Wedding planner

We opted for a planner. At first we only wanted one for day/month of but the person we chose includes design/decor on her full planning so we upgraded bc in the long run it was the best option.

Since we’re having a destination wedding, we want to not have to rely on an undetermined group of bridesmaids/groomsmen. We really just want folks to show up if they can and enjoy the wknd.

But if we were having it locally, I think I/we would opt to do everything ourselves.

I have a wonderful lady in my life who does Wedding planning on the side and she's offered to do our day-of coordination as a gift! We had our first meeting with her and she will certainly take the stress away from organizing vendors and decorations the day of.

However, I know paying for one is bananas expensive. I have a friend who was paid by a coworker $20/hour to help coordinate her wedding day the day of. She was basically just a non-essential guest (i.e. not your mom or best friend), who had more responsibility, but after she was done helping still got to enjoy the wedding. Something to think about.

Two words.: get one.
it will help alleviate the stress to an extent.

My venue has an event coordinator. I will need to have another meeting with her to figure out how much she will do/take responsibility for, and then go from there. I am very organized and diligent when it comes to designating tasks to family/bridal parties... and we have minimal decor/outside 'stuff' to worry about, so I don't feel like I need a wedding coordinator.

Before I asked her to be a bridesmaid, my oldest sister offered to be my day-of coordinator... perhaps you have a very organized person in your family who could help with dealing with day-of issues, so you don't have to deal with them?

If it's within your budget, perhaps consider just a day-of coordinator. I know I have the ability to organize and plan everything up to the day of, but someone else needs to be available to deal with everything on the day. You're only focus is on getting married and having a good time.

It depends on a few things. Let's pretend that budget isn't a factor. It's important to consider a few things:

1. What sort of personality type are you? Do you like planning, are you organized? Do you have the time do dedicate to doing what you need to?

2. What does your venue you offer? A lot of venues will have coordinators who run your day of. Some venues will set up/tear down and store decor for you. Other venues make you set up your own decor and tear it down at the end of the night.

I love planning for example, and am OVERLY organized and we booked a venue who are super helpful, have a day of coordinator and will do all the setup/tear down for us. I also got lucky that my florist is super sweet and setting up all the flowers and told me she'd help with decor. I decided to NOT go with a planner.

However, one of my friends was finding the process overwhelming, and the family was hard to manage. She's gone with a planner, and its helped figure a lot out.

It depends on your budget. Wedding planners are helpful depending on their experience and will also take a lot of stress off of you. But you can also ask your bridal party, friends and family to help you with wedding tasks and planning. I decided not to go with a wedding planner and have been really lucky to get a lot of help and support from family and friends. I think however I will be hiring a day coordinator, to make sure everything runs smoothly on the day of the wedding, so my bridal party and family can enjoy the day!

Depends on your needs and I also think size of your wedding. I always knew I would want a day of coordinator because the one thing I would see every wedding was that is there were any issues or questions they would go to the bride. So she would spend all this time away from her day taking care of and talking logistics. I was lucky enough to be gifted full coordination for the price of day of. And she has been helpful in terms of reaching out to vendors on my behalf, helping me find reputable vendors in my price range and so on. She has tons of experience so she helps me out alot along the way as I've never done this before and we have a big wedding. So really dependa if you think it's worth it to you!

I had a coordinator at my venue who I could ask questions too, and she was responsible for final numbers, where I wanted tables and questions about working with my vendors (linens, cake, photography DJ). She wasn't there the day-of though, and I thought I managed it pretty well.

It really depends on how many vendors you have, if you have people who you can delegate tasks to (who you trust will do it) and budget. If you have many vendors who all need to be coordinated and arranged, it can certainly help having a day-of planner. It could always be worth it to meet with a few, see what they offer and if you get along with any of them. That may help you decide if you can do it on your own, or need some help.

We are doing everything ourselves! With the amount of information you can get online these days to help you through every step and the assistance from the people at the venue we are opting for saving the money on the planner and putting it towards something else!

We went with a day of coordinator to help keep everything rolling smoothly for us. She has been amazing to work with thus far and I wouldn't have traded it for anything. She's helped up through some hiccups we've had while planning the wedding and has helped up find new vendors when needed. If you have the money I say go for it!

I definitely think it depends on what you envision for your wedding and also how much time you have to personally do things. For a more simplistic wedding I would say maybe day of planner would be fine. But there is so much to do and remember. It can get overwhelming. Hotels tend to cover a lot and have linens and things like that. But there are lots of places where you need to rent everything. Wedding planners are amazing at Decore, matching different colours and themes. They are great at Envisioning what you want and bringing it to life. I know the colour I want, I have ideas of what I like, but I can’t bring it together lol. Many ladies are amazing at planning. Me not so much LOL. Do you know which venue you want for your wedding?

I have a co-ordinator included with my venue and she is a godsend. She has been really helpful with the little details and questions I have. I probably discuss more with her than my FH lol. She will also be the one to set up the venue, manage the timeline and just make sure everything is running smoothly behind the scenes.

I think there are different levels of timelines you can hire a co-ordinator/planner for such as full time, a month before, day of etc. so depending on your budget, even if you don't need one for the entire duration you can hire one closer to the date. I would also suggest finding someone who is familiar with your venue so they have a relationship with the staff there - you can always ask too and see if they have someone they work with.