Wedding on a budget? Seriously, hire a Wedding Planner!

I know this sounds counter intuitive. If one has a strict small budget, why should one hire a wedding planner? Answer. Because a good, well-seasoned wedding planner knows the business and he or she can help you avoid venues that nickel and dime, can help you avoid costly mistakes, can help you save time, and provide creative ideas.

In this case, I hired a gal which, since I haven’t asked permission to use her name yet, will simply call her “Gale.” Gale, like other wedding planners have a variety of wedding planning packages from the whole kit-and-caboodle planning, to what she called, “Final Coordination Package.” A Final Coordination package, as explained to me, gets you day-of help. She will set up and take down and make sure all the vendors are in order. I paid for a package slightly above that to get a little extra help.

So far, what I’ve gotten is golden information about tipping, table sizes, linen sizes for table sizes, good suggestions for local venues… and we haven’t really started. I have a meeting in June to kick start the wedding planning. I will update you all on how awesome hiring Gale is then. Oh, and I should mention, yes, it’s costing me around $2000, and yes,  is a lot of money, but a venue and mistakes can easily take you well over the $2000.  (Not to mention the stress of it all!)  Some wedding planners will do payment options should you hire them well enough in advanced to do so. Do your homework on wedding planners. Don’t just hire the cheapest. Check out Yelp and bridal sites to see what other brides have had to say about these planners. Then, email around. See what they can do for you. I’m sure you won’t be sorry.

5/23/11

PS. My wedding planner is Pink Blossom Events