Wedding Planners Are Your Friends

Wedding Planners Are Your Friends

December 20th, 2010 @ 12:55 pm by Mrs. Pancakes
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Once Mr. Pancakes and I decided that we didn’t want a resort wedding, it became clear that we would need a wedding planner. I think there are a lot of reasons to get a wedding planner:

if you can’t/don’t want to plan
if you don’t know the area where you are getting married
if you don’t know the language of the area where you are getting married
if you don’t have people to help you in the planning process
if you can afford one

In our case, I think all five apply. While I want to do a lot of the planning, I just don’t have time to deal with all the logistics. By that I mean I will be completing two degrees, moving four times across two continents, and planning a wedding in a third…I just can’t expect to have time to enjoy wedding planning while trying to navigate vendors in a foreign country. Also I don’t know that much about Manuel Antonio, and I wouldn’t know the first thing about planning a villa wedding. Plus, I don’t speak a word of Spanish. Ultimately, I think I’ll just get ripped off left and right if I try to plan a wedding in Costa Rica without Spanish.

After a lot of searching, I found a list of different wedding planners in Costa Rica who specialize in destination weddings. I thought it was really important to work with someone who is used to working with long-distance brides and could hopefully handle my perfectionist streak. Ultimately, I settled on a planner at Weddings Costa Rica. There is still A LOT to figure out, but she seems amazing. By that I mean she responded promptly to my e-mail, included a clear list of her services, clearly explained the wedding-planning process, and provided specific examples to illustrate her points. All these things make a type-A (former teacher) bride happy.

These are some images from her portfolio.

{Source for above images}

At the end of the day, what we want is an intimate wedding with a lot of DIY details and personal touches. I think that having a wedding planner who knows the area and speaks the language will make this possible.

Are you using a planner or a DOC, or are you going it alone?

Tags: costa-rica, wedding-planner |

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10 Responses to “Wedding Planners Are Your Friends”

Member

drummergirl (message) 54 posts, Worker bee

We got ourselves a wedding planner too. I don’t know what I would do without her!

Although our wedding is in town, both FI and I work full-time, so not much time allowerd for me to make phone calls, etc. I’m so thankful we have her to help out and provide suggestions!

12/20/10 @ 12:40 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Glasses (message) 2,741 posts, Sugar bee

I totally wish we had hired a DOC. In your case especially, I do think a planner is a very smart move!

12/20/10 @ 12:52 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Husky (message) 1,754 posts, Buzzing bee

I had a good friend act as our DOC, and it was an absolute lifesaver!

12/20/10 @ 1:53 pm (reply)

Member

discgirl (message) 200 posts, Helper bee

Hi! I just noticed that you are moving to Amsterdam in the spring. My husband and I moved to Utrecht (about 45 minutes outside Amsterdam) in October after our wedding in June. We’ll be here about a year for his work. If you need any pointers or have any questions about the Netherlands, feel free to message me! — Heidi

12/20/10 @ 2:12 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Brooch (message) 1,721 posts, Bumble bee

We hired a planner too! Total MUST HAVE! Think you made the right choice!

12/20/10 @ 2:30 pm (reply)

Member

missbiscuit (message) 1,050 posts, Bumble bee

We’re braving it alone. Our wedding is closeby to where we live, so the OOT stuff isn’t an issue. Both my mom, my MOH, and I all do quasi-event planning related stuff for a living. While none of us are wedding planners, I think we all are organized, detail oriented, and generally “on it” enough to go it alone. I’ve definitely been tempted, though!

12/20/10 @ 4:10 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Cinnamon Bun (message) 1,100 posts, Bumble bee

I’m not hiring a planner, but I’m definitely going to get a friend to be our DOC! I couldn’t imagine doing a destination wedding without a planner though, I think that is the only way to go!

12/20/10 @ 7:14 pm (reply)

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Paper in the City » Blog Archive » DIY Weddings – Can You Pull it Off?

[...] Wedding Planners Are Your Friends (weddingbee.com) [...]

12/21/10 @ 2:53 pm (reply)

Member

plantains (message) 2,489 posts, Buzzing bee

Definitely the right way to go, especially in Manuel Antonio as it is quite touristy so you would be ripe for the picking hahaha.

12/21/10 @ 5:30 pm (reply)

10.

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Our Wedding Team Captain | Weddingbee

[...] Pancakes’ post “Wedding Planners are your Friends” inspired me to share our process for finding a planner! It look a lot of research, a few [...]

12/22/10 @ 3:45 pm (reply)