Who is a Wedding Designer

The professionals who can help bride and groom to fully experience their wedding day and the period preceding it are first of all: the Wedding Designer and the Wedding Planner.

This article wants to clarify the Wedding Designer’s role and duties, even in relation to the Wedding Planner.

What is the Wedding Designer?

During the last years Design has becoming increasingly important to create unforgettable weddings, because it is necessary when you want to transform spaces creating unique and personalized settings.

For this reason the Wedding Industry had been witness of birth of a new professional figure: the Wedding Designer. This professional has not only the taste, but also the skills necessary to develop a Design project able of thrilling the couple and amplify the engagement of their guests.

You have to consider that taking care of the Design requires time, that the Wedding Planner often doesn’t have, because she/he has to take care of the entire planning project. Consequently the Wedding Designer is an important co-worker for the Wedding Planners and also for other professionals of Wedding Industry such as: florists, event managers of locations, etc..

Let’s see in detail what it means taking care of the Design of a wedding.

What does a Wedding Designer do?

This figure takes care exclusively of the creative side of the wedding from an aesthetic and scenographic point of view.

When I talk about “wedding” I mean both a real wedding and a wedding styled shooting.

First of all, the Wedding Designer creates the Concept of the event which includes the style of the wedding, the mood, the theme and the color palette, combining the tastes of the couple and the features of the location.

This means that this Specialist of Design develops the Vision of the event in a project including for example:

Floral arrangements

Lighting

Table setting

Wedding sweet (invitations, menu, table and guests’ tags, etc.)

Favours for guests

Welcome bags

Photobooth

Lounge areas

Thanks to her/his skills, the Wedding Designer guarantees that all these elements wil be in harmony.

She/he also takes care of the presentation of the project to the Wedding Planner and to the couple through moodboards and digital illustrations dedicated to every moment of the wedding:

Ceremony

Aperitif

Reception

Cutting Cake

Party Afterdinner

Cerimony

Aperitif

Reception

Cutting cake

Party Afterdinner

Afterwards the Wedding Designer interacts with the suppliers together with the Wedding Planner or on her/his behalf taking care in detail of the Styling, which consists in bringing the project from dream into reality according to the budget of the couple.

The Wedding Designer can also work alongside the Wedding Planner supporting the couple concerning the choice of the bridal dress, the bridesmaids’ dresses and the groom’s outfit.

Skills

The Wedding Designer need to have the following skills:

creativity, necessary to always design new projects ( this is an important skill both in the case of weddings and wedding-styled shootings);
problem solving, finding suitable alternatives in case decorative elements are not available;
rawing skills, in order to create illustrations that allow the couple to clearly visualize the project;
spirit of observation to capture details to be enhanced within the location;
good understanding of the couple’s wishes and preferences;
knowledge of the design rules, styles and trends.

Whereas the Wedding Planner is certainly a pragmatic person, with good organizational, leadership and problem solving skills.

Differences between Wedding Designer and Wedding Planner

Imagine the wedding as a show: the Wedding Designer is the scenographer of the event, while the Wedding Planner is the director.

The Wedding Designer and the Wedding Planner are therefore two professional figures with different but complementary roles.

Their synergy guarantees to create a wedding with a personalized setting, that makes it a unique event, leaving everyone breathless and an impeccable planning allowing both guests and spouses to have an unforgettable experience.

The following duties are under the responsalbility of the Wedding Planner and not of the Wedding Designer:

organizing the logistical aspect of the services (florist, lighting service, catering, entertainment, etc.);
booking transfers and accomodations for guests;
arranging bureaucratic aspects of wedding;
defining the Big Day timeline;
booking the church and the location;
managing contracts with vendors;
managing the budget.

The Wedding Planner can take care of coordinating vendors on the wedding day, but this service can also be entrusted to another figure: the Wedding Coordinator.

Big agencies specialized in weddings with budgets of tens thousands euros usually have different people in their team covering the role of Wedding Designer and Wedding Planner. Whereas freelancers may have all the necessary skills to offer both the design and planning services to their couples.

How to become a Wedding Designer

At the moment it’s easier to find many courses to become a Wedding Planner, which may dedicate a few lessons to Design, instead of finding courses exclusively focused on Wedding Design.

If you can’t find a Design course, you can obtain the necessary knowledge attending for example:

courses of floral design, lighing design, table styling and bon ton;
instraship at Wedding Planners and florists;
courses of digital illustration and graphic design;
courses of interior design.

Why hiring a Wedding Designer?

There are many benefits in having this professional at your side.

For the Wedding Planner it means:

having the support of a Design specialist (a collaborator, not a possible competitor) able to take care of Design project and to create the graphic presentation for the couple;
being able to get a higher target as it would be able to guarantee a higher quality service;
saving precious time that the Wedding Planner would otherwise have to spend looking for the stylistic trends of the moment;
standing out from competitors inside the Wedding Industry, thus gaining visibility and authority;
making each couple feel truly unique, like the design of the event that he/she will plann for them;
focus her/his time and attention on the planning of other weddings, thus being able to manage a more events with a consequent increase in turnover;
creating ever new scenographies for her/his events, thus attracting targets with different tastes.

For the couple it means:

being able to personally take care of the planning, with a Design specialist at thier side helping them to achieve the aesthetic and emotional impact they dream for their wedding thanks to a unique and flawless design;
being able to correctly communicate to suppliers the result they want to obtain showing them bespoke digital sketches;
avoiding stylistic and chromatic mistakes that would affect the final result, thus wasting the budget allocated to Design.

For the locations it means:

having a specialist in Wedding Design alongside their Event Manager (whose role is similar to the Wedding Planner’s one), who knows how to improve the spaces of the location;
being able to count on a professional who knows how to guide the couple in choosing the style and the colors improving the location;
always giving a new look to the location, despite having already hosted tens or hundreds of weddings;
hosting weddings with ever-changing Design, to attract spouses with different tastes.

How to find a Wedding Designer

If you look for a Wedding Designer on Google, you will easily find many Wedding Planners or Event Agencies offering the Design service.

But if you are looking for a Wedding Designer, that is a specialist dealing exclusively with Design, the results of your research will really a few.

To avoid misunderstandings I suggest you to carefully read the description of services offered by the professionals of the Wedding Industry and in case of doubts ask them for further information.

If you are a Wedding Planner and you want to know more about my services click here.

My name is Alessandra Bianchini and I am a Wedding Designer.

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