wedding planner fail - update

I decided to go without a planner. I think that my own organization skills should be fine... but who knows. I will probably regret it in the last couple months of the planning phase. I did interview one who wanted $2500.00. I would rather put the $2500 towards food and beverages.

My daughter was just married 3 weeks ago. We had a small budget and did not do a wedding planner. I was actually her wedding planner. If you are extremely organized you can do it on your own but I would suggest that you have about 3 people that you can count on to help you with everything the last couple of days before the wedding and more importantly, on your wedding day. We had 3 people that offered to help us and the wedding would not have gone smoothly without their help. I sat with each of them and went over exactly how I wanted the wedding site and reception to be set up. Gave each of them an area that they were responsible for and then left it in their hands. You have to pick someone that you trust completely or you will worry and not enjoy your day. There were a couple of things with the reception set up that did not work as we had planned and that person had to make last minute changes without my authorization. Because we had gone over plans a lot she felt cont

Comfortable making the changes without bothering me for an answer while I was enjoying the morning with my daughter. The decisions she made were correct and the same way I would have changed them. Just be sure you are specific of what you want and expect and that you trust the person you are assigning a task to. Goodluck with your wedding days.

One of my very best friends is my wedding planner! She is the most organized on the ball person I know! I 100 percent trust her, sometimes she is more picky then I am about stuff! She is making sure everything is set up the night before and day of for me and is going to keep everyone in line! I am very thankful I had someone that I trusted to do this because there was no way that we could afford a planner.

We were going to hire a planner here in Houston, and her fee was $1700. However, she talked to our original venue and got over $2000 off their price! Her contacts were actually going to help stretch our budget further, and her discounts would have more than paid for her fee!

Some planners think they are incredible and are worth thousands, and some are... that one- not so much.

I didnt go with a wedding planner because i can do the work myself and save the money for something else my budget isnt that low but cost add up

Luckily I have some friends who live in Charleston who can help me out with a lot of things. But we're definitely getting at least a week-of coordinator for my sanity. Planning a destination wedding in SC while living in China is going to be hard and having all out of town guests means we'll need someone who is in charge!

WOW thats great you got another planner!! Good move! :-) I'm not having one, but ya def go with one that listens to your parameters!

Even though we are having a DW, I also don't have a wedding planner. The FH and I are control freaks. Besides, we enjoy doing all of the little things. However, I do have a day of coordinator, my caterer is functioning as both. In addition to being an excellent cook, she is an outstanding decorator. We trust her implicitly. I also have the owner of the venue and good friends to help out.

@Brit's Mom....I will do my daughter's wedding in 2012. I can't wait. Thanks for the tips on the help.

We didn't have a planner, not even a DOC. And that was with a wedding in a city 8 hours away from us, which we never even visited until the day before our wedding. The Internet is a wonderful thing for wedding planning! (I say this as one who planned my first wedding before the Internet existed.)

My FFIL will be our planner... FH & FFIL are Masons & Shriners and FFIL has been organizing events, ceremonials and balls for years so he knows all the ins & outs. We are blessed to have him (and he's free! LOL). I think if you are super organized and have super supportive friends you don't need one unless you are having a large wedding. If you aren't organized and can afford it I say go for it!

I got a quote for a doc for 1500. I'm sorry I just don't think that type of work qualifies for that fee. That breaks down to 200/hour. Who makes 200$ per hour!!!