If you look on Instagram nowadays, everyone is an event planner. People create Pinterest boards to gather ideas for their events and then try to replicate them on their own.  Everyone has ideas. But the trick is in the planning and design.

Putting together ideas for an event takes a lot of time. When you are trying to celebrate life’s special moments there are so many other details that go into the event. Andthat planning and designing should be left to a professional.

I’ve been on both sides of the equation. I’ve used an event planner and I haven’t used an event planner. Here is the difference…

For my son’s first birthday I planned everything myself. I went online and collected all of the ideas that I could find on Eric Carle’s The Hungry Caterpillar. We hung a caterpillar from the ceiling, had a dessert table, a face painter, a clown, a photo booth (all that good stuff that a one year old wouldn’t remember). I asked Erika to simply do the photo props and the center pieces, nothing more. The day of the party, I got up early to decorate the restaurant, which took two hours, then got home to change into my outfit as well as dress both children, then we had to drive back to the party and “enjoy” it.

It was exhausting. Although I loved every minute of my son’s party, it was tough trying to make sure everything went smoothly. I had to play host, take care of my kids, mingle with family and friends, make sure everyone was having a good time… I was the event planner. And I was also very tired.

Whenever I have used an event planner, it has been a much more relaxing experience. You arrive at the event and the venue is taken care of. All of the ideas that you discussed with your event planner are brought to life. The most time consuming thing is making sure you communicate what you want. You will develop a good relationship with your event planner because you communicate a lot regarding your celebration, but other than that, a lot of the legwork is done by the planner, not you.

I’ll never forget the moment when the doors opened to the reception of my wedding. (I got married before Pinterest, so it was literally ideas that were googled or clipped out of magazines) It was exactly what we had planned. Our wedding was a true celebration, where all we did was show up, dance, and make memories with our closest friends and family.

An event planner was the best idea we had.

By: Ana Feliciano