IMO...Hire a wedding planner.
If you're not doing destination wedding or just a small family only style wedding, a wedding planner will take all the stress out of it and you and Seedy can enjoy the day.
Shameless plug, My daughter has a very successful wedding planner business.
Agree unless you're doing a very small wedding.
Everything wedding-related is overpriced. Wedding planners often have relationships with vendors and can get you discounts with vendors (and some kickbacks for themselves).
It makes sense because there's always last minute nonsense. Somebody RSVP's for one and shows up with 4, or you say "no kids" and somebody brings a couple of kids, that sorta thing. Your carefully and meticulously planned seating chart becomes garbage. You can't deal with that while you're doing the wedding photos after the ceremony. That's for the wedding planner to figure out.
If you don't want to pay for a full wedding planner (they can be very expensive), at least hire somebody to help you day of the wedding. Doesn't have to be a professional. Can be any reasonably competent person with decent organizational and people skills, but not a close friend or family member who knows the guests. Give them the itinerary for the festivities and let them deal with adding a chair here or a table there, calling to get more beer or ice delivered, being the gatekeeper for toasts ("I'm sorry, I understand you were her best friend in 8th grade, but only the best man and maid of honor are doing toasts"), and dealing with any other little emergencies that might happen. If you do it at a hotel, often the hotel provides an event planner that does this stuff for you and the cost is baked into the price of the banquet room (but you should tip the event planner generously).
If you don't hire a wedding planner, don't tell the vendors it's for a wedding. The prices go up a lot. I need a DJ for a 4 hour event, what are your prices? I need 2 bartenders for a 6 hour event, how much do you charge? That sort of thing. Everything wedding-related is inflated. Skip the videographer though. Nobody ever watches wedding videos. Nobody. Ever. Spend the money on a great photographer (preferably one working with an assistant so somebody can do candids with the bridal party while the other does candids with the groomsmen/ushers and the arriving guests. Think in advance about the wedding album. You want the album to tell the whole story so include a few pics from the bridal shower, the bachelorette party (the safe ones, not the ones with them drinking out of penis-shaped bottles and kissing strangers in a bar), rehearsal dinner, the pre-wedding hair and nail thing, include the mailings (save the date, wedding invitation) and the programs from the wedding/reception. A nice gift is to pay somebody to create the album.
If you can do the reception at a venue where you can bring your own alcohol, you will save a fortune. Every venue that serves alcohol rips you off on it. A lot. It's not hard to DIY with the booze. Offer 2 kinds of beer (one should be light), 2 kinds of wine (one red, one white), skip the champagne, sodas/mixers (sprite, coke, coke zero, cranberry, maybe sour mix or grenadine), and 3 or 4 types of liquor (depends on your friends, choose from bourbon, white rum, dark rum, tequila, vodka, or gin), cherries, lime slices, that's it.
Alex.