What Does a Wedding Planner Do?
Since each wedding is going to be different, the answer to the usual question, “What does a wedding coordinator do?” will most probably not always be complete. However, take this message away from this article: your main responsibility as a wedding coordinator is to fill the pre-wedding duties of the bride, which includes everything from helping to prepare for the wedding and shopping for the wedding dress to booking the reception hall and even organizing the ceremony itself. The bride is the main planner and the coordinator will coordinate all the details that make the wedding what it is. To become an effective wedding coordinator, you need to be organized, flexible, creative, and very professional. But above all, you should be someone who believes in making the bride feel that her day was a happy one and that all her plans were perfect.
If you are the one planning the wedding, then you are the central figure in the whole affair. You will need to manage the budget, find a venue, select a caterer and photographer, purchase invitations and decorations, and even manage the guest list. As the planner, you will have to organize all these tasks and keep on top of them since you will be spending most of your time at the venue during the actual event. This requires a lot of organizational skills. Your job description also suggests that you should be very organized and can handle multiple roles, whether that means being a bookkeeper or a call center agent, managing your time effectively while maintaining your budget at the same time, and more.
There are many aspects of wedding planning that you need to know about if you want to be taken seriously as a wedding coordinator. The first thing you should know is that there are different kinds of wedding planning consultants. There are some that are strictly online based and do everything from sending out press releases and client information to helping brides and grooms create the perfect wedding package.
Some are also real live people who will actually come to your home or the location for a pre-wedding rehearsal. This will help you be able to see what you have done with your planning and it will give you some examples to follow. You will get to see how everything fits together and how you can make any minor changes that will still make the big impact. One of the biggest responsibilities of a wedding planning consultant is to make sure that there is enough space for the rehearsal and for the guests to walk around. Many planners are very strict about having enough space and you will need to show your current arrangement.
Online planners are a bit of a mixed bag. While they are not as strict with their wedding budget as live planners, they are not strictly online either. They may send out postcards, give you a list of the vendors you need to meet with, but they will not always meet with you in person to discuss your wedding budget. Some online planners will email you a breakdown of what you need to do and then another set of budget pictures that they will take after the close of the sale at the end of the evening.
One of the best ways to find out what does a wedding planner do is to talk to those in your local community. Ask your local vendors if they know of any planners and ask them what they think of them. Find out what vendors have had their weddings recently and ask them what they thought of the companies they dealt with. Get price quotes from three or four different companies. Then compare the costs and work with the one that will give you the best value for your money.