If you’ve opted for an intimate wedding with only a handful of guests, you might feel you can pull off  planning the event on your own. Wedding coordinators are only for big weddings, right?

Although we did not hire a wedding coordinator for our nuptials, other brides I interviewed for Intimate Weddings: Planning A Small Wedding that Fits Your Budget and Style benefitted greatly by hiring a wedding planner.

If you’re not the planning type and event planning simply stresses you out, or if you’ve got a demanding job that doesn’t leave you with too many free moments to spare you might want to consider hiring a wedding coordinator. You might also consider hiring someone to take charge if you’re getting married in a location different than where you live.

A wedding planner can create your wedding from start to finish. Some of the things she (or he! I have interviewed men who can coordinate a wow wedding) can do for you are:

– Help you have a clearer picture of what you want
– Help you stick to your budget
– Help you prioritize
– Set you up with reputable vendors that suit your tastes
– Alleviate family conflicts by acting as mediator
– Pose questions to vendors that you might not think to ask
– Help devise an overall wedding vision
– Find the right invitations and mail them
– Oversee events on the wedding day to make sure everything runs smoothly
– Book your honeymoon.

This means you’ll:

– Be less stressed out
– Have a good chance of getting better rates with vendors.
– Have more time to devote to other things (and you won’t run the risk of getting fired for spending your work hours planning your wedding!)

But you don’t have to hire a wedding planner to do everything. She can take as big or small a role as you choose.

If you are considering hiring a wedding planner, keep in mind that it will probably cost you 10-15 percent of your budget. That can amount to thousands of dollars, so make sure you take the time to find a good one.

Wedding coordinator red flags

Be leery of hiring a planner that:

– Is pushy, and won’t listen to your ideas
– Doesn’t, in your opinion, have good taste (Ask to see pictures of clients’ events)
– Has an abrasive personality
– Doesn’t have references
– Won’t sign a written agreement