Mrs. Gloss, Boston/Maine
Age and Occupation: 24, Designer/soon-to-be Architect
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Systems Engineer
Engagement Date: May 23, 2008
Wedding Date: August 2009
Venue: SS Katahdin/Lakeside Tent
About Me: I don't like nickels or the skin that forms on pudding when it's in the fridge for too long. I couldn't live without Pantone markers, fountain soda (3/4 diet, ¼ regular Coke), run-on sentences, or ridiculously oversized sunglasses. I will try to DIY almost anything and am just OCD enough to make most of it work. I am truly excited about having all my family and friends together, becoming Mrs. Gloss, and having amazing photos to prove it!
I’m stuck. I have no idea whether I should hire someone to help on our big day (or if I can even find one available and within our budget three months out). They must have some sort of Procrastinators Appreciation Discount right? 
So, Side A : We hire a DOC, and Side B: We don’t. I made a list of pros/cons, and am still undecided.
Side A: We are getting married at a ‘non-traditional’ venue, so there is no one in-house that would be in charge of me or my event. Which makes me think I need someone to be there to ensure things run smoothly.
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Mrs. Beagle, Austin
Age and Occupation: 26, Electrical Engineer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Finance
Engagement Date: July 12, 2008
Wedding Date: October 2009
Venue: Church Ceremony/Reception at The Waterford House
About Me: I am a true, but rare, Austinite---I was born, raised, and continue to live in this great city! Although
I am an engineer by day, I feed my inner creative side through crafting, sewing, and obsessing over Martha Stewart. I love coffee, my mister, NPR, and exploring all the nooks and crannies of Austin.
I can't wait to share my adventures in DIY and wedding planning with all of you!
Oops, wrong “Doc”:
source
Early on in our planning, I knew that I wanted to hire a day-of-coordinator (DOC). I didn’t want a full blown wedding planner (I wanted us to have control of a majority of the “design” of our wedding), but someone to help run the show on our big day was a necessity.
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Mrs. Stiletto, Chicago
Age and Occupation: 26, Non-Profit/Fundraising
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Engineer and Photographer
Engagement Date: March 2, 2008
Wedding Date: September 2009
Venue: The 19th Century Club
About Me: My fiance and I love living in the city of Chicago with our cats Basil and Linus, and vow to never move to the suburbs if we can possibly avoid it! We’ve poured ourselves into planning a wedding that reflects our personal style - modern and high contrast with a vintage twist. Blogging keeps me creative, baking keeps me happy, and grande nonfat no foam sugar free vanilla lattes keep me sane.
I’ve been absent from posting this last week… work took me out west to Denver. I was working like crazy and was literally inside of my hotel from Saturday evening to Tuesday evening, barely seeing the light of day. Ugh. Needless to say, all things wedding were pretty far from my mind.
Thankfully, my return flight provided me with a wedding infusion through the in-flight entertainment. I was flipping through the channels and was less than thrilled with the 5 options they provided - the Disney Channel, an old episode of The Office, and a couple of other random selections I flipped right by. But wait, is that Kate Hudson? And Anne Hathaway, is that you? Score. Bride Wars.
Source: IMP Awards
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Mrs. Tiramisu, Annapolis, MD/Maine
Age and Occupation: 26, Eye Doctor
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Project Manager/Real Estate Management grad student
Engagement Date: May 15, 2007
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: March 4, 2008
Venue: Oceanfront lawn and tent
About Me: I was born and raised in Maine, now living in Annapolis, Maryland and planning a hometown wedding from afar. I’m nothing short of obsessed with wedding planning, and am loving the do-it-yourself madness that has now taken over my life! As for me, I’m a craft-loving, martini-drinking, girly-girl who loves traveling, photography, my schnauzer, and above all, spending time with Mr. Tiramisu.
Photographer: Samantha Warren Weddings
Cannot Recommend Highly Enough!
If you’ve been following along with any of my wedding recap posts, then you already know that I am very much in love with the photos taken by our amazing photographer, Sam. She gave us over twelve hundred photos that together tell the story of our wedding day beautifully. It’s hard to pick favorites, but I’d have to say the ones I love the most are the photos she took of Mr. Tiramisu and me, all the great detail shots, and the wonderful shots of our guests enjoying themselves. A lot of the very sweet comments that you all left on my recap posts mention how much emotion there is in the photos. I think a lot of that has to do with Sam and her great eye for capturing the reactions and interactions of the people she photographs. If you want your wedding captured in a beautiful photojournalistic style that will really help you relive the day every time you look through your photographs, please don’t hesitate to contact Sam, who regularly travels all over New England and beyond.
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Mrs. Martini, New Jersey
Age and Occupation: 30, Telecom by day, Superhero by night
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Investments & Finance by day, Hip hop dancer by night
Engagement Date: May 24, 2008
Wedding Date: March, 2009
Blogging Since: August 18, 2008
Venue: The Venetian
About Me: Things that make me happy: Haribo Happy Cola gummies, TV shows on DVD, buying books although I never read them, 80’s rock ballads, ramen, and of course Mr. Martini! He is the calm, logical and number crunching finance guy. I can’t even multiply double digit numbers in my head and I am so indecisive that trying to choose between light green or slightly lighter green paper stresses me out (Wedding planning is going to be soooo much fun). We both find great joy in nabbing great seats at the movie theater for a blockbuster movie on opening weekend, and we are both absolutely crazy about snowboarding. And he loves to cook, I love to eat!
It’s no surprise that wedding planning, in a nutshell, has been pretty crazy. I wouldn’t really say I was super busy at first, but I was still pulling my hair out about insignificant things. All my friends have been so supportive and they have been offering their help to me unconditionally. The only problem is, I don’t know what to ask for. I don’t know how to delegate.
And so I spent most of my days stressing about nothing and everything, and not getting anything done.
Mrs. Bee has always said that hiring a day of coordinator was the best thing she’d ever done for her own wedding. I considered hiring one, but Mr. Martini was pretty confident that we would be able to do it without a DOC. He actually helped coordinate my best friend’s wedding a year ago. Not only is he fascinated with the wedding industry, he thought it was a great opportunity to get an idea of what it would be like to plan his own wedding someday. Fortunately for him, he is super organized, focused, and has a mild case of OCD. Unfortunately for me, I can’t concentrate on one thing for more than five minutes, and Mr. Martini lost interest in the little details of the wedding once all the big things like venues and vendors were taken care of (curses!! I was hoping he would plan the whole darn thing. Is that too much to ask?). So, I was left alone with my unfortunate predicament - absolute terror and wedding anxiety.
Mrs. Bee knows me well, and she knows that I have a huge problem asking for help.
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Mrs. Duckling, San Diego
Age and Occupation: 23, Psychology Grad Student, Youth Diversion Specialist/Marriage and Family Therapy Trainee and an Executive Assistant
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Marketing and PR Coordinator
Engagement Date: May 17, 2008
Wedding Date: September 2009
Venue: Rancho Bernardo Inn
About Me: I'm currently living in Orange County, but planning our wedding in my hometown of San Diego. We are a DIY wedding "2fer", as I'm the crafty one and Mr. Ducky is in charge of all of our graphic design and technical aspects. When not wedding planning or reading wedding blogs, I'm attending grad school and rotating between two different jobs to keep things exciting. My favorite things include shoes, Post-Its, Labrador Retrievers, traveling, psychology, delicious food, photography, reading, craft gadgets/supplies, and of course, my wonderful Mr. Ducky!
It is so important to be able to step back and ask for help when we need it. It is what will keep us sane in life and from going on overload. (This is my inner therapist talking; it is a whole different ballgame taking my own advice.) This same concept of asking for help applies to wedding planning. Since I already shared my amazing coordinator with you, I want to fill you in on why I thought it was so important to find someone to help with the big day.
I love event planning. I’ve been doing it for years and Mr. Duckling has as well. Before deciding to become a therapist, I thought seriously about wedding planning. I couldn’t wait to plan my own wedding if for no other reason than that I would get to plan a major event and all its details. However, I knew that without question, I wanted a day of coordinator.
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Mrs. Duckling, San Diego
Age and Occupation: 23, Psychology Grad Student, Youth Diversion Specialist/Marriage and Family Therapy Trainee and an Executive Assistant
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Marketing and PR Coordinator
Engagement Date: May 17, 2008
Wedding Date: September 2009
Venue: Rancho Bernardo Inn
About Me: I'm currently living in Orange County, but planning our wedding in my hometown of San Diego. We are a DIY wedding "2fer", as I'm the crafty one and Mr. Ducky is in charge of all of our graphic design and technical aspects. When not wedding planning or reading wedding blogs, I'm attending grad school and rotating between two different jobs to keep things exciting. My favorite things include shoes, Post-Its, Labrador Retrievers, traveling, psychology, delicious food, photography, reading, craft gadgets/supplies, and of course, my wonderful Mr. Ducky!
When I first began to think about who we wanted to work with for our wedding when it came to vendors, location etc., I thought about it as if I were picking my team. We’re not just picking people to work for us, or paying for a simple service. We’re searching for a group of people that we want to work with during this crazy and stressful process that will be surrounding us leading up to the day of our wedding. I’m searching for our team.
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We all know how hard it is to pick out that guest list and choose the people who mean the most in our lives that will add to the special-ness of our day. You will be paying a lot so that they can be there. I think it is just as important that vendors you work with also add to your day. Your catering manager, coordinator, photographer, DJ, and florist will all be working with you closely, and who they are and their work will impact your wedding and you personally, whether it’s for the best or for the worst.
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Mrs. Glitter, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 27, Research Consultant/Writer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Accounting
Engagement Date: May 6, 2007
Wedding Date: June, 2009
Venue: Millenium Biltmore Hotel
About Me: I was born and raised in West Los Angeles, California. I spent eight years in the Northeast working and completing my education. Having split time between two sides of the country has given me a true appreciation for both coasts. It has also provided an overabundance of cross country drives, flights and long distance relationship fun/misery! I love my family, my doggy Emma, fabulous wine, Anthropologie, politics, reading, being outdoors, exploring new cities, and good movies! My fiance and I are complete opposites, but somehow we have managed to fall completely and hopelessly in love.
We are looking to hire both a wedding coordinator to oversee the entire day and a master of ceremonies (MC) to run the reception. The closer our wedding date gets, the more I feel the itch to solicit the aid of professionals. Quite honestly, if we were having a smaller wedding, I would feel more comfortable handling it myself or having friends and family help me. However, we are expecting close to 250 guests of all different ages, cultures and backgrounds. We will have several vendors coming and going throughout the course of the day. We need professional help!
In terms of a coordinator, we will be looking for a simple package: “day-of” coordination, basic familiarity with our list of vendors, a positive attitude, and a willingness to handle and manage the day. I really don’t want someone who will be in my hair every other minute, as I know that will just make me more nervous and anxiety ridden. I have started doing research and have found that I should be able to find these services in Los Angeles in the price range of $900 to $1200. This usually includes day-of coordination, 2 or 3 meetings prior to the wedding (may or may not include a tour of your venue), unlimited email communication, and help with things like the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner and vendor coordination.
In terms of the MC, we want to hire a combination DJ/MC. In addition, we have a somewhat unique situation.
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Miss Snapdragon, Chicago
Age and Occupation: 30, Production Assistant for a Media Firm
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Education Administrator
Wedding Date: June, 2009
Blogging Since: November 14, 2008
Venue: The Hyatt Lodge
About Me: Vintage and crafting obsessed. Voracious reader of short stories, Russian literature, National Geographic and Cosmo. I am a GENIUS at spicing up Weight Watchers recipes and a pathological cheater at board games. A Texan transplanted to the snowy Midwest, I can't wait to marry my one and only. Is it June yet? ... What about now?
![[02+Gold+Finch+Relax.jpg]](http://www-static.weddingbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/19/022bgo1.jpg)
Something that is super important (in my mind anyway) is that brides should be relaxed on their wedding day. On the day you leave singledom behind… I don’t think that’s too much to ask! For this reason, I am planning out a few things to help me keep my sanity on what might be a cray-zee, busy day…
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Mrs. Avocado, Seattle
Age and Occupation: 23, Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Consultant
Engagement Date: July 27, 2008
Wedding Date: October, 2008
Blogging Since: June 30, 2008
Venue: LDS Seattle Temple & Hotel 1000
About Me: Somehow this little farm girl found herself a genuine Pole to fall in love and eventually move away to Poland with. I am an LDS bride attempting to plan a private religious ceremony, ring ceremony, seated reception for 100, and an open house while coordinating for guests flying in from across the United States and as far away as Poland. I try to avoid fads, excess waste, and saturated fat. I strongly endorse photography, DDR, calorie counting, rss feeds, cooking, and utilizing your resources.
Like many brides, I had unattainable goals when it came to wedding planning. Not just goals that were unattainable financially, but things I wanted to make happen that I simply didn’t have time for. One of those things was a personalized music mix for the entire time we spent at Hotel 1000. All of the sudden it was 2 days before the wedding and the playlist hadn’t even been touched. That’s when I admitted defeat and emailed my Hotel 1000 coordinator, Donna, to let her know that it wasn’t going to happen and I needed her to pick up the slack for me.
Her choice of music was fantastic! It really set the tone for the event, and I remember my sister turning to me in the middle of dinner and saying “Wow, you did a really great job with the music for this!” I let her know that it was all Donna’s doing, and then we both continued to nod our heads and sway our shoulders to the beat in approval.
Imagine my surprise and delight when I opened up my mailbox the other day to find this sitting inside:
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Mrs. Cream Puff, San Francisco Bay Area
Age and Occupation: 25, Illustrator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Merchandise Planner
Engagement Date: May 27, 2007
Wedding Date: August, 2008
Blogging Since: February 7, 2008
Venue: Ceremony at Crissy Field and Reception at the Green Room
About Me: I never dreamed about my wedding as a little girl because I was too busy playing in the mud or pretending to be Martha Stewart–but now that it's here, I'm having a fabulous time DIYing everything in sight! We’re planning a very fun multicultural wedding (I'm Jewish and Mr. Cream Puff is Chinese), filled with as many personal details as I can muster.
It would be foolish to expect your wedding to be 100% perfect, and I’m no fool. I expected that a few things would go wrong. Little things. You know, the groomsmen are a little bit late, the frosting on the cake is off-white instead of white, things like that. I truly didn’t think anything big would go wrong. In a way, I think we expected that things would go a lot more smoothly, just because I was so organized. In some ways, that was totally true. But in other ways… well, not so much.
Although I would love to tell you that everything about our day was all sparkles and rainbows, I can’t. And you know what? I don’t want to. When I started blogging on Weddingbee, I didn’t want to pretend like wedding planning was 100% fun, 100% of the time. It can be stressful! I had weird dreams. I made a mistake booking a vendor. I had a meltdown in a shoe shop (ha ha). They’re all memories, and they’re actually pretty funny now. But to me, blogging about these issues is what makes it real. It’s what makes blogging worthwhile. And you know what? Our wedding wasn’t 100% perfect, either, so I’m not going to pretend like it was. I’m going to share the nitty-gritty, in addition to the wonderful, sparkly, rainbow-y stuff. I’ll share with you the good things, and the bad things. Because that’s life, and your wedding may be no different.
So as I was saying, we expected little things to go wrong, and had already decided not to pay any attention to the things that no one else would notice. Unfortunately for us, we had some really big things go wrong:
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Mrs. Cookie, Denver
Age and Occupation: 25, Nonprofit Fundraiser/Theatre Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Financial Analyst
Engagement Date: September 2007
Wedding Date: September 2008
Blogging Since: May 8, 2008
Venue: Ten Mile Station
About Me: With a degree in Theatre I never realized that planning a wedding was a lot like Theatre Management, until I started planning my own. I am a coffee addict, especially Starbucks' Grande Mochas, yummy! I love to cook (especially chocolate chip cookies for my honey), travel to exotic places, and be creative. As a couple, Mr. Cookie and I are extremely practical, down to earth, and children at heart. We live in a cozy abode with our adorable Pomeranian, and love to play board games and watch movies into the evening.
Source
No, not that Church Lady!
When we first starting planning the wedding, I thought the one place we could save money on was not hiring a day-of-coordinator (DOC). Since I plan fundraising events and have stage managed in the past, I felt pretty confident in my ability to put our little shindig together. Then when our venue said they would have a coordinator on hand to help make the day go smoothly, I was even more confident that we didn’t need to hire a DOC. It was settled no DOC!
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Miss Champagne, DC/Vail/Colorado
Age and Occupation: 26, Eye Doctor
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Attorney
Engagement Date: March 13, 2006
Wedding Date: February 2009
Blogging Since: July 30, 2008
Venue: Small church ceremony with mountain-view log cabin reception
About Me: I'm a small town mountain girl with a city heart. Found my way to the east coast, and Mr. Champagne kept me here so we're planning a wedding from afar in my hometown Vail, Colorado. I'm secretly obsessed with reality TV, Wii games where I can shoot a gun, country music, and Caesar: Dog Whisperer. I also spend time pretending to golf, backseat driving, having one way conversations with our MinPin Maxwell, loving champagne, and wedding perfecting… I mean, planning. I use way too many repeated symbols and letters when I write, and I'll love Mr. Champagne endlessly…
(image source)
When we first started the planning process, our first check mark on “the big list” was to find someone who could just help us out. Planning from over a thousand miles away can be difficult alone, but we knew if we had someone to ease the load it would make a huge difference. Brides usually seek the help of family friends or their dear mom, but our situation is a bit different.
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Mrs. Avocado, Seattle
Age and Occupation: 23, Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Consultant
Engagement Date: July 27, 2008
Wedding Date: October, 2008
Blogging Since: June 30, 2008
Venue: LDS Seattle Temple & Hotel 1000
About Me: Somehow this little farm girl found herself a genuine Pole to fall in love and eventually move away to Poland with. I am an LDS bride attempting to plan a private religious ceremony, ring ceremony, seated reception for 100, and an open house while coordinating for guests flying in from across the United States and as far away as Poland. I try to avoid fads, excess waste, and saturated fat. I strongly endorse photography, DDR, calorie counting, rss feeds, cooking, and utilizing your resources.
I emailed all of the Seattle Day of Coordinators (also known as DOC’s) that I could find contact information for, and then did research on all of them. After creating a tentative budget and setting my priorities, I realized that we couldn’t afford to spend $1000 on a DOC. I had resolved that I would have to figure out everything by myself and probably have to fix some disasters on the wedding day.
Then the Weddingbee classifieds stepped in and changed everything. Way back when I was a subscriber and not a Bee, I was scrolling through some posts and saw an ad for a Seattle DOC. Her price was so low that I was skeptical at first, but this is her first year in business and she is attempting to get started. Since this is a fairly normal thing to do (and exactly what I would do if I were attempting to start my own wedding coordination business), I decided to give her a call and see how we clicked over the phone.
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Mrs. Sundae, Chicago/Lake Geneva, WI
Age and Occupation: 28, Knowledge Manager
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Investment Advisor
Engagement Date: July 20, 2007
Wedding Date: September 2008
Blogging Since: February 5, 2008
Venue: The Abbey Resort
About Me: It’s hard to believe that by the time Mr. Sundae and I get married we will have been together for almost ten years. When we first met in college we split dollar pitchers and now we share the mortgage payments. Despite our love for the city we are looking forward to tying the knot in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Well, I’ve done it. I’ve admitted wedding planning defeat. (Yes, I am being a little dramatic) I sent the most pathetic email to our day of coordinator yesterday, swallowing my pride and confessing that I can’t make it through the next two months without her help. It takes a lot for me to admit I can’t handle something myself but with the last few weeks of rehearsal venue changes, broken contracts, bands who can’t keep it together, and all around unresponsiveness from vendors I am going to (I’ll say this as delicately as possible) lose my sh*t.
Vendors - 1 Miss Sundae - 0
Our coordinator is so affordable and truly so wonderful, this was a no brainer for me. I make her copies of all our contracts and hand it all over. She’ll take care of confirming with everyone, setting up a schedule for the day, telling the vendors when they need to be set up, making sure they are where they’re supposed to be, etc. I feel like there actually is a price for peace of mind, and I wrote a check for it this morning.
Sigh.
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