Wedding Planner: Do You Need to Hire One?

Coming from a girl who studied event planning in college, some of this post may come as a surprise to you. I think a lot of people struggle with whether or not to hire a wedding planner. Brides wrestle between the idea of relinquishing control or being stressed throughout the process. That’s really not what it all comes down to, though! There is a lot that goes into deciding whether or not you want to hire a professional to help you out with the planning process. You have to consider your personality and how much you want to be involved. All of these things will play a part in if you hire a wedding planner or not and what kind of planner you’ll need!

What Do You Need

First of all, it’s important to understand what a wedding planner is. On the most simple level, it is someone who will help you with every single detail pertaining to your wedding day. Some planners specialize in aesthetics and some specialize in logistics coordination. You really need to decide what you need help with, if anything, and then decide who is the best person to hire for that. If you’re very organized but don’t have an eye for design, you may want to opt for an event designer! They will help you pick everything from the venue to the tiniest details on the tables, making sure that the wedding looks beautiful as a whole. On the contrary, if you really want to choose all the decor by yourself but need help organizing the vendors and negotiating all the contracts, an event coordinator will be better for you! There are certainly event planners that do it all, though! So don’t worry – you usually won’t have to hire multiple planners if you want everything taken care of.

Control Freak

As a control freak myself, I can say that we are probably the most stressed about hiring an event planner. Something that makes control freaks most nervous about hiring a planner is that they think they aren’t going to have a say in anything from that moment on. That’s not true! If an event planner isn’t letting you have a say in your own wedding, I recommend firing them immediately. The beauty of having an event planner is that you get to control anything you want to control and hand everything else over to them.

DIY Planning

With all of the resources brides have at their fingertips, it’s easier than ever to plan your wedding without any professional help. I’ve already told you how to find your style and select a venue without a wedding planner – more planning tips coming soon! Definitely download a wedding timeline so that you can be sure you’re completing all of your tasks on time. Find local vendors and admire their work on sites like The Knot, Wedding Wire, and Style Me Pretty. Once you’ve built your dream team, keep track of your contracts and payments by creating accounts on The Knot or Wedding Wire! Doing this will help you organize all of the contacts you need and stay on budget.

Overwhelmed Bride

If you’re someone who doesn’t know where to start or gets overwhelmed easily, you are a prime candidate for a wedding planner. They will be taking care of everything for you, while asking for your opinion every step of the way. Ultimately, it is their job to make you are totally happy with your wedding day without all the stress of planning. Some people just don’t like to have too many options in front of them – it can be overwhelming! When my mother-in-law was getting married and I was acting as her wedding planner, she wanted me to give her no more than 3 options at a time. This kept it really easy for her! I would take her preferences into consideration and narrow down the choices so that she didn’t get overwhelmed. If this sounds like you, ask your planner to do this for you!

Day of Coordinator

Hiring a coordinator to handle everything on the day of the wedding is a great option for all brides! In fact, most venues require it now so that they can guarantee that all vendors, setup, and breakdown are taken care of. Although I will be planning the entire wedding, I will definitely be hiring a day of coordinator so that I don’t have to worry about a single thing on the wedding day. Make sure it’s someone you trust implicitly! They are there to execute your vision so make sure they have a really good understanding of everything that needs to be done and what it should all look like.

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