I Want Someone To Plan My Wedding For Me!
…Even though I am a full service wedding planner
I’m a wedding planner… an expert in weddings.
Which is why it might seem weird that I want someone else to plan my own big day in November 2025.
The truth is, I would LOVE to hire my coordinator for full-service planning, but I couldn't justify having a full-service wedding planner when I AM ONE!
My Biggest Concern is Time
Some of my biggest concerns are time and effort.
I have a full-time job planning other people's weddings and though you would think that would make planning my own wedding a breeze, planning a destination wedding for myself is not something I want to spend my resources on when I could be planning YOURS!
That's the biggest thing I consider when I think about why a couple should hire me. I think that their time and effort can be better used in other areas of their lives (MAYBE like enjoying their engagement) and that I can take the nitty gritty of wedding planning off their plate. Wedding planning should NOT be time-consuming, dreadful, and exhausting. It should be fun! Inspiring! Creative and Nourishing!
I want to enjoy my evenings making delicious meals with my fiancé. I want to spend my days off going to Barrys, walking my dog, and trying new spots in the city. I want to rot on the couch and binge my next Netlfix show or curl up with my KOBO and read my next thriller or romance book. Instead, I’m sending emails, creating floor-plans, booking room blocks, reading contracts, agonizing over a budget spreadsheet and spiralling over table settings.
I’m Not Getting Married in Toronto
Why am I planning a destination wedding when my favourite and most reliable vendors are here in Toronto? AND why would I want full time help with that? Well, my fiancé, Oren, was born and raised in Minneapolis and he wants to say a final goodbye to Minnesota before starting his life in Toronto, SO we are getting married in THE TWIN CITIES.
Mandatory Cherry and the Spoon Pic to the right…
How Did We End Up Here?
Let's start from the beginning! Well maybe not the beginning beginning - The only ones who want to gush over our “meet-cute” are Oren and me - but I'll take you to the engagement! We got engaged on Monday evening after a steak dinner while walking our dog when Oren pulled a poop bag out of his pocket with a ring box in it (My mom told me to leave that part out it but it wouldn’t be me if it wasn’t added.)
Tuesday morning we left to visit Oren’s parents in Minnesota for Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year). So like it or not the wedding planning STARTED and QUICK!
Reid’s Distillery in Toronto
Before I met Oren I dreamt of a small 60 person cocktail party at Reid’s Distillery in Toronto where I would play with the industrial vibes of the distilling equipment and off set it with soft romantic florals. I’d wear a white dress but nothing too big and showy, and our family and friends would come and schmooze and drink for a low key evening of celebration. Cue us asking our parents what our guest count would look like and I heard the numbers “250-300”... SO, my 60 person wedding was not going to work.
Now I’m a Destination Wedding Planner
I had no idea that Minneapolis had such a healthy and thriving wedding industry - and, more to my shock, the prices were on par with Toronto BUT in USD AHHH!!!!
So I started planning. Like I would with many clients, except this time it was my family I was contending with, having uncomfortable conversations with, defending choices to and having to concede to some things.
Now, in Toronto, planning my wedding would take me about 2 days. I would contact my favourite vendors, pick my favourite (and in-budget) venue and let the people I trust with my clients' weddings do their thing.
In Minneapolis? I don’t know my boutonnieres from my corsages. “Okay google,” here we go!
Who Can I Trust?
Now, I'm planning in Minneapolis, and not only do I not know the market for pricing, I have NO IDEA who anyone is!
I don't know who people go to for a band that can bring down the house with their rendition of Hava Nagila. I don't know who to give a mood board to who can run with my ideas and create beautiful florals and decor. I don't know what people normally do with my venue since I've never seen a wedding there. I don't know ANYTHING!
That's where I would love to have a rolodex wedding planner! That's what we are, rolodexes of reliable and worthy vendors and suggestions. My wedding coordinator has been very gracious in confirming if different vendors are reliable AFTER I've found them. But as a planner myself, I don't feel comfortable asking her for vendor recommendations outright because I have only hired her for coordination. Therefore, I feel like I should be doing the research for vendors myself. Her expertise has a price tag and I haven't paid for that level of service.
So now I'm here spending all my evenings researching rental companies, bands, decor companies, draping providers, and catering companies trying to get to know how all these new-to-me vendors do their business. Which, I’ve gotcha say, for a wedding planner is good research, but for a bride, it's just a whole lot of effort. If I worked with a planner, I would have to choose from a few carefully selected and researched vendors (as I present to my own clients), but with all the possibilities at my google-able finger tips, the choices can be overwhelming.
The Machine Shop in Minneapolis
Ultimately, I can do the planning on my own…
After all, if I couldn't do it on my own, how could I ask you to trust me with YOUR wedding? But having someone else there to trust with all the little details that may slip through the cracks - while I work on my own business, be a dedicated dog mom, and make time for my social and family life - would make me feel so secure! If anything, this predicament has really secured the way I feel about my work. How special is it that I get to guide people through some of the most important decisions about the most important day of their life?
If you want to know more about how I can be that person for YOU and YOURS on your big day, head over to my services page and check out my full service wedding planning package!
Stay tuned for my next blog post, where I explore what I’m handing over to my coordinator and what I expect of her as probably one of her pickiest clients… a wedding planner.
Engagement photos by Gaetz Photography
