Many times people tend to use the terms wedding coordinator and wedding planner interchangeably. However, there is actually a great difference you need to know in terms of services that they actually offer. If you want to save yourself some of the unexpected grief, stress, and as well as frustration on your wedding day, it is better to know in advance that what makes a wedding coordinator different from a wedding planner. So, now let’s see.
What Is the Difference Between A Wedding Planner And A Wedding Coordinator?
The main difference between wedding planners and wedding coordinators is that the latter will not provide any help in booking and negotiating with vendors, while wedding planners handle all these and even more services.
Another distinction between the two is that while a wedding coordinator is responsible for overseeing specifics regarding the event at the venue itself, it is actually the responsibility of a wedding planner to manage all the mentioned details of your whole wedding day.
Day Of Wedding Coordinator Duties List Checklist:
In general, the main goal of a wedding coordinator is to help you plan everything for your wedding. Also, they ensure that your wedding day goes smoothly and as planned. They often help the following services :
- A wedding planner ensures that the important elements of the planning have been covered.
- They build a timeline/itinerary for your day
- Verifying logistics with vendors which you’ve arranged
- They also ensure vendors already have the details available for the wedding day, including directions and parking details, guidelines, and as well as timetables for the venue.
- They oversee the rehearsal and also attend a final venue meeting with you
- They also manage and administer everything on the wedding day.
When Do You Need To Hire A Wedding Coordinator?
Hiring a wedding coordinator can be one of the best options for your wedding day when you want to make sure that vendors and as well as your guests are not coming to with lots of questions. This means a wedding coordinator is actually your right-hand during the wedding.
Also knowing that a wedding coordinator would not be included in all the minute specifics of the wedding, hiring a coordinator as early as possible will also be a wise decision. They also make suggestions for vendors and can provide useful information as you finalize your plan — in addition, like wedding planners, they are also booked up fast.
What Is A Wedding Planner?
Although some wedding planners are also called wedding coordinators, there is a difference between them. A wedding planner is someone who is highly skilled in all aspects of the wedding, typically directly dealing with the couple and all vendors.
One of their main responsibility is to lead couples through the whole wedding process in a professional way. She gets to know the individual’s styles of couples, and as well as their general view of the wedding day. She cooperates with the couple to determine the right venue and vendors to further make the marriage vision for the couple a reality.
Most significantly, a wedding planner always seeks to follow the budget the couple has agreed on, as well as keeping the timeline for the couple to keep them on track. As mentioned earlier, the wedding planner has an active role in the general planning of the wedding, in general, from the beginning.
The duty of a wedding planner involves making sure that the wedding theme and color scheme is represented in the event.
Typically speaking, a wedding planner is the most engaged specialist you can hire to help you prepare the wedding from A to Z.
What Does A Wedding Planner Do?
In essence, some planners can prepare everything for you. Hiring a wedding planner is usually like asking a new best friend to determine and analyze every aspect of your wedding, which would be a great choice. They often offer the following services:
- Creating an event budgeting and a timeline sheet
- Venue scouting
- Referring preferred and reliable vendors
- Negotiating with them and reviewing all contracts before they are signed
- Full event design and styling, which includes creating of the inspiration board
- Supervising everything on the wedding day
- Creation of your wedding day itinerary
- Organizing events related to the wedding, including rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, as well as post-wedding brunch, if required
- Booking and arranging for the wedding party and guest accommodations, if required
- Assisting with creating a floor plan and seating arrangement
- And of course being your person to speak to, whenever you need to talk to someone, brainstorm about anything or you need advices.
When Do You Need To Hire A Wedding Planner?
Hiring a wedding planner at the beginning of your planning process is appropriate because you can use their depth of knowledge, vendor connections, and wisdom on wedding planning throughout the whole process.
Hiring a wedding planner is a great choice for couples too preoccupied to handle more than 250 hours, which is required to plan a wedding.
Moreover, it’s also a smart choice for people who don’t consider themselves as best coordinators, and for those who want an organized team of professionals to lead them through the whole process of wedding planning.
Wedding Planner Vs Wedding Coordinator
Unlike wedding planners, event coordinators provide no aid in booking and dealing with vendors before 1-2 months prior to the wedding day. Also, event coordinators will not contribute much to the final design of the event. They are not going to be there to join you for vendor meetings or venue visits.
Many of the key reasons couples employ a wedding planner are that on their wedding day they want to have peace of mind on what they’re going to get. You can relax and enjoy your big day knowing that your wedding planner, who worked closely with you in every step of the process, is there to take care of things.
Additionally, when working with a wedding planner, you can make sure that all your vendors will be reliable, punctual, trustworthy, and just nice people to work with. Your wedding planner will make sure all the vendors work in cooperation to create a beautiful wedding designed just for you. While planners will help you with booking, they will also support you in negotiating prices with the vendors you are hiring. In the whole wedding planning process, the planners will be with you either attending venue visits and vendors meetings will be asking the right questions and leading the meetings, which most couples find very helpful.
Wedding planners always keep a close eye on the expenses and collaborate closely with couples on their initial design of the wedding. They are also ready to help with the creative features of your day.
There is no work that is too large or too small for wedding planners. All in all, a wedding planner is a person or team of professionals “behind all the scenes of your wedding day” who work tirelessly to bring your ideal day to life.
So, Should You Hire A Wedding Planner or Wedding Coordinator?
Since you already know the main distinctions, you may wonder which of those would you recruit when you need to plan your wedding day.
Reading all of the above may now give you some valid arguments for hiring a wedding planner over a coordinator. Initially, you should see if you actually have the funds in your budget to cover that expense. If you don’t have a wedding planner in your budget, we would highly recommend at least to hire a wedding month of coordinator, because that will give you lots of peace of mind on your big day!
It is a great choice to hire a wedding planner to handle your day if you’re not so willing in getting busy with all of the small things of your day. Moreover, if you’re totally lost when it comes to how to proceed with preparation, because you don’t have the ability to organize your wedding yourself or don’t have time to do so, so having a planner is another convincing argument.
Besides wedding planners may become very effective when you want to get married in some kind of a complex or unique location, such as a library, an empty blank canvas venue or an outdoor venue.
Eventually, they will be your perfect choice for destination weddings, which includes managing lots of wedding activities, events and as well as planning from abroad.
