Planning for a wedding can be a stressful exercise or it can also be an extremely joyful one. Depending on whether you are a totally hands-on person or one who actually allows other to plan events for you, your wedding must be a special day and one of the most ideal things you should do is to engage a wedding planner.
A wedding planner could either be a full-fledge professional or a family or friend who knows the ins and outs of your family practices and traditions. A professional, which is typically a common profession in the western countries would be well versed with planning the event. This is if you are planning a ‘western’ type of wedding which usually involve a church ceremony, a wedding reception and a dinner with dance and such, very much like what you see in the movies.
In Asian countries like Malaysia, however, the situation is very different because of the rich traditions and culture practiced by the respective races and communities. Hence, a wedding planner must be well versed with the different types of practices involved. In fact, a Chinese wedding planner need to know all the various types of practices among the several types of dialects like Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew as they might all be similar but every dialect might have a specific custom which is different from the rest.
Therefore, a wedding planner in the Asian context would be very different from those in the western communities where it would involve a longer term commitment. A western culture wedding planner would be more involved with the logistics and aesthetics of the wedding day that range from who the florist is, the caterers, the guest list, the performers and all that. An eastern culture wedding planner would be involved with planning when to deliver the gifts and dowry, how to deliver them, the time to do it, who should be involved and its related events. On top of that, on the day of the wedding day, the wedding planner would have to ensure that all the customs that are practiced in the specific culture and community must be strictly followed through.
A wedding planner or organizer would be the ideal person to ensure the smooth flow of the big day. If you are getting married, you will not have time to take care of all the details and hence, it would be best left to those who know them best.