The decision to hire a wedding planner or coordinator may be a simple one.
If you have a busy job and know that making sneaky calls and emails during the day to vendors and suppliers might get you fired, then perhaps hiring a wedding planner would be a good option. The same goes if you feel completely overwhelmed/disinterested/sweaty about wedding planning, that also might be a good indicator to begin exploring your wedding planner options.
Why? Wedding coordinators and planners have balls of steel.
They can re-hem a dress with a toothpick and can talk your mother-in-law out of a panic attack when she sees the maid of honour’s thigh tattoo. As well as superior organisational skills, coordinators and planners have enthusiasm and bags of experience using their poker face to cover up potential disasters, which they fix without you ever being aware that there was a disaster in the first place.
They are wedding superheroes. Bow down to them, bow down.
So, what is the difference between a wedding planner and coordinator? Let’s take a look, shall we?
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What is a wedding planner and what do they do?
A wedding planner is generally seen as the full-service option.
They are with you from early on in your wedding planning and can hold your hand and guide you through major planning decisions and details. They can help you create a detailed time line and budget and pick out your venue and vendors. They will also help you negotiate contracts, organise rehearsal dinners and book brunches and other wedding-related activities.
Their team will ensure that your wedding day runs smoothly, overseeing all the details that you shouldn’t be thinking about on your wedding day. Some planners will offer partial planning, which is perhaps bordering on wedding coordination.
Most wedding planners charge a flat fee, but some do offer a percentage fee, usually between 10-20 per cent of your total budget.
What about wedding coordinators… what do they do?
Wedding coordinators are the clever people who take all your wedding research and quotes and turn them into wedding reality.
They are a lighter version of a wedding planner, guiding you through the latter part of your wedding planning leading up to your wedding day. I advise you to connect with a wedding coordinator several months before your wedding to go over your wedding time line, guest list, vendor and venue details, so your coordinator can oversee creating your wedding schedule and can go through all the things you might have missed.
Coordinators confirm bookings, can assist with seating charts, timings, work with on-site managers at your venue, and just like wedding planners, they can be there to oversee and run your wedding day.
Side note – here’s all the things people never say about weddings. Post continues after video.
Why you should hire a wedding planner or coordinator
When you hire a wedding planner and coordinator, you are gaining all of their magic contacts.
Their vendor lists are people that they work with regularly, trust and rely upon. Their knowledge and contacts are their business and using those connections to ensure everything works and goes to plan is what they do best.
Your planner wants you to have an excellent day without worry or stress. Wedding planners and coordinators are Bridechilla nurturers, just like me!
They are the ones who panic when the flowers don’t show up on the morning of the wedding, not you. If the icing on the cake is green instead of white or there are no chairs for your guests to sit on during the ceremony, it’s their problem to fix, that’s why you are paying them.
Wedding planners and coordinators are lateral thinkers, counsellors, and drill sergeants. They get shit moving; they make things happen.
You should see your wedding planner or coordinator as a very business-oriented friend, someone that you trust, someone that you feel comfortable being honest and open with, and someone that you are happy to hand over your wedding budget to, knowing that shit is going to get done.
Like any wedding vendor, if it doesn’t feel right, if you don’t feel like they fit the above criteria, then move on and find someone who does.
Don’t settle for someone who is a bit cheaper but you feel might not be as reliable.