Wedding Wedding Coordinator - And She''s FREE

[Coreysgirl]

I can''t believe this. I was on Craigslist.com and was searching for photographers and came across an ad that said Wedding Coordinator in Chicago/Free. So I clicked the link thinking maybe it would say something different in the text. But it was exactly what the title said - Free Wedding Coordinator in Chicago. So I emailed the lady and she''s been in contact with me. She said she loves doing weddings and she''s trying to start her own company. So I''ll be helping her build her portfolio. I swear I was just about to meet with someone tomorrow who charges $25/hour. God must have known that I need some help bad.

 

[SarahLovesJS]

Sounds great! Just meet with her in person with your FI in a public place and check her out first. Sounds good so far, but be careful.

 

[Rhea]

That''s what happened with my wedding co-ordinator, except I found her on the knot. She was doing a few free weddings to build her portfolio and was trying to get weddings of all different sizes. It was truly great. I couldn''t afford a wedding co-ordinator and she pulled everything together very nicely. Rumor has it that she''s even better now

.

We ended up paying travel costs for our lady, turning over several photos to her, and both my mother and I were references for her for awhile. We also paid what we could afford to pay her as a tip once we figured out our final costs after the wedding.

Make sure you read the fine print and find out if she''s there the entire time (mine would only cover a certain amount of hours for free - which I fit into just fine, I think it was 8 hours or something) and if you need to pay travel costs. Oh, yes, and food. She ate just like the other vendors. I think our vendor plates were quite inexpensive, but it''s something to consider. Not eating for several hours while sneakily chasing up the baker who was 45 minutes late, re-doing your bustle, correcting the lanterns the reception site did wrong just doesn''t cut it on an empty stomach!

 

[Coreysgirl]

Addy...

If you don''t mind me asking, can you give me a list of things she helped you with. I''m trying to think of what I need help with because I''ve done alot of things already. I kind of know what they help out with but I''m not sure exactly. Like do they help you with DIY centerpieces and things like that. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Rhea]

I don't mind at all! I was hoping that I hadn't already taken over your topic and posted too much.

We had a small wedding, 45 people, at a B&B. This was also a couple of years ago so my memory may fail on parts.

Wedding Co-ordinator (WC), my mother, and I met in a restaurant. I brought an extra copy of everything: contracts, seating chart, a drawing of DIY centerpieces, a guest list (not addresses, just the list), vendor contacts, lay out of the rooms.

We spoke on the phone, met in person (we paid for her salad that we discussed the details over), reviewed all the details over a 2 hour lunch. We laid out arrival times of vendors, where they were to be and when, if any guests were doing anything she made note of that. Everything. I had a couple of ideas that she challenged me on and explained what she thought might be a better way in a tactful way. I changed a couple of things (because she was right!). She made tons of notes.

She supposedly contacted all the vendors to introduce herself and finalize anything that needed to be done such as running over the play list with the DJ and must take photos with the wedding photographer. I have no idea if she did or didn't. I just let her get on with it. Every vendor had her cell phone number.

On the day of the wedding she called me and said that she was leaving her house, did I need her to pick up anything on the way. I didn't. She stopped into my house and picked up all the reception decorations. She set up our centerpieces and checked over anything that the reception site had already done (I found out much later that she had the reception site re-do the way the lanterns hung in the tent because she didn't think it matched the photo I provided her close enough). Our baker was also late with the cake so she called and harassed them (once again, I didn't know until a bridesmaid who was setting up with her told me later). WC didn't get me involved in anything that day.

I specifically told WC that I couldn't deal with my reception site contact (RS) any longer. RS person was crap and her contract wasn't good so every time she talked to me she kept trying to get me to add on more stuff that she could charge me for because she had planned badly. WC made sure *everything* to do with RS person went through her and I didn't lay eyes on RS person that day at all - thank god!

Then WC was pretty hands off, at least that I know of. The greatest thing about her was that I had no clue what she actually did! No one told me, no one bothered me about anything. I only realised weeks later exactly how hard WC worked.

She let people know when dinner was so they could make the transition from cocktail hour to dinner. She walked to the kitchen to get things so that the RS person wasn't in the same room as me. She minded my grandparents who needed assistance up the stairs. She made any empty glasses the wait staff forgot to pick up quickly disappear. She reminded the bar tender to put beer in glasses, not bottles (I pulled WC aside to ask her to do this). My bustle fall down twice, she fixed it. I cried at one point, WC had cover up to touch up my make up. I totally forgot to bring a cake cutter (which reception site charged extra for) and she had one in her bag. She lit the candles in the dinning room during cocktail hour so no one else had to do it. She lit the ones outside and lanterns in the tent for dancing during dinner so no one else had to leave dinner. She assisted anyone needing help finding their seats. Any stray belongings she reunited with their owner. At the end of the night she packed the gifts and the extra cake the kitchen had wrapped in our car for us. She passed over the checks for tips of anyone who needed tipping at the end of the night. She left a list with everything that couldn't be picked up from the reception site that night so I could remember what needed collecting and when (our lanterns!!).

A couple of days afterwards she emailed me and asked me how I thought it went and discussed the wedding (we didn't have a honeymoon right away). She asked if I needed a list of what she thought of the vendors. I wanted one. She emailed me a run-down of how each vendor worked with her and what she thought of them (not in a gossip way, in a professional way) which allowed me to further decide if anyone needed a tip (I only tipped our bar tender that night and later decided that the DJ was awesome and needed a tip).

Seriously, she did everything. She was more than worth the cost of the lunch meeting, gas money, wedding vendor meal, and her tip.

 

[Rhea]

I must add, I didn''t expect her to do as much as she did. She was to be free after all. But she never treated us or our wedding as second rate and truly carried out everything that I''d expect someone to do if I paid them.

 

[ChargerGrrl]

granted, my Day-of gal wasn''t free, but she was a steal ($250- not bad for S.Cal!) I too found her on craigslist, advertising her new start up coordinating biz.

SHE WAS AWESOME! She brought her sister along as her assistant- BONUS!

I gave her a fat tip, good recommendation, and the use of my pics for her website.