Hi All,
Literally looking for any words or advice, wisdom, insight, N-E-THING:
Okay, so I am at the stage of: "I don't even know what I don't know" about weddings in general, let alone a *~destination~* wedding.
My partner and I's dream is to have a wedding in Greece, in the Athens Riviera for roughly 50 people in September of 2020, second option May of 2023- I have about 15 guests who may be traveling from the US and the rest are his Greek residing friends and family.
I have been spending some time googling and looking up wedding planners and we have made about 5 or so inquiries to wedding and event planners. SOME of the responses we have gotten back so far seem to indicate that they would charge around **** USD flate rate JUST for wedding planning services and they seem to cater to a more lux/high end clientele with large weddings of 150-300 guests. That is out of our budget and I am assuming this does not include costs of actual catering, music, decor, floral vendors, etc.
We did reply and asked all of the companies for more information and if they are interested in coordinating a small wedding, so not sure what kind of response we will get back yet..some are offering to video conference which is nice.
ANYWHO, my initial thoughts were that since we both live in the US, the benefit of a planner would be that they would have knowledge of the local area's vendors. I think it's possible that I could research these things myself IF I have a venue selected but I would still need help to coordinate on the day of the ceremony. My partner is also Greek and he can help as an interpreter if ever needed.
Also, we are both inexperienced and have no idea what a realistic budget is? We are hoping like... 15-20k and we both have no idea what we can get for that.
My questions are:
Should I stop looking for a wedding planner and put my energy into finding an ideal venue and see if such venues have an in-house coordinator or events planner?
Do I actually need a wedding planner?!
Do I just need a wedding coordinator if I find the venue on my own?
Is there any other method or strategy to go about this process??
IF you read this far, thank you SO MUCH!
Any help is appreciated!