Wedding and Party Consultants

Weddings have long provided good careers for musicians, photographers, florists, printers, caterers, and others. Marriage brokers—men and women who made their livings pairing up brides with grooms for nicely "arranged" marriages—were once considered prominent members of some cultures. Wedding consulting, however, has only emerged in recent years.

In the years before wedding consultants, brides divided up responsibilities among cousins and aunts—a family gathered together to lick invitation envelopes assembly-line style, a favorite aunt mixed batches of butter mints, a married sister with some recent wedding experience helped the bride pick a dress and china pattern. Usually it was not until after the event that the bride really had a sense of how to plan a wedding. The profession of wedding consultant as a serious business began in the early 1980s. Recognizing how a bride can benefit a great deal from a knowledgeable guide, men and women hired themselves out as wedding and party experts. It has only been during the last few years that the major wedding magazines and publications have given serious consideration to wedding consultants. Now most wedding experts consider a consultant a necessity in planning a perfect and cost-efficient wedding.