Planning a wedding all by yourself can be hard because of all the details and coordination required. That’s why a whole wedding industry around wedding planning exists. Understanding what the different wedding planning professionals do can help you decide which fits your needs.
Potential Benefits of Hiring a Wedding Planning Professional
Wedding planning professionals sometimes have ideas you wouldn’t have thought of and sometimes get discounts, helping to cover the cost of their fees. Because they handle all the details, they minimize the stress of wedding planning.
Full-Service Wedding Planner
Those with difficulties in planning events and coordinating details may find a full-service wedding planner beneficial. They handle all the details for you, including helping to find the vendors needed for your dream wedding, negotiating with the vendors, helping you stick to your budget, and dealing with all the logistics involved in pulling off such a big and elaborate event as a wedding. A full-service wedding planner makes sure no loose ends exist and the wedding and reception go smoothly. These planners can even help limit arguments between family members through a little negotiation.
A La Carte Wedding Planner
If you’re willing and able to handle some parts of the wedding planning but not sure how to deal with others, consider an a la carte wedding planner. These professionals help with just certain areas or with specific projects. They might help the couple come up with a budget or with finding the perfect venue and negotiating that contract.
Day of Wedding Coordinator
A day of coordinator handles all the little details associated with the wedding day so the couple can relax and enjoy themselves. They don’t help with the wedding planning, just the execution of the plan. These coordinators use the timeline for the wedding and the contacts for all the vendors to ensure everything goes smoothly. They deal with any last-minute emergencies. Day of coordinators assist with set up and clean up and minimize the risk of lost deposits. Day of coordinators also help with the wedding rehearsal dinner and make sure all the happy couple’s belongings get removed from the venue at the end of the event and passed on to the appropriate people. While people call them a day of coordinators, most meet with the couple at least a week (and preferably a month) before the big day.
Month of Coordinators
These coordinators step in before a day of coordinator would. They help wrap up all the last-minute details. Month of coordinators shoulder some burdens during the hectic month leading up to the wedding. Even if you don’t hire a full-service coordinator, a month of coordinator can be useful. They’re likely to catch things you’ve missed that might cause major problems on the big day.
Wedding Designer
While a wedding planner or wedding coordinator helps with the logistics of planning the event itself, a wedding designer makes sure everything looks the way you want it to. They don’t deal with negotiating contracts or setting up appointments; they help to design the floor plans, lighting, linens, flowers, other decorations, and attire to create a coordinated look for the wedding. Wedding designers provide the most benefit when a couple wants to pull off a specific theme for the wedding. While some professionals act as both planners and designers, people often hire these professionals separately since each of these are very involved jobs.
Venue Coordinators
Venue coordinators work for the venue. They make sure you turn in all the paperwork for the venue and that the venue provides the services agreed upon. These coordinators supervise the venue staff but aren’t responsible for any of the other vendors. Venue coordinators don’t help plan the wedding or reception or assist with the décor (unless they agree to do this when you book the venue).
