Day of or or partial / full planner??

Usually a Day of Coordinator will start working with you the month of the wedding to make sure that everything is in order. Some planners are flexible and can arrange a package where they start working with you earlier, it just depends on the planner.

There is no official definition of what "partial planning" or "full planning" entails. You would have to check out what services are included by the specific providers you are interested in.

I hired a wedding planner to help plan the entire event and she was amazing! She provided us with different vendor options to pick from, helped us read through our contracts for validity, coordinated all of our vendor meetings, provided coordination for our rehearsal dinner and wedding day with detailed timelines, did the ceremony and reception set up and breakdown, basically everything. If you are hiring a planner make sure they allow for unlimited communication. Some of them try to sell packages that only allow for a certain number of emails/phone calls/in person meetings. My husband and I made the final decisions on everything but with each vendor she would supply us with 3 or 4 options, their pricing, examples of their work, etc... With soooo many options out there it was nice to see things displayed in an apples to apples type of way. Made decision making much easier. If it's in your budget I would definitely encourage a planner.

We hired our planner for Month of Coordinating. We have unlimited communication, so she has been a huge help with recommending vendors and answering various questions we have had. Different planners' services and packages really vary, so it just takes a lot of research and comparing to find someone who does what you are wanting them to do at the price you are willing to pay.

Thanks guys for the tips! I'm going to call around and compare prices and packages!

For our wedding, I hired a planner for Day of coordination and decorating. I'm not confident in my wedding decorating skills, and needed somebody there to help coordinate on the day-of. It's costing us about $1500, and she will be taking over our vendors 3 months before the wedding so we don't have to stress. She is also helping us think of, and make, decorations and will be responsible for decorating before the wedding.

We knew what vendors we wanted, so spending so much on a full planner would have been too redundant.

Following

My planner has different packages. She has a day of coordinated package (including unlimited consultation the month before, rehearsal dinner, and day of coordinating). The package we are doing is a "partial" package. We get everything included in the day of coordinator package plus 20 hours prior to the month before. Then she has the full planning package which is unlimited everything.

She does everything from contacting vendors, creating timelines, setting up meetings, she will decorate and take down for ceremony and reception, she will help you address your invites, she will even return some of our rental items for us after the wedding. The month before she will call and confirm everything with our vendors. We did the partial package because we were comfortable doing some of the stuff on our own but we wanted some help here and there on different things.

I opted to not go with the full planner since I had already dealt with the big items. The package I chose was the most basic one but she allows me to ask questions and gives referrals to vendors I haven't yet selected. She just doesn't do any of the negotiating. You have a lot of time til your date so I can see with you only needing the day of coordinator.

Both of my venues have DOCs. They both seem very welcoming for questions and suggestions that we need leading up to the wedding. Your wedding is far enough out that they can probably help direct you to vendors that they have worked with before and you can research the crap out of your vendors to ensure you are picking the one that is right for you!