Wedding Planner- to hire or not to hire...THAT is the question!

AmandaLeigh1014

I am contemplating hiring a wedding planner to help relieve a little of the stress that comes along with planning. My only concern is that my FI and I are paying for our wedding ourselves, and we dont want to extremely compromise our budget by paying an extreme amount of money for one, but i really could use the help. Has anyone hired a wedding planner? Was it worth the extra money? We're they reasonable?

courtchace

I havent hired a planner and most likely wont but thats because i love planning things and I am enjoying the whole process so far. Our venue comes with a wedding coordinator which is a great thing if your venue comes with one as well. Having a coordinator has totally removed any need for me to have an additional wedding planner. We are not getting married until next September but our coordinator has already helped out with so much. She has given vendor reccomendations, given me opinions on certain wedding ideas, etc. She also will take care of everything prior such as securing the rentals I want, managing the vendors, and taking care of everything on the day of. Something to think about if your venue offers the same thing!

AmandaLeigh1014

My Venue does offer a coordinator! I didnt realize that they help you with so much, I just assumed that she was just there to help you deal with the venue, not everyone else. I suppose I should ask her!

RoyalOrient

I hired a day of coordinator since the week of my wedding, I wanted complete peace of mind. It all depends on your needs. I had a lot of OOT guests and family. I needed someone to pick up the suits to buying more red bull for the rehearsal dinner. My venue coordinator and caterer were helpful but my type A personality could not trust them with my carefully crafted decor including our custom made cake topper.

kathanddave

I had a weekend coordinator which my father and husband questioned during the year of planning...when it came to the weekend of the wedding father and husband were elated with how helpful she was...my father had withdrawals the Monday after...it is worth it!

AmandaLeigh1014

Thanks for the info! perhaps a day of coordinator would be good to ease some of the last minute stress!

i2012do

KathandDave- do you mind sharing who you used?

DiLynn83

I am hiring a DOC, definitely.

KBinRI

I hired a DOC and it was the best money we spent.

I wanted to do the planning myself but our DOC helped carry things out that day. She organized rehearsal the night before, did all of the venue setup, lined everyone up for the ceremony and told people when to walk, changed over the ceremony space to make it into the reception space while we were having dinner under the tent, planned out the whole night so I never had to think about "the flow" or when things were happening, just waited for her to tell me it was time for dances, to cut the cake, etc. Then she washed all of our cupcake platters, boxed up those and other decor items, labeled all of the boxes and brought it all to the back of the venue so we could easily load up the cars at the end of the night.

My venue did have a hostess that we had to pay an hourly rate for, but the way another DOC I talked to for a magazine story I wrote put it, the venue's coordinator is there largely to look out for the venue's interests. The DOC you hire is there to look out for you and what you want. (Within reason, of course.)

My SIL just got engaged and so we were talking about this very topic this weekend. To me, you spend thousands and thousands of dollars on everything else; a DOC costs a small percentage of the rest of the wedding, so, considering all of you are spending to make the perfect day, why would you NOT hire one to make sure things run smoothly/anticipate and solve problems? Again, best money we spent.

[Deleted User]

we had a DOC for our wedding this weekend and i can't recommend this enough. she set up everything for us and broke everything down and she took care of us and coordinated our vendors all night. she protected us from problems and i didn't even find out about them until days after the wedding. she got us everything we needed and was just a true pleasure to have around. its just a great peace of mind and worth the money. we used andria medeiros at infinite events. she brought another person and an intern with her so we had 3 helpers in total. so worth it!!

RIFallBride

Any recommendations for DOCs?

KBinRI

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_rhode-island_wedding-planner-hire-not-hirethat-question?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:122Discussion:9b2ac41b-04a5-4fec-9bce-b6abfe3fd3cbPost:6fa79307-5284-4f62-ac91-24bd0642e28a">Re: Wedding Planner- to hire or not to hire...THAT is the question!</a>:
[QUOTE]Any recommendations for DOCs?
Posted by RIFallBride[/QUOTE]

<div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Times;font-size:medium;line-height:normal;" class="Apple-style-span"><div style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10px;background-color:initial;background-image:none;background-repeat:initial;background-attachment:initial;-webkit-background-clip:initial;-webkit-background-origin:initial;color:#1f1f1f;font:normal normal normal 11px/14px Arial, sans-serif;text-align:left;">We hired Andria Medeiros from Infinite Events (more info on what she did for us is in my post above.)</div><div style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10px;background-color:initial;background-image:none;background-repeat:initial;background-attachment:initial;-webkit-background-clip:initial;-webkit-background-origin:initial;color:#1f1f1f;font:normal normal normal 11px/14px Arial, sans-serif;text-align:left;">
</div><div style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10px;background-color:initial;background-image:none;background-repeat:initial;background-attachment:initial;-webkit-background-clip:initial;-webkit-background-origin:initial;color:#1f1f1f;font:normal normal normal 11px/14px Arial, sans-serif;text-align:left;">I'd also recommend Jaime Nelson of Eventfully Planned after speaking with several brides who used her services and recommended her highly.</div></span></div>

AmandaLeigh1014

Thank you sooo much for your input! I greatly appreciate it! I'm so glad that you completely understand where I am coming from! My FI is like "do we really need someone to help like that?" and im like YES! He's not the one thats going to be in a panic making sure its perfect! (at least not as big of a panic as me) lol. I had previously emailed  both of the planners that you had mentioned to get price quotes, and they are both about the same, and you have definitely swayed me into meeting with them for sure! I guess now its just about who's personality and style i like better between the two! Thanks again sooo much!

pruemunro

Hi Amanda,

Hubby and I were married last week in Newport and I can't imagine where we'd be right now without our planner!  Our situation was extreme due to the hurriance and our wedding being cancelled but our planner took care of everything, she was incredible.  At the very least I'd highly recommend a DOC, although I'm sure we would stil have had a beautiful day it would have been a lot more stressful if not for Christine (our planner), Christine had everything setup, pulled down, all the vendors organized and in place, people organized, the list is endless and I can't speak highly of her enough.  Christine helped us with so much of our planning and without her helping us through the hurricane ordeal I can't imagine where we'd be!!

We used Christine Wheat of Christine Wheat Special Events Firm.  Christine specializes in weddings in NYC and Newport and worked with us on a price within our budget.  Christine's price was very competetive and was the best money we spent.

Good Luck and happy planning!

RoyalOrient

I used Liz and Adrienne of Gracie Lou Events. They are pretty popular on here too. They handled both my Cambodian wedding and the Western ceremony and reception. Yeah, that is TWO weddings in one day. 

chrispygal

Our planner was worth her weight in gold.  We had some wacky weather and she was able to take care of all the craziness and, essentially, we didn't have to worry about a thing.  It was great!   She helped some in early planning, but was mostly used that weekend for logistics, etc.