Hire decorators or decorate myself?

I think the best thing to do is hire at least one person to help with decorations if you have significant moving parts (centerpieces that need to put out, pew bows, etc etc). I think whether you want to help on the day of is up to you, but it can be stressful to be the one in charge as the bride, because if there is an unforeseen mishap or a bottle-neck, you are all the sudden stuck between having incomplete decorations and being late to get ready. Is this what you were thinking?

We did a few decorations ourselves, but our florist did 95% of the decorating. If you have already hired a florist, I would ask her/him if they can help decorate. You really won't have time to do it on the wedding day unless your venue allows you access early in the morning. And you will be very busy on your wedding day!

I think whether you help or not depends on the type of person you are. I am a very organized control freak type of person LOL so I will most definitely be setting up my reception space. I won’t have time to set up the ceremony space that day, so I am going to be entrusting my very talented aunts to execute that for me. Luckily, our venue is allowing us access to the reception space the night before to set up. Maybe you could see if that would be an option for you?

Definitely get yourself a day of coordinator or someone who is not invited to the wedding who will be able to put up and take down all decor.

I think it depends on how much decorating there is to do / how stressed you get / budget.

We are having a big wedding with all the trims and our floral team (2-3 people) will be coming in 2 hours before the wedding to set up everything. If it wasn't for them, I still personally wouldn't do it myself because I wouldn't want to stress out nor take that time away from the day to decorate.

If there isn't too much to do and you know it won't worry you, shouldn't be a problem.

Taylor, congrats on your upcoming nuptials. Like one of the posters mentioned, I too am a control freak and I enjoy planning, however I don't do well under stress. After having to let my original coordinator go who had planned to Include decorating the church and reception area (when I saw the decor she purchased and it was a long way off of my colors), I quickly realized I'd wasted 6 months with her, so I hired another coordinator in addition a separate decorator. Best money I spent. After giving her my vision, clean lines and simply elegant and that we wanted to see everyone's face (meaning nothing tall at the guest tables), she delivered perfectly. We wanted to be able to look back at the pictures years later and Identify guest. Plus we didn't want to the hassle of were to store decorations and clean up afterwards. She rents, decorated, break down and hauled away. This may not be the way for many but it was perfect for us. This was all pre-covid.

If you are a craftsy person, DIY as much as you can stomach! I know some people love doing it, and they're very good at finding great deals so that it does come out to be cheaper than hiring others to create and do setup. My BMs and I made our own bouquets with fake flowers, and while it was a fun experience, I don't know if I'd want to also do several centerpieces, but thankfully my venue has some we can use. They'll also do set up for us as part of our package, but if they didn't, I probably would have gone to the venue in advance to do it instead of hiring someone to do it. In terms of finances, you just need to decide what is worth spending money on and if it is worth it to sacrifice time and possibly your sanity.

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I couldn't agree more. You will be busy enough on your wedding day, you don't want to be setting up on your wedding day or cleaning up after your wedding is over.

I vote no if you have to decorate the day of. Maybe if you had like the day before I’d say go for it.