What are you hiring vendors for and what are you doing on your own?

I did hire a month-of coordinator because it was required by my venue, but having just had our month-of meeting (wedding is less than 4 weeks out!) I’m so glad that I have her. So many things I hadn’t thought of yet as a mostly DIY-bride.
I’m doing all my own stationary—invites, signs, etc. Got some nice paper from Etsy along with some watercolor PNGs and pretty fonts and printed from home. I’ll use a printer for bigger signs.
I did my own flowers too, which I don’t regret but it has been the biggest stress just due to time it’s taking. But they double as favors and they’ll last forever so I’m glad I’m doing it (Sola flowers). My only “splurge” was a videographer. I figure I’m doing so much work and spending so much money already, I want to make sure I can remember it all!

View Quoted Comment I am considering doing a month of coordinator but not sure! I’m doing all my stuff myself too mostly! I know I designed our invites on Zazzle and then has it sent to me for download and I print them out that was like $12 lol and then I will get some card stock to print on!
How do you do your own flowers? That sound me neat I was going to buy artificial bouquets but I may attempt to do myself lol!

I did not hire a wedding planner and honestly unless you are doing something very elaborate/have a really large bridal party/large venue that needs a lot of decorating I don't think they are necessary! I did the invitations and save the dates myself, designed them and printed them through Vistaprint - great quality and inexpensive. Flowers I did myself using Ling's moments fake silk florals, but I didn't need much in the way of decor because my venue is a rustic lake club and looks nice on its own. In addition to the flowers I got some fake candles and table runners/flower petals from Amazon. We are renting centerpieces from the venue (wooden block with candles) Also did a fake floral bouquet from Etsy! These are some pics when I was doing a dry run to see how it would look.

I will be going the day before the wedding to set some stuff up. The venue is all-inclusive so they handle all the food/alcohol, etc. in-house. The only vendors I hired were a DJ, photographers, and videographer. We also did book a hotel block and we qualified for a free shuttle based on how many rooms were booked; if we had not we would have hired a shuttle so that would have been an additional vendor.

We hired the following
Wedding coordinator (we start check ins 90 days out until the big day)
Event decor/rental teamFlorist I’ll have place cards and signage made from someone on Etsy
I created the save the dates and also utilizing Zazzle to create our invitations. I made 3 samples and can’t wait till they come in.
So I think I’m doing a mixture of both.

View Quoted Comment Omg that is beautiful! I am doing everything myself as well! Out venu is also rustic scenery I.e barn setting with country look! The only thing I have to supply is the linen unless I want something different than they have , they supply all the decorations and everything! I may get flowers to make a centerpiece for the tables but for the most part I’m doing everything for mine as well

We're planning a pretty small, simple wedding at a park pavilion so we're doing all the planning ourselves and skipping a planner/coordinator.


I'm designing our stationary but I'll have them printed through a company. I'm doing envelope liners and printing addresses on the envelopes myself.
For vendors, we've hired an officiant, photographer, and a hair/makeup artist. We're looking into caterers (either buffet or drop off), we're required to have a bartender if we want to serve alcohol and we'll get cupcakes through either a bakery or get some from Costco.
I'm DIYing all the decor and florals and we'll do all the set up in the morning. We're getting disposable plates and silverware so guests can just throw them away and we won't need someone to clear plates. We're doing our own playlist for background music and skipping a DJ (we're setting up yard games instead of having a dance floor)

We didn't hire a planner because I had many spreadsheets and apps to handle that myself. Our officiant was a family member. All the other vendors were professionals we hired.

View Quoted Comment Can I I ask how you doing your own flowers and where are you located

View Quoted Comment Can I ask what venue?

View Quoted Comment

Sure! It's Lake Valhalla Club in Montville, New Jersey

Having done DIY projects for other loved ones’ weddings to help out, we decided early on to do as little DIY as possible. What the online articles never mention is that you have to consider your time, skill level, and sanity at minimum wage per hour in addition to cost of supplies. That means breaking down the time/sanity of every step of the way from setup/tear down, transporting to and from the venue, everything associated with cleaning items to resell that often don’t get sold so you are better off donating to a local house of worship if you purchase items. DIY ends up being much more expensive, including all test runs. Comparing costs, renting with the labor that they provide is often more economical in the long run. We skipped DIY hair/makeup for the same reason because not everyone is comfortable with their lack of skills and getting products to stay regardless of watching a thousand YouTube tutorials and buying expensive products to test.


What we did do is come up with paper invitation and food/bar sign design elements that we took to a local print shop because we don’t have graphic design skills and our guests would not take kindly to anything digital for formal stationery including RSVPs. We picked a guideline of music that our guests would enjoy that is danceable and left the majority to the dj to read the room. We picked out vendors ourselves based on what we could afford and that fit our vision. Then we hired a month of coordinator to tie everything together and manage it behind the scenes so that guests didn’t have to work, which is another task we have each had in the past.