Do I Need a Wedding Planner or Will a Wedding Planning App Do?

We’ll be honest, this is a pretty hefty topic, and the answer is one which will be different for everyone. On one hand you can’t really compare the role of a wedding planner with a piece of tech such as a wedding planning app, but there are some areas and instances where the two might overlap. Areas such as looking after your wedding budget or keeping plans on track with a wedding planning checklist to name a few. The biggest thing to consider though is your wedding budget. But the size of your wedding guest list, the venue location, and how much time you can dedicate to the wedding planning process will also have an impact over whether you hire a wedding planner or opt for a wedding planning app to guide you along your wedding planning journey. Let’s take a look at both in a little more detail…

What is a Wedding Planner?

In a nutshell, a wedding planner is a wedding professional who can assist and support you with the overall design, planning and management of your wedding day. Due to the work involved they often don’t come cheap (as they shouldn’t!) and they do a LOT more than you might expect too. A wedding planner can take on as much or as little of the wedding planning as you wish. From full wedding management to simply managing the wedding day itself. They are experts and mentors, and will support you by taking away some of the burden and stress that comes with planning a wedding. They are also often incredibly creative people and can help source the best wedding vendors and décor items for your special day, whilst ultimately bringing it all together in the wonderful way they do! But as well as being creative they often have impeccable organisation skills and attention to detail, loving lists, spreadsheets, and timelines! They are trustworthy, hardworking and should have extensive experience in planning and managing weddings which is helpful if this is your first! Finally, (and probably most importantly), they take on the responsibility of the big day so that you can let go, relax and truly enjoy the special event you’ve spent so much time, effort (and money) planning! A wedding planner’s role can be extensive and quite complex. Firstly, they can help you refine your wedding style, they can create a wedding website for you (complete with stylish wedding invitations), and help plan pre wedding events such as a rehearsal dinner or engagement party). But they can also liaise with your wedding vendors, handle contracts and keep your wedding budget in check, likely all through the help of a wedding planning checklist (a wedding planner’s best friend!). It’s also worth mentioning a wedding coordinator’s role here too because whilst they are also a helpful person to have with you on the wedding planning journey and on the big day itself, they are different to a wedding planner. In fact, your venue may have a wedding coordinator allocated to you who will help guide you through the planning process (note the word guide here). Wedding coordinators don’t provide a full planning service and are often available towards the end of the project. They can help tie up loose ends though and assist with the running of the special day, but they won’t necessarily help with researching vendors, manage your wedding budget or organise your digital RSVPs. If you’re already concerned that you can’t hire a wedding planner with your restricted wedding budget, or as we mentioned, you’ve already been assigned a coordinator through your venue, you might benefit from a proficient wedding planning app to help guide you through each stage of the wedding planning journey.

Do I Need a Wedding Planning App?

As soon as the just-engaged-joy has died down you’ll soon realise that planning a wedding is basically a never ending to-do list and includes a lot of new information to organise and remember. Say I do’s helpful planning platform can serve many purposes for wedding planning couples. From creating your dream wedding website, to sending your save the dates and wedding invitations to your guest list, and managing your digital RSVPs too. Your wedding website will end up picking up a lot of the time intensive jobs that a wedding planner might do. Tasks such as ensuring your wedding style is cohesive across everything from your wedding website template to your wedding evites and any other wedding stationery that you might choose to have. They can also organise your wedding guests’ RSVPs, the plus ones and record any dietary requirements - a huge task taken off your hands believe us! Signing up for a wedding website through Say I do also means gaining access to our bespoke wedding planning checklist. This time saving tool is designed to keep you on track and flag any tasks that you need to complete, in a timely manner. You can also tailor the platform to your wedding date and edit your wedding checklist so that it’s completely personal to you. Whilst you do have to complete the checklist tasks yourself (or delegate to a family member or close friend) and it’s not quite the same as having an actual wedding planner by your side, wedding planning apps like Say I do soon become an essential tool in every couple’s kit and can save you a lot of time and money during the planning process too. So, you might have guessed that there really is no right or wrong answer here but if you do decide to hire a wedding planner you must make sure that you genuinely really like the person. Over the coming weeks and months you’re probably going to be in communication with them more than your closest friends and family members, so you need to make sure there is a connection! Not to mention the fact that you’re trusting them with one of the biggest days of your life so it’s crucial that you can depend on them and want to have them in your dream wedding planning team! But whether you’re going it alone or working with a brilliant team of wedding vendors, utilising a handy wedding planning app such as Say I do helps couples stay inspired, accountable, on top of their guest list, and so much more.