Wedding Planners vs Venue Coordinators
Having the benefit of a venue coordinator at your chosen location will be a huge help to you on your wedding day. However, there are a lot of differences between a wedding planner and a venue coordinator, and knowing what they do can help you make a more informed decision on who you should hire for your wedding day execution.
Venue Coordinators
Some venues will offer the services of a venue coordinator when you book with them. This person will help you select the tables, linens, and chairs for your reception and recommend some vendors from their preferred vendor list. If the venue also provides catering, they will help you choose a menu and bar options and will keep the kitchen staff on schedule throughout the reception. While they can help you with decisions leading up to the wedding and may be present at the reception to ensure things run smoothly, they aren’t expected to help with all details of the wedding like negotiating or communicating with other vendors or planning out the timeline. Typically, a venue coordinator doesn’t cost an extra fee, as they are an added perk when renting venue facilities.
Wedding Planners
A wedding planner is hired directly through you to help you plan and execute the day. You can hire their services for months before the wedding, to prep the month of the wedding, or just for their assistance the day-of. Not only will they recommend vendors, but they’ll deal with the negotiations, communications, and timeline of each and every vendor. They’ll make sure your vendors know exactly where to be and when to be there and will handle any crises that arise so you can simply enjoy your day.
Not sure how much food to order, how much cake to serve, or exactly how many tablecloths you’ll need? No worries; you’re wedding planner is in charge of handling your guest list count and relaying that information to your vendors as well as making any decisions about how much of what to order while keeping you in budget.
Wedding planners can also help with the design, too – from conception to execution. If you have an idea of what look you’re going for but aren’t quite sure how to execute it, you can give your wedding planner some inspiration to go on and trust him or her to create the wedding of your dreams.
Hiring a wedding planner doesn’t mean that you won’t have any say in the planning of your wedding or that you won’t be involved. You’ll still get to make all the decisions, hire the vendors you want, and choose the color scheme and theme of the wedding. You’ll just have an experienced professional by your side to advise you, k
