I didn't and I am glad that I didn't. Everything went according to how my fiance and I wanted it...and we got to have our hands in everything.
Answered By: KissBehindZesto - 7/30/2007 |
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Didn't hire one, I'm 2.5 months from the wedding, and still okay with it. It seems like a waste of money (for me) to hire someone to do something I am perfectly capable of doing on my own.
Answered By: Autumn - 7/30/2007 |
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No, had great help from family. Don't regret it at all. We used that 10 per cent we would have had to pay out, ourselves!
Answered By: Lydia - 7/30/2007 |
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I had a wedding where I had about 250 guests and I planned it all myself...and I wouldn't have hired a planner even if I could do it over again.
Answered By: its about time - 7/30/2007 |
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I did not hire a wedding planner.
i planned my entire wedding myself. looked for all the vendors and booked everthything myself.
i would love to work as a wedding planner, but for me to hire one was out of the question. they are just too expensive and some seem to either over take the wedding or dont really help at all.
looking back, no i still would not have hired a wedding planner.
even htough i was working ful time at a very busy office i still made all appointments and scheduled things around my schedule, so that i wouldnt have to relie on someone else to the planning.
Answered By: Zachary'smommy - 7/30/2007 |
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I'm getting married in 2 weeks and my wedding location is 1 1/2 hours away from where I live. I felt a cordinator was a waste of money so I did it all myself (with help from my fiance and family) and now that it's crunch time I'm not regretting it at all. I'm really excited that all the choices were made by us and on my wedding day it'll be really nice to know everything there is just "us". Maybe on the day of it will be useful to have someone there just to direct, but our wedding isn't very traditional and we've already mapped out how things will work. I think if you are resourceful and creative you can do it yourself. Just make sure to follow up on everything and get everything in writing.
GOOD LUCK!!
Answered By: SpaceyLacey - 7/30/2007 |
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My wedding is coming up in less than two weeks. There will be about 200 guests and we chose to plan it all ourselves - its been fun and not that hard. We DID hire someone to do the decorating for us, but only because it was a really good deal! For $1000 we have a decorator coming in and doing the hall up a day before the wedding, a ton of beautiful decorations are included that we got to choose (lights, fabric, archways, etc), she will also light candles before the ceremony and make sure all runs smoothly until the cake cutting - how could we say no to that!? To remove that many things from our to do list for that price was impossible to say no to - If you can find something like that go for it - otherwise I would say its very possible to do it on your own. Good luck in deciding!
Answered By: AshB - 7/30/2007 |
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No, I didn't hire anyone and no I don't regret it one bit. In fact, I think it was the fact that I was in charge of everything that - oddly enough - allowed me to relax and enjoy myself at my own wedding. I knew everything had been handled, and precisely how. I hired an absolute minimum of professionals (officiant, band, photographer), and the ones I hired were almost all people I knew (I didn't know the officiant beforehand, but liked him when I hired him) and all very good at what they did.
That was me. I'm a bit of a control freak, painfully opinionated, and felt a need on my budget to squeeze every single dime to the maximum of my ability...which is not inconsiderable.
If you're like me, then don't even consider hiring a consultant. It would have driven me batty.
If, on the other hand, you have more cash than time or prefer to rely on others to handle all your details so you can relax safe in the knowledge that it's all handled and all you have to do is show up, then you're a perfect candidate to hire a consultant. Find one you feel good about who has excellent references and point them in the direction you want.
It's really a matter of personality and budget. If your budget is really, really small, it's not going to be worth a planner's time to concentrate on you. If you don't like handing over the reins to someone else, a planner is a horrible idea for you.
But if you're completely at sea and don't know where to start, or you prefer to let others take the lead, a planner may be just what you want and need...particularly if you've got at least a moderate budget.
Answered By: gileswench - 7/30/2007 |
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I didn't have one. I was OK without, but looking back, if it had been in my budget, I would have liked to have one. It just would have been nice and less stressful for me to have someone other than my family to help with things.
Answered By: Skylis - 7/30/2007 |
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I think it depends on your situation - how much time you have, how much you want to spend, how big (ornate) of a wedding you want to have.
I did not hire someone to do all of the actual wedding planning, but I did hire a planner to help me with the last month of details. I wasn't planning on doing this, but in the end, it was a lifesaver for me - I got married in Ohio, but planned the wedding while living in California. I also did not have friends or family in Ohio to lean on for help.
The planner was great in taking care of all the little pre-wedding details - doing timelines, confirming everything with vendors, literally making sure that everyone and everything (down to the tiniest detail) were accounted for, and knew what to do and where to be during the weekend.
It took a lot of stress of me, my parents, my husbands' parents and our bridal parties - no one had an "ohmygoodness, i forgot" moment, because the planner had it taken care of.
Like the other answers have suggested, it is nice to do the planning yourself - so it's truly everything you want. But if you change your mind last minute, a planner can be there to help you in a pinch. (Ours found a new DJ two days before the wedding.)
Good luck! And enjoy it - planning will take as much or as little time as you give it. :)
Source(s):
Got married, planned my own wedding, executed it with the help of a coordinator.
Answered By: HoyaFan - 7/30/2007 |
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We thought about using a wedding planner. We both have busy careers and long commutes, so not a lot of time, and zero experience planning something this big. But we decided to look at a few venues first, and figure out what things we could do ourselves to save money. It turns out that the venue we chose will do a whole lot of the work as part of the reception cost (in-house caterer, someone to set up the ceremony, simple centerpieces (that we're going to jazz up some),all the linens and china, the bar, servers, etc.). With that, and the stuff we'll do ourselves (invitations, place cards, programs, centerpieces), we didn't need a planner. But, if we had gone with one of the other venues we were considering, where we would have had to find a caterer, linens, tables, chairs, a tent, china, servers, alcohol, permits and what all else, we would have hired a planner to take care of the legwork.
Answered By: ERK - 7/30/2007 |
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My wedding is still a long ways away (about 9 months), but I do not plan on hiring a Consultant. So far I have been doing everything with the help of my sister, who is a very organized list maker, and the rest of my family. I love getting my hands into everything, and I think that I will look back at the reception and be proud that I planned it.
Answered By: Snow Princess - 7/30/2007 |
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I recommend finding someone for at least the day of. My day of coordinator was responsible for calling all the vendors the week before to confirm everything was ready and then making sure everything was set up properly the day of and to handle any problems that were to arise....I did this because I wanted to enjoy the day and not have to deal with anything. It would of worked out great, except that my coordinator was an idiot. I was on a budget and so found a girl that was new in the business and was cheap - paid like $250 so that was nice, but she ended up dressing horribly at the wedding - so bad that I was told afterwards that her boob was hanging out at some points! And she was unable to handle problems herself so she kept coming and bothering me with stupid stuff. So anyways - do get a day-of coordinator, but don't skimp, find someone that has a lot of experience and good reputation.
Answered By: Chrissy - 7/30/2007 |
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A wedding planner is not neccesary. It's not that hard or stressful to plan a wedding unless you make it that way. Get some bridal magazines and a wedding planning book and you're good to go.
Answered By: maigen_obx - 7/30/2007 |
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