Planning

Most people here are planning their own weddings.

It can get expensive but setting a budget is really important.

Yep! Planning my own wedding.. Not sure if you were looking for advice, or what you were trying to get at.. But weddings can be expensive depending on what you want.

Ways to spend less:

Cut your guestlist

Elope

Small brunch/dinner reception

Get married off season (Nov-April)

Fridays and Sundays are usually a discounted price

ETA: is your date really set for this August? If not, you can always have a long engagement and spend that time saving up.

I was asking as far as hiring someone to do the whole wedding. I have a set budget of 13,000. I wasn't sure if it was necessary to hire a wedding planner and add almost 8,000 to that cost

Oh, you definitely didn't ask about that but ok.

It's definitely not necessary to hire a wedding planner. How many guests are you thinking about inviting? If you're really planning on getting married in august you'll need to find a venue and caterer asap.

We hired a day of coordinator for set up/ break down ... it was only 500 . Found her on thumbtack , you say what your budget is and the app sends your request out to local vendors and the ones that can fit your needs send you a pitch and their price range.

You can get a planner for less. Also, look for a DOC or month of planner. They will both be cheaper.

I've already found a vendor and cater. And dress. But the more I do the harder it seems this is getting. I don't know how to do a rehearsal dinner or who goes down the aisle first lol. The flower girl? Bridesmaids and all that. Just seems a bit confusing

Um......yes. Weddings are expensive.

Cut the guest list.

Keep it simple.

Put money where it matters.

A DOC shouldn't cost 8000.

You can plan it yourself, it's really not that hard.

Thank you. That really helps.

I am. It never even occurred to me to hire anyone. It doesn't seem like that much work. The only thing I'm passing off is the handing out of tips at the end of the night. My aunt offered to do that. Everything will be in envelopes ready to go so she just has to pass them out.

Just look around the internet. It will have everything you need. A rehearsal dinner is just a dinner with your wedding party. We found a Mexican restaurant nearby that has a private room. We just used Yelp and looked for restaurants with private rooms. You can do this!

We aren't hiring a planner.

Planning myself, I do agree a DOC (If not provided by the venue) is a smart thing to have. But a planner is a luxury to me. You are perfectly capable of making calls, decisions, and making payments on your own.

Planning my own wedding and "hiring" my SIL best friend to be our DOC. Our venue requires one but it wasn't in the budget to pay $1300 that most in my area ask!

Even full service planners in my area don't cost $8k. That's obscene. I also recommend looking into a DOC as opposed to a full service planner. They usually do much more than work solely on the day of.

8k for a planner while the rest of your "set" budget is 13k? Nope.

Frankly, 8k no matter what the rest of your budget is seems very high.

Planning is not hard if you are organized and realistic. Read on the Internet and even in actual books for help. Ask here! You can do this.

Yes im planning my own wedding. I am gettting a DOC though, I dont want to worry about all the small stuff the day of.

If you're looking for a cheaper planner, you can look at event planning colleges and see if there are students that would be willing to volunteer their time or charge a very small amount to gain experience?

Most of us planned our own weddings.

I'm too much of a control freak, I never considered letting anyone else plan for me. Give yourself plenty of time, mine has been pretty low-stress so far.

I'm planning our wedding, it's expensive, and our venue provides a DOC. I don't think a planner is necessary, especially if you don't have the budget for it. I'm the type of person who likes to organize and plans things, I wouldn't like relying on a planner to do everything.