Duties and Value of a Wedding Day of Coordinator

Wedding day of Coordinator Overview

A Wedding day of Coordinator's are also frequently referred to as coordinator wedding planner, wedding designer, and wedding director. It is no wonder many engaged couples, when beginning the wedding planning process for their wedding day - begin to consider the services of Complete Entertainment Wedding Productions which has extensive wedding coordinating experience. When engaged couples start to experience stress related to the process of planning a wedding, they find, much of it stems from the inconsistency of the meaning of terminology used by wedding vendors. This confusion mostly only adds to the stress and worry of any prior wedding planning, and the performance of duties on the future bride and groom to-be's wedding day.

When a company provides wedding coordinating services for over 20 years and serves over 400 weddings – as Complete Entertainment has, it receives many opportunities to work with numerous excited engaged couples - who want to personally handle much of the wedding planning process. It is so enjoyable to have the opportunity to help so many stressed and overwhelmed, young engaged couples through the process of planning their wedding.

Simply explained, the differences of a wedding day coordinator and a wedding planner would be: a wedding planner gets involved much earlier in the process and does many other things throughout your wedding planning journey; a day of wedding coordinator is your go-to person, on your wedding day (and prior day rehearsal), who serves as your wedding rehearsal director, wedding ceremony director and wedding reception coordinator.

Complete Entertanment's days of wedding coordinating and planning experience has afforded us the opportunity to help with the process of wedding planning and wedding day of coordination all over the South Eastern United States. We frequently work with many freindly wedding venue associates throughout the Upstate Area of South Carolina in cities such as: Anderson, Greenville, Greer, Spartanburg, Inman, Woodruff, Boiling Springs, Gaffney, Rock Hill, and York. Some of our favorite spots in North Carolina include wedding venues located in cities such as: Charlotte, Indian Trail, Monroe, Kings Mountain, Shelby, Gastonia, Rutherfordton, and Tryon.

Differences in Wedding Planners and Day of Coordinators

Wedding Planner

Many wedding service providers or vendors have different and sometimes conflicting opinions concerning what duties fall under the title of Wedding Planner. There are many possible combinations of duties a full wedding planner might opt to include in services being offered to wedding couples. The below list of planner duties only includes wedding services performed prior to the wedding day - not in performance of the wedding duties on your wedding day. Most wedding vendors, in my experience will agree that no matter what wedding planning package they may put together, wedding planning rarely ever includes the carrying out all of the plans on the day of the wedding, this is where a day of wedding coordinator comes into play.

Wedding Planner Duties

• very early hiring (a year or more prior to your wedding)
• helping you to find, and the hiring of all of the other wedding vendors on the engaged couple's behalf (including venue location tours, wedding ceremony seating, wedding reception layout, and hiring)
• advising engaged couples on setting your total wedding budget
• advising on and employing decoration designs and chair arrangement for the wedding ceremony, cocktail hour, and wedding reception
• helping to find wedding dresses for the bride, Maid of Honor, bridesmaids, flower girls, and family. Also locate wedding attire for the groom, best man, and groomsmen
• setting up and even attending catering and wedding cake tastings
• communicate with your photographer, videographer, and minister or officiant, to make sure any of their time or functional needs will be in place in order for them to perform
• researching and advising you on your wedding county’s marriage licensing process
• and may include working with the bride-to-be and groom-to-be advising on and documenting the details of how they envision the wedding ceremony prelude, wedding ceremony, cocktail hour and reception flow - including how the Mother of The Bride, Mother of The Groom, and grandparents of the engaged couple will be escorted in and out during the ceremony; arrange for Best Man and Maid of Honor toasts; and location and availability of food and drink, etc.

Wedding Day of Coordinator

Wedding couple’s reasons for hiring or considering to hire a day of wedding coordinator may vary slightly for each special situation. I will attempt to clarify a few reasons you might find the professional and experienced help of a wedding day of coordinator as one of best decisions you made for your wedding day.

Grooms and brides-to-be approach their wedding journey with a mix of ambitions, skills, and resources – of time, budget, creativity, and family/friend support. This causes the wedding planning process to vary, and causes the need for personalization.

Wedding Day of Director's duties

• communicating with the engaged couple by phone or in person to perfect the rehearsal, ceremony, and reception details
• creating a clear and well-formed wedding ceremony and reception itinerary
• contacting key fellow wedding vendors to ensure all understand their roles and duties
• offer to conduct a step by step prior day or same-day ceremony rehearsal
• making sure the wedding ceremony seating and reception seating follow your plans
• greet and orient vendors such as decorating, catering, photograpy and Officiant personnel
• line up and cue wedding party and family to walk into the ceremony
• cue music needed for ceremony and reception
• help guys figure out wedding attire - cuff links, ties, boutonnières, and pin corsages
• keep in communication with the newlyweds to advise and make changes necessary to keep the fun flowing
• encourage wedding guests to sign guestbook and direct them to the gift or card table, and so much more

Different Types of Engaged Couples

Complete Entertainment Wedding Productions believes in a couple-centric, and highly personalized approach to all the wedding services we offer. One very fun and reliable way we ensure we are able to give clients what they want, is to get to know the bride and groom to be - in a relaxed and natural setting. This is why, we request to meet and have a meal with prospective couples, to go over our contract and uncover all unique personalities that help us to shape our performance.

One type of couple is the structured, and detailed type of couple – you might call this couple more of a wedding DIY couple. This engaged couple usually begins to research and hires a wedding planner early in their planning process of a year or more ahead of time. This couple many times has a nice and neat binder full of all wedding activity. They may also be a very motivated, and creative couple who would like to take on most of the pre-wedding responsibilities themselves. This couple could possibly wait until 6 to 3 months prior to the wedding to find and hire a day of coordinator. They may or may not even hire a pre wedding planner at all.

Some engaged couples would prefer to, or do not have the time to be as hands-on as the structured and detailed couple. This bride and groom-to-be might hire someone to handle most of the functional pre planning 6 months or more in advance. They would want the planner to help them find a wedding venue, make suggestions of other wedding service providers, and possibly ask their planner to also serve as their wedding day coordinator (or find one to hire). This couple might like their planner to give more suggestions on ceremony lay-out, decor design, flow of the event and other functional activities. A wedding day of coordinator would also be essential to this wedding couple.

Lastly, the bride and groom-to-be who is very relaxed about wedding details and is open to being almost completely guided by their wedding professional coordinator. They might have a broad overview or only have a few things they are certain about and would like their pre planning and day of coordinating team to suggest most everything to them and be completely in charge on their wedding day without their being overly involved with planning details.

No matter which type of couple you feel you might be, and regardless of whether or not you need full pre wedding planning – a day of wedding coordinator is essential. Even if you have considered a destination wedding, a coordinator on the day of your wedding would be worth more than you could ever imagine.

Wedding Day of Coordinator Q & A

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