Each and every year around 2.5 million weddings take place nationwide. This means that the number of weddings that will take place in your immediate area is astounding. Your wedding plans are going to be affected by number of factors, because many more weddings will happen at or around the same time as your wedding.

If you want even the tiniest little detail to be taken care of at your wedding, it's recommended that you hire a wedding planner. Hiring a wedding planner can save you a lot of time and money. The wedding planner will help you coordinate your wedding and the most important of all the wedding planner will save you from frustration.

So, what is a wedding planner anyway, and what does the wedding planner do?

A wedding planner (sometimes called a wedding consultant, wedding coordinator or a wedding producer) is hired to help the bride and groom coordinate a wide variety of tasks associated with their wedding. Planning your wedding can get vary frustrating at times, which on the other hand will make you forget about the fun that you need to have at your wedding. So, it is a good idea to spend a little bit more on a wedding planner to make sure your wedding day goes smooth.

A wedding planner can help plan many aspects of your wedding, including DJs, floral arrangements, cake, seating arrangements, invitations, photography, and so on. In some cases, a wedding planner might be able to use his or her industry connections with vendors to get you a good deal on many things.

The wedding planner will conduct an interview with the bride-to-be and the groom-to-be, and then coordinate the details of the wedding that have been agreed upon. A good wedding planner will be able to assist in organizing, budgeting and purchasing services for your wedding. A good wedding planner after the interview will put a contract together that you and him or her need to sign. Without a contract there's a lot of room for misunderstanding and confusion of what was agreed between you and your wedding planner.

In the contract or often referred to as a letter of agreement, the wedding planner will include the services that the he or she is expected to perform, the cost of these services and the payment terms.

When you receive the contract, if there's anything you do not agree with or anything not to your desire, discuss it with your wedding planner before signing it. When you sign the contract, you and your soon to-be wedding planner have to agree on all of the items listed to avoid any possible misunderstanding. But remember: even though you have been through the interview process, you are not obligated to continue with that particular wedding planner until you sign the contract.

So, how can you find a wedding planner, and not just any wedding planner, but a good wedding planner?

Nowadays, it's probably the easiest to find a wedding planner on the Internet. But, it's best if you know anyone who had had a wedding planner for their wedding. Referrals are always the best.

But, even if you have to seek help from the Internet or the yellow pages, when looking for a wedding planner, be sure to ask for his or her credentials. Ask for references from each of your potential wedding planners and research their past work. Also, ask to see a few other weddings your potential wedding planner has prepared. This will help you make a decision very easily whether you like the style of that particular wedding planner or you need to seek another one. Keep a lookout for the wedding planner you'd like, and don't hesitate to ask family and friends for suggestions.

Some of the advantages of hiring a wedding planner are, of course saving you from frustration; money savings, since most wedding planners have connections in the industry; solving your wedding problems; low stress since your wedding planner is there to pick up the slack should a problem arises.

But, there could also be some disadvantages, such as: overconfident (ego) wedding planner may try to convince you into having a wedding of 'his or her dreams' and not the wedding of your dreams. If you're a person who likes to be known or to show off, hiring a wedding planner may not be a good idea as they will be in charge of your wedding. Another disadvantage could be that you may accidentaly hire a scam artist who may not have done any weddings while broadcasting his or her enormous experience. That's why it is vital to do a thorough research on the wedding planners of your interest.

So, how much does a wedding planner cost?

If you hire a wedding planner expect their fee to be anywhere between 5% and up to 20% of your total wedding budget. At the end of the day it will be your decision whether you want to concentrate on the fun that you will have at your wedding while your wedding planner takes care of the details, or you want to be in charge of the details that will make hiring a wedding planner a waste of money.

Have fun interviewing those wedding planners.