How to Hire "help" for a wedding

If you want to hire help, you should find it in your budget to compensate them. People aren’t going to work your wedding just for a free invitation.
A friend of mine had kids from the drama department at our local high school come set up her decor before the wedding. If you have connections to any schools in your area, maybe you could find a group of kids to help out?

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I would pay them but I dont need or want to pay professional wedding people.

View Quoted Comment Do you have any friends or family that are servers? Maybe they have coworkers that would work the wedding?

Ask the catering company what they would charge. Also ask on Craigslist and other sites. If you are connected with a faith congregation, see if there are any high school or college students that would like to earn some money. School service clubs could be another option. Ask co-workers if they know anyone who does this sort of side hustle.

You could hire college students or you could hire a day of coordinator and see if they'll do all that. They usually clean up anyway.

You can hire “party helpers” for an hourly rate that is generally much more reasonable than say a wedding coordinator and crew. We looked into this for a post wedding brunch and it seemed super reasonable— I think we searched through gigsalad maybe ? but thumbtack May also be a resource for something like this, or task rabbit.

Btw while feeding them is great, it is a pretty dangerous idea to compensate your helpers with booze — anyone working the wedding shouldn’t be drinking, otherwise there’s a good chance the tasks don’t get done, or get done wrong. Especially if someone feels the drinks are they’re “payment”, they’ll typically try to really get the most out of them

I have a friend who is an unofficial DOC and I’m paying her a small fee. I found a local professional DOC and I’ve decided to hire her bc it was too much stress trying to hope my friends and family will take care of it. Especially the taking down and packing up. I have the option to hire folks from the venue and if I come up needing that I will hire them as well at $15/hr.
my set up is very similar and I wanted to avoid a professional and keep costs down. I learned my lesson my first wedding that cutting corners in this area is not a good thing. If you really want to do this, I suggest keeping decor at a bare minimum and using disposable dishes. Trust me, washing dishes in your wedding dress is a drag.

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Thanks I didnt know about DOC .. still like 500$ and it says starting price... not sure what that includes but I contacted a few

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Thank you this is helpful!

My gal is 400. She offers a lot more than I’m taking bc I already have it covered. But just the piece of mind of having someone take care of that stuff is well worth it. After spending 17,000 on a wedding, 400 to ensure it goes smoothly is worth it

Your caterer should do this.

If not, use Craigslist or thumbtack to find staff to pay. Cleaning is a job and deserves to be paid.

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I have no problems paying someone. It is alot of work I relize this