Wedding Planner - Yes or NO and why DEBATE!!!

WeddingBliss32 · September 2010

Hi Everyone,

What is your take on getting a Wedding Planner, is it required or not. If you feel it is, why ? If not, why not ? My friend hired a wedding planner for her wedding 3 months ago and she was amazing and saved her like over 5,000 on her wedding, so now I hired her also. But another one of my friends is getting married and she says it's an unnecessary cost. What is your take on that matter ? Her and I are debating it - she might decide to hire my wedding planner but I guess she wants more info.

Thanks for your help !

ring_pop · September 2010

I don't think it's required - considering that I didn't have one, and I still ended up married

I can't speak to the cost savings... I'll never know what a wedding planner COULD HAVE saved me. I'm not the best negotiator so maybe a planner could have helped me there. But some people are great negotiators even if they don't have a planner to help. And of course, part of those savings would be offset by the planner's fees.

As far as having someone to run things, I think my day went pretty smoothly without the wedding planner. But I had lots of friends and family to help, and I was hyper organized about telling them all what to do.

PreppySailor · September 2010

I think it depends on the type of wedding you are planning, and how much desire you have ot be involved yourself. Some brides love to do everything themselves and the thought of relinquishing control to someone else is nervewracking. Others are happy to hand over the money and show up on the wedding day. I think most people fall somewhere in the middle.

I can see how a WP could be helpful if you're having a very large guestlist, or if you have a demanding job and don't have much time.

ssaeed · September 2010

A wedding planner was the first thing that I did after we got engaged, and it was the best decision I made. She has done some major negotiating for us and saved us over $6500 between venue, food and other vendors - she only cost a fraction of that.

The reason that I hired a planner was simply because I did not want to look through the internet searching endlessly for vendors - a process that I personally find very frustrating. The planner made 3-4 recommendations in each category (photography, decor, DJ, hair/make-up, etc.) - then the final decision was mine. Having a wedding planner does not mean that you are relinquishing control at all. The planner's job is to understand your vision and make sure that it comes to reality. I am sure you can understand how overwhelming it can be to start looking for vendors (especially photographers!)

I thought about using family and friends, but in the end I don't want them stressing out about anything on the wedding day and I want them to enjoy it without worrying about anything. In the end though, it's your decision. I did meet with 2-3 planners until I signed with the one I liked most. Good luck!

smellymm83 · September 2010

I say YES... as I live in Alberta and I'm getting married in Ontario. It's very hard to plan a wedding across the country and when the savings I'm hoping she can assist with it'll be completely worth the small amount that was paid for her services.

APW2010 · September 2010

I wanted a wedding planner, but FI didn't want to spend on it. However, he really didn't grasp at all how much work a wedding requires, or what kind of work - knowing what he does now he might have gone along with it. It would have been nice to have someone else supporting me about time lines too - again something he just didn't take seriously or 'get'.

I primarily wanted the wedding planner to cut down on the research required behind finding the vendors. However, I did use the vendors I have to get recommendations for more, which helped a lot (my venue suggested the florist, the florist suggested the cake shop, the MUA suggested the hair stylist), and my venue provides a DOC.

We did okay without one, but doing it over, I'd probably argue even harder to get one

colourz · September 2010

It depends if you have the time and enjoy doing the work yourself. I'm thinking of hiring a WP for 'the day of' because that's the one time I don't want to deal with problems.

MrsBM · September 2010

I wanted a wedding planner...but my hubby didn't want it b/c he didnt want to be just given choices for vendors...he wanted to do the 'internet' research and make the phone calls to figure out which vendor was best for us....so we ended up with a compromise and went with a wedding day coordinator...which we both think was the best decision EVER and most required vendor.

Like pp have said above, it really depends on the type of wedding you are having. We were having a South Asian-Indian wedding with 3 meals, decoration set up for 2 events, lots of cultural details and over 400 guests....so it was a big help to have someone coordinating the day for us...

[Deleted User] · September 2010

it depends on what you are looking for.. if u enjoy the whole process and have the time to do it yourself, than it is not needed. A family member of mine is a catering manager, and they tell brides its a waste, because sometimes those people can help you out with the right contacts. I enjoy it a lot, and am considering doing this next year, i plan on taking a course. It is a lot of work, but im glad i did it and continue to do it on my own!

dougie80 · September 2010

I got married a couple of weeks ago, and in hindsight I really wish that I at least had a day-of coordinator. But I've heard that the cost difference between a day-of helper and a full-out planner isn't that big, so it might be worthwhile to just go for the whole thing? But I don't know for sure, so do your research there.

If all your vendors are good and organized and competent then you probably won't need a planner. But I had a lot of problems with my decorator (she did decor at the venue, plus all flowers at ceremony and reception) and really would have loved to have someone else deal with her. The decorator flaked out and didn't show up at the church to drop off the ceremony flowers during the rehearsal as we had planned. So I had to send a good dozen emails back and forth with her on my bbry during my rehearsal dinner, the night before my wedding, so ensure that she'd show up the next day. And that was just the start of the number of ways in which she screwed up...

I also felt like every time I tried to talk to a guest during my cocktail hour I got pulled away with some sort of question or problem. Although I was generally a pretty relaxed bride (did not freak out about wrong flowers, backdrop for head table left randomly in the middle of a hallway, wedding cake gone missing, etc.) I didn't feel like I actually got to relax until at least 11PM because of all the little things I had to take care of. So if you're not 100% certain about the quality of your vendors, I would definitely recommend a wedding planner. It's just way too exhausting to deal with all the problems yourself.

poofybabypenguin · September 2010

We got a wedding planner even though I am super type A and wants to do everything myself but both of our work dictate our lives right now. I was on the fence for the first 2 weeks but after that I discovered what an amazing asset our wedding planner is. Not only does she help to negotiate and knows all the best vendors in town, I can truly say that I am throughly enjoying our wedding planning and it has not been stressful at all. When friends ask how we are doing, I can excitedly update them and tell them frankly we don't feel like we've done much (even though we've already tackeled alot of the todo list!) That alone is worth the price!

Littlin · September 2010

We didn't use a planner. I'm not going to lie - it was a busy year, but not so unmanageable (it depends on how long your engagement - we got married a year and 4 months after our engagement). The worst was really the last two weeks. If you are very organized, it should not really be a problem to do it yourself - my teacher habits have trained me well.

It all depends on your budget, your venue, etc. We could have fit it into the budget if we really wanted to, but I like to do things myself and had a hard time giving up control to even DH, so it worked for us. Plus our venue had a banquet and bar manager there the entire reception to make sure that went perfectly. I just had to give them a timeline. The same went for the day leading up to it all. I scheduled it, we went places, we got things done, all was well.

If you have a demanding job or no time at all on weekends then a planner would be wise. They have a lot of resources at their disposal and lots of preferred vendors. We used a lot of vendors that friends who have already gotten married recommended, and they all worked out fabulously!

I was very stressed the last few days, but on the day of, I was happy, calm, relaxed - no worries. Everything was planned and if something went wrong, it was out of my control at that point. I didn't feel it was necessary for us, but it's completely dependent on the couple!

Wedding Planner - Yes or NO and why DEBATE!!!

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