Wedding Blog
When we first started planning, my mom was insistent that we get a wedding planner. As someone who has been married twice (once without a planner and once with!), she said it was the best money she ever spent to have someone running the day.
Well, I was pretty positive that our budget wouldn’t allow for a wedding planner, so I set about doing all the work myself. I was totally fine with it, although I slowly began to realize that, even though I’ve been willing to work long and hard on all the little wedding details thus far, I had no idea how everything was going to get taken care of on the actual day. Both of our families live out-of-state, so they haven’t been involved in the day-to-day planning and I didn’t know who to ask to run things.
One day, while scanning the Weddingbee classifieds, I saw an offer for a free Day of Coordinator in NYC. I immediately emailed, but had already been beat to the punch by other bees!
Luckily, Danielle was willing to offer me a substantial discount on her services, since she’s still getting started. I had a great meeting with her at Starbucks and I realized that there’s no way I could’ve pulled everything together on our big day without her help. I’m a very organized person, but she had all of these detail questions that I couldn’t answer because I hadn’t even thought of them yet!
Add in the fact that I tend to be a little high-strung, and without a DOC, you’ve got a recipe for disaster!
Are you getting help on the day of the wedding, or are you bravely going at it alone?
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We are going it alone. It’s stressful, but I hope we’ve got it dialed in! We’re not so lucky to have the resources that you do in NYC in my little Tahoe town.
I think this is great advice, Miss Star! We didn’t get a professional DOC — just a family friend, and I really wish we had just sucked it up and hired one.
I am definitely hiring a DoC. In fact, I have a meeting with another one on Monday (I’m interviewing them, haha). Great choice!
We decided to hire a DOC I think it’ll be money well spent, I really would prefer that those little tasks the day of don’t get delegated to me or friends and family. It’s a party, I want them to enjoy it too!
We’ve hired DOC to take care of everything on that day, although we’ll be doing part of our own set up the night before (the obsessive control freak in me can only budge so much!). I had originally figured I could go it alone, but at this point in the planning process, I am SO thankful to know there’s someone who’ll take care of this on the day. I knew I didn’t want to spend my own wedding day running around stressed…this way it’s out of my hands and I can have fun, as well as my family and friends. I’m pretty sure if I wanted to I could have gotten those same family and friends to pitch in set up, etc, but I’m really glad they’ll be able to relax too since they’ll already have been quite generous with their time and resources before the wedding!
100% needed not only a DOC, but partial planning coordinator as well (I’m planning an out of town wedding). I’m definitely glad to have her, especially b/c we’re not rich. I don’t want any stress placed on me the day of the wedding. I just want to be able to enjoy.
I really want a DOC, cause like you I can get kinda high strung and all I can keep thinking is - I know how stressed I am now thinking about wedding planning, so what will I be like then??
I found our DOC on Craigslist after Miss Joey posted about her successes. Since they are just starting out, they are doing it free of charge! So I’m really glad to have someone else be in charge on the day of
Luckily, my florist is just starting out (I’ve seen her work at friends’ weddings, she is AMAZING!) and she also does DOC. I thought it would be silly, but she has SO MANY ideas about decorations, colors and is VERY on-top of everything. I am looking forward to having her there, and handling the vendors, making sure everything gets to the right place, etc. Also, my friend used her for DOC and said “she does a great job of concealing small issues as to not stress you out. She’ll do a recap at the end, and you’ll be so happy she was your point of contact and took care of all the little details and speedbumps on your day”.
Our venue comes with a doc, otherwise we wouldn’t have had the budget to hire one.
i don’t think it’s that bad managing things alone. in a way, i’m glad this wedding threw me new learning curves and challenged me to push the limits of my time, resourcefulness.
i like going it alone! 
Our venue came with a DOC-of-sorts (I’m still responsible for our outside vendors, but we’ll have some decor time and a few other things done by venue staff). I’m happy to have the help, but not so much that I would have otherwise paid for it.
This is something I’m VERY worried about. There is NO room in the budget for a coordinator. But I have no earthly idea how in the heck everything is going to come together when the big day rolls along. I shed a few tears over this last night. 
@Mypurplewedding: Maybe you could put an ad out on CL saying that you’re looking for a DOC who’s just getting started to work for free or a big discount in exchange for portfolio-filling?
I haven’t ever done anything on CL but I’ll give it a try! Thanks for the suggestion Miss. Star!
Wedding coordinators are very useful! Whether you have them prior to wedding or just day of….you will be glad you had one.
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Mrs. Star, New York City
Age and Occupation: 22, Actress
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Casting Assistant
Wedding Date: October 2009
Venue: Ceremony: The Kraine Theatre, Reception: Midtown Loft & Terrace
About Me: I’m a professional actress who’s always had New York City in her blood and I'm finally getting the chance to make a home in Manhattan with my fiancé, my dog, and my big dreams! I love polka dots, craft projects, Dunkin’ Donuts’ iced coffee, and anything sparkly. I’m having a blast planning our elegant/dramatic/New York City/acting-themed/largely-DIY wedding and am thrilled to be the youngest current Miss Blogger!
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