We Fired Our Wedding Planner (And Here's What Happened)

The story of how we decided to plan our own wedding and what we learned along the way

Six months before our wedding day, we made the scariest decision of our lives. We fired our wedding planner.

The Breaking Point

It started with small things. Vendor recommendations that didn't match our style. Budget spreadsheets that never seemed accurate. But the final straw came when we realized our "dream venue" had been booked without us ever setting foot inside.

Sometimes the best decisions are the ones that terrify you the most.

What We Did Instead

We took a deep breath and broke down the planning into manageable pieces:

  1. Created our own timeline - Working backwards from the wedding date
  2. Researched every vendor ourselves - Met with each one personally
  3. Built a real budget - Every dollar accounted for
  4. Embraced the chaos - Some things will go wrong, and that's okay

The Tools That Saved Us

Here are the actual tools we used:

- Notion for project management
- Google Sheets for budget tracking
- Pinterest for inspiration (use sparingly!)
- A shared Google Calendar for deadlines

Lessons Learned

Trust Your Gut

Nobody knows your relationship better than you do. If something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't.

Communication is Everything

We learned to have real conversations about what mattered to us. Not what Instagram said should matter.

It's About the Marriage, Not the Wedding

At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you're marrying your person. Everything else is just decoration.

The Result

Was it more work? Absolutely. Was it worth it? Every single moment.

Our wedding felt like us. Every detail, every choice, every imperfect moment - it was authentically ours.

Would we do it again? In a heartbeat. But next time, hopefully we won't need to plan another wedding.