Is a wedding planner worth it?

I'm doing the exact same thing. I'm having about 50 ppl and going to a restaurant afterwards. I have someone going there early to decorate and she's only charging $100 for 4 hours. I just asked her if she could tell "gather" my guests after the ceremony and when they get to the restaurant while we're taking pics. Maybe you can ask around...our city has a Facebook page for anything related to our city...maybe yours does too.

I think planners are a personal preference. My FH and I decided not to have a planner because we wanted to do it all on our own. The one thing I will say is you're going to be doing a lot of research for vendors. Where wedding planners have vendors they work with all of the time and can find vendors easily for you that fit in your budget, you will have to find all of that on your own. What I've learned while planning is that everything is trial and error. One caterer you like may be way above your budget when you ask for pricing while another vendor may be right in your budget. It just takes a little longer without a planner to handle everything for you.

If you're on the fence about it, I'd say talk to a bunch of planners, interview them, get their pricing, what their packages are, what they'd do for you and then decide. If you're on a tighter budget or if you just don't want one, maybe skip the planner, but if your budget can afford a planner and you want one, go for it.

I hired a full wedding planner for my wedding next month. That decision was a non-negotiable for me as I am always super busy and didn't want to worry about things falling through the cracks. It is honestly the best money I have spent. We will have been engaged for a year and a half by the time we get married and hired her maybe 2 months into the engagement. My planner has found all of our vendors, kept me on schedule, and made sure we were within our budget. She is also in charge of providing a day of schedule and taking care of all logistics and vendor communications. It has been wonderful to have someone else do the heavy lifting on the planning so all I have to do is make final decisions. If you are as busy with other life things as I am, I would highly recommend a planner. I wouldn't be having a wedding without her.