Managing Expectations When Hiring a 'Day-of' Wedding Coordinator

🎙️ Should You Hire a Wedding Planner or a Day-of Coordinator? Here’s What You NEED to Know!

Brides-to-be, don’t make this critical wedding planning mistake! 🚨 Before you book a Day-of Coordinator, watch this episode of Beyond Vows & Veils to understand the key differences between a wedding planner and a day-of coordinator—and why choosing the wrong one could lead to unnecessary stress on your big day.

In this episode, wedding planning expert Brittany Ellis breaks down:
 ✅ What a wedding planner actually does (and why they’re worth the investment)
 ✅ The limitations of a day-of coordinator (and why they don’t replace a planner)
✅ Red flags to watch for when hiring wedding vendors
✅ How to ensure your wedding day runs smoothly without last-minute surprises

Whether you're searching for "Do I need a wedding planner?", "Wedding coordinator vs. planner", or "Best wedding planning tips for brides", this episode has the expert advice you need to make an informed decision.

💍 Don’t leave your big day to chance! Watch now, subscribe for more expert wedding planning insights, and share this with a bride-to-be!

For more Beyond Vows & Veils or Eventrics Indian Weddings, follow along at:

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ABOUT EVENTRICS INDIAN WEDDINGS

Eventrics Indian Weddings is an award-winning team of experienced wedding planning and management experts, specializing in large-scale Indian Weddings & Fusion Weddings in Miami, Orlando, Palm Beach, and destinations worldwide.

The Eventrics Indian Weddings team offers complete and partial planning services with a personal and hands-on approach. We believe each couple deserves a fully invested wedding planner to be engaged throughout the entire process to ensure no detail is missed or overlooked!

Chapters

• 0:00 Understanding Wedding Coordination
• 6:10 The Role of a Wedding Planner vs. Coordinator
• 11:57 Deciding Between a Planner and Coordinator

Transcript

Brittany (00:00.654)
Hey everyone, welcome back to Beyond Vows and Veils. Thank you so much for joining me each week to listen, learn, and discover more ways that you can make more informed decisions on your wedding planning journey. So today we're addressing a really important topic to my heart, which is what you need to know before hiring a wedding coordinator or otherwise known as a date of planner. So.

For me, there's usually a lot of confusion surrounding what these rules entail. so I just want to set the record straight because if you decide to hire a wedding coordinator or day of anything, make no mistake, you...

the bride, you are the wedding planner. Bringing in a day of coordinator does not mean that they magically take on this role. You have chosen to be a plan your own occasion. And now you're hiring someone that essentially is going to come in and do some magical something day of which I don't believe in, but we're going to chat through it I really want to remove the stigma and just give brides the education and empowerment that they need to make the best decision for them. my team doesn't actually offer any day of coordination services for this

reason because brides are investing thousands of dollars and that return on investment, at least in my opinion, is for them to be able to be fully present at their wedding, that they spent all those months planning and for everything to go off without a hitch. And the only thing that they should be worried about is what time they're in hair makeup and what time they're in photos and being escorted to and from the different events and being able to just mix and mingle with their guests and attendees while they're there. So in this episode, I'm going to be breaking down how to

manage expectations when working with someone in this day of coordinator role or on-site coordinator role and perhaps convince you to reconsider the planning support that you truly need for your special day.

Brittany (01:52.047)
So first and foremost, let's dive into understanding the differences between a wedding planner and a day of coordinator. As many couples think a day of coordinator is again, this planner, that's going to kind of like magically step in and make sure everything's seamless. But the reality is, is a wedding planner is someone that's involved from start to finish. They're involved with everything from design discussions, layout support, timeline development, vendor communications, contracting, and then they're carrying all that knowledge, all that energy and all that effort forward

forward

onto your actual onsite so that they're able to deliver that plan seamlessly. And so they've been involved from the beginning, right? They know your expectation level. And so the likelihood they're going to be able to deliver is a little bit higher. Whereas a day of coordinator is, again, I don't really offer this service. So I'm kind of speaking to someone who might be in the industry offering this, what I've kind of heard from other inquiries that people that are reaching out to me in terms of what their expectation is. But my understanding is that this expectation

of this person is for them to come in, in the final two to three months prior to the actual event date and kind of review your existing timeline, view your existing contracts, and then kind of take that pile and run with it on the day of the event. So again, they're not planning your wedding. They're simply reviewing the information that you essentially are delivering to them. So...

If you're like most any bride, right? This is your first time having this experience. You have no idea what the heck you're even supposed to have done three months prior to your event. But I can tell you that usually if you're doing a pass off like that, you have to have everything from.

Brittany (03:31.074)
finalized layouts, at least a basic understanding of when your vendors are arriving for each event, things to be set up on time, what are their power requirements, what's their setup needs, like just basic foundational items, which again, to the average bride, you're busy in your day-to-day life, so usually you wouldn't have it that organized, and kudos to you if you do, because I definitely don't wanna bash anyone who's type A or super organized or wants to take on planning their own occasion. I just wanna make sure that I set the tone

that your expectation level for on-site execution needs to be scaled to the amount of investment that you put into someone fulfilling that plan. So hiring a day of coordinator is not a substitute for planning and there shouldn't be this expectation for them to fix months of...

semi organized disorganized information that can lead to later frustration, right? At the end of the day, always say or used to in season one of starting this episode and starting this podcast is, you just don't know what you don't know. And that essentially is why I feel like when you hire a planner,

you're hiring them for their knowledge and their experience and their understanding of logistics and what it takes to basically plan an event. Whereas a day of coordinator is basically just working with whatever you kind of put together. And they can only do so much. They can only carry that plan out so well with where you kind of left them when you tend to pass it off, if that makes sense. So in my opinion, if your spending,

six figures or more on your wedding day. That's a big investment, right? And in my opinion, again, the return on that investment is what you have to ask yourself that question. What is the return on my investment that I'm making to this wedding day? What do I actually want? Aside from the obvious, you want your friends and family to be able to gather. You obviously want to get married that day. You know, those are the obvious things. what is the expectation for the overall weekend in terms of your

Brittany (05:40.896)
experience, right? So at the end of the day, just understanding that nobody's going to be able to just like fill that role and be able to seamlessly make it happen depending on what organization level that you passed it off to them as. if that makes sense. The second thing is I just want to dig a little bit more into like why our team doesn't necessarily offer this day of coordination service. So we really take more of a comprehensive approach when it comes to planning. So we ensure more of a seamless experience. So we don't offer

just purely because there's lack of control over the planning process. I mean, maybe I'm a control freak, but since a coordinator kind of enters late in the game, they're sort of working with whatever has already been planned, as we've just kind of mentioned. So if major details were overlooked, they have very limited ability to fix them last minute. So let me share with you just kind of a story of...

back in my very beginning stages of my career when I first started doing weddings and I absolutely did offer just day of coordination. I think we actually called it that, which looking back I cringe, but.

What happened was, you know, a lot of times as a day of coordinator, I'm not going to let an event fail, right? That's just like not in my wheelhouse. So when I come in and I'm, you know, I don't know how many months we were away from the wedding day and I'm reviewing these contracts. I mean, the first thing I'm looking at is, okay, well, your venue contract has no access time for your vendors, meaning there's no time block listed or any communication that happened prior of what time physically your vendors were going to be able

to enter into your ballroom space to start setting your event up. And so when I call the property and I say, hey, you know, we're going to start setting up for this event, you know, the madaap that's going to take us at least eight hours from what the designers sharing. And then the stage, I know might take another one to two hours, depending on if it's indoors or outdoors. And the venue says, well, I'm so sorry, we actually have another event scheduled. So you really only have three hours and we're not able to give you any further

Brittany (07:45.27)
well, there's a huge issue, right? That's going into this thing and now you're having an overhaul. What are we gonna even be able to do for design in three hours? Like what's logistically feasible? And so that's just one example of sharing again. You just don't know what you don't know until you kind of get into it, right? And so that's again why for me, I found it to be such a...

a liability because I want to deliver to anybody that signs a contract with my company. And if I can't deliver a seamless experience, then I just don't, I don't want to take the gig, right? I don't take the job. And so that's something that during my early years of my career that I had to really learn and discover was why I don't get involved with a wedding in a certain period of time, especially if all the contracts are already signed and all that stuff, because there's only so much you can do, right? So without full involvement and vendor selection and logistics,

and timeline management, things just often go wrong, right? So at the end of the day, you have to stand behind your reputation and what you want. And so if there's a wedding planner out there that you're considering or you're vetting for day of coordination services,

and then look at the magnitude of the event that you're hosting. Have they planned similar events? Are you just hosting a one day event that's like eight hours straightforward? Maybe there's a little bit more relief there. Whereas if you're hosting like a multi-day cultural event and they're offering day of coordination services, just make sure you really ask them the right questions and understanding like, what's their plan of attack, right? And maybe even talk to some past couples that they've worked with.

Another reason that we really don't get into this is just guest and vendor experience to us really matters because we believe again in maintaining like a high standard of hospitality and execution, which in my opinion requires a lot more than just last minute planning. So simply put, I just want to do something right or I don't want to do it at all. And so one of the things that we do offer during our off season for our company and again, every planner is different out there, but just to give bride some context that, okay, Brittany, I can't afford or maybe I don't want to

Brittany (09:50.016)
invest in a full-time planner

but I definitely need someone to be there the day of. Okay, well, I came up with this method that basically is called partial planning. That's just for my office. Some other planners may offer this as well. And what that is, is it's really just removing three core components, but everything else staying intact. So there's really not a big price difference to be honest. But again, it's for those couples who want to manage their own finances, have already selected and contracted their own property, and have already hired and contracted all of

their vendors. so before you're saying, Brittany, you're contradicting yourself because you just said, yes, I understand that but partial planning is coming in months and months and months leading to the actual event date. We're not kind of just coming in one or two months prior. So if there are any red flags that need to be addressed, we have a little bit more time that we can develop and tailor those things, as opposed to being like two to three months out before the wedding date. And it's like we're kind of screwed for lack of better way of saying it, right. So those are the things that are really important. And then usually, I'm actually reviewing those contracts before I take those

jobs on just so I can understand like, is this kind of like a mess or is this something that, okay, this is a property we've worked at before. I can give a quick phone call to them and I can just know that it's going to be a good fit and that we can carry it through again. Because again, I always want to deliver on site. So the third portion of this that I wanted to chat about is just how to decide in general if you need a planner or if you need a coordinator. And so I think that it's important for any bride to just simply ask themselves some baseline questions. Number one is

Do I want professional support throughout the entire process? Yay or nay? Am I confident in organizing all contracts and vendor communications myself, as well as developing my own timeline? Yay or nay?

Brittany (11:37.986)
Will I have the time and mental energy, right, to coordinate all the final details before the actual wedding itself. And am I comfortable, this is the most important one, am I comfortable being the go-to person for any on-site issues on the day of the wedding.

This is not something that you can just simply pass off to a family member. And quite frankly, I don't know that you could really fully pass it off to the day of coordinator, because keep in mind, you are the wedding planner. You've been organizing this whole show. And so it's inevitable that questions are going to come up, things are going to arise and somebody is going to need a point person. And if you've essentially been that lead role and all the months leading to your event date,

Well, who do you think that they're going to kind of call and knock on your hotel room door as you're getting hair and makeup in the morning, asking you questions and coming to you constantly. I mean, that's just how things flow. Even after planning events for, you know, I think going on 13 years now, there's always like little nitty gritty things that come up on site. And I'm not going to bother my bride with those things. I mean, those are things that me as a professional, I should be able to handle and manage. Now, if it's going to affect my client financially, or if it's kind of like a bigger deal or depending on her personality, if she likes to be in the thick of

all the knowledge, then I'm going to address that accordingly. But if you don't kind of have that go between and you just have a coordinator, again, not a planner, they're going to come to their planner, their lead, which is you for these questions, right? So at the end of the day, if you want comprehensive support and like seamless execution, hiring a planner probably is the best choice. And if you're organized and just need someone to run a timeline, maybe a day of coordinator is the right role for you. But I just want to make sure I throw out to manage your expectations properly.

So just some final thoughts and takeaways is wedding coordination and wedding planning are two very different things and choosing the right service is crucial to your experience. our team believes in just efforts and stress free process for couples, which is why we mostly focus on full service planning rather than day of coordinating. But just make sure that you understand the differences and really have some realistic expectations when choosing the best option for you. Because again, I want to

Brittany (13:57.664)
just stress the importance of understanding that it doesn't have to be all one or the other. There can be hybrids in between. So if you're considering planning, you maybe know you're going to need a little bit extra support. Call one of the planners that you're considering vetting and just have an honest candid conversation with them. Like, hey, here's where I'm at in my planning journey. Can you meet me where I am? Is there a sense or a way that you can make sure that you're going to be able to be that go-to or that point person for my day of? Like, what does that require?

But ultimately, that's all I got for you guys today. Thank you again so much for joining. I'm always just trying to give information and guidance to couples out there that this is their first experience doing it. So please know I'm not harping on you if you can't or don't wanna hire a full service planner. I'm just sharing with you there's other options in between. And then just understanding to manage your expectations for onsite coordinators because bless the people out there that are still offering this service. is...

There's always a need for something in the market, right? But they deal with a lot. There's a lot of load there and there's a lot of things that they're just out of their control if they weren't in the beginning stages of your planning journey. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel. We're always posting some more content and information and feel free to DM me if you have any questions. Thank you so much for your time.