Wedding Planning: Websites Versus a Real-Life Wedding Planner

Published 31 December 2025

As you search around in magazines, or talk to friends/family, and at wedding fairs, you’ll sometimes hear people say, “You don’t need a wedding planner, you can do it yourself”. It’s fair to say that it’s true … sometimes.

It’s also possible that hearing this comment can make you feel like a failure. Why? Well, wedding planning is supposed to be exciting and fun, but it’s actually time-consuming and stressful. And really hard. But they’ll say, if you feel like you need a wedding planner, surely you must be ‘lacking’ in some way? Not true! If you’re not a natural organiser or if you feel overwhelmed with everything, it’s okay to want to pass a bunch of jobs to someone else (especially someone who knows exactly what they’re doing and has all the contacts you need).

There are lots of places you can go for advice and ideas on how to plan your wedding. There are wedding planning websites like Bridebook that can offer tips on what to do (my Pinterest advice page has a lot of them) and what items you might need for your big day, when to book them, etc, etc. The thing is, wedding planning websites only go so far. They’re great resources for checklists and downloadable content but that pretty much sums it up. If it’s impersonal check-listing you need, that’s brilliant. A real-life wedding planner will help you with so much more.

What can a human wedding planner help you with?

A human wedding planner helps you with the details that result from honing your to-do list. We’ll help you take that list and make the items a reality. Many couples are more than capable of whittling down what they want. Most problems occur when people have differing views and priorities regarding responsibilities and getting tasks finished on time. If you read the advice columns on most wedding forums (Facebook groups, Reddit, etc), you’ll see common themes around issues that arise; family dramas, negotiating with suppliers, nagging doubts, unreliable support … all things that an impersonal download or web page can’t resolve.

A personal service based around your specific needs is always going to be more particular to you than a website can allow for. We’ll help you find reliable suppliers whose track record we know and trust, as opposed to someone who’s just created a listing and happens to work in your area. We’ll help you negotiate terms with them. We’ll help you understand the intricate details of their contracts and highlight areas for review. And if you’re not comfortable having those conversations or don’t want to deal with any problems as they occur, we’ll do that for you too.

The practical support we offer extends to helping with doing set-ups; we’ll spot things that other people might not even notice like slightly wonky table cloths or missing cutlery. We’ll help with attaching buttonholes and fixing bridesmaids’ dresses. We’ll help move flowers from one room to another. We’ll track down guests who have wandered off. If need be, we’ll help suppliers lug their equipment around a venue. And we’ll always have an emergency kit full of pins and tape, toothpaste, shoe polish, etc. Still think you don’t need a wedding planner or that a checklist website will do everything for you? X