Is a planner needed?

Congratulations on your engagement!! A wedding planner is totally optional. There are also different kinds of wedding planners: full planners, month of planners, and day of coordinators. Full planners assist with planning the entire wedding from start to finish. If you know your vision and prefer to find your own vendors, come up with your own decor ideas, and plan your wedding yourself, then I wouldn't book a full planner. Month of planners come in during the last month of your wedding planning to help tie up the loose ends and get everything in place for your wedding. They can help with timeline, figuring out seating chart, tracking RSVPs, etc. Day of coordinator seems to be the most common: they show up on the day of your wedding to make sure your wedding runs smoothly. They coordinate with your vendors to make sure everyone arrives on time, help with setup/tear down, keep the timeline on track, ensure that any issues are resolved, etc. If you are looking for someone to help keep the day on track, but don't want a full planner, you could consider either a month of planner or a day of coordinator. Or, if you don't feel you need one, you don't have to book any type of wedding planner. Another resource that would be helpful (and free!) is using a wedding planning checklist to help keep your planning on track. Happy wedding planning!

View Quoted Comment Thank you very much for that information was not aware they broke down their time that way. Always thought it was full wedding or none. Thank you Lisa

Yes a wedding planner is so needed. They cover details in the planning that tend to get lost when you are overwhelmed with planning.

I think it all depends on how involved you want to be! I personally don't get overwhelmed with wedding planning & I enjoy it, but I am doing a month/day of coordinator. If you get overwhelmed with the details and feel lost, I would do a planner

For me, having a planner has saved me so much time. Instead of spending weeks researching all the vendors in the area, she recommended 2-3 of each type that she has worked with and thinks will be a good fit for our budget and vibe. She got estimates for each, and then we chatted about why she felt they’d be a good fit.


If we wanted to talk to the vendor first (we did for catering, dj, and videographer), she would be on the call to ask all the questions I didn’t know to ask, which was super helpful. And then she reviewed all our contracts before we signed them, which made me feel more comfortable committing to thousands of dollars. Having her coordinating all the vendors saves me such much time and aggravation, which is worth it to me

I personally did not get a planner and was able to plan out everything with my parents just fine. There are benefits to it, but my parents and I didn’t have the budget for it. I will say though that a Day Of Coordinator is extremely beneficial and should be hired if you are not getting a planner so that there’s someone to help the day go smoothly. You, your future spouse, your parents, and siblings should be able to just be there on the wedding day and not be the ones to panic over things being in place 🙂

Well first Congratulations on your engagement. Now even tho your wedding is 2yrs 1/2 away but there are many things to consider. How many are in your wedding party. Your colors for the wedding so its good to know if they will have your color in stock. Then look at venues most can be booked away into the year date that you and your FH have chosen. And they and book your venue first and then everything else will roll down the line. And before you know a year has gone by so establish how many ppl that you want to attend. And who is paying for the wedding if you can get a planner or event of the day coordinator or take swing and plan it yourself. Then find out tables liens color choices there are alot just different shades of colors. Then your flowers for the tables and your bouquets it depends on the flowers that you want if they will be in blooms and centerpieces. Then catering what type of style from and sit down dinner and course or buffet style cocktail hour chose a menu for all of that along with cake tiers and flavor etc. Sorry I hope that I didn't overwhelm you with this. Happy planning

I don't think a planner is necessary as long as you're organized. There's plenty of checklists online or in books that you can use. We decided to get a day-of planner to help with logistics, but only because my cousin got one and had a postponed wedding, and her day-of coordinator was really helpful and my parents wanted to use her, but if you have a support system that can help with day-of stuff, I don't think that is necessary.

View Quoted Comment Not overwhelming at all thank you for your advice

View Quoted Comment Sounds good all my supporters are in the wedding so definitely will look into a day of coordinator thank you

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for the advice Erin

View Quoted Comment Your welcome I am planning mines with the assistance of a friend who is a event planner. She just handle the venue searches with me did a checklist with me encase that I forgot anything.So just waiting a couple of vendors on somethings almost to the finished line.

View Quoted Comment Congratulations and I hope the day is as stress free as any day can come and you love everything ❤️

View Quoted Comment Aww thank you I am very excited for the day to come and I wish that when you start planning your day it will be so amazing stress free also ❤

I personally did not get one. Wedding planners are quite expensive. Obviously for good reason but it’s just not something I could fit on our budget. I did hire a day of coordinator and she actually does more “month of” where she’ll help with last minute things with vendors etc the month before. It has been extremely stressful doing it alone but I only gave myself 13 months from the time we accidentally stumbled on the venue we chose and when we booked it for. So I had to book all of my vendors immediately lol. But you have more time so it shouldn’t be as stressful to do it alone. Just stay organized!

The type of planner depends on the type of service you want. Do you want someone to plan everything and you essentially show up as a guest? Or do you want to pick the venue and vendors of your choice but hire someone for the last month to tie up loose ends and navigate the day of behind the scenes? Also some coordinators do not offer all services. Some provide full planning from the beginning only and others provide day of only and will not work with you prior to the wedding day.

Also keep in mind that a venue coordinator has only the venue’s interests in mind and you are expected to hire your own coordinator for things important to you.

A wedding planner is optional, but they are definitely valuable and can come up with ideas you haven't heard of and can handle wedding details. You can also utilize them as much or as little depending on your vision and theme.

Totally depends on how involved you want to be. If you have no idea what you want or where to start, then a full planner would probably be a good choice. If you just want someone to handle the behind the scenes things on the actual day so you can enjoy yourself and not have to worry whether your florist delivered enough bouquets, if someone remembered to pick up the cake knife, etc. then a day-of coordinator would be the way you'd probably want to go. It sounds like you have a handle on what you're looking for, and you have a decent amount of time to get everything organized, so you probably want a day-of coordinator over a full on planner.

Thank you all for your advice I definitely feel like I’ll go with someone to help the month or two before and day of I pretty much have everything visioned and put a vision board together. We also just picked a venue with a package deal that comes with basically everything except the photographer so I feel that took a lot off my shoulders already