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Seen At 11: Wedding Parties Bring In Bridesmaids, Other Assistance For Hire

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Recent estimates put the average cost of a Manhattan wedding at over $70,000, so it is no wonder that brides, grooms, and their families are going to extreme lengths to make sure their big day comes off without a hitch.

As CBS2's Kristine Johnson reported, some wedding parties have gone so far as to bring in bridesmaids and other assistance for hire.

Cristina Bisono is getting married in December.

"I didn't even anticipate the things that would fall through the cracks," she said.

Bisono works full time, and worries about a million details .

"Now I need to reach out to my bridesmaids to do this, and then sometimes they can't do it," she said.

Jen Glantz steps in to solve such problems.

"There was nobody behind the scenes who was supposed to be there just for the bride, and that was crazy to me," she said. "It should be all about the bride."

So Glantz filled the niche as a bridesmaid for hire.

"I'm the personal assistant; the on-call therapist; the peacekeeper to the whole bridal party," she said.

Glantz said she can be hired to tend to the personal details, so the real wedding party can party.

"Give me the dirty work, and you guys can have fun on the wedding day," she said.

Newlywed Bryn Meuller hired Glantz as a bridesmaid.

"Initially, I felt weird about, oh, I have to pay someone to be my bridesmaid?" Meuller said.

But Meuller's friends and family all lived out of town.

"She was there to take control of all the little things that went awry," Meuller said of Glantz.

Glantz was even there to fix the bride's veil for her trip down the aisle.

And then there is the matter of the toast. The words from the mother of one bride shown on video were certainly heartfelt during the toast, but they weren't her own.

The toast came courtesy of the Oratory Laboratory, a speech writing service. Victoria Wellman and Nathan Phillips are co-founders.

"All people care about is, like, laughing and crying, and feeling loved, and having a community experience," Phillips said.

They have a questionnaire to learn about their clients, and offer pre-event coaching.

"The day is so important that you want to know everything is going to go off without a hitch," said family therapist Dr. Jane Greer.

But is it strange to hire outsiders? For personal wedding tasks, Greer said if it makes the day better, it can be worth the extra expense.

"Everybody is a little freer to really celebrate and enjoy the occasion," she said.

The cost for each of the services starts between $300 and $500, and depending on your needs can go into the thousands.

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