Wedding Planner or D.i.y.?

It really just depends on the person.
I'm a control freak. I talked to a planner and a day of coordinator. I honestly felt like I wasnt going to have enough control if I hired one.

We’re planning the wedding ourselves, but did hire a DOC.

A good planner should work with you, not force you into ideas. Regardless, it sounds like a coordinator might be more appropriate for you. We hired a month-of-coordinator around 8 months before our wedding, and she was able to give us planning software, recommend vendors, and answer any general questions we have. We have a monthly call/email where she sends a list of things that would be good to do that month, and then we talk through the status of my planning. At 3 months out we'll start meeting in person, and at 1 month out we'll hand over everything to her, so she'll be the one doing all the follow up calls and coordination. I've actually been enjoying planning, but I'm also looking forward to someone else who I trust doing all the annoying tie-ups at the end - I'd highly recommend it.

I went back and forth with this idea. In my area, the closest coordinator I could find that wasn't thousands of dollars was a couple of hours away. I would only want a DOC. If you go without one, I would get vendors who would be willing to communicate with your other vendors. For example, my DJ is doing my ceremony, announcements, and full reception. He likes timelines so everything goes as planned. My photographer also has worked with him several times and also prefers a timeline. Though it may be easier to have one, it may not be possible for some. You can totally do without.

I had a full service planner and it was amazing but they aren’t cheap so if you don’t have a large budget I would look into a day of coordinator. I agree with pp that a good planner will work with your ideas not change them.

Me and my mom were the planners. Everything went so smooth. We had a day of coordinator which came with our venue. She was the best. I wanted complete control over what was what.

I did it myself but hired a day of coordinator to facilitate the reception

We are planning the wedding ourselves and I bought a wedding planning book to help me with ideas and a timeline and whatnot. It has been super helpful! Our venue does provide an event coordinator though. She's basically just there to keep track of the vendors and make sure everything stays on track and all that. We tell her what we want and how we want things and she makes sure it all goes as planned.

I read that a lot of women regret getting a wedding planner. I think it depends of the size of your wedding. Between my mom and mom in love, nothing is missed. they're pretty close and they've been so detail oriented thru all of this. No one can carry out the dream like you who has it. but you need time. Time you may not have.

My mom is a great party/wedding planner so she’s my planner. I’m not organized enough.

I think i'm a control freak and i want to be a part of the planning as much as possible. if anything i'd hire a day of coordinator but i don't really need help with the planning since we've given ourselves a year to plan. our wedding is also off season and on a sunday so we saved a lot of money without having to know someone who can get us a good deal. if you don't have a lot of free time i'd suggest hiring someone to take it off your hands.

View Quoted Comment I am to a point a control freak. A very good friend of mine is going to officiate my wedding and help me plan it.