Jamesrs,
There are lots of threads where Bogleheads describe their actual experiences with Vanguard Personal Advisory service. The Vanguard website talks about comprehensive financial planning. You can read the threads to get an idea of what people really get from the service, it is more than just putting you into a few index funds. Not sure how Vanguard would compare with Garrett. Call Vanguard with your questions.
I also have heard good things here about Garrett Planning Network, there are threads here about them as well.
What you will find is that there are people happy with Garrett, people happy with Vanguard, people unhappy with Garrett, and people unhappy with Vanguard. You will see various stories about how good and how complete the financial plans are. Some advisors at Garrett and some advisors at Vanguard are better than others. You will hear people disappointed with their Vanguard advisor. Some people are happy with the plan they got from Vanguard and found it to be comprehensive, others think it was too limited.
Sort of like when you read reviews on Trip Advisor when you are trying to find a good hotel. You get the chronic complainers who no matter what will say the place is a dive. You see utterly glowing reviews that were probably written by management. You throw out the reviews that are too good to be true and the negative reviews from the complainers. Look at the broad middle, if you see lots of good comments from most of the people posting, then you have a good place to stay. If in the broad middle, you see lots of complaints, stay away.
I am not a Vanguard customer but I have read the numerous threads about their Personal Advisory Services. If it were a hotel, it looks like a good place to stay. Your experience will depend a lot upon the individual advisor you work with but you know there is a strong firm behind it all. I suspect with Garrett, it all depends upon the Advisor you work with.
What I try to tell people is that Advisors have to make a living, so many will want an Assets Under Management model, which typically runs 1% a year. The sad fact is that charging by the hour is a tough business model, one of the criticisms of Garrett is that some of their Advisors just can't make a go of it. What it boils down to is that if you want a long term personal relationship with an Advisor, and if you want somebody local, you will have to pay up for it. Bogleheads are a thrifty lot and this is something that people don't want to hear. Vanguard, though imperfect, offers about the best deal you are going to get if you want both financial planning and portfolio management.
So shop around, interview people, and you will learn a lot. What you will find is that everything has its drawbacks, nothing is perfect, and you will choose the best of imperfect solutions. The "perfect" solution doesn't stay perfect for too long. People move on. Companies change and often not for the better.