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I'm a lawyer planning a destination wedding so a planner was a no brainer for me. They not only draw up lists and keep you on target, but they also have relationships with vendors (though make sure they don't get kickbacks from said vendors). Anyway, there is no way that I could have done this well without a planner.
That said, I've done the law school/bar exam thing and if you're tight on money, I think you probably can get by without one. The thing that makes your schedule nice is that (1) you know when you're going to be busy ahead of time (i.e. exam time) so you can arrange your planning around that and (2) you can do venue visits etc. in off hours because you aren't at work from 8-7 or whatever and that means you can do things a lot more efficiently.
I don't think you need a full time wedding planner. People make wedding planning look way more stressful than it is. I planned my whole wedding. I have not been stressed about it and it really wasn't super time consuming. Just do your research online and choose which vendors your going to go with. Meet with them and put deposits down. Than choose your decor and flowers/centerpieces and cake and most of the time they will set up and take down as well. Personally i seen a wedding planner as a hige waste of money and taking away from the budget. A day coordinator doesn't sound like a bad idea though.
I was just going to ask this question. If a wedding planner was necessary or not. Now I know - thank you!
I've been wondering the same thing for myself. I guess it really depends on your situation. For me, I think I really need one and can justify spending the money, since most of my guests will be out of towners, and we live quite a distance away from where we are doing our ceremony and reception. So I can't meet with the vendors in person, and the coordinator I've been talking to, is willing to put together OOT bags for my guests and will use what I provide to do it and she will have them all ready and in their place when guests arrive. As well as assist with making sure everyone is where they need to be when they need to be there and will make sure everyone knows their role and what to say etc. She will also handle all my vendors and contracts for me so that I don't have to worry if there is a problem or something like that. And she will also be the point of contact for all my out of town guests, so if they have questions about where to go and what to do or which hotels to choose, they can just ask her. She can also help me with selecting a venue that will fit my budget since I don't live there. She can tell me what is nice in person etc. She will also set up all my decorations and favors for me before the reception and transport them all to my hotel room or car afterwards. All together she is charging us $2,315 and that's including tons of services I didn't mention yet. And the price will go down if I find I can do many things myself. So she will only charge me for what I use. So in my case it's a great deal as I am also in school and working. But I defin think if you are able to do it yourself and your doing it in an area you are familiar with, then it saves you money that you don't have to spend.
I totally regret hiring mine. First my venue has the most amazing Cordinator ever who goes above and beyond, second I didn't feel I had time to plan either but I have enjoyed it so much I have made time, and third, she hasn't given me any ideas (because I came up with everything) and she hasn't really helped with the design aspect. If I could take it back in a second I would, and extra $3500 would give us an amazing honeymoon!
In your case, I would consider it, just to save yourself time and allow you to focus most of your energy on school, passing the bar, interviews. I don't know what kind of job you are looking to get after school, but your best bet is to to focus on school and hopefully land a well paying job. It will be alot easier if you have a planner and can focus on your future career, then the money you spend on a planner will be well spent! an investment of sorts.
I think if you can afford it go for it. I'm most likely leaning towards hiring a wedding planner just because I work a lot, and sometimes I'm not going to have the time to be finding and meeting with the all the vendors. I think there are lots of pluses for getting one. You are going to be pretty busy, and it probably make your life easier during that time period. I think it is well worth the money.
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Hey bees,
I have a question. Should I hire a wedding planner? I was originally planning on just hiring a day of coordinator, but I am now thinking I am in over my head. Maybe :)
I am currently in law school, currently in the midst of interviews for summer positions, exams looming etc. We are planning the wedding for July 2012, because I need to write the Bar exam in June (first week and last week -so lots of studying!), and articling positions usually start August-September.
Wedding Coordinators in the GTA, the full services go-to-every-vendor-appointment kind is around $4500 +. There might be less expensive less famous ones, but I haven't done a huge amount of research yet. This is the one I'm thinking of/have met with: http://www.bellefleurevents.com/ Day of Coordination is about $1200, so this is an extra $3300 that we will have to pull from somewhere else in the budget.
The nice thing about having one is that they can save me a whole ton of time. This planner in particular will go to every vendor appointment set up, she'll draw up lists of vendors to look at based on my budget/what i want etc. The bad thing is obviously the money.
What do you guys think? Is a full service wedding planner worth it?