Wedding Planners
 

Has anyone hired one?

Was it worth it?

I'm sure if you did, she'd tell you not to have a cash bar.

Hahahaha. ;)

No she wouldn't, because that's what good Southerners do. :p So do good Midwesterners who are schooled with lotsa cash. ;)

If you can afford one, do it. I promise you - it will be worth it, and more.

FWIW, my church has one! She comes along with hiring the church.

I'm a failure! We had an open bar at my wedding! I am so ashamed!!!

Tsk tsk tsk...

My sister had a wedding planner and I'm not using one. I seriously think I got the better end of the deal. For the money, I don't think it's worth it.

My wedding will be twice as nice and cost half as much as my sister's because I'm planning the whole thing the way I want it. Wedding planners are too pushy. Just my opinion, though.

Depends on who the planner is.

I am hoping to use my big sis as mine, that is if she gets her business started up. Basically if I have a friend do it, I think I will be okay with it.

But I know nothing about planning a wedding so any help I can get will be welcome.

I don't know if it's worth it. As long as you're organized, I don't think it's really necessary.

I do have the woman from the resort where I'm having mine, though - she technically just handles the stuff at the resort, but she's been really great about giving me local references to florists, bakers, etc. since I'm planning it from out of town.

It's worth it if you have lots of other things going on (school, work, etc) Some people are naturally gifted at planning things or they want their wedding to be "just perfect" so a planner wouldn't be the best thing. My aunt is a freelance wedding planner and has really helped a lot of people pull things together on a budget, last minute, etc.

I didn't hire a wedding planner. If you're reasonably organized, and especially if you have friends or colleagues who have had weddings or other big functions in your area (so you can get referrals), it's not really worth the $$$.

Hey Munchkin, do you have some news for us or something? I mean, you're interested in wedding planners... ;)

The wedding planner we had came with the actual place we had the wedding. She did everything for us, from food, to drinks, to having a tasting day where we could sample all the caterers they did business with, to florists. All of it. It was awesome but I know places that are all-inclusive are hard to find. She wasn't very pushy either with anything but maybe we were lucky in that respect. Here is the place we dealt with:

http://www.martinscaterers.com

Good luck!

I guess I shouldn't say that I'm doing everything on my own, but most of it. We do have a point of contact at the club where we're having the reception. She handles the food, table setup, linens, arranging for the DJ (comes with the venue), and anything directly related to the club (we're having our reception at The Shifting Sands Club and Conference Center on Dam Neck Naval Base/annex/whatever in Va Beach). We are having the ceremony on the beach in front of the club, but they have absolutely nothing to do with it. What we do out there is our responsibility.

I am making the centerpieces myself, decorating the arch, painting the aisle runner (can't throw rose petals), making the chair decor, etc. I also made my own invitations (most people trash em so I decided to spend more money on food and other things like that). We really have managed to pull together what will be a beautiful wedding on a budget, and no one will really be able to tell. I kinda splurged on my gown (went $400 over my original allotted budget, but it's worth it: Casablanca Bridal 1622 ). I kinda like wedding planning. Of course, come October I'll be so sick of it.

Congrats GMUBunny! Your dress is very nice :-). That's great that you have a POC at the reception site, we had one also. I don't know what I woulda done without her! It sounds like you are doing a lot of crafty things for the event! That's great. The only think I made were the baskets that the flowergirls used. It was fun though! Looking back, I wish I had done more.

Your wedding sounds like it will be such a beautiful event! Best wishes and congrats again!

Thanks, zchiprincess! The venue isn't the one I originally wanted, but when you're on a budget you take what you can get. Perks of being a military brat are that you get stuff for free. The venue doesn't cost us anything. We just pay for food and the DJ. We have a deposit down, but that goes toward the food. If we break our date, though, the club will keep it.

I love my gown, but those pics from Casablanca do it no justice!!! I finally got pics of myself in the sample gown, and it has much better detail shots. I just hate the fact that I'm swimming in it, and it's not exactly how my gown is going to be. I'm raising the waistline 3.5 inches because I have a short torso and lack of boobage. Here's the link to my theknot.com bio, which has everything from pics of Mr. Bunny and me, to my DIY stuff! Please ignore my hair. I need to have it cut!

My theknot.com community bio

GMU that dress is going to be beautiful on you!

I had the same thing happen when I tried on my dress... the sample they had in the store was 4 sizes too big and they just sort of had to hold it on me. I've got my very own proper sized one in now, but the day I went to try it on, my camera died!

Soon I should have some pictures of it properly, but here's what I've got for now....

I hope this works...

Ginger- AOL has issues when it comes to registration confirmations, so I can't get mine from ultimatewedding.com. Who is your designer and what style is it? I'll find bigger pics of it so I can really see the details. It looks beautiful already from the small preview pics in your photo album thing.

Don't you just love how the sample gowns NEVER fit right? I think I tried on 2 gowns that fit like a glove, and they were both Anne Barge (the 2 in my knot bio). I fell in love with the first one and it was so out of my range (try $5000) that it made me cry. I can't wait to get pics of my actual gown. If my digital camera dies, I will pitch a fit and make my mom go to 7-11 and buy me more batteries!

I just updated my knot bio with engagement pics, but they're crappy quality. My scanner doesn't work, so I had to just double zoom with my digital camera. It gives you an idea of what the happy couple looks like now, so I guess it's better than nothing!

Are you finding it hard to juggle wedding planning with school?

I'm not in school anymore. I have Crohn's Disease and had to drop out. I plan on going to community college once we're settled and trying to get some sort of education. All is not lost :)

I don't know if you were directing your question at GMU specifically or to all of us, but...

I'm not in school either - I've been out since 2000. It is a little hard planning around a full time job and from a distance, since the only time I can meet with vendors is on weekends or late evening weekdays (like 7pm or later) , but so far it's not been too difficult - just taking care of as much as possible over the phone.

would you believe I don't remember? :) I'll have to look it up at home. I can't seem to find anywhere I wrote it down!

i think if you are organized you shouldn't have a problem. my sister planned a beautiful wedding for her and her husband last year. she had 11 months to plan it, lived in a different state from where the wedding took place, travels m-f every week, and probably works 80 hours a week. and she got it done without a problem. of course we all helped her out where needed, but she's a big control freak and didn't let us help out too much!

My sister had one and she paid her a ton, it turned out great, but when I got married I was planning 2 years in advance so I did it all myself. My mom begged to get one, but I said I want to do it myself and didnt want someone else in charge. I think it tunred out just as awesome but I was the one in charge of everything and I liked it that way. There wasnt much stress involved except on the day of the reception cause I wanted it all to look good, but then again I went away and took 30 close friends and family to the ocean and we got married, THEN we came home and had a big reception later on at home.

If you dont think youll have time and dont want to worry much and have the money go the planner route. If you like to do things yourself, dont get stressed easily, and want to save money,do it yourself.