My Favorite Pacific Northwest Wedding Planner: Mae & Co Creative

Ready to find out why you should hire a wedding planner from one of the most talented Pacific Northwest wedding planners out there? Let’s do it!

You already know I’m all about giving my couples the most killer experience possible. In order to do that, I usually need to bring in some help! As much as I love helping couples start to bring their dream day to life, I can only do so much as a photographer. When you’re planning your wedding, you need someone there to help guide you every step of the way. Someone who is ready to help make your dream wedding happen through efficient & effective planning. And that’s where Mae & Co Creative, my favorite Pacific Northwest wedding planner, comes in!

I was going to write this blog post about why you need a wedding planner all by myself, but I figured I’d bring in an expert who knows what they’re talking about. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Manda of Mae & Co Creative more times than I can count. She’s one of the most insanely talented planners I know! 

If you’re going back and forth about hiring a wedding planner, or simply have no clue why you should even hire one, this blog post is for you. Manda was generous enough to take some time to answer a few questions for me. So you can hear everything straight from the top expert! Thanks again to Manda, and I hope you enjoy the insight she gave me!

All of the images throughout this blog post are from weddings I’ve worked alongside Manda. Enjoy seeing some examples of her beautiful work!

Learn about Mae & Co Creative, a luxury wedding planner based out of the Pacific Northwest

Before we dive into the meat of this blog post - why you should hire a wedding planner - let me give you a quick intro to Mae & Co so you know what their company is all about.

As their totally gorgeous website says, Mae & Co Creative is a “unique and purposeful design and planning company committed to creating extraordinary and timeless events for couples across the globe.”

Their team specializes in intimate & luxury weddings and elopements both stateside and abroad. They focus on creating beautiful and intentional designs for their clients. Manda is truly one of the most talented people I’ve worked with during my time in the wedding industry. Her commitment to her team & her clients is so evident in the beautiful designs she creates.

Fun facts about Mae & Co:

• They spend an average of 500 hours on full-service wedding planning

• They spend an average of 300 hours on partial-service planning

• Their team is made up of 10 unique creatives ready to serve you

Mae & Co likes to make sure their couples know that they’re not just their wedding planner - they’re also designers, stylists, & coordinators. When you hire them, they’ll be ready to be your personal assistant, your sounding board, and your best confidant. All while they manage, mitigate, and align the schedules, personalities, and details that make up your wedding.

Manda and her team truly want the best for their clients AND for the vendors they work with. They’re committed to creating a dream team for every couple’s dream day. They aim to give you a top-notch, luxury experience from start to finish. Being trusted to plan a wedding is a big job that they take seriously. With that, they always make sure to keep your time with them positive & fun for everyone involved.

Now that you know a bit about Mae & Co, let’s get into the questions I asked her about why YOU should hire a wedding planner!

Do you really need a wedding planner?

An Interview with Mae & Co Creative

In just two sentences, why should I hire a wedding planner?

“A wedding planner will help you enjoy your day to the absolute fullest. 

They are the protectors of your time, stewards of your finances, executors of your dreams and the visionaries behind creating a day that's truly special to YOU.”

What type of wedding planner should I hire?

“There are many titles that fall under "planner". At its core, a full services planner handles everything from sourcing vendors to designing your day to coordinating all logistics and running your timeline perfectly (plus about a million other things). 

From there, you might scale back and hire a planner for "partial full services" which usually comes in at the design phase OR around 6 months into the planning process. There are also month-of and day-of COORDINATORS who are not involved so much in the planning or the day but help make sure everything runs perfectly for you on the day of and the weeks leading to your wedding. 

In our opinion - if you want a completely stress-free and high-end experience, full service planning is 100% the way to go.”

What can a wedding planner do for me?

“Every wedding planner will offer you something different, but in the end, I think the goal of each planner is to take the stresses related to planning a wedding off the shoulders of the couple so that they can truly enjoy and remember the entire experience. 

For us, we want to be our clients best friend and most badass personal assistant. We research, negotiate, scheme, plan, budget, organize, schedule, design, dream and execute non-stop so that our clients can actually just focus on the fun parts of getting married... and on each other. Which is the whole point, right?”

How do I make sure I choose the right wedding planner for me?

“Once you have an idea of your budget, a full service planner should be about 20% of that budget. 

Then you'll want to find someone that:

1) is a great fit personality-wise - because planning your wedding should be enjoyable. You don't want to dread getting an email from your planner. So make sure you LIKE each other. 

2) Has the style and aesthetic that you love. 

Don't just hire a planner that fits a budget or check some boxes! Make sure you LOVE the work they have done in the past, because its a reflection of the work they will do for you in the future.”

Is it really worth investing in an “expensive” wedding planner?

“Yes, 100% yes. If you value your time and sanity. If details are important to you and if you want to have a completely stress-free AND unique, one-of-a-kind experience... what you pay for is what you get. 

Just like paying a premium for an excellent photographer, the best planners are going to come at a premium price point. But when you are talking about one of the most important days of your lives, having a good planner is literally invaluable. And it's something you will NEVER regret.”

See samples of Mae & Co Creative’s stunning design work

Taft Point Yosemite Elopement

I got the pleasure of working with Manda on Taylor & Mitch’s Taft Point elopement, and she absolutely knocked it out of the park. She helped them plan such a unique and distinctive elopement that beautifully captured them & their adventurous elopement in the national park! Check out her full blog post about the elopement here!

Micro Wedding at the Willow House, Texas

The Willow House in Terlingua, Texas, has to be one of the coolest wedding venues I’ve worked at. Francesca & Marco originally planned to have a 300-person wedding in the Philippines. But, ended up transitioning to a small and intimate desert wedding due to COVID.

Mae & Co brought this day to life with an earthy color palette & desert textures, muted tones, and natural linen hues accenting every detail of the day. They designed a non-traditional ceremony site set in a field of ocotillo, with a free-standing ceremony installation using raw wood pillar stacks and floral arrangements from Open Road Florals. 

This earthy and romantic Willow House destination wedding was also featured on Green Wedding Shoes, which you can see here. Props to Manda for creating an absolute masterpiece of a day for Francesca & Marco!

Work with Mae & Co Creative and I

By this point, I’m guessing you’re just as in love with Manda’s work as I am! I’d be so stoked to work with Manda to make your dream wedding happen! You can reach out to Mae & Co here, and then head to my contact page to check my availability. Get ready to have the dream team bringing your creative visions to life!