You’re newly engaged, and now begins the wedding planning process. Congratulations! Now, get ready to do more planning and coordinating than you’ve ever done before. It will be the craziest and happiest time of your life all at once! Even if you decide to hire a wedding planner (which we highly recommend), you’ll still likely be making some phone calls and sending some emails weighing in on options, making final decisions, and of course, paying everyone involved in making your day a success. Take a deep breath; you’re in for quite the ride.
One thing you might notice early on is that there are a LOT of people involved in the various aspects that make a wedding day as planned. You may have already heard the terms “Wedding Planner”, “Wedding Coordinator”, and “Wedding Designer”, and you might be wondering what the heck the difference is between each of them. They all sound very similar, so what does each professional do? Here’s what you need to know about these professionals who work so hard to make your wedding vision come to life.
Wedding Designer
If you hire a Wedding Designer, they will undoubtedly often have a strong background in interior design and/or floral design as well. Whatever their specific background includes, you can bet that they will have experience with matching colors, materials, flowers, and decorations to make your wedding ceremony area and reception venue look and feel the way you want it to.
The Wedding Designer will ensure your bridal party’s color palette goes with the decorations and the look of the venue, and that every part of the design works well with the lighting in the space where the ceremony and/or celebrations will take place. They’ll also advise you when it comes to choosing any materials and accessories to ensure they add to the overall atmosphere you want to create.
The Wedding Designer will also work closely with many (if not all) of the other vendors involved in your wedding planning to make sure the aesthetics are consistent throughout every aspect of the wedding. From the entertainment provider and photographer to the caterer, the bartender, and more, the Wedding Designer will aim to make everything come together visually.
One important thing to remember is that, although a Wedding Planner might also be a Wedding Designer, a Wedding Designer isn’t typically a Wedding Planner. The Wedding Designer is there to focus on making sure everyone looks picture perfect (literally).
Wedding Coordinator
So what then, does the Wedding Coordinator do? This role sometimes gets confused with a Wedding Planner, but there are many key differences between the two. A Wedding Coordinator’s role is to coordinate all of the essential activities that take place on your wedding day.
Many people think that a Wedding Coordinator can be hired solely for the day of the wedding. However, there is much more involved in coordinating a wedding than people often realize. In order to ensure everything goes as it should, the Wedding Coordinator will often get involved about a month and a half before the wedding day so they understand the flow of the day and have time to communicate and coordinate with all of the vendors involved.
Some couples forget to plan for who will coordinate all of the big day’s events, which can make a wedding day a little chaotic and more stressful than it needs to be. While some versions of these services are sometimes included with whatever venue you choose, they don’t always cover everything you might imagine. Therefore, if you think you need someone to coordinate every minute of the wedding day — from the ceremony to the reception and everything in between — you may want to hire a dedicated Wedding Coordinator.
Wedding Planner
Last, but certainly not least, the Wedding Planner is the person that manages every aspect of your wedding from start to finish. Simply put, they are the ones in charge of making sure that everything that needs to be done gets done, and that everyone is where they are supposed to be at the right moment on the wedding day.
The Wedding Planner is there to do everything from managing the budget and ensuring necessary paperwork and payments are submitted to finding and/or coordinating with vendors, and being there on the day of the wedding to oversee everything. A Wedding Planner may also have experience with design and style and may consult on these aspects of your wedding as well, but not always. They may also take on the role of the day-of coordinator, but again, not necessarily. It will depend on the agreed-upon services.
The Wedding Planner is mainly responsible for initiating and following through with every part of a wedding day that must be planned. They will work closely with the couple to make sure all of the people involved in the special day do what they are supposed to do, and are where they are supposed to be at the appropriate moment.
A Wedding Planner will usually start working with a couple soon after their engagement, so they can help with planning any aspect of the wedding where help is needed. The sooner they become involved in the planning, the better, so they can allow the couple to just enjoy being engaged and let someone else take care of all the small details.
Considering Hiring a Wedding Planner or Coordinator?
Whether you hire a wedding planner or a wedding coordinator, they will both be in charge of overseeing the entire wedding, so it’s important to keep them in the loop as the date gets closer. Any details, updates, or changes related to the wedding that are communicated to a vendor should also be shared with either the wedding planner or coordinator, to avoid any issues on your wedding day.
Angela Marie Weddings offers Wedding Coordination Services, Wedding Management Services, and Full Wedding Planning Services, depending on your needs and budget. We genuinely enjoy helping couples bring their vision of the ideal wedding to life. Get in touch with us today to find out more about our services and how we can help you create your dream wedding. We look forward to helping you plan your perfect day!