Wedding Planner Horror Stories

I'm hoping that with a fat contract and check this won't happen.

Uhh wow. That's... Not normal. Like she's the ONE person that needs to show up to make sure if someone else doesn't she covers it.

I can't even. I'm anxious on her behalf right now.

No, actually I'M the one person who has to show up.

You hire someone professional, someone you didn't find on CL or TT, someone who has great reviews, and someone who probably costs more than you thought.

We hired a day of coordinator who called me about two months before the wedding to ask where she should meet me the next day. Because she thought my wedding was the next day. Two months before the actual date.

Wasn't really a horror story, but we ended up firing her because she obviously wasn't good with details and was over 40 minutes late to a scheduled call before that. Pretty sure pays attention to details and timeliness is like 80% of the job, so I wasn't willing to risk it. So, I guess my advice is pay attention to red flags.

Decide some things are not worth caring about. Hire someone with great reviews who's been around for a while. Get everything in writing.

Planner horror story - my sister's venue had a DOC she was required to hire. The day before the wedding, the DOC said she couldn't make it and had arranged for a sub/assistant to cover for her. Whoever this girl was, she was AWFUL. Showed up in totally inappropriate clothes (baggy tee and maxi skirt) and spent 90% of the wedding staring at her cellphone. While she was texting or whatever, she let a lot of stuff she was responsible for fall through the cracks: a guest almost walked off with the bride's bouquet (with heirloom necklace wrap), because she had piled it with the centerpieces on the favors table. Thank goodness our dad was on top of things and asked her about tips for the staff, since she had forgotten to distribute them. She didn't pack up or monitor the gifts at all (this building was a venue in a public park!) Staff almost packed up the family crystal in use as decor, because she hadn't organized for it to be packed separately. The list of things that almost went wrong is massive, and we almost lost quite a few sentimental and valuable things because of it....the only reason it came off ok is because both families were monitoring things and pitched in where needed.