You’re planning your own wedding. Go you!! Wedding Planning can be fun, and I know you can do it. In fact, I think you’re the best person to do it. You know what you want. Or at least you will after you’ve done the initial work to make sure the two of you are on the same page. Trust me, it’s not that hard to plan a wedding. As long as you have the time, and the willingness to do it, you can. But and it’s a big but. I don’t think you should be your own Wedding Coordinator. And your best mate or cousin ‘susan’, shouldn’t be your Wedding Coordinator either.
Why Should You Hire a Wedding Coordinator?
Here’s the short answer: I’m pretty sure, you don’t want to work on your wedding day – you really don’t. And you don’t want your family and friends doing that either. But if you put yourself or a friend into the role of Wedding Coordinator, working is exactly what you’ll be doing on your big day. The best advice I can give anyone planning their own wedding is this: Budget for an On the Day Wedding Coordinator. There really is nothing more important than making sure the two of you can experience the day alongside your guests. If you can’t do that, every other cent you spent won’t mean a thing.
“Hiring an On the Day Coordinator was one of the best (if not the best) investments we made in the day. None of the other money we spent would have been worth it if we were stressed out trying to manage things” – Ali & Neal
On your wedding day you shouldn’t have a worry in the world, and you shouldn’t be the ones making sure things are running on time and everyone is where they need to be and doing what they need to be doing. And definitely shouldn’t be in charge of troubleshooting any issues that arise. And there will be some troubleshooting to do. No wedding is perfect. There are always little and sometimes bigger things that someone needs to take control of no matter how well your wedding is planned.
But of course, you don’t get to have a relaxing and joyful day celebrating with friends and family without someone taking control on the day. You can get married. Or you can coordinate the day. You cannot do both. I’ve been around weddings for a really long time and I just know that these two things don’t go together. But if you’re still not sure. Here’s six reasons to hire a Wedding Coordinator.
Hire a Wedding Coordinator so you can relax and enjoy the day
A Wedding Coordinator usually steps in about a month out from your wedding and of course will be there on the day to oversee every detail and liaise with vendors. What this means for you is that you won’t be ‘working’ on your wedding day or needing to finalise the logistics in the weeks before. It can be tempting to manage it all yourself – you planned your wedding after-all. But this can lead to a lot of stress as you try to juggle getting yourselves personally ready for the day. And if you have friends and family traveling to be with you for your wedding, you’ll want to spend time with these people.
And on the day, you simply won’t have time to oversee setting up (or doing it yourselves), manage the timeline, or troubleshoot any problems that arise – at least not without it impacting on your ability to relax into the day and enjoy every moment of it together and with your guests.
A Wedding Coordinator is experienced and able to offer you advice, tips and reassurance based on their experience of doing this many times. It’s this that gives our couples the confidence to let go and have fun on their wedding day – rather than having to work to make sure everything comes together as they intended it to.
A Wedding Coordinator helps to keep your day running on time
Your Wedding Coordinator will create and manage your Wedding Day Timeline. A timeline is an essential ingredient of a wedding that flows beautifully from one moment to the next and never feels rushed. A Wedding Coordinator manages the timeline (the day’s schedule) to ensure that everything takes place on time. No one wants their wedding feel like a military exercise but adhering to a schedule is important. Running behind can lead to some activities being missed (speeches, dances, photos) and to additional fees for vendors who have allowed strict timeframes for delivering their service. And not running to schedule almost always means that you as the couple will be asked to make decisions continually throughout the day – which robs you of time with your guests.
The process of managing the timeline commences weeks before your wedding and will be done in collaboration with your venue/s and your vendors. You will have the opportunity to have input into the timeline before it is distributed to everyone involved with your wedding. On the day, your Wedding Coordinator will oversee the timeline to be sure that everyone is doing what they need to do and that events are running on time. When you have a Wedding Coordinator managing your timeline you can be confident that you’re getting the most out of your wedding day and the Vendors you’ve hired.
Your Wedding Coordinator is a point of contact for vendors
Imagine this. You’re enjoying the morning of your wedding with your Wedding Party. You’re having your hair and makeup done and the photographer has just arrived to take photos of you as you get ready. The atmosphere is fun and you’re enjoying it. You’re soaking it all in and enjoying these special moments of your day.
Then the phone rings. The vendors have arrived to set up. But they can’t find anyone to let them into the venue and they just want to confirm one more time where the dance floor is being set up. You deal with that issue and then the phone rings again. The florist took a wrong turn and can’t seem to find her way to the venue. Could someone direct her?
You get the picture.
Most weddings have many moments like this throughout the day. They’re usually easily solved, but do you want to be the person solving them? Do you want to be interrupted continuously with questions and clarifications or to be the one to sort out small problems when what you really want to do is drink a glass of champagne with your bridesmaids? No of course not. And you don’t want to ask a family member or friend to be this point of contact for you either. You want them to enjoy your wedding day too.
A Wedding Coordinator they will act as the main point of contact for all vendors, greeting them as they arrive and helping them with any questions they may have. Your day of coordinator also oversees set up so you can feel confident that everything comes together as you imagined it would. Having this type of support frees you up to enjoy pre-wedding celebrations and getting yourselves ready to walk down the aisle and into your reception.
They help to balance the constraints of your budget
Perhaps you wish you could hire a full wedding planner, but your budget just doesn’t allow for it. Or you’re enjoying your wedding planning and don’t see the need to spend your budget on someone to do this part of job for you. In this situation a Wedding Coordinator is a happy compromise.
You will handle most of the wedding planning process. Your day of Wedding Coordinator steps in about a month before to assist you with the day of logistics, vendor coordination and troubleshooting on the day. Your day of coordinator will be there for set up and to manage the timeline, so you get the best of both worlds – the ability to plan your wedding yourselves and someone who is familiar with your plans, vision, and priorities, there on the day to ensure all of your plans go off without a hitch.
You don’t want to set up and pack down
At the I Do Crew we offer a décor set up and tear down service. We’ll even deliver your personal décor items back to your home or hotel if you need us to. Whilst some venues do this for you very often you’ll be responsible for any personal Decor you’re bringing into the Venue. And as much as you might enjoy the idea of setting this up yourselves, you don’t want to. And truthfully most couples don’t have time to. If you’re getting married in the mid-afternoon, you’ll be getting ready in the morning and having photos by about 1pm. Most of our couples start getting ready well before 11am (often before 9am) if they need to fit in photography and travel to the wedding ceremony venue. And I can guarantee you don’t want to clean up after your wedding and your friends and family don’t want to do this either. A wedding is a long and emotional day and by the time you get to the end of your Reception, the last thing any of you will want to do is pack down, bump out and clean up.
And don’t you have an after party to get to anyway?
A Wedding Coordinator is a professional problem solver and troubleshooter
A good Wedding Coordinator has the experience it takes to respond calmly and quickly to unexpected situations. A family member who has gone walkabout at a pivotal moment, a problem with a vendor, a missing lipstick or flower arrangement that toppled over in the wind. I could go on. There is no such thing as a perfect wedding. There is always something that needs someone’s attention and when you have an experienced wedding coordinator on hand – they’re the person who will resolve the issue, leaving you to simply enjoy celebrating with your friends and family.
When it comes to why you need a Wedding Planner, Ali and Neal quoted above summed it up beautifully. Without professional support on the day, everything you’ve invested into your wedding (time and money) is compromised because you’ll find yourselves pulled in too many different directions and that’s no fun. It’s not how you should spend your day, or the days leading up to it. If you’re with me, why not contact me for an obligation free chat about the day you’re planning. Every service we offer is ‘edited and refined’ to suit the needs of our couples. All you need to do is tell me what it is you need help with and we’ll do the rest.
Happy Wedding Planning!
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