To wedding planner or not to wedding planner?

We don’t have a large budget and we are both pretty organized people with relatively flexible schedules. Ok, maybe Kerry is more organized than I am, and I have a more flexible schedule than she does. But together we are a pretty organized person with a relatively flexible schedule.

The two of us pretty much assumed we didn’t need a wedding planner and could save money by not hiring one. But after talking with Kerry’s brother Josh and his wife Ros, who swear by their wedding planner, we started looking into it. They are convinced that their planner ended up saving them more money than he charged.

Yesterday, we met with our first potential planner and she was great. We connected with her personally and she’d likely do a good job for us, but we still don’t know if we need that much assistance. However, we did leave further convinced that we likely need someone to do the day of event coordination. That way we and our parents don’t have to stress about vendors showing up, or rounding up family members for their wedding pictures, or all of those important details.

We’re fairly responsible people and likely will talk to a few other planners to help us make a decision, but I’d love to know what experience others have had in planning their weddings. Did you have a planner? Were they worth the money? Did you not have a planner, but regret it? Leave a comment and/or take the poll.

Oh and if you have a suggestion of a wedding planner in the LA area that we should talk to, please let us know.