u/Shellkat89

I am recently engaged and consider myself an “artsy” bride. I want to spend around ($10k), preferably less. I am a farmer’s market bouquet maker as my day job so obviously will be making my own flowers. Affordable dress, affordable dinner, and the venue is my parents’ farm and barn, which is luckily comes with bathrooms and a pavilion and indoor space (and for free which is amazing!).

I plan to do a heck ton of DIY myself. Flowers, print my own invites and decorations, make my own little cake for us to cut (and sheet cake for the guests), etc.

Food will be about $3,500, alcohol/bartenders about $2000, dessert will be about 300$, venue is free, all the clothing attire will be around $500, and the decorations I’m still working on budgeting out..

I do worry, since it’s at my parents farm and there’s no “staff” to run the event like at a venue. I will have a cater who will do the food service but I will do everything else (table clothes, putting out vases, putting out table numbers), along with more “staff” jobs that I think most brides don’t deal with, like putting ice in the drink tubs or bringing out the cake when it’s cake time.

So my question is, should I splurge on a day-of-planner? Someone who will help me keep things rolling… keep the drink buckets full, help bring the cake out… help coordinate when to get started with the first dance… I know a lot of brides do the “set up” day of, but I think I might be getting myself into too much here and I won’t enjoy my own wedding. It’s about $1500 starting price for a day of planner in my area, which makes me sick to think about spending. I also hear stories that sometimes day-of-planners don’t really do that great of a job and it just adds more stress.

DIY brides- was it really a hassle to set everything up at more casual venues without a staff? I’d love to hear some input! Since it’s my parents I’d literally have unlimited time to set up- should I consider just getting everything ready way ahead of time and having a family friend/my mom and dad do more of the grunt work with me day of?

Hello everyone, I see a lot of folks on here posting their itineraries, and I hope you don’t mind me posting mine! Me and my partner are going next January, and we are excited to see lots of scenery, castles, and eat irish food!
I know highlights is very subjective but based on my partner and I’s preferences I’d love to fit this all in! We are planning to go January 2027.

Day 1- arrive in Dublin! Spend the day in Dublin
Day 2- spend the day touring Dublin.
Day 3- take the train to Kilkenny, and tour the town. Rent a car there, and drive 1 hr to our Castle Hotel.
Day 4- leave Castle, drive about 3.5 hours down to Killarney, while stopping at rock of cashel and a few other highlights. Planning to take all day.
Day 5- wake up in Killarney, and spend the day touring around the city’s spots/national park. Stay the night in Killarney.
Day 6- Do the Ring of Kerry in a day. I know, it’s better spread out, but we are short on time! End the day in Killarney again! (All day driving and touring)
Day 7- drive up to the cliffs of moher! Experience that whole thing! And maybe do some other little stops on the way. I’d like to drive the Wild Atlantic way up there! (3ish hours driving) Stay in the night in Doolin area?
Day 8- take the ferry over to Aran Islands, and do a bike tour. After that, drive to Galway and turn in the car. Stay the night in Galway (2 hr drive)
Day 9- tour Galway! Then take the train back to Dublin. Stay at Airport hotel.
Day 10- fly out that morning!

My questions are:

is Aran islands worth skipping? a friend reccomended it.
Are we making a mistake by skipping over any areas? Should we skip something to fit in Dingle?
Should we skip Galway and add another Castle stay north of Galway? I’d love to do another castle, but I hear Galway is too good to miss.
In general, my partner and I are very fast paced travelers, but I don’t want to be TOO fast paced, since I hear Ireland is best explored slow and spontaneously. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!