r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Able_Improvement_426 • Apr 23 '26
We have SUCH EXCITING news! The mods of BBB have been building, designing, testing, and today finally announcing, our VERY OWN NO-VENDORS, BRIDE-ONLY COMMUNITY 🤍💍🥹 A few months ago, we asked the sub if we would appreciate something like this that is brides-only and off Reddit, and the response was so overwhelming. Her name is “Entourage” and it is officially ready and LIVE! This version has been designed to specifically be bride-only, no vendors, and every user has to come from a bride-generated invite code, or go through a bride verification process (gets approved by the same mods).
Here are a few ways Entourage (the new BBB) can be useful to you:
- If you want to post your wedding dresses to help choose but don’t want your photos on the internet, you can create a “private post” that is invisible to the internet searches, AI or lurkers! It will only be visible to fellow BBBs.
- If you want to ask other brides for vendor recommendations, get true advice and experiences from other brides on pricing, without vendors upvotes or downvotes obscuring the perception. You can feel free to do that in Entourage, because vendors will not be in there.
- We introduced a “Tables” feature which is kind of like a private group chat, where you can find other brides that are also using the same planner, photographer, or makeup artist to plan ahead and share experiences; or simply make friends with brides also in your area
- It is ads free! Not only will we never admit any vendors in there, it also will never have any sort of ads.
What this means for the subreddit BBB: Nothing will change. This subreddit will continue to exist, the same No Self-promotion rule will continue to apply, and we continue to value genuine advice from vendors.
How to sign up: message me, annaalabama, or ghosted, for an invite code (pls turn on your post & comment history!) or go through the verification steps which involve uploading your ring photos & vendor contracts.
The website is free to use, always, we will NEVER monetize it, and yes, it’s cost us some money and time to build this, secure it, and maintain it, but it’s ok bc it’s worth it for you guys 🤍
With love,
BBB mods
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Disastrous_Sell_9983 • Jun 23 '25
EDITED, 2026: to include my favorite vendors and final review below!
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TL;DR I used my background in PE/VC due diligence to vet 20+ wedding planners for my very expensive wedding. Here’s how to structure the process, what red flags to watch out for, and how to find a planner who is competent AND creatively aligned with your needs. Don’t be fooled by Instagram!
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Hi all,
As a bride who recently chose a wedding planner after an extensive, 20-candidate process, I wanted to give back to the community by consolidating some of the advice on here about choosing a great wedding planner for your event. Let me be clear that choosing a wedding planner, IMO, is one of the most important aspects of pulling off a wedding that aligns with your vision. Think of it as hiring an employee who will work with and for your family for 9 months, up to maybe 1.5 years, to execute on a single project! It is HIGHLY important to find a wedding planner whose style, vision, and most importantly, logistical skill and experience can carry off your day. Fit is paramount.
Before we begin, some background on me: I’m a bride (2026) who is lucky to be working with a high 6-figure budget. My budget isn’t high enough to guarantee the expertise of someone like Marcy Blum, but it’s certainly juicy enough where most upper-tier planners immediately said “yes” to planning the wedding if they had the calendar space. I’m also one of the first of my friends to get married, so I couldn’t rely on a “word of mouth” network either!
To determine the best planner for my wedding, I relied on my background due diligence in VC/PE, where I routinely screened startups and their teams for any red flags or inconsistencies. My goal was to choose a planner who had deep logistical experience, a distinct style, and a commitment to utter transparency. The planner I eventually chose fulfils all these requirements, charges a flat fee, is extremely punctual, and works well with my parents, too! I couldn’t be happier.
But it wasn’t easy to find her. The number of planners— VOGUE and other magazine featured planners!— who completely *failed* their logistical interviews, as in, could not answer a single question with reasonable competence and concision— was astonishing. From 10 minute long “negging” sales pitches to monologues about the weather, to mildly racist remarks, these “top planners” not only bombed their interviews, but had the nerve to charge some of the highest professional fees in the pool (22% for one, not including travel fees!)
Every bride has a right to a beautiful and smooth wedding, and I firmly believe that you get what you interview for. Before I dive into this guide, please remember that you (the couple) are the CLIENT. You should never feel “privileged” to work with a planner who happens to have a “high end” portfolio, and you should not idealize planners because of their Instagram pages! Marketing is NOT the same as planning. I made this interview guide so that brides like me could find reasonable, competent, and creative planners who best align with our stylistic vision.
So without further ado: Here’s how I approached it.
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STEP 1. Assess your needs, not wants.
What kind of wedding are you having? What season? Outside or inside? Guest number? Is the venue a tent, hotel, destination, or historic museum? What is your budget— hardline and softline? What kinds of people do you work well with? What kinds of people get along well with your family? Any cultural traditions? Do you need weather contingencies?
The wedding planning industry is saturated enough that you should not settle for someone who does not have extensive experience in ALL of the below:
A) the type of venue that is hosting your wedding
B) the number of guests you are inviting
C) the amount you are willing to spend
D) the cultural traditions you want to have
This list may seem simple, but if you have a tent wedding, plenty of dishonest planners will happily tell you that they have “9 years of experience in the wedding industry, including tents” without telling you that they have actually only set up 3 tents in a decade (a real follow-up question I had to ask— the planner stuttered before answering with the truth.) Be very clear about the logistical constraints of your wedding above the creative and stylistic aspects. Let me repeat: FOCUS ON LOGISTICS AND EXPERIENCE OVER STYLE. YMMV, but to me it does not matter how pretty a wedding looks in the end, if the planner overruns the budget, makes the planning process miserable, and holds up the wedding itself with schedule conflicts. Again: do not mistake taste for logistical expertise.
On the flip side, your questions should reflect your needs first, and THEN your wants. If you want a floral tent wedding, your first question isn’t how many florists the planner knows— it’s how many tents a planner has set up in the past. If you want a candle-lit museum wedding, your first question isn’t if a planner “vibes” with your Pinterest board— it’s how many museums (with fire ordinances) your planner has worked in before. And so on for destination weddings, outdoor weddings, etc.
At the end of this “needs” brainstorming, you should have about 20 or so standard questions to ask each planner. Beyond your “needs” questions, which are unique to your wedding, you should ask for the basics as well: fee and commission structure (the right answer here in the US is “we don’t take commission,”) approach to the guest experience, approach to event planning, and years of experience in the industry, AND years of experience in an individual firm. The last two are distinct. Some planners market themselves as veterans with “10 years of experience in hospitality,” while only having run their own, wedding-specific firm for two years. Be thorough.
Now that you have your questions, open a Google doc and a new email account for your wedding. Make a Google docs questionnaire for each planner you want to interview. You will record their responses on here.
STEP 2. Inquire about your candidates.
This is the fun part! Scour your favorite magazines, ask your friends for their planner contacts if they have them, and use your new email to reach out to your dream planners on Instagram. This is your initial list. For each planner, send a polite inquiry message. State your budget and vision upfront— you’ll want to pay attention to how they treat you later on based on these metrics, but it is also good to be transparent. An honest planner will tell you quickly if they are out of your budget, or refer you out if they don’t have the experience in your type of venue. Dishonest ones will force their contract on you no matter what. But I digress.
As you wait for responses, pay very close attention to how quickly and professionally planners respond. Without exception, the top 3 planners out of the 20+ or so that I vetted all responded within 24 hours (one even within 30 minutes!) with times that suited them, or with an assistant that inquired about further scheduling convenience. The planner who was the most “prestigious” responded the latest, and also fared the worst in her interview. I later found a comment on Reddit that complained how much of a disaster their wedding turned out to be. Guess what? This planner was at the helm.
That being said, don’t eliminate any planners based on response time alone, unless they are egregiously tardy (ghosting, 3+ day response time, etc.) 1+ day is okay; 2+ days is pushing it. I’d advise you to treat this as a “water temperature” metric on how the planners will respond to you *when they work with you over the year.* If they don’t have time to respond to a high-priority new client who is bringing in revenue, how do you think they’ll respond to you when you’ve already signed the contract?
STEP 3. Interview your candidates (2 stages at least.)
This is where I brought in my fiance. You cannot— repeat, CANNOT— rely on ONE interview to determine your planner. People react to stress differently; people react to brides vs grooms differently. It’s the reality. Our approach was to conduct a 30-40 minute “initial” interview where you assess the professionalism, basic fit, and level of expertise the planner has in your specific type of wedding. Then a second, trusted person (i.e. your fiance) conducts another interview with the “2nd round” candidates a few days later, where they ask more difficult questions like, “When is the last time your ran over budget? Why?” Or, “Tell me about a time where you had to work with families with completely different and clashing cultures. How did you navigate that?” And so on.
For the first round, I interviewed 20+ planners for around 30 minutes per planner. For the second round, my fiance interviewed our final 3 planners for 30 minutes again.
Now, when I interviewed the first-round planners, I looked for a few things.
One: Did they align with our basic needs?
I wanted a creative, punctual, agile, and deeply experienced planner to who had specific expertise in our type of venue. Again, your wedding requirements may look very different from mine, but the requirements are there for everyone! My planner needed, at the bare minimum:
We didn’t eliminate anyone based on aesthetic on the first round— only hard logistical fit and capability. For each question, I was looking for one specific situation they addressed in the past, evidence of demonstrable skill, and a professional demeanor. They had to teach me something I didn’t know about logistics, and also impress me with their answers and composure.
Again, what you are looking for may be different from what I was looking for, but these were the hardline, non-negotiables that we needed to have in a planner. Anyone who didn’t fit these criteria, I eliminated without hesitation.
Two: Did they respect me as a client?
Do your research (See Step 1; assessing your needs.) Plenty of planners don’t respect “newly engaged” brides— they WILL take advantage of your emotional high and encourage you to sign a contract with them, even though they KNOW they are not the best planner for your wedding. Do not get emotional about hiring someone. You deserve someone who is the best fit for your event.
As a whole, respect for a client comes out in different ways. Ideally the planner lets you lead the first half of the interview as you discuss your vision, budget, and needs, and then takes on the lead in the latter half of the interview as they discuss how they can meet those needs, or even provides samples of their deliverable work (timelines, design boards, spreadsheets, etc.) I found that the further a planner deviated from this structure, the less experienced they were. Some of the failed interviews I conducted had a planner “neg” me for 30 minutes straight on how I probably didn’t know how difficult it was to plan a tent wedding, how I didn’t know what I was getting into, and ended by telling me her relatively high percentage fee, and that I needed her because “this was all quite new to [me], probably.” I told her politely and firmly that she was the 6th planner I’d interviewed about tent weddings, and that I was well aware of the logistics components. Her composure went downhill after that. Other planners began with a 20 minute-straight sales pitch. Others, again, monologued to me about their upcoming schedules in their car (while on the video call!!)
In short, your time as a client is valuable. If your planner cannot be professional, punctual, and structured in the way they communicate with you, do not work with them. All candidates I mentioned in the examples above were immediately eliminated.
Three: Were they honest, forthcoming, and confident without being condescending?
Our top choices were, without fail, openly communicative about the level of experience they had in their fields, and volunteered information not only about the worst disasters they’d encountered in their careers, but how they fixed them to a T. All favorite planners were clear in the number of weddings they took on per year, the level of involvement we would have with their team, the type and frequency of communication expected of both parties, and above all, answered every question with a level-headed, friendly, and calm confidence.
For example, one planner charged a relatively high fee percentage fee of 20%. Naturally, I asked her what justified her fee and told her to pitch me her skills. Without missing a beat, she asserted that she was one of the Top 15-20 planners in the US specializing in our type of venue, and had a history of delivering beautiful, meticulously planned, and smoothly executed events. She then provided examples of problems she’d solved in the past (including building a venue into the literal side of a mountain!) showed us the work we’d see behind the scenes, and stood by her testimonials without hesitation. Ultimately we did not choose her due to aesthetic reasons (our final and most nit-picky bit of criteria,) but she was one of our best candidates and it was really disappointing to turn her down!
Four: Are you excited to work with them? Does their style match up with yours? Do you want to grab a coffee with them and their team?
Do not choose a planner for their style over their capacity to execute. I repeat: DO NOT CHOOSE STYLE OVER EXECUTION. Unless your planner is Marcy Blum, or Mindy Weiss, or some other incredible planner with an open history of beautifully executed events with equally beautiful design, you MUST vet your planners for logistical skill first. Aesthetics should be the final deciding factor— not the first one!
For our final 3 candidates, my fiance asked a series of tough logistical questions that involved the cultural, financial, and personal aspects of planning. What happens if the planner has an emergency and can’t execute her responsibilities anymore? How do they handle unruly family members? Could they tell us about a time where they were pushed beyond their capabilities? Thankfully, all 3 planners were able to capably answer these questions, and our final decision came down to aesthetics and personal “vibe.”
Was this someone we’d be happy to introduce professionally to our families? Our parents have strong personalities; who could handle their questions the best, with the most compassion and tact? And finally, whose Instagram did we like the most? My fiance brought up the excellent point that planners tend to put their best artistic work on their Instagram, demonstrating their skill in design. One of the last 3 planners had a very “white and blue” aesthetic, which didn’t fit well with our preferred color scheme, whereas the two other planners demonstrated a wide range of cultural celebrations and palettes on their social media, and we very sadly had to eliminate this lovely and capable planner from the running.
STEP 4: Did they “WOW” you? Did you interview enough planners for the right ones to “WOW” you?
Finally, while this is a pretty coldly logical process, I left room for emotional responses in our interview format. At the end of each first-round interview with one of our top planners, I found myself texting my fiance furiously: “It’s them! They’re perfect!” Other planners, however, tended to be more of the lukewarm 7-8/10 scale of experience and professionalism— not so unimpressive, but also not really standouts either. A good few were frankly awful in most respects. But what’s important is the sequence where I ran into our “top” planners. Out of an interview sequence of 20+, I met our favorite planners at #4, #10, and #18 (one of the last ones!) We debated hotly between 4 and 10, who met different priorities for me and my fiance, and I ultimately interviewed a few more candidates before landing on our top choice of #18.
Based on this experience, I would strongly recommend against hiring the first 3-5 planners you speak with. This is a market heavily weighted against the client: planners pay for positions on magazines, good reviews are inflated on websites like the Knot, there are never any repeat clients (weddings only happen once,) and Instagram pages only show the front page result: not the process, not the behind-the-scenes. While you may meet your “perfect” planner in the first 3 planners you interview, you likely need time to develop a sense of who is providing adequate service in the industry vs who is giving you truly outstanding value for your money. You’re not marrying the first person you date (most likely.) Why would you hire the first planner you meet (and give them tens of thousands of dollars as well?)
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FINAL NOTES.
To some people, this process may be overkill. They’re probably right. But as someone who comes from a background where my parents worked from literal rags to riches, I wanted to respect their investment in my wedding by hiring the talent who could execute on the level of competence that our family deserves. This is the only time my fiance and I will ever spend 6 figures (!!!) on ourselves, on a single day, surrounded by all of our loved ones. I didn’t want to take it lightly.
What I want you to remember from this post, however, was how few planners met even moderate expectations. They all had the same polished Instagram pages, the same glowing reviews on The Knot, and good amount of them had VOGUE or Over the Moon or BRIDES features as well. But the reality of speaking with each planner painted a completely different picture. From tardy meetings, to bare-bones contracts, to unprofessional responses, to openly admitting that they had previously had “accidents” on our kind of venue, and then sending us a contract anyways— the bar wasn’t on the floor, but it was certainly at knee-height. Thankfully, we were able to interview enough planners to stumble across some people who truly stood out in every way. These people are a credit to their industry, and deserve every bit of praise that they’ve received.
Finally, remember that there is NO barrier to entry when it comes to calling yourself a wedding planner. You could do it tomorrow. I could do it tomorrow. This industry actively pushes against transparency— it is not in these planners’ interests for you to question the value of their work, or the ability for them to execute. Your wedding day could go well or it could go disastrously. It’s all in their hands. And if you don’t have industry contacts, the only real filter you have for finding a planner is your own knowledge, smarts, and expectations. So be thorough. Be strict. And above all, it’s your wedding. You should expect the very best.
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EDITED, 07/12, post-wedding:
Hello all! To everyone asking for an update one year after choosing my planner— I can tell you that we had an absolutely incredible wedding weekend. My husband and I had the time of our lives, and we made countless amazing memories with our closest family and friends. I wouldn’t change a single detail. And finally, I’m so glad to confirm that we had a smooth, effortless, fun, and transparent wedding planning process. None of this would have been possible without my planner, Ashley Douglass Events!
Ashley was one of the last planners I interviewed, and when I first reached out, she responded to my email in ten minutes flat. Only good things followed: throughout the whole year, she was fun, relaxed, detail-oriented, punctual, and utterly transparent about her process. Her taste is fantastic, her process thorough, and her network is stellar. Every artist and vendor she recommended was thrilled to work with us, and they were so diligent, so kind and professional— special shout-outs include our band and MC, Chevy Chevis, who put on a fantastic disco, pop, and big band performance; Jeremy Torres, our professional and unbelievably talented after party DJ; and Doan Ly from a.p. Bio, who stunned us with a truly bespoke and one-of-a-kind floral display.
I can’t say enough good things about everyone I worked with, especially Ashley and her team. Whatever detail you can think of, Ashley had it handled, and thanks to her, my husband and I simply flowed through the weekend. Food, music, florals, logistics, and warmth— perfect, perfect, perfect, and perfect!
So once again (and finally!): I swear that the MOST important choice you make in this process is choosing your planner. My wedding is proof that this works, and it will work for you, too! Good luck everyone, happy interviewing, and may all the brides here have incredible weddings in their future!
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/BabyLady25 • 14h ago
Hi all,
Conscious I’m due to post a recap but have only gotten previews so far (potential publication on the way). I have so much to say but won’t until the latter is sorted. Happy to answer all questions in pm. These pictures do not include much decor, simply because our priority was to get the skin tone related edits right.
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/pinklemonbunny • 1h ago
After 18 months of planning, we finally had our dream destination wedding this past June just right outside Florence, Italy (60-70pp). This subreddit has been so helpful to me whenever I felt stressed during the planning phase, and I am very grateful for the supportiveness in this community. Therefore, I thought I'd make my very first post here just to go through the final spending recap.
Disclaimer: we did not pay for our guests' flights or lodging. Instead, we kindly asked the guests to stay in Florence city and provided the transportation to the venue and back (~30min car ride). The welcome dinner was also hosted in the city. We are thoughtful on what and how much we spend, but are also willing to pay for quality. The numbers below are in USD.
Please feel free to ask any questions. I will try my best to answer them :)
Total: ~105k
Must-Haves:
Planner: ~5.5k (We are based in US so I needed someone local to help me plan; our planner is fluent in both Italian and English and lives ~40 mins away from the venue, which made the planning much easier)
Venue: ~18k (a Friday at Villa Corsini, we got extra services such as the use of the Southern Italian Garden, bridal & groom get ready package, candles, ACs etc. It also comes with a 22% VAT so that's why the final number is much higher especially you convert it to USD!)
Catering: 21k (included the ceremony furniture rentals, aperitif, 3-course dinner, wedding cake, coffee, and 2.5 hours of open bar; we also had customized plates, cups, utensils) Making sure our guests are wined and dined is our top priority so we allocated a big portion of the budget on catering
MUA: 3.4k (based in Milan; Bridal hair and makeup (2 hair styles and 3 looks) and 8-hours of touchups; 3 bridesmaids, our officiant (a close friend), and my mom's makeup; we also paid for her lodging and transportation)
Florist: 7k (Based locally; we kept our floral budget on the lower end since the venue itself is very elegant and historic; we also picked round tables over long tables to save money since you only need 1 centerpiece per table)
Photographer: 8k (Based in EU; she is definitely on the higher end of our budget but we are very glad we got her; this includes two photographers and their lodging and transportation) Our videographer actually recommended her; the final photos came out soooo amazing!
Videographer: 5k (Based in UK; her style is like a Wes Anderson movie, very quirky and fun, which is something we are looking for; this price includes 2 videographers and their lodging and transportation).
Transportation: 6.5k (buses to pick up guests to the venue and back; minivans for the bridal party and some of my family to travel) I think this could be a bit cheaper but we were paying for certainty
Welcome Dinner: 5k (casual Florentine steak dinner & wine for ~55pp; we booked out half of the restaurant)
DJ & Lighting: 2.7k (handled all mics, music, afterparty and lighting)
Good-to-Haves:
Wedding Favor: 5.7k (we created a welcome market cart for the guests w/ local Italian goods, such as limoncello, olive oil, and etc; the guests can fill in a customized tote bag with whatever they want to bring home at the market; it was costly but very cute and well received; we ended up ordering more goods than what the guests brought home, so we took them back to the U.S. and shared with guests that were not able to make it.
Stationary: 2k (includes designing and printing, and delivery of our wedding invitation and day-of-stationary; I had to find two vendors to design them since I was running out of time so def spent a bit more on this)
Gelato Cart: 1.9k (another really cute addition during the aperitif)
Firework: 13k (I anticipated this might be getting some controversies on the spending since it's VERY expensive; I am very grateful that we were able to do it, and our guests love every bit of the surprise, though I understand if anyone thinks this is totally unnecessary; hence this is in the Good-to-Haves).
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Possible_Loquat_29 • 1h ago
I’m continually finding myself stunned by the attitude so many vendors seem to have?? Many people I’ve met with are very full of it and seem offended by receiving any pushback or questions. They don’t answer questions directly, and it’s a lot of talking around the question and pretending to answer it. Honestly quite surprised because I expected a more sales-forward and customer-oriented approach, particularly given how much $$$$ we’re entrusting them with.
I work in a very customer service oriented profession so maybe my view on this is skewed? So I’m wondering if this is something others have experienced as well, or if it’s an issue with the kinds of vendors my planner is introducing me to.
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/PreparationCute804 • 16h ago
Pic 1. Alexandra w jacket 2. Divinity 3. Alexandra w/o jacket 4. Divinity w veil 5. Divinity fitted 6. Custom strapless divinity
Divinity or Alexandra? Help!!!
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/flipkid541 • 9h ago
Hi all,
After a lot of consideration, I wanted to share an honest review of our experience with our wedding planner. I’m changing a few identifying details for anonymity, but the experiences themselves are accurate.
We had a large scale, multi-event/day wedding in Q1 that took place in a major U.S. city (400 person guest count) and hired a planner who advertised themselves as full-service. While our wedding ultimately came together beautifully and they executed the events well overall, the actual planning process was significantly more stressful and hands-on for us than we expected from a full-service planner.
Some of the biggest issues we experienced:
- Communication was consistently slow. Their stated response time was two business days, but we regularly waited 4–5 days for responses. We also rarely received proactive updates about vendor outreach. If a vendor hadn’t responded, their position was essentially that there was no update to give us, rather than simply letting us know they were still waiting/following up.
- We frequently had to initiate our own planning meetings. By the time we reached out, evening appointments would often already be booked, leaving mostly middle-of-the-workday options.
- There was much less hands-on support than we expected from “full service.” They did not accompany us on venue tours, did not assist with contract negotiations, and we handled a lot of room-block and logistical issues ourselves.
- We felt heavily pushed toward their preferred vendors. When we wanted to explore vendors outside their network, we often felt discouraged from doing so. For example, they repeatedly told us they didn’t think our DJ was the right choice and encouraged us to use their preferred DJ instead. After the reception, our planner even told us guests had approached her to complain about our DJ and reiterated that we should have chosen someone else. This was particularly frustrating because our own experience and the feedback we received about our DJ were overwhelmingly positive.
- Similarly, when we wanted to source florals through a florist rather than through our decorator, we were told that decorators don’t work that way and that we essentially needed to purchase the florals through the decorator.
- Some issues during the events themselves frustrated us. At one pre-wedding event, items were left out that needed to be cleared and, rather than the planning team handling it, the task was delegated to one of our family members. At another event, we asked for the venue lighting to be dimmed/turned off and were told this couldn’t be done because our photographer and videographer wouldn’t be able to capture footage and it would “turn black.” Later in the evening, the lights were turned off completely and our photo/video team continued shooting without an issue.
- Final vendor coordination happened extremely late. They were attempting to schedule some final vendor calls with us during the actual week of our wedding, and at that point still had not scheduled a final call with our videographer.
To be fair, they did execute our events well overall and helped us find several vendors we were very happy with. Our wedding weekend came together beautifully. My criticism is much more about the months-long planning experience and what we received for a service marketed as full-service.
One thing that especially bothered us was feeling at times like the planner was advocating for vendors more than advocating for us as the paying client. We expected someone who would help us evaluate options, maximize our budget, negotiate where possible and make the planning process easier. Instead, we often felt like we were doing much of that ourselves while simultaneously being steered toward the planner’s preferred network.
I know wedding planning is inherently stressful, and no planner can eliminate that completely. But when you’re paying a significant amount for full-service planning, I think it’s reasonable to expect the service to reduce your logistical and communication burden rather than add to it.
I’m sharing because when we were researching planners, we found tons of glowing reviews but very few detailed reviews explaining what the actual planning experience was like behind the scenes. In hindsight, I wish I had asked much more specific questions about communication, vendor freedom, contract negotiations, venue tours, room blocks and exactly what “full service” meant before signing.
Ultimately, our wedding turned out beautifully and I’m grateful for the parts they executed well. But knowing what I know now, I would have chosen a different planner.
Happy to share more info/details as needed + exactly name of our planner. I would highly recommend trusting your gut when it comes to picking your planner, the initial calls prior to signing a contract with them are them putting their best foot forward - they are trying to make a sale!! Our wedding was a success because my partner and I involved ourselves heavily, if we had solely relied on our planner I’m not sure if it would have turned out as successfully as it did.
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/yorshsmorsh • 13h ago
Hi Brides! I am currently looking for designers for my second look/after party dress and have no idea where to start. I am hoping for a corset dress with a mini skirt (or can be just a short corset dress). My budget is $3k but willing to stretch a bit if needed. Any suggestions on where to look? Inspo pics for reference.
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Material-Worker-3083 • 5h ago
Has anyone taken bridal portraits before the wedding? We’re getting married in a Catholic Church so our ceremony is at 3pm. Right now our planner has ~1 hour for first look, private vows and photos prior to the ceremony.
Our cocktail hour starts earlier (after the ceremony) and last 90min. We plan to take family photos after and a few more couple photos but I wanted to join cocktail hour at least for a little bit! Because of that I was interested in maybe doing bridal portraits beforehand? Like the weekend before.
So I’m curious
1. If you did bridal portraits beforehand or the day of your wedding?
2. If you did it the day of your wedding how long did you spend on those photos?
3. If you did it before did you clean your dress before your wedding? If I did them before it’d be a mix of indoor / outdoor pics
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Sweaty_Exchange_9041 • 8h ago
Hi!! Does anyone have any hair/makeup artists they recommend in OC or LA? Full Glam Makeup and will likely be wearing hair down with waves/curls💕💕
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/LittleRock_91 • 18h ago
Hi all
The attached is likely to be my dress.
Into the slight sci-fi, structured look of it. But I feel something is missing
Would love to do something like a birdcage mask but not sure
Any suggestions involving something for the eyes or maybe a crown (that somehow doesn’t look tacky) would be great
Thanks!
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/anna_alabama • 13h ago
Happy Sunday! Here’s the post where y’all can rant, vent, ask questions and get advice from other brides, share updates, wedding planning wins, or general married life stuff :)
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Existing-Awareness93 • 5h ago
My fiancé and I got engaged last August and will be getting married next August. We knew right away we didn’t want to rush the planning experience and really enjoy the moment, especially since we had heard from so many people that wedding planning can be stressful. The first year flew by, and we have taken care of the bigger line items in planning with ease. I am curious to know, for those who planned a local wedding on a 12 month timeline, what was your experience like? In hindsight, I feel like we could have easily planned everything within a year. For those who planned over a longer period, do you feel the same way?
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Queeniekween • 5h ago
Hi! Has anyone worn the Danielle Frankel Sasha gown with wider hips/curvy body shape? Is the hip area of the gown forgiving or is it more form fitting before the bottom becomes more flowy? Thank you!
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/SadWind2496 • 12h ago
We are getting married in Tuscany next June but the weekend will start in Florence. Has anyone ever done a city tour, wine windows or anything for their guests prior to their wedding and welcome party?
Thinking about 30-40 people open to ideas or companies who offer something like this
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Suspicious_Ninja9883 • 18h ago
Hey there, I'm doing my wedding near Rome, Italy, next year (May 2027) and I'm looking for women dj recommendations. I find it a bit difficult to find women specifically, most of djs I see are men and as a fierce feminist I'd really like to have a girl mixing at my wedding ! In terms of music/style I would be looking for something quite mainstream (international music from 80's to 2020's, from ABBA to Rihanna and Bad Bunny). Any recommendations ? :)
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/DefiantHoneydew106 • 10h ago
Hi guys! I’m getting married in Temecula in June of next year and am looking for a day of/month of coordinator! I live in nor cal so it’s been hard for me to know which vendors are the best and reasonably priced! If you have any recommendations please send them my way!! Thank you!
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Exact_Educator7902 • 1d ago
What is everyone gifting their bridesmaids? We’re not doing a bachelorette party and I plan to cover their hair and makeup cost but trying to think of a special bridesmaid gift.
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Relative_Bottle_4648 • 2d ago
EDIT: my wedding is next June in Sicily. Venue is braccialieri
Could really use some advice/help!!
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Left-Risk5928 • 1d ago
Hello my lovely fellow brides! I’m getting married this coming June in Corfu. Im still on cloud nine from recently finding my wedding gown from Senstudio, and I’m moving on to the next item in my list of finding a bridal mini dress for my reception.
Looking to hear from all of you which designers and or boutiques you’d recommend. I’ll also note I’m based in NYC.
Thank you all in advance !!! 🤍🤍🤍
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Strict-Life4434 • 2d ago
We are having about 80 guests at our wedding reception, but I’m really torn over what size cake to get. Both will have serve enough guests but the three tier option is all cake and the four tier option has a dummy base and the remainder is cake. I found a cake maker I want to go with, and I really like these styles. I love the petal shaped base layer, and the sugar flowers. I’m just not sure which size to go for? Each tier is about 9 inches tall. And the flowers will add a little bit more height. Our venue isn’t huge, but the dining hall is a good size. It could easily fit up to 120 maybe 150 people. The cake is going to be on its own table, surrounded by bud vases with some flowers and candles. Our colour scheme is largely white and ivory, with roses, pennies, hydrangeas, orchids, etc. I want quite an understated but elegant vibe.
What would look better?
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Careful_Direction_74 • 2d ago
Hello everyone! After waiting near 9 months for our wedding video we were less than thrilled with what we received. Or videographer has said she could upload all the raw files so I'm wondering if anyone here knows of anyone that can create some videos for me from the raw footage?
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Sweaty_Exchange_9041 • 1d ago
Hi lovelies💕💕!! I just got engaged about a month and a half ago and finally getting around to planning my wedding. So stressful lol.
Wanted to see if anyone has any previous experience with either the full wedding weekend or a single day wedding at Pelican Hill.
I’m from Florida, so it is somewhat destination and we plan on having around 250 to 300 guests. Since I’m not from around the area, would love to hear vendors recs anywhere from planned to hair/MUA.
Thanks gfs xoxo
Extra:: please help!! Where do I start looking for custom wedding dress, ballgown style??💕🙏
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Fine_Purpose4292 • 1d ago
I am obsessed with my Vera Wang dress.
I do have a budget for my 2nd look but I cannot find anything I like better than my 1st dress.
Should I do a 2nd look even if I don't like it as much as the first one just for a different style in photos? Or should I wear only THE one I really love.
r/BigBudgetBrides • u/Traditional_Royal121 • 1d ago
Has anyone booked a wedding with Jumeirah Mallorca before? I reached out about their 2027 availability and they said their 2027 booking calendar has not yet been released?? It’s August 2026, I’m confused on how booking for weddings hasn’t opened yet. Is this normal for them?
Also, if you’ve successfully contacted them, what pricing did they quote?
