Your venue coordinator isn’t who you think she is
Two months into building our company, we’ve talked to 156 people planning a wedding. In most of these interviews, we spoke with the bride to be. From 1 week into the engagement to 1 month before the wedding, I heard these words when asked if she hired a day of coordinator:
“My venue comes with a coordinator.”
I found this surprising because on the vendor side — we’ve spoken with 275 venues so far — they don’t say that they provide day of coordination services. Venue coordinators are just the staff who work at the venue. Typically, they’re found at all inclusive venues that provide rentals and may require you to use in-house catering. Venue coordinators are responsible for making the venue look good. They only plan for staff and schedules related to the venue.
That doesn’t cover your photographer, videographer, florist, hair & makeup artist, DJ, band, officiant. Timeline wise, they don’t plan out your schedule for when you need to get ready, how much time to leave for transportation to the venue, where guests should go, when vendors need to set up so that when you walk in, everything is set and your wedding looks good.
These are all the responsibilities of a day of coordinator. They make you look good. Your guests walk away raving about how much fun they had, how it was more than they ever expected from a wedding, how much the day represented you.
Wedding venues are businesses that need and want to make money. I’m sure you already noticed by the crazy marked-up prices in the industry. How are venues able to provide a coordinator for free when traditional wedding planners charge $1,500 to $3,000 for a service that goes by the same name?
Venue coordinators are a channel for the business owner to up-sell services. They can recommend you upgrade on rentals, splurge on nicer wine, and often times, price out extra charges on the spot when you ask for help on decorations or clean up. At popular venues, they are working with a hundred brides at any one time so individual time and communication is limited.
When you’re considering whether a venue coordinator can meet your needs, go in with your eyes wide open. Ask what that person will be responsible for and when those responsibilities will start and end.
Questions to ask your venue coordinator to assess their value:
- What services are included with the venue coordinator, and are there additional charges?
- What are his/her working hours on the day of the wedding?
- Will he/she be involved leading up to the wedding? How much time and support can we expect? Will it be the same venue coordinator that we work with from now until our wedding?
- How much assistance will the coordinator provide for set up/decor? What about for tear down? Are there additional charges?
- Will the venue coordinator manage my other vendors on the day-of, e.g., photographer, videographer, florist, hair & makeup artist, DJ, band, officiant?
- Will he/she create a detailed day-of timeline with timing and set up guidelines for all my vendors?
- Will he/she be the point of contact on the day of for any questions or guidance that vendors, guests, bridal party needs?
- If something goes wrong, will the venue coordinator be responsible for creating a solution?
- Will he/she set up signage to direct guests to the wedding?
- Will he/she provide assistance getting gifts and personal belongings to a designated place?
Other resources that provide insight:
Offbeat Bride
Huffington Post
Lover.ly
