Wedding Planner or Wedding Coordinator? Learning the difference.
“Which is the right one for you?”
There’s a lot that goes into a wedding, and it can help to hire someone to share the load, especially if this is your first time being involved in wedding planning. On your wedding day, you don’t want to be the one going to and fro, do you? You want a great day of celebration, the time to enjoy and revel in the moment, and peace of mind that everything is going well. In which case, you might need a wedding planner or a wedding coordinator; but which is the right one for you?
Let’s start by explaining what a wedding planner does. Your wedding planner is someone you seek at the very start of your wedding plans, ideally once you’ve worked out your budget. This person’s job is entirely centred on making sure your wedding is exactly the way you want it to be — to put it simply, they take your vision and make it a reality without you needing to contact suppliers and organise everything. When you hire your Wedding Planner, they’ll sit down with your to discuss your ideas and work out a timeline in order to get everything booked and sorted, as well as a timeline for your actual wedding day. Depending on the constraints of your budget or timeline, you can choose how involved you wish to be. If you have an incredibly busy life, you can simply hand your vision over to your wedding planner and check in once in a while. They’re especially useful if you have no idea what you’re doing or where to start, and there’s no task too big or small for them. They can attend work with your florist, caterers, DJ, they can attend tours and tastings with you, and they spend a lot longer with you on your wedding — estimated around 80 to 250 hours! They won’t overpower your decisions in any way, they’re there to help. They’ll work hard to plan your wedding with you, and stay behind the scenes on your wedding day to make sure it all goes off without a hitch!
On the other hand, there is a wedding coordinator. These are different to Venue Coordinators, which can be offered from the venue you book with. According to Lauren from Every Last Detail, “A venue coordinator is looking out for the venue’s best interests. A wedding coordinator is looking out for YOUR best interests.” so keep this in mind when considering what is best for your wedding plans. This isn’t to say that venue coordinators are better or worse — it all depends on what you need for your wedding. Wedding coordinators are sometimes referred to as wedding consultants, and a lot of their duties overlap with wedding planners, but they’re usually only hired for a small amount of wedding planning. Most wedding coordinators work with a couple about a month before the wedding as a ‘point person’, someone to confirm with your vendors, manage any last-minute payments, check the guest counts are correct from the vendors, and sometimes create a timeline for your wedding day so you know what’s happening behind the scenes. According to All Seated, “A wedding day coordinator will jump into the process a few weeks to a few months prior the big day, usually to help those couples who are planning the wedding themselves,” so if you’ve got everything you want in mind, you may want a wedding coordinator to polish off those last little bits of your wedding plan. Wedding coordinators work hard to make sure everything you’ve put your heart and soul into will be perfect and handle everything behind the scenes so you can enjoy your big day the way you’re supposed to.
So which is the right one for you? Well, if you don’t have a lot of time to plan, you have space for it in your budget, and you’re completely new to this, you may want a wedding planner; someone to cover all the bases from start to finish. A wedding planner can take up to 10–15% of your budget depending on the planner in question so make sure you have enough set aside to accommodate this service. If you have plenty of time to plan your own wedding and a lower budget (or maybe you’d like to spend this percentage elsewhere?) then you may want a wedding coordinator instead. You can also check with your booked venue to see if they have venue coordinators available to help you, or recommend any wedding coordinators. All of these are great options — it’s down to you to see what fits with your wedding plan!
Have you had experience with planners and coordinators? What would you recommend to new couples getting married for the first time? Let us know in the comments or via our social media! We’d love to hear from you.
See you next week.
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