Wedding Planner and/or Day of Coordinator...do or Don’t?

I have booked a day of coordinator. She also comes the night before as well to go over any last items and be there for rehearsal. We have a meeting few times leading up to the wedding as well. I met with her and we message and go over any ideas.

The reason I hired one is because I am very particular about things and i stress about every little detail lol I want to enjoy my wedding and have seen weddings where brides are stressing.

She is my person who deals with all vendor issues first- she is first point of contact. She directs all guests from the one location to the next one, answers any questions, has bartenders set up for the wedding, directs all vendors where they need to be, lights candles on tables, picks up the flowers day of and places on center pieces or where needs to be, helps with late night lunch- telling people where the food is and how to set up, making sure MC knows when to announce us coming in, cake cut, first dance, all that. showing DJ were to set up. and so on.

The person for day of coordinator I booked was really well priced and raved about from different companies I used for the wedding. She is such a kind person, very detail oriented, and I have seen her reviews/past work of weddings

That's my dilemma too ! my wedding is big 300+ so I feel like I should get a planner but they're so expensive and my budget is so high already but I decided that I will sit down with a few of them so I can get better idea of what they can do for me and then make my decision then

View quoted message That’s such a good point Leah! 😊 I’m really glad that it’s all working out for you!

View quoted message Thanks so much for the feedback Vinod!

We're based in Toronto, and getting married in Victoria, so for us, a day or or month of planner was a must-have.

During our interview process there was one particular planner that stood out, and she mentioned that design and decor (which we hadn't thought of), was included in her full service planning, so we ended up upgrading and going with her - it's been such a great decision because she knows the city better than we ever could.

Lucky for her, we'd already secured our venue, and had a solid draft of what we envisioned, and lucky for us to have found a like minded planner who we could trust from abroad, and who has connections to local vendors (and discounts!)

Also - I love the idea of DIY, but can never pull it off, so even if we were getting married in Toronto, we'd need a planner to help us with something.

Seek around if your really wanting a day of coordinator for your day. Budget wise, they can cost you as much as your vendors in general and sometimes not worth the cost. The vendor that seems reasonable as Robyn got seems fantastic for their pricing.

If you can handle everything and get some help, that's savings in your pocket. I didn't end up having one due to having it easy and organizing based on having all my details set on paper and bags lists for each event.

The backdrop and centerpieces rented were easy to put together and within 5 minutes. That's my view on day of coordinator.

View quoted message Wow Robyn!!! That’s a fantastic deal! 😊 That is so great that you can make it work! ❤️

I have actually considered doing just that! We have some really close family and family-friends that are super Type A and that I do trust to take care of little details! I just really want everyone to enjoy the day too and don’t want it to feel like “work” for anyone. But you’re so right that they might actually enjoy doing it.

I lucked out - my florist does wedding coordination as well, and gave us a discounted rate. I've seen some places charge as much as $2,000 for day-of coordination (which, like, really??) but we're getting ours for $600. I also hadn't factored this cost into my initial $20,000 budget, so I understand how you feel

Your other option (which is what I considered doing initially) is assigning friends or relatives little tasks for the big day IN ADVANCE, so they know what they're meant to do. I have a very small family, but if you have loads of type-A aunts and cousins like my fiance does, they might be very keen to oversee little details like photographer wrangling, setting up the sweet table, decor set-up/take-down.

View quoted message Thanks so much for your feedback Robyn! 😊 Much appreciated! My only concern is that we didn’t factor it in to our original budget! I’m definitely trying to weigh the pros and cons.

My future sister-in-law used a day of coordinator, and had such a positive experience that I'm going to have one, too. She says her coordinator was a life-saver, and took care of everything - all of those little details you don't want to worry about on your wedding day.