Wedding Planner vs Coordinator: What’s the Difference?
You’ve heard of wedding planners, but what the heck is a wedding coordinator? As someone who offers both services in Eugene, Oregon, I’m happy to help clear up the confusion!
A full service wedding planner starts working with you from the very beginning of your wedding planning journey. This means they help you find the perfect wedding venue, choose your color palette and vendors, and map out a plan for your day-of celebrations.
Photo: Reyn Photography
In other words: a full-service planner will take on the most responsibility of wedding planning. They are with you every step of the way, from meetings with your vendors to choosing your napkins, plates, dessert options, etc. Full-service planners often offer design services, so you can think of them as the interior decorator of your event (among many other hats they wear!).
By contrast, a partial wedding planner supports the couple throughout the process but doesn’t communicate with vendors until later (often three months before the wedding). Partial planning means you’ll receive one-on-one time with a professional, but not as frequently as you would with full planning.
The most popular option is to hire a wedding coordinator. As a coordinator, I meet with clients 3 months before their big day, and then again about 1 month before to finalize all of the last-minute details. Reaching out to your vendors is an essential part of what I do - in that final month before your wedding, I distribute the schedule of events, parking plan, and layout maps to everyone you’ve hired. Once all of your vendors are on the same page, I guide your rehearsal, and then I’ll step in on your wedding day and run the show… so you can enjoy it!
A huge benefit to hiring a coordinator is having a point person on the day of your wedding. If any vendors or guests have a question during the event (Is smoke supposed to be coming from that barbecue? When is First Dance? What do we do with leftover cake?), they won’t have to bother you, your spouse, or your parents: they can come to me instead. As the coordinator, my team and I take care of all the details and deliver the day you worked so hard to plan. As I like to say: your plans are in good hands!
