If you’re on the fence about hiring a wedding planner or coordinator for your wedding day, the answer is a resounding yes to do it. Couples don’t regret hiring a planner or coordinator—they regret not hiring one.
Depending on your wedding planning situation and budget, you may be wondering if you need a planner or a coordinator. Below is the difference between a planner and a coordinator as well as the different levels of service to expect. In general, there are three tiers of wedding planning services.
Tier 1: Full Wedding Planner
A full wedding planner handles essentially every aspect of wedding planning from start to finish including the venue search and selection, vendor search and selection, contract reviews, wedding budget creation and management, wedding design, timeline creation and logistics, and day of coordination and vendor management to ensure the wedding day runs smoothly. It is important to ask a full wedding planner if there are wedding planning tasks they do not handle. For example, wedding planners may not do wedding invite RSVP management, guest information collection, vendors payments on the couple’s behalf, etc. A full planner can be involved anywhere from 1-2 years before the wedding day.
Tier 2: Partial Wedding Planner
A partial wedding planner handles specific parts of wedding planning depending on what the couple’s needs are and what they have accomplished so far. For example, the couple may have found and booked their wedding venue(s) on their own and created their overall wedding budget but need help with booking the vendor team and creating/managing the timeline and vendors for the wedding day. Or another couple may have booked their venue(s) and some vendors and need help booking the last remaining ones to complete their vendor team, or just need help staying on track with all tasks. A partial planner will also handle the logistics, timeline creation and day of coordination duties, like a full planner. A partial planner is usually involved for a shorter period of time compared to a full planner, like 6-9 months before the wedding day.
Tier 3: Wedding Coordinator (AKA Day Of or Month Of Coordinator)
A wedding coordinator handles anything related to the logistics of the wedding day. That includes timeline creation and management, vendor communication, and any issues that may arise in the couple months before the wedding day and on the wedding day itself. A wedding coordinator is not involved in the actual planning process of the wedding (booking venues/vendors, creating a budget, assisting with the design, etc.) because by the time a wedding coordinator is involved in the process all those items should be completed. A wedding coordinator is usually involved 1-3 months before the wedding day. Based on the tasks included with each tier as well as the length of time a planner or coordinator is involved with the couple’s wedding planning journey, it is known that a full planner will be the most expensive service, a partial planner will be in the middle, and a wedding coordinator will be the lowest cost in terms of price points.
Friday, February 28, 2025
