WEDDING PLANNER VS. VENUE COORDINATOR — THE DIFFERENCES MATTER!
At last, you have selected your picturesque wedding venue that aligns with your budget, has a beautiful neutral color palette that will compliment your elegant design aesthetic impeccably well, and for the icing on the proverbial cake, the venue also has a venue coordinator! Fabulous! Can the wedding planning stars be any more aligned?! Time to scratch the “finding a wedding planner” from your wedding planning checklist! Since the venue has a coordinator, of course, you couldn’t possibly need both! Right?
Well, here’s the short scoop (followed by the less abridged version further below): the venue coordinator’s work responsibilities are primarily venue-focused. In contrary to a planner’s role, which is to manage ALL parts of the event — even those responsibilities that occur months (and months) before the actual wedding day!
Truly one of the best wedding day investments a couple can make into their wedding day is to bring on a planner or day-of-coordinator to their wedding vendor team. A planner’s obligation starts months (and even years) in advance. They will guide you and your fiance through countless tasks leading up to the wedding day. These intricate details can include (but not limited to!) the following items:
10 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN A WEDDING PLANNER & A VENUE COORDINATOR | WHAT SETS THEM APART?
1. VENDOR REFERRAL
Planners have a rock-solid list of proven wedding vendors that will match your style AND budget! Not only do they check their availability prior to referring them to couples, but planners can also take the lead in vendor communication as well as research wedding venues that will far exceed a wedding vision.
2. BUDGET MANAGEMENT
Wedding planners not only provide you with budget tracking resources, but also offer helpful budget-friendly advice. They are resourceful in brainstorming creative wedding selections that curate the event vision without going over budget.
3. COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING CHECKLIST
Though venue coordinators can give you helpful advice throughout your planning journey, they will not be supplying you with an exhaustive wedding planning checklist. Whether you are a bride seeking full-scale event planning or day-of coordination, Novalee Events Co. offers our clients the use of our comprehensive wedding planning checklist. This is a highly organized, stress-reducing resource that allows you to manage the countless details and tasks that will be executed over the coming 12-18 months in a relaxed, organized and systematic manner!
4. DAY-OF WEDDING TIMELINE
Though venue coordinators can give you helpful advice throughout your planning journey, they will not be supplying you with an exhaustive wedding planning checklist. Whether you are a bride seeking full-scale event planning or day-of coordination, Novalee Events Co. offers our clients the use of our comprehensive wedding planning checklist. This is a highly organized, stress-reducing resource that allows you to manage the countless details and tasks that will be executed over the coming 12-18 months in a relaxed, organized and systematic manner!
5. CREATIVE EVENT DESIGN
Your Pinterest wedding board is full of beautiful inspiration images. Some have a nice cohesive flow, some not. You are inundated with countless inspiration and have no idea where to start! Though you know the events that you are drawn to⏤those with an abundance of thoughtfully curated details from the drinks stir straws to boutique-style guest welcome gifts⏤you struggle with how to bring those ideas to a stunning fruition? The answer: Invest in a wedding planner who specializes in creative event design as well (and whose portfolio serves as their creative proof)!
6. CREATIVE FLOOR LAYOUT DESIGN
Wanting a creative reception layout that is a show-stopper and is immediately intriguing to your guests? Then you will want an event designer who thinks outside the box by uniquely composing the floor plan pieces while still focusing on flow, vision and movement!
7. GUEST RSVP MANAGEMENT
Who is coming? Who has declined? Who is eating what? Who has sent a gift? Who has a plus one? — all of these details are tracked & managed in our online Guest RSVP Management resource that is available to all Novalee Events Co. clients!
8. HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS & TRAVEL
Wedding planners not only map out the timing logistics for shuttles/limo services between the ceremony and reception venue, but they also research hotels that are cost-appropriate and close to the things that matter to your guests. So that the event experience extends beyond the actual wedding, having the convenience of close proximity to not only the wedding venue but also interesting museums, lively shopping, hip restaurants/bars is paramount. We can act as a city guide by providing your guests with suggestions via a wedding-weekend-things-to-do itinerary!
What’s more, Novalee Events Co. also researches other events that might be occurring in and around your venue sites, and subsequently, factor traffic buffers into the wedding day timeline.
9. CEREMONY REHEARSAL ATTENDANCE & COORDINATION
That’s correct, planners and/or coordinators do this, too. We line up the wedding party for the processional, cue them to walk down the aisle, direct them where to stand at the alter, cue the musician, and advised the bridesmaids how to hold their bouquets & the groomsmen where to fold their hands. We advise the immediate family where they will be sitting throughout the ceremony. These tasks are items that you will want to know about before the big day!
10. EVENT DAY EMERGENCY KIT
The essential wedding planner’s bag of tricks to help overcome any obstacle that may arise on the event day! Having coordinated and planned many weddings over the years, Novalee Events Co. has fine-tuned and tweaked what is essential to have in this handy case. Surely, the venue coordinator will have some needed items, but wedding planners bring a carrying case loaded with necessities for unexpected mishaps or inconvenient what-ifs. Your expectation (and rightfully so) is that planners come prepared and we do not disappoint!
OTHER QUESTIONS THAT FALL UNDER THE ROLE OF THE EVENT PLANNER (not the venue coordinator!)
- What time will the hair and makeup begin? What is the day-of beauty schedule?
- Who will help round up family members for formal photos?
- Who will give a heads up to the mother of the bride that the cake cutting is about to occur?
- When will the cake arrive?
- When is the first dance? During cocktail hour? After dinner?
- Who composes a detailed wedding day timeline that is saturated with necessary day-of information?
- Who helps to keep the photographer on track in regards to the wedding day timeline?
- Who manages vendor setup and breakdown?
- Who manages DIY projects?
— Yes, it’s your wedding planner or your day-of-coordinator!!
Novalee Events Co. is a Pittsburgh-based luxury event planning and creative design company where quality takes precedence over quantity and where expectations are exceeded with unbridled creativity, meticulous organization and thoughtful uniqueness.
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