Honestly—I never thought I’d end up writing about wedding planners. Like, that’s not something I thought I’d have opinions about. But my best friend Priya got married in Goa in 2021 and I basically watched something kind of incredible happen and now I just can’t shut up about it.
So Priya calls me up one day and she’s like “I’m hiring a wedding planner.” And I’m like… why? Why would you do that? Just book a venue, get a caterer, boom done right? We were in our late twenties, we didn’t know what we didn’t know. I genuinely thought hiring a planner was something rich people did because they were lazy or something. I was so wrong about this.
She hired this woman Anjali. I remember asking Priya how much that costs and I was like shocked at the number. But then I watched what actually happened over those eight months and I was like oh my god. Oh my god this woman is worth every single rupee.
How I Learned About Destination Wedding Planners in Goa
Okay so the first thing Anjali did was not what I expected. She didn’t sit down with Priya and start talking about flowers or colors or whatever. She basically said “I need to go to Goa and meet people.” And she went. By herself. She wasn’t bringing Priya along—she was just going to hang out in Goa and meet vendors.
She did this like four times before the wedding. Four separate trips where she was just meeting people and watching them work. I asked her why once and she was like “I need to know who these people are. I need to know if they actually care about doing good work or if they’re just trying to make money. I need to watch them in their element.”
So she went to this caterer’s kitchen in Goa. She spent like three or four hours there just watching them work. She tasted food, asked questions, watched how they organized their space, asked them about their staff, asked what they’d do if something broke. She wasn’t just checking boxes on a list. She was actually reading the room—like, are these people happy to be here? Do they communicate well? Do they seem like they’d go the extra mile or would they disappear if something went wrong?
She did the same thing with the florist. She actually sat down and looked at samples and asked about seasonal availability and what happens when the supplier messes up. She went to see the photographer’s previous work but also talked to him about his process, how he handles large events, what his backup plan is if his camera breaks.
And the venue? Oh my god the venue thing was wild. Anjali went to the beach venue like five different times. Not just to take pictures and be like “oh pretty.” She went at different times of day. She was there at 7 AM to see the light. She was there at 2 PM to feel how hot it actually gets. She was there at sunset when Priya wanted the photos done. She literally sat on the beach in the afternoon thinking about what it would feel like to stand there in a lehenga in that heat with 250 people around.
One day she calls Priya and is like “Your sunset photos are going to be in the wrong direction. The sun’s going to be here, the photographer will be facing this way—he’s going to have the sun directly in his face the entire time.” Priya had never thought about that. She just wanted sunset photos because they look pretty. Anjali had actually figured out the technical stuff that makes that work.
The Monsoon Conversation That Actually Mattered
So Priya was scrolling Instagram one day and saw all these monsoon wedding photos and she got this idea like “oh maybe we should do monsoon instead of January. It’ll be cheaper, less crowded, more romantic looking.” She called Anjali like “what do you think about moving it to June?”
And Anjali basically had to like sit her down and be honest with her. She was like “listen, monsoon is not what you think it is. You can have perfect weather one day and then suddenly it’s pouring and your whole wedding is destroyed. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve coordinated weddings during monsoon where we had to move the entire ceremony inside because of unexpected rain.”
She showed Priya weather data. Like actual data from 15 years of monsoon seasons in Goa. She explained that April and May are so hot that your guests who come from cool cities are literally going to be uncomfortable standing in heavy wedding clothes in a tent in 38 degree heat. She wasn’t being dramatic. She was just being real.
And she was like “January is actually the better choice for what you want. The weather is reliable. Your guests will be comfortable. The photographer will actually be able to do their job.” She wasn’t pushing January because she wanted to or because that’s what she preferred. She was pushing it because she knew from experience that it would actually work better.
Priya changed her mind and stuck with January.
When Things Actually Go Wrong and Nobody Knows
Here’s the thing nobody talks about with wedding planners—even when everything is planned perfectly, shit still goes wrong. It’s just that if you have a good planner, you don’t find out about it because they’ve already handled it.
So the rehearsal dinner is happening. Rohan’s family’s flight gets delayed. They’re not going to make it on time. Most people would be like okay we have to cancel or reschedule or deal with this. Anjali called the restaurant and was like “hey, can we push this back two hours? Family flight is delayed.” And the restaurant was like yeah sure no problem. Because apparently Anjali is someone that people actually want to help.
Then she texted Rohan’s family the new time. She made sure the hotel knew to get them food before they left because they’d be arriving late. She just made it not a big deal when it could’ve been a whole thing.
Then the flower situation. The supplier in Mumbai screwed up the order. The decorator showed up on the wedding day and was like yeah we’re short on flowers, we don’t have everything. Most people would panic. They’d be like oh no our wedding is ruined. Anjali called her backup florist—someone she’d met with months earlier but didn’t end up using—and was like “hey can you bring flowers today?” They said yes. They showed up in a few hours. Nobody except like four people even knew anything had gone wrong.
I asked Anjali how she stays so calm about this stuff and she was like “I always plan for things to go wrong. I meet with more vendors than I need. I have backup people for everything. I have relationships with people who will actually help me if something breaks.” That’s literally the entire job. She gets zero credit for things working because things working smoothly is literally the point of hiring her.
The Goa Thing and Local Knowledge Actually Matters
The other thing is Anjali is actually from Goa. This sounds like a small thing but it’s not. This is literally what makes best destination wedding planners in Goa actually different from someone who’s just learned the job somewhere else. She knew which vendors had good reputations and which ones had problems. She knew the politics with different venue owners—like who was connected to who, what their actual reputation was beyond what they show clients. She knew which owners would be flexible if something went wrong and which ones would be like “contract says this so you’re stuck with it.” Someone who’s not actually from Goa? They wouldn’t know any of this. They’d just book whoever has good photos online. But best destination wedding planners in Goa have lived here. They know the actual people. They know which vendor is reliable because they’ve seen them work before, not just because they have a nice website.
She knew the roads and traffic patterns. Like she could tell you exactly how long it takes to get 250 people from the hotel to the beach venue accounting for traffic and people being slow and looking for parking. She built that time into the actual schedule so things started on time. Most people would just guess and then wonder why the ceremony was an hour late.
She understood the cultural stuff. Priya’s family is Hindu but Priya wanted some Christian elements because of her friends. Anjali knew which vendors would understand that and blend it thoughtfully and which ones would just be confused or not care. She knew how to make both families feel respected and included.
What Happens When People Try to DIY This
I went to another wedding in Goa like a year after Priya’s. The couple didn’t hire a planner. They tried to manage it themselves from their apartments in different cities. This is honestly why most people need wedding planners in Goa and don’t realize it until it’s too late.
The photographer showed up two hours late. Left early without explanation. The food was cold by the time it got served because nobody coordinated the timing correctly. The DJ didn’t have like half the songs people requested because the playlist came in two days before the wedding and there was no coordination. The ceremony started late because nobody had actually figured out the timeline. The whole thing was stressful and chaotic. You could see it on the couple’s faces—they were frustrated and exhausted instead of happy and present.
My cousin Ravi decided to do his wedding in Goa without a planner because he wanted to save money. He thought he was being smart. He spent probably 200 hours over eight months researching stuff. He visited Goa twice trying to figure everything out. He hired a caterer who ended up being terrible so he had to hire someone else and lost all that money from the first person. He hired a photographer who didn’t actually understand what he wanted so the photos were mediocre. He booked a venue that looked pretty but had terrible sound for the DJ.
If he’d just hired an actual best destination wedding planner in Goa she would’ve stopped all of that from happening. Instead he wasted his time, wasted money, and spent eight months stressed out. He told me like six months after his wedding “I thought I was saving money by not hiring a planner but I actually spent more money, more time, and way more sanity than I would’ve if I just hired someone who knows what they’re doing.”
What You’re Actually Paying For
The good destination wedding planners in Goa are not cheap. I want to be clear about that. But you’re not paying for someone to sit around thinking about flowers all day. You’re paying for someone who knows which vendors will actually follow through, who has relationships with people who will pick up the phone at 6 AM if something breaks, who has done this a hundred times and knows how to solve problems before they even happen.
You’re paying for someone to visit your venue multiple times and understand every detail about how it actually functions, not just how it looks in the pictures on their website. You’re paying for someone to make all the phone calls and coordinate logistics in a place you don’t even live. You’re paying for someone to carry all the stress and handle all the problems so you can actually be present at your own wedding instead of running around like a crazy person fixing things.
The best wedding planners in Goa are worth it because you don’t even see what you’re paying for. You just have a perfect day and you wonder why everyone else’s wedding was such a mess. That’s the whole point.
Why Priya’s Wedding Actually Worked
Priya’s wedding was perfect. Not because it was fancy or expensive. But because someone had thought through every single detail and had relationships with real people and had backup plans for when things went wrong. She just got to show up and be a bride. She didn’t have to fix anything or problem solve or manage people or figure out logistics.
The other weddings I’ve watched that were DIY disasters—those were disasters because the couple was literally making it up as they went with vendors they didn’t know in a place they weren’t familiar with. They didn’t have backup plans. They didn’t have someone with ten years of experience reading the room.
So if you’re thinking about getting married in Goa, just hire someone. Hire someone who actually knows Goa. Hire someone with real relationships and real experience. Hire someone who’s coordinated a bunch of these before. It’s the best money you’ll spend because you won’t even see what you’re paying for—you’ll just have a perfect day and your guests will feel taken care of and you’ll actually get to enjoy being married instead of being stressed about logistics. That’s what best wedding planners in Goa actually do.