Our single best investment of the entire wedding was to hire Diana of Eventi Planning. We hired Diana to help with wedding day coordination, but in fact she ended up helping with planning, crisis management, and general advice in the months leading up to the wedding. Given that vendors often try to double as event planners (especially caterers, venues, and DJs), Diana had the difficult job of coordinating the coordinators. She did so with aplomb: building positive relationships with the other vendors, soliciting input on the master schedule, maintaining flexibility, and helping cultivate a sense of joy on the big day. She could easily charge double or triple for her services.

Diana helped with the following decisions and more: creating a floor plan, hiring transportation for the wedding day (we used three vendors: a hotel shuttle, an all-purpose van, and a limo), hiring and negotiating a better rate for drapes, brainstorming ideas, communicating with other vendors, buying small items that we forgot (tea candles, a car decorating kit, and a guest book), lending us some common wedding items (a ring pillow, candle holders, and a “bird cage” for gifts), delivering ribbons for the wedding cake, and creating a master schedule.

We also appreciated that Diana was fine with the unusual gender roles in our planning process, as the groom handled most of the planning. We found that some vendors were quite sexist in this respect, but Diana was fine with communicating with both of us.

In short, we can't emphasize enough how thankful we are for Diana's help.