You've taken the big steps of getting married and hiring a wedding planner to take care of all the details of the wedding and reception. That planner has been working with you for months, and you're both going to be happy when the wedding finally arrives because then you can both take a break, right? Once the party's over, though, the wedding planner's job isn't done yet, and you'll see the planner continuing to work because now it's time to wind up. Here's what the wedding planner has to do once you're done with your part.

After-Party Considerations

Occasionally there are after-wedding arrangements like brunches between the families the day after the wedding. You don't have to have these, but sometimes they are nice ways for the families of the now-married couple to wind down officially and wish each other well. The wedding planner will take care of these arrangements and coordinate with the vendors who are setting up the brunch.

Gift Security

Whether you're headed to a hotel or the airport after your reception, you have to do something with the gifts that were brought to the wedding instead of sent to you ahead of time. It's the wedding planner who ensures these are packed up and sent somewhere secure, which can be your hotel room, the house of a relative who lives nearby, a locked storage area at the reception hall, or somewhere else that is secure and that won't let anyone but you grab the gifts.

Clean-up Monitor

The wedding planner also has to oversee the cleanup after the wedding, noting any belongings left behind and gathering up ornaments or favors that are meant to stay with you. If the reception was held at a hall or hotel and set up by separate vendors, the planner has to make sure the hall is left in good, clean condition once everything is taken out. If anything is left behind, the planner will contact the contractor who was supposed to take it away. This is especially helpful if you had to put a damage deposit down on the space in which you held the reception.

Weddings and receptions don't magically take care of themselves once the ceremony is over. Your wedding planner is the one who coordinates all of that, so when you're drawing up a schedule of how things will proceed at your ceremony and reception, be sure to include the after-reception duties.