Hiring a Wedding Coordinator to take care of everything that you have planned is a wonderful option! However… in my opinion, the term Day-Of Coordinator is a misnomer. What a professional Wedding Planner offers in terms of services should be called Month-Of Coordination or Wedding Day Management as it is so hard to pick up on someone else’s plans without having a deeper understanding of their needs, wishes and arrangements.
Take Advantage of Experience
You may have been planning your wedding for many many months and dreaming about the big day for even longer! With all the details that went into organizing your wedding, falling in love with your vendors and ideas, you want to make sure they come to fruition in the best way possible. All those thoughts and plans are not always so easy to do a read through, pick up and run with it. As Wedding Planners, we pride ourselves on being flexible and amenable to our couples’ wishes and we also need to do proper preparations and preplanning to make sure nothing is overlooked. For me, this is done well in advance of the wedding day. I feel the need to make sure due diligence is served by having communication with all parties, reviewing contracts, notes, taking time to reflect on and refine the timeline, and much more! It’s a fact that I love obsessing over your wedding details.
I have worked with many venues, vendors and couples and have a well versed background in what may work best on a wedding day. Draw from my experience and trust that my team will work hard for you to make sure nothing has been overlooked!
Let’s talk about the Process
When do services start?
For my Wedding Day Management services, they start 6 weeks before the wedding and a month before this, we are already in touch to receive and review all your contracts. I go over everything with a fine toothed comb making sure no policies have been overlooked and already start working on your timeline and details by drawing from your signed agreements. It’s a great place to start and means at our meeting, we can do a quick review and then focus on all the fine details of your day.
At the 6 week mark, that’s when we sit down for our Finalization Meeting. Together, we go over absolutely everything! There is a checklist, but often we go off script and focus on the aspects that mean the most to you. Lots of questions ensue and it’s a great way to put together your detailed timeline.
Homework!
I don’t expect you to have all the answers, so that’s why a few days following this meeting, I send you a list of your homework items. It can look a bit daunting, but not to worry as so far NO COUPLE has had a clean sheet with an empty to-do list! It’s a plan and I find it great to go through and check things off. Start with the quick and easy ones first and in no time you’ll be done! All the answers that come from checking off your tasks means more details for me to add to the schedule and it all really comes together nicely.
Vendor intros
When you’re working on your to-do items, this is the time that I introduce myself to your vendors as their contact on the Wedding Day. Any questions can be filtered through and I let them know when to expect their versions of the finalized timeline. I don’t send them the full detailed timeline, each one is refined specifically for the vendor to make sure they have the information they need and not everything else. Your finalized schedule can be anywhere from 10-15+ pages and your vendors definitely don’t want to be flipping through that many details! This full version is for myself and my Assistant. It’s so we can be sure of knowing absolutely everything planned for your wedding day.
The wedding rehearsal
A few days before your wedding, I attend the rehearsal, letting your officiant take the lead and working in the background to make sure everything is in order. I’m there to line up the Wedding Party, brief everyone on where to stand, sit, how to hold their bouquets, what to do with their hands, the list goes on! At the end, I hand out the Wedding Party timelines and do a quick run through of the day with them along with parents, if participating and if present. This way, everyone knows who I am and can direct anything to me instead of to you!
The Wedding Day
The Wedding Day is my favourite! I love the execution of such a special occasion and I love making all the moving pieces come together. It’s a combination of beautiful emotion, organization and flexibility! Through working together in advance, we come up with the perfect plan and from there, I get a great sense of what is important to you, what your expectations are and how to execute as best as possible. All this while still maintaining flexibility that sometimes, you just don’t know what curveballs may be thrown! We establish trust and understanding so that you are comfortable that your Wedding Planner can handle things on your behalf. There are so many things I could touch on to explain what I do for you on your wedding day and what I have seen happen and how they are dealt with, but that could go on forever!
So, do you need a Wedding Day Coordinator?
The decision is ultimately up to you! I would say yes if:
You have planned a beautiful day and want to make sure it’s executed as thoroughly as possible.
You have all the main planning done and need a professional touch to make sure it makes sense and runs as smoothly as possible.
You’re still not quite sure how the timing comes together and need expert advice.
You don’t want people coming to you with questions on the wedding day.
You want to enjoy your day and for your guests to enjoy it too!
There can be many more reasons that make sense for having a Wedding Coordinator there for you. It’s ultimately a personal decision and although I am obviously biased, I think it’s a great way to fully enjoy all the plans that you worked so hard to prepare.
I offer a complimentary one hour consultation for couples interested in finding out more about Wedding Day Management services and more. Contact me and let’s start the conversation!