Dear Followers,
I hope you are all having a good week! As I sit on a plane bound for N. Carolina (brrrr. away from my January summer in California), I blog to you about a topic that is about as mythical as a unicorn! What is the topic you ask? ...(dramatic pause)... "Day of Coordination".
First of all, the terminology sucks. "Day of Coordination" implies that a wedding consultant offers a service where they meet with the client maybe once, and then show up on the wedding day and run the show. Ummmm, it doesn't work this way folks. And if you find a wedding consultant who tells you they can do this, run for the hills, they know not what they say.
Ok, so what should it be called? Well, here at Nicole Lisanne Weddings & Events by Design we term it "Rehearsal and Wedding Day Coordination". Others call it other things, and we don't care, it's so confusing there are times we still have to refer to what we offer as the dreaded "Day of Coordination" just to get clients to recognize the terminology or theory perhaps.
So...you want to know what "Rehearsal and Wedding Day Coordination" entails? Here are the bare minimum services that all packages such as this should include, if a wedding consultant tells you they offer less support, beware, they probably aren't certified, and most likely have very little practical experience as a wedding consultant. So, here's what it should include:
1.A complimentary initial consultation to meet in person or on the phone to get to know each other, and create a basic understanding of the client's wedding day plans, as well as an opportunity for the consultant to share how they can assist
2.Once the client books, it should include access to them via phone and e-mail for advice, wedding professional referrals, and whatnot. Of course each wedding consultant offers different boundaries for when this type of help starts, and how often it can be utilized.
3.The consultant should offer at least one visit to the wedding venues with the wedding professional team and client so that they can determine the layout. They often times consolidate this meeting with the timeline meeting as well when they go over the ingredients for the wedding, and the flow.
4.The consultant should author professional site layouts and a timeline document set that holds all of the information for the client's wedding.
5.The consultant should communicate and field questions with the wedding professional team throughout the planning process.
6.To finalize details you should have a final wrap up meeting in person or by phone to make sure all details are tied up. After this your consultant should finalize your document set and send it out as final to your wedding professional team and call each of them to ensure they are ok to go.
7.The consultant should be at rehearsal so that they can learn who your family and friends are and gain their respect before the big day when they'll need their full cooperation in order to make sure things run smoothly. It's also important that your consultant is at rehearsal for when your officiant might not be, or just so that they can collaborate on your wants for the flow of the ceremony the next day. Most consultants also take the time to give out the timeline to the wedding party and family members involved in the ceremony after rehearsal, and share their emergency contact information so that they can field questions and concerns before the big day and keep the calls from bugging the couple.
8.On the wedding day the consultant should call in to check up on the couple as they are getting ready to make sure hair and makeup is running smoothly and that everyone is doing well. They should be the first ones at each venue (if multiple venues for the wedding ex. a church for ceremony and a reception site) to greet your wedding professional team, direct them on set up, answer their questions, and do your personal set up items such as favors, how to fold the napkin, ceremony programs, light decorations, escort cards, table numbers, place cards, etc....). Throughout the day they should be the director for your wedding day for all of the wedding professionals guiding every wedding professional, the client, and the guests through the experience of the wedding day. At the end of the wedding reception they should wrap up all set up items and help ensure everything gets back to the couple after the wedding day.
As I've mentioned in other posts, the cost of "Rehearsal and Wedding Day Coordination" varies from consultant to consultant depending on their market, specialty, years of experience, certification, overhead, and more. I would say in the SF Bay Area you'll see everything from $1,800 to $3,500 and up.
I hear certain questions all of the time when meeting with new potential clients, and I'd like to bust a few of these myths associated with "Rehearsal and Wedding Day Coordination" aka "Day of Coordination".:
Q.We already have our vendors so we don't need that part of your package.
A.Most wedding consultants offer basic wedding professional referrals complimentary, but ask yours what they do. We don't charge for this so it doesn't lower the price of your package.
Q.We are really organized people. We both have experience planning corporate and other types of events. We have already written our timeline and have site layouts, so why do we need to pay you to do them?
A.Because I wouldn't walk into a bakery, show them a Martha Stewart cake designed to the 9's, and expect them to be able to use my rinky dink kitchen at my pad and my ingredients in order to produce the same beautiful cake I saw in the magazine. Long answer shorter, because it is socially responsible of us to do our pre-planning steps well so that we are prepared to help you have the smoothest, stress free wedding day possible.
Q.Our officiant is going to run rehearsal, why do we need you there?
A.We need to be there so that we can ensure your officiant knows what you would like to do for your rehearsal practice since we are the ones that help you plan that out with your officiant. It is also our only time to meet your friends and family members participating in the wedding so that we establish a repport with them before the big day. If they don't meet us before the wedding day they won't know who we are on the day of and they most likely won't have the same type of respect for us, and we need them to listen to us on the day of in order to make your day go well. At rehearsal we also pass out your timeline to everyone as well as our emergency contact phone number, this alleviates you as the Bride and Groom having to communicate the wedding day plans to them, and gives your friends and family members someone to call in case of emergency so it doesn't become you getting the calls and being stressed out when they bug you.
Q.I have great wedding professionals hired for my big day, I don't think they need help running the day since they've all worked my venue before, so why do I need you?
A.Because it's not their job to coordinate your wedding day. When you ask your wedding professionals such as your site coordinator, DJ, and caterer to name a few, to coordinate your wedding day, they aren't able to focus on what they do best, and their real jobs. Also, when you have to many cooks in the kitchen and no one real leader for the rest of your team, things get sloppy and confusing, and more often than not your vendors have to bug you throughout the night asking you questions like "when did you want to do cake cutting?" instead of leaving you be to enjoy your moment. A wedding consultant who has repport with your wedding professional team from past experience can be a better leader than just one of your vendors, or a friend, or a family member. They know how to communicate with a wedding professional team on the day of in order to get things done right.
There are many more myths surrounding "Rehearsal and Wedding Day Coordination" aka "Day of Coordination". The main point is that a Wedding Consultant does have a place in every wedding as the pre-planner, sometimes designer, resource giver, consultant, and team lead for wedding professionals on the rehearsal and wedding day, that a friend, family member, or novice doesn't have the skill set for. Beware of consultants who tell you they are comfortable just meeting you once and then using your timeline documents and site layouts to run your day, they are not professional, and they are doing a disservice to you as the client as well as to the wedding industry as a whole.
Much love,
Nicole
