DIY or hire

[jcrow]

a wedding day of coordinator?

would/did you hire one? are you glad you did? or would that money been better used elsewhere?

 

[Tacori E-ring]

we just hired one and I am SO glad we did. My mom and I were both stressed out so she really helps. I''ll let you know more after the wedding.

 

[jcrow]

did you hire her for a full wedding planner or as a day of coordinator?

we are contemplating hiring one. i think she''d take a load off of my shoulders. but i don''t want to step on anyone''s toes in the process, ya know?

 

[Tacori E-ring]

She is basically a day of but she has been helping with ideas (such as flowers and favors).

 

[MissAva]

Oh I think we will once we have settled on a date, I dont want to take time off work to do this stuff.

I think they are well worth the money, if it does not keep you from having soemthing else you had wanted for your wedding.

 

[jcrow]

it''s definitely in the budget. i think we may do it. i do think it''ll be wierd having someone tending to me the parents

hopefully we''ll get use to it real quick!

 

[larussel03]

Does your reception site offer a wedding coordinator? Our reception site includes a coordinator and she's available to us to help whenever we need ideas or price info, and especially the day of!). She even gave us church searching tips.

My site includes so much, which really takes a load off. They include the cake from a fabulous boston bakery, floral centerpieces (you choose from a book of pictures which one you like, and you can always upgrade if you want) with candles, guestbook, cake knife, invitations (again choose from a large book of samples, with option to upgrade if I want something glitzier), chair covers and linens (the chair covers are huge bc places will charge up to 10.00 per chair for those if hte chairs are unattractive). They also include an extensive list of vendors for photography, florists and DJ's to look through, and my coordinator circled a few she feels are really good.

Basically all I have to do is get the church, bouquets, photographer, limo and DJ set, and we're almost set on church, DJ, bouquets/boutenierres (sp) and photographer and I've got a year and 4 months to go!

 

[jcrow]

go you! nope, i don''t have the same luck. although we do get the fab. gold chivari chairs, white linens to the floor, hurricane vases with candle and greenery. and all we are paying for is food and drinks. but, i digress.

the cathedral does have someone there to help with weddings. but i am more worried about getting everyone there on time. me getting ready early for pics with FI, and other logistics of the day.

 

[larussel03]

Date: 7/19/2006 5:40:18 PM
Author: jcrow
go you! nope, i don''t have the same luck. although we do get the fab. gold chivari chairs, white linens to the floor, hurricane vases with candle and greenery. and all we are paying for is food and drinks. but, i digress.

the cathedral does have someone there to help with weddings. but i am more worried about getting everyone there on time. me getting ready early for pics with FI, and other logistics of the day.

Yeah, I have to be way over the top on top of this b/c I''m moving to Michigan in the fall from Boston, so any planning from there will be annoying : )

BTW--I LOVE those kinds of chairs!!

I''d hire a coordinator if you''re worried, even just for the day, your peace of mind is worth the money. Or keep asking lots of questions here to get timeline and logistic ideas

 

[jcrow]

Date: 7/19/2006 6:40:04 PM
Author: *~Sweetpea~*

Date: 7/19/2006 5:40:18 PM
Author: jcrow
go you! nope, i don''t have the same luck. although we do get the fab. gold chivari chairs, white linens to the floor, hurricane vases with candle and greenery. and all we are paying for is food and drinks. but, i digress.

the cathedral does have someone there to help with weddings. but i am more worried about getting everyone there on time. me getting ready early for pics with FI, and other logistics of the day.

Yeah, I have to be way over the top on top of this b/c I''m moving to Michigan in the fall from Boston, so any planning from there will be annoying : )

BTW--I LOVE those kinds of chairs!!

I''d hire a coordinator if you''re worried, even just for the day, your peace of mind is worth the money. Or keep asking lots of questions here to get timeline and logistic ideas

yeh i could. i''m just wondering if i might slip up and miss something. you know?

 

[MelissaSue]

My dad was my "day of coordinator".. He took care of everything! Even found someone to take husbands car to the reception site for us! seriously.. my dad could be a wedding planner.. He kept track of all our budget and expenses so i didn't really have to worry about it.. and came to all my meetings with me (Just the caterer/reception ones I guess really)... Yelled at the caterers for me when they messed up.. I love him..

Edit.. to answer the question.. Would I ever pay someone? HECK NO!! I wouldn't trust anyone but myself and my family to take care of details..

 

[saturn]

I really think it''s a huge help to have a day-of-coordinator, if you can afford it. I was deliberating whether to hire one, and every single person I heard from who had hired one said that it was totally worth it.

The reason I wanted to hire someone was because we are having a little cookies and punch reception on the church lawn immediately after the wedding, and before the "real" reception. Since it''s just going to be lemonade and iced tea and cookies and cotton candy, it didn''t make sense to hire a caterer. BUT, I didn''t feel comfortable asking any of my family or friends to skip the wedding ceremony in order to set up for the reception.
I found someone on Craigslist who offers "wedding concierge" services, and she is only charging me $165 for 6 hours of help on the day of the wedding. She is just great - we had a free 1 hr. consultation, and she offered to get quotes for and order food, buy plates and napkins, provide trays and serveware, pick up and drop off rental equipment, and tons of other things.

If it''s in the budget, I think it''s a great idea to hire a coordinator.

 

[jcrow]

wow saturn! sounds like you got a steal of a deal!

 

[amyg]

i wasn''t going to, but my mom takled me into having at least a day of coordinator to make sure everything happened when it was supposed to without me having to worry about it, and it was sooooooooooooo worth it. She is a family friend that handles the weddings at her church and she only charged me $75. Totally worth it!!!!

 

[jcrow]

for those of you that had one and loved it, could you elaborate on why? what was specifically great about it?

 

[FireGoddess]

We didn''t have one, but I highly recommend hiring one for the day. You as the bride don''t need to be hassled with all the extra crap!

 

[ChargerGrrl]

Date: 7/20/2006 1:55:27 PM
Author: saturn
I really think it''s a huge help to have a day-of-coordinator, if you can afford it. I was deliberating whether to hire one, and every single person I heard from who had hired one said that it was totally worth it.

The reason I wanted to hire someone was because we are having a little cookies and punch reception on the church lawn immediately after the wedding, and before the ''real'' reception. Since it''s just going to be lemonade and iced tea and cookies and cotton candy, it didn''t make sense to hire a caterer. BUT, I didn''t feel comfortable asking any of my family or friends to skip the wedding ceremony in order to set up for the reception.
I found someone on Craigslist who offers ''wedding concierge'' services, and she is only charging me $165 for 6 hours of help on the day of the wedding. She is just great - we had a free 1 hr. consultation, and she offered to get quotes for and order food, buy plates and napkins, provide trays and serveware, pick up and drop off rental equipment, and tons of other things.

If it''s in the budget, I think it''s a great idea to hire a coordinator.

I really think that a day-of coordinator is a must! I plan events for work, so I''m totally familiar with the process. I''ve got things well under control for the wedding, but want to really "let go" that day and not worry about ANYTHING. I''ve been in/to weddings where the bridal party kinda acted as the day of coordinator, and each person was assigned tasks. Although there''s certainly nothing wrong with that, it''s just not my style. On that day, I plan to be chilling out with my gals and moms and don''t want them running all over the place getting things done.

So I too took the same route as Saturn, as found someone thru CL. The experience so far has been great. She''s responsive and on the ball. She''ll be running our rehearsal as well.

 

[flopkins]

If you don''t hire one, get a reliable, detail-oriented friend to do the job. I had a friend do it - she was awesome, even though she has no real wedding planning experience. I gave her a *very* detailed outline of the day''s events and showed her how I wanted everything set up - she knows my style too so that helped. She toured the wedding sites w/me and sat in on a meeting w/the caterer and florist, and came to the rehearsal. She handled all the setup and handing out checks to vendors, everything like that. Organizing the helpers, everything.

I was SO glad I did that. BEST desicion I ever made.

You don''t want ppl coming up to you on the day of the wedding asking, jcrow, the florist just got here and she doesnt know where to put the altar flowers.... or, OMG X or Y went wrong, what should we DOOO?????

A DOC will shield you from all of that and take care of all the random crap that comes up...

 

[jcrow]

thanks for all of your feedback! i decided to hire one. for one, i want to worry about the least stuff as possible on and near the wedding day. plus, i don''t want the stuff to fall on my family''s shoulders. i want them to enjoy the day too. i don''t want them behind the scenes, either. i am the sole planner for our wedding thus far. i''ve had virtually no help. so i''ve researched and booked and budgeted and what not all on my own. this makes me the sole person knowing what''s what. now the coordinator will share that burden with me. i also am scared that i may miss something. the coordinator would, in theory, catch those things.

my day of coordinator actually starts coordinating about 2 weeks before the actual wedding. oh, and did i mention she only handles one wedding per month? guess which one she''s doing for the month of nov?! ours

hopefully we made the right choice.