like, “I need a year and a half.”

NOOOO! That’s the worst!

My mom’s like that too. Not that I’m anywhere close, but I need a good year and a half. I know what I want, but I have certain vendors that I already know I need to have that person. That’s the only reason why.

I feel like 8 months is such a great time period for me, even six. (Insert more shock and horror.) But the problem is the venues! The venues are never available. So that’s where I feel like people end up pushing their timeline because of the venues. The amount of people getting married in New York versus the amount of venues…The ratio is off.

Yeah. It’s like that in Philly too. I’ve visited places before, and they’ve been booked for two years. And there’s not as many over there. And down where I live in South Jersey there’s a handful so it’s a mess.

Why do you think a planner is a good investment? I feel like a lot of people think it’s not necessary and think they can do the same thing. Why should someone hire a planner?

I get this question all the time, and I think the biggest thing is that we know where to spend your wedding investment. We have seen it, we’ve done it all, and we know what’s going to have the most impact with the least impact on your budget, and also the vendors that are going to have the most impact on your budget, and where you should be spending your money. This is an investment. You guys are not going to see any return on this money, and so you should be able to know how to spend it. Like I always tell people, would you do your own taxes, or do you hire an accountant? Would build your own house or would you hire an architect and a contractor? It’s the same concept. I think people have gotten used to doing it by themselves, and it’s become customary, but wedding professionals—it’s seen as a profession. We are teaching at NYU, so people can come out of there with a master’s in event management and know how to run a day, how to run a timeline, and how to run a budget, and how to make the most impact with that investment.

I think some people, like control-freaky people, don’t want a planner to tell them how their wedding should be. And I’ve seen you in action. That’s not the case at all.

I think there was a very old school mentality. It’s an old world planner mentality where we just take on everything and you just sign the checks. Now I feel like couples really want to be a part of that process.

My mom has asked about that. She’s very good at entertaining. You know I’ve had my wedding planned for ten years. And she always asks if I need a planner. I was explaining to her what you were doing, and I explained that they know how to negotiate, they know when you’re getting ripped off by someone trying to take advantage of you. I think it’s great. You run the show. Your maid of honor isn’t going to do that, she’s floating in la - la -land. She’s thinking of other things. You need someone to keep everyone in line.

Yeah you need someone to run the whole thing. I completely agree. Like I said, I think brides regret not having a wedding planner because they feel like, “You know what, I took on a lot of the stress that I thought the venue was going to take on, or the photographer was going to run this.” But no one ever runs the job the way a planner does.

A huge thank you to Lauren for taking the time to answer my questions! I hope you all took something away from this interview. Stay tuned for the next one which will be with THE Sweet Genius, Ron Ben-israel.

*Please note, this interview was lightly edited for clarity.

*Hero image is by Michael George Photography