Weddingbee Blog

When Fiancee Eagle brought up hiring a wedding coordinator, I thought she was crazy! I thought we could definitely handle our wedding on our own, and it would be a waste of money. Whenever I think of wedding planners, I think of the Rich Bride, Poor Bride TV show. And while Fiancee Eagle and I love watching it and poking fun at their wedding mishaps and overspent budgets…I didn’t want the whole “production” feel that the wedding planners on the show tend to create during wedding planning.

Image via Slice

We want our wedding to be intimate and authentic. Natural and heartfelt. Effortless and beautiful. OK, those descriptions sound a little nondescript. Truthfully, we want a highly detailed wedding without the “production” feel. But, as I told you all in my last post, I came to see Fiancee Eagle’s viewpoint of needing a wedding coordinator. We needed someone to run the show. Weddings have evolved since our parents’ time: nowadays, you can have as many as 10 vendors working together on your wedding day! With that many people running around, there is bound to be confusion if there isn’t someone directing them all where to be. I knew in my heart/brain that we needed a DOC, at least.

An important part of what we were looking for in a DOC is that they don’t create the “wedding production” feel I so desperately want to avoid. We wanted someone that we genuinely liked as a person, and someone who would fit in with our guests well. We wanted them to feel like a friend that was coordinating the wedding, and not stick out as a wedding planner with a headset.

Image still from The Wedding Planner via IMDB

I wanted a wedding coordinator who understood our wedding theme/feel and who wouldn’t pressure us into doing things “their way.” I wanted the coordinator to be excited about our wedding and to be someone who genuinely loves weddings and doesn’t just do this as their job.

Was I placing a lot of importance on this particular vendor? Yes!

I was browsing the wedding section on Kijiji classifieds, and found a bunch of people that had posted ads offering their service as DOCs. There was even a guy who offered his service for free! As tempting as that was, I didn’t contact him.

There was one ad that stuck out in my mind as being very genuine and professional at the same time. It was posted by Perfect Day Ventures, and their website confirmed that full DOC/MOC could be performed for under $1,000! SCORE. Fiancee Eagle really liked the website because it had testimonials and was really organized. I liked her “Meet The Owner” section that demonstrated her passion for weddings. I also liked that she was a certified wedding planner through the Wedding Planners Institute of Canada…something the free guy was undoubtedly not. I’m all about education, people.

We were both pretty convinced we needed to have her before we even set up the initial consultation!

Have you ever had seemingly unrealistic expectations for a vendor? Did you find what you were looking for?