THE TRUTH BEHIND ‘DAY OF COORDINATION’
What exactly is "Day of Coordination"?
Lindsay Plank Events gets many requests from couples looking for professional help for “Day of Coordination”. They want a professional to come in for the day, and make sure that everything runs smoothly. What most couples don't know, is that there is much more to just "coming in to make sure things run smoothly" on the day-of.
I want to share with everyone, what "Day of Coordination" is really all about!
Day of Coordination involves work such as: contacting all of the vendors that the couple have involved with their day, looking over each vendor's contracts, re-confirming the services they will provide to the couple, finalizing details such as: menu selections with catering, arranging all your final RSVPs, confirming the florals, selecting those specific songs for the DJ, and so much more!
It also includes: final venue walk through, confirming details for the Rehearsal, finalize timing and logistics with your team of event professionals, creating an itinerary to make sure the wedding day flows efficiently, distributing this itinerary to every vendor involved weeks prior to your wedding day, and meeting with the couple at least twice in person or via zoom to go over all of these details.
Moving on to the actual day of the wedding: being the first to arrive to the venue, helping the couple with anything they may need during the morning of, managing all vendors to make sure they arrive on time and are prepared with everything they have promised. Help with set-up of personal details, handling any last minute problems that may arise, coordinating the ceremony — making sure everyone in the wedding party gets down the aisle, — help transferring items from the Ceremony to the Reception, making sure the reception sticks to the timeline, full implement all details on behalf of the couple, and become your point person for all vendors.
THEN....even after the wedding, there are tasks that planners must follow up on for the couple. That adds up to quite a bit of hours of work put in for just "Day of" right?!
The Problem With The Word "Day of"
We as planners/coordinators can not just show up to a pre-planned wedding and work, without knowing every one of those tiny, important details! This means, we have to do our own planning and research, to make sure the couple's wedding day goes just as planned!
Regarding Day of Coordination vs. Event Management, in reality, the service of “Day Of" you are seeking doesn't actually exist anymore. You may still find start-up planners/coordinators that will do this but seasoned pros pull away from being responsible for executing an event that they were not at least minimally involved in planning.
Many things can go wrong and their reputation is at stake. In theory, every couple is only ever planning one wedding, right? So no matter how detailed and organized, there just really isn't any possible way to put together a proper timeline and reconcile all of the many details that go on in those last few weeks. Seasoned professionals use the terminology Month of Coordination or Event Management to give the proper idea of when the Coordination begins with couples, and not taking on your wedding in a last minute world wind.
You'd really like a “Day of Coordinator" but the budget is too tight to squeeze anymore?
Think of your wedding the same as a show you go see on Broadway!
The show has a set, music, lighting, a cast (all of which have cues to take), and a producer that runs the show — aka your wedding coordinator — without one, it could get chaotic and end in catastrophe!
I say, contact a coordinator that you like, and set up a consultation! Don't let the price tag scare you away. Go over your vision, and expectations from a coordinator. My rule of thumb is 3-5% of your budget for Event Management and 10-12% for Full Planning Service.
All this to say, you really can't afford NOT to hire the pro that will vet things for you. I like to be an open book and share my good and bad experiences. I am also excited about educating couples on what it really takes to make a wedding day run smoothly based on those bad experiences. Ultimately, I just want everyone to have the wedding day they deserve. #transparency