Excerpted from Chapter 2: Why is Mussolini Planning Our Wedding? Choosing a Wedding Planner

Since a lot of people do just fine without a planner, you’re going to have to pull out all the stops to justify the expense. Remind your man that wedding planners make life much easier because she will do a lot of the work. You’re going to spend a lot of money during the engagement on things that make your life more difficult (like providing free champagne during the reception for your alcoholic cousin Stu), so a wedding planner can be a nice luxury.

If your groom is still not going for it, tell him he can think of the wedding planner as his personal lieutenant, who’s there to carry out his commands during the engagement. All guys secretly fantasize about saying things like, “Prepare my fleet of ships!” and, “Tell the King that victory is near!” but we rarely get the chance to use any of these phrases. We’re so desperate, in fact, that we’ll settle for saying things like, “prepare my Honda for the trip to the florist!” and, “Tell my mom a decision on the entrees is near!”

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