When planning your wedding, you may be wondering…do I really need a wedding coordinator?
Well, the short answer is no. You don’t absolutely need one. If you’re up for it, you can take on the task of planning your wedding and everything that goes along with it. However, I highly recommend finding a wedding coordinator for your wedding. They take care of EVERYTHING and that’s a huge relief when you become a little overwhelmed when planning your wedding.
Let’s explore a little bit of what a wedding coordinator will do for you.
Wedding Industry Connections
A good wedding coordinator will have strong connections in the industry. She’ll have experience with several different vendors in each field and will be able to recommend the right fit for you. If your wedding photography budget is $3,000, she’s going to be able to recommend ones that fit within that budget and won’t waste your time with ones that are closer to $10,000. This will not only save you time, but money as well. It’s really hard to fall in love with something you can’t afford.
With experience, the wedding coordinator will be able to find the right personality fit for you. Since we are all human, we don’t always have that perfect personality fit with everyone. A coordinator will be able to recommend people that will not only do the job you hire them to do, but actually enhance your whole wedding day experience. There’s nothing like being surrounded by friends, even if they are your wedding vendors. Little things like personality matching can make all the difference.
Along with the wedding industry connections, a wedding coordinator can often offer you discounts with some of the vendors they work with. This is a huge advantage and can make it so the coordinating services almost pay for themselves with the discounts you can get. No-brainer, right?
Attention To Details
Coordinators like to coordinate. That’s why they have the job they do. They like to see things come together to make the perfect wedding day for their clients. Loose ends and chaos drive them nuts! Your wedding coordinator will take of all the little details that you might drive yourself crazy with just thinking about.
Imagine this…you need to decide on the table settings for your wedding reception. You want spring colors, but you aren’t too picky on what specific colors. You sit down and try to come up with some ideas, but the brown boxes for the wedding favors aren’t quite looking right next to the silver of the silverware. The purple flowers are beautiful, but the orange tones in the table cloth don’t look right with them. This is where a coordinator can fix everything. She’ll have examples of color schemes that go well together and she’ll be able to advise you and get you the centerpieces you love.
No detail is too small for a wedding coordinator. After working with many coordinators while photographing weddings, I have seen the attention to detail they have. They’ll move a curtain just right so it won’t get caught on someone’s shoe. She’ll make sure the boutonnieres are perfectly straight. They’ll pull that flower from the centerpiece that got bumped and now has a broken stem. She’ll make sure you have a snack and some water or champagne after the ceremony so you aren’t hungry while getting your picture taken. Basically, she’ll handle all the stuff you might not think of and all the things you’ll be too busy to think about.
Help With The Timeline
Timelines are not fun to create, especially if you’ve never planned a wedding before. There are a thousand little details that need to be scheduled and not one can be missed. You might think that after dinner toasts should take about 15 minutes, but really, they can take up to an hour, depending on how many people are speaking. Sunset photos are a must-have on the Central Coast, no matter what time of year it is. Some couples schedule an hour for sunset photos, but generally, only 15-20 minutes is needed. A wedding coordinator will know exactly how much time you need for every activity during the day.
Budget Conscious
Keeping on budget is really hard to do when planning a wedding. Between the venue fees, wedding photography, catering costs and rentals, things can quickly get out of hand. A wedding coordinator will be able to help you set a reasonable budget and stick to it. She’ll have tricks up her sleeve to help you save money and she’ll know what to cut and what to splurge on (photos, hint, hint!).
Making Your Vision Come To Life
I don’t know about you, but I sometimes struggle making my ideas a reality. When I try to arrange flowers, I know what I want it to look like, but I can’t quite make it happen. I rearrange them and it still doesn’t look like I want. I’ll add some more greenery or a few more of the white roses that I love and it still just doesn’t look like I want. After a while, I give up and have a very messy flower arrangement that smells great, but looks atrocious.
Wedding coordinators are amazing at being able to bring your visions to life. They can take the information you give them and the ideas you have and make them flow seamlessly. The help create a color palette that works well and they know just where to find everything within that color palette.
Let me tell you, having someone that can create your vision is priceless. It relieves SO much stress and makes your entire wedding day flow smoothly.
The bottom line is that you can absolutely plan a wedding on your own, but having a wedding coordinator will make you so much happier. You will be able to plan your wedding without the stress that normally comes along with planning any big event. Staying on budget will be easy, because someone will do that for you. Any little thing that comes up on your wedding day will be automatically handled by the coordinator and you just get to enjoy your big day. I cannot recommend a coordinator enough. They are amazing! You won’t regret hiring a coordinator for your wedding.
–10 Things to Include in Your Wedding Day Emergency Kit