Hiring a Wedding Coordinator

A few years back my friend Writer girl got married to Politicsboy. We had a blast at the wedding. It was a comfortable, well run affair where people danced, had fun, and sniffled. While she is surrounded by many type-A personalities, she spared us and hired a wedding planner to run the wedding. As the only person I know who had a paid wedding planner, I wanted to give you, my readers, some of her wisdom about hiring and using a wedding planner.

Why did you decide to use a wedding planner? What was the value added for having someone you pay for running your wedding?
--I decided to use a wedding planner because I really thought I needed professional help! The thought of planning a wedding was overwhelming to me, and I wanted someone to point me in the right direction.

So what did your wedding planner do?
--I initially planned to pay the wedding planner just for the day-of wedding coordination. But after I talked to her and realized how many resources she had, I decided to hire her for a few specific tasks, like choosing a caterer.

How did you find this person? If someone was going to choose a professional wedding planner, what should they look for?
--I got the name of the wedding planner (Sara Bauleke, http://www.bellanottedc.com/index.html) from a friend of mine who had gotten married the year before. I think the most important thing for me was to find someone who I respected and who I felt had priorities and tastes similar to mine. I didn't want to feel pushed into making choices I might regret because of a wedding planner who had a different vision than I did of what a wedding should look like.


So your wedding planner was a day of person as opposed to doing the legwork and planning throughout the process. How did that work and how did you make sure she got everything she needed to run the wedding?
--Sara was very organized and she had a form for me to fill out with all the information she needed to run the weddding. She required that I fill out the form several weeks in advance so that she could prepare. At the rehearsal, I gave her all the supplies (kippot, kiddish cups, etc) that we would need at the wedding so that she could be responsible for them on the day of the wedding.

For you, what do you think is the highlight of your and Politicsboy wedding? Were you able to be a guest at your own wedding (the ultimate test of an effective wedding planner)?
--I think the highlight of the wedding for me was the dancing! I didn't exactly feel like a guest at our wedding because I was so nervous, but that's more about my personality than anything having to do with wedding planning. I'm sure that I would have been ten times more nervous if Sara hadn't been there to make sure everything went smoothly.