Best-Kept "Big Day" Secrets

2. I'm not your personal assistant.

Your planner wants to take care of you, but if you're contacting her dozens of times a day, you're probably taking advantage of her. “We had a client who was such a time suck—calling weekends and after hours," says Jennifer Gilbert, owner of New York City event firm Save the Date and author of I Never Promised You a Goodie Bag. "We base our price on a certain amount of hours, and she had already used up 85 percent of her time in two months." It's also important to communicate exactly which tasks you expect the planner to handle. "One bride asked me to schedule her plastic surgery appointments," says Heather Minicucci of Simply Inviting Events in Boston, MA. "Although it's common for me to schedule wedding-day beauty appointments, that was out of the realm of tasks I handle."

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3. Your vendor messed up. 

One of planners' main responsibilities is keeping vendors on schedule—a task that's typically easier said than done. "I once had to call in my team to set up a reception two hours before it began because the caterers forgot when they were supposed to arrive," says Candice Coppola of Jubilee Events in Cheshire, CT. "Since I was able to solve the problem, I didn't sour the couple's day by telling them that the caterer made a huge mistake." At one wedding Gilbert planned, the cake never showed. "I had to make one on the premises! The bride still has no idea that her wedding cake wasn't the one she ordered."