Many wedding suppliers say that they offer “coordination” for your wedding day. Think your caterer or DJ can act as your Coordinator? Think again. While these professionals may offer some elements of coordination, you may be in for way more problems than you’d ever thought. Make sure this doesn’t happen to you. Hire an experienced, professional and dedicated coordinator whose exclusive job it is to look out after you and your event. Want to know if your DJ or Caterer can carry out “coordination” for you? Send us a list of what they plan to do for you and we will review it – on this blog – as a complimentary service to you.
So, my Caterer said they will coordinate. They said I just need a coordinator for my ceremony and they will handle the rest. What’s the difference? It looks like I can save a lot of money by just hiring a coordinator to do ceremony only and going with my caterer. Help!
Hi Nancy,
Please provide me with a list of what they said they will do and I’m happy to provide you with side by side comparison of what how much a coordinator does compared with them and point out items you are potentially jeopardizing by having someone other than a professional and experienced dedicated coordinator do “coordination”. Happy to help!
-Kerry Lee
Owner
Basically, they said that they will help me create a timeline, review vendor contracts and oversee the timeline and running of the event the day of the wedding. They said it was a “$1400 value”.
Hi Nancy,
Ok, some thoughts to think about:
a. To receive maximum benefits of what true coordination is, you need an objective professional who is not tied into any other service to oversee coordination duties.
b. To review vendor contracts in order to prepare a timeline is one thing; to even produce a generic timeline is an element of coordination; however, an objective professional coordinator also is an actual liaison to the vendors throughout the month of and the day of the wedding. Your caterer cannot also consider themselves in service to you, to your vendors (to help address any issues which arise pre and during the event) and still do a good job as a caterer. If they are, then I would question their ability as professional caterer as someone is not keeping their eye on the “shop” so to speak.
c. Finally, a professional coordinator is an objective and experienced entity. To have a vendor such as a caterer or DJ in “charge” of overseeing other vendors is bad for morale and has more potential for undermining the integrity of the event, since there can tend to be resentment of one vendor (i.e. caterer or DJ or whatever) telling other vendors what to do and how to do it.
d. The chances of your caterer or DJ having actual objective experience in seeing the macro- vision of your day is minimal – if even existent at all. Their focus, while well-meaning, to provide elements of coordination does not in any way, shape or form equal what an experienced and unbiased professional coordinator can provide . Just as an orchestra conductor has the musical masterpiece and is able to maintain and direct all key components which make up the masterpiece, the professional wedding coordinator’s job is to ensure perfect harmony between the various segments of the event in order to create a masterpiece – your wedding day!
Anyone out there heard of a coordinator who worked for years at a particular venue and then started her own business in wedding consulting? I’m wondering how well-rounded she would actually be?
Yes – the only challenge is that her forte is knowing the actual venue itself and she is just getting started in the learning how to coordinate events from an overall perspective and just started her own business. I had a girlfriend who was getting married and talked with her and while her Website shows images of all the weddings (including her own) she oversaw as a venue manager for the venue, it looks as though she does not show images of actual weddings she coordinated or produced from the beginning and managed from every standpoint like a professional coordinator would do. It was from her seat as venue manager , which is really different. Just be careful.
Hi All,
Kerry Lee here – I just wanted to interject . I do encourage you to sit down in person and meet each person you are considering as a coordinator. You may find you have a great connection with him/her and this is also important. Good luck!
-Kerry Lee, Owner
Can a coordinator help with an extremely small budget? I would love one but I’m not sure I can afford a coordinator.
Hi Rachelle,
An experienced professional consultant – a really good one – has worked with million dollar budgets down to hundreds of dollars in budgets. They know suggestions how to stay within your budget. You can have a wedding on any budget. The reality is that there are always choices to be made on any budget. Even $300,000 wedding budget brides have to make choices. So do $25,000 budget weddings. As do $3000 weddings. Can you have a deluxe wine pairing dinner with lobster and filet mignon for 200 on $3,000? Not likely. But can you have some kind of wedding and some kind of reception on a $3,000 budget yes. But with choices. Your professional coordinator/planner will keep you “real” about what it is you can afford and guide you in the right direction. The rest is up to you: if you are open to being flexible and having to make choices on your budget. Good luck and thanks for writing!