Cheers To Wedding Channel

Thank you Wedding Channel for this wonderful explanation:

What's the difference between a wedding planner, wedding coordinator, and day-of planner?

Wedding Planners 101

Despite what you may have heard, did you know that hiring a wedding planner (also called a wedding consultant) can be a huge help and save you money? If you’re planning on hiring a wedding planner, you’ll want to do so as soon as you start planning. They’ll help you search for the perfect venue and find great vendors that will fit within your planning budget. (In fact, a great planner will have relationships with vendors and will often be able to help you negotiate deals you wouldn’t be able to on your own.) Once you’ve booked your vendors, they’ll oversee the relationships with each, and help pull everything together. The best part is, they plan weddings for a living, so there won’t be a problem they haven’t encountered before and they’ll know how to handle even the stickiest of situations, and keep you calm in the process.

Wedding Coordinators 101

A wedding coordinator is a lot like a wedding planner, in that they help you organize and pull together your wedding details, but they may not handle quite as much as the traditional planner would. For example, your planner may sit down with from day one to help you dream up the wedding colors, style, and decor theme and help you negotiate contracts and book vendors, whereas the coordinator may just stick to finalizing all your vendor business after you’ve made the major decisions. They will most likely handle contracted work primarily, but are not always limited to this only. Be sure you’re clear on the extent of the services they’re willing to provide when you interview them to make sure you’re going to receive all the support you’re expecting.

Day-of Coordinators 101

A day-of coordinator helps you get everything done on your actual wedding day, but isn’t really involved before the big day. You meet beforehand to fill them in on who’s who and what’s what and exactly how you’d like the day to play out. They will then be in charge of handling all of your vendors and set-up on the day of your wedding, as well as any type of clean-up or postwedding duties needed, so that you and your family members can just relax and enjoy the day. A bride who plans to be very hands-on in her planning process will love the idea of a day-of coordinator. It allows her to enjoy all the ups and downs of the planning, without having to worry about seeing it all through until the very end.