Huntsville Living Winter 2020 | Page 14

| FEATURE | PLANNING YOUR BIG DAY WEDDING PLANNER OFFERS TIPS TO HELP INDIVIDUALS PREPARE FOR THEIR WEDDING C TEXT BY MICHELLE WULFSON | PHOTOS BY YVETTE WOOD PHOTOGRAPHY ongratulations, you’re engaged! If you’ve started the planning process, you’ve probably felt stick- er shock over what it actually costs to get married outside of a court room. To say weddings can be expensive is a laughable understatement, but creating a special, memorable day does not have to break the bank. So fear not, the professionals of Huntsville wedding and event plan- ning service Let Us Events met with us to provide their favorite tips and tricks for pulling off your dream wedding on a budget. HIRING A PLANNER Hiring a planner may sound counterintuitive to having a budget wed- ding, but sometimes you have to spend money to save money (and your sanity). As professional wedding planners, the duo behind Let Us Events not only provides collaboration, organization and communication, they play a vital part in ensuring that weddings stay on budget. While not every wedding or bride will be the same, Let Us Events offers three different planning packages to assist every type of bride. In 2018, Let Us Events owner and lead coordinator Lexie Stoudt recalls booking almost every single wedding as a partial package for the bride who has booked a couple of items, but needs a little extra help from plan- ners to take care of the rest. However, with the rise of the budget-con- scious DIY bride, this last fall was nearly entirely comprised of day-of packages for the women behind Let Us Events. The day-of packages are just as they sound – the bride has planned the entire wedding on her own, however she doesn’t want herself or her fam- ily to be battling the stress of the event on the actual wedding day. Let Us Events begins working with the bride three months out in these cases to ensure that the bride’s day flows smoothly, coordinating with vendors so that the brides and their families can be left alone to enjoy the process. As for the bride who wants to be entirely care free and enjoy the excite- ment of an engagement from the backseat, there’s full planning pack- ages as well, bringing weddings to life from the bare building blocks of simply a budget and Pinterest board. 14 | HUNTSVILLE LIVING | WINTER 2020