The weddings of today are anything but the weddings of yore. As you walk into the venue, be it a house, abandoned plot, garden, lawn, hotel hall or Jamaat Khana, you will find it utterly transformed beyond recognition. You find yourself walking into another land, a land of plush carpeting where the heels of your pumps sink into its woollen depths. A land cordoned by flowing drapes, wall panelling and ornate tapestries; a land with tinkling fountains and pillars spilling with exotic flowers and a DJ putting you in the right mood with the right music. You may find yourself in the mysterious depths of a harem or the minimalist themed land of whites and silvers. Everything is colour coordinated of course, from the bride's dress to the crockery. Now a guest doesn't simply walk away with a paan after saying goodbye. God forbid! After signing the guest book, he has a remarkable giveaway to look forward to after every function.

Who does all of this? Do the bride and groom's family take off a year from their daily chores and occupations to plan this perfect wedding? No need to. Enter, God's gift to every couple who aspires to tie the knot — a wedding planner!

Yasmin Asif, a wedding planner, who pioneered the company Jasmina, says that hiring a wedding planner is the smartest thing one can do. “It's a one-stop shop. We do everything from card printing, trousseau packing and display, hotel bookings, the guest books and giveaways to the minor detail of how the bride or the couple will make their entrance — the whole nine yards.

“The key thing is that the clients must reveal the budget they have — it can be extravagant or a shoestring one but I have to haggle and bargain and still make it work for them,” says Yasmin.

The point of hiring a wedding planner basically is to unload a lot of the lumber that is part and parcel of any wedding. There are a myriad of things to accomplish and because it's a once in a lifetime occasion, people are willing to go all out to make the event as memorable as possible. “A wedding is an occasion when every guest needs to be made to feel special; relatives are quick to take offence if not properly entertained and everyone is poised to criticise every little rut or flaw,” says Shahida who is considering hiring a planner for her daughter's wedding.

Amir, who had hired a wedding planner for his sister's wedding, admits that it made things so much smoother. It was like handing over the stress of the wedding to someone, along with a cheque of course. “He suggested so many things that we had never even heard of and added so much value and class to the ceremony.

“It ended up being cost-effective because a planner has a lot of connections. He knows exactly what to get, from where and at what rate. When we try to get things done by ourselves, harbouring the illusion that we might save a few thousands, it ends up becoming a penny-wise-pound-foolish scenario.” says Amir. The wedding ended up being an event to be remembered and cherished.

Sana, who wanted every aspect of her wedding to be immaculately planned, hired a planner after a lot of market research. “I talked to people who had had their weddings planned. I surfed the Net and got quotations. I visited planners and asked them to show me their portfolios and presentations.” It certainly annoyed a lot of planners but in the end, Sana ended up having a fairy tale wedding, with every facet signatured and personalised. “Even though I hired a planner, I kept him on his toes by following up every angle of the wedding. I would call him five times a day and discuss everything to its minutest detail. It drove him up the wall, but then I was paying him through my nose for his services.”

“Basically the planner is the person who conceptualises an idea, improvises and accentuates the client's ideas and breathes life into them; in fact, makes them better than the client had ever thought possible. The planner coordinates with all the agents who are to make the wedding possible and makes sure all the elements — the fabrics and flowers, the contrasts and colours, the lighting and music — fall into place and the entire event unfolds beautifully,” says Ismail Sethi pioneer of Design Matters.

Sethi is one of those event managers who don't touch shoestring budgeted weddings with a pole. He shares that the wedding ceremony he's working on currently is for a guest list of 1,500 people and will amount to Rs1.8 million.

“Even though I handle a particular class, and many modern middle class clients can't afford me, I offer them free consultation and even go as far as to refer them to vendors they can contact personally,” he finishes.

Lamiya, who owns the Ambiance florist, also plans weddings. She seconds the opinion that hiring a wedding planner is 'the' thing to do because in this country it's so difficult to get things done. “The most stressful part of a planner's job is dealing with the labour who have no sense of time and are unaware of the word 'responsibility'. These labourers work on daily wages and you're totally dependent on them — right from the loaders to the whole sale florists. If even one of them messes up, the planner is the one answerable to the client.”

With the wedding season in full swing; people are competing to make their wedding 'the' event of the year or at least an affair which will be hard to put out of your mind for a long time to come. Hiring a classy wedding planner may just be the thing to help you do so.