Why do you need a wedding coordinator if your venue already provides one? You deserve to know THE TRUTH.

Before you hire an independent coordinator like myself, or entrust your day to your "venue coordinator", I want you to know the difference between the two and what services they actually provide.

• WHO DOES THE "VENUE COORDINATOR" WORK FOR? They work for the venue. The venue is their full time employer and their loyalty is to them first and foremost.
  
  WHO DOES AN "INDEPENDENT WEDDING COORDINATOR" WORK FOR? YOU. My full time job is to design, plan and coordinate weddings. 
• WHAT SERVICES DOES THE "VENUE COORDINATOR" PROVIDE? They are responsible for ensuring you pay your deposit, choose your menu by a specified date, oversee your menu tasting, receive your guest count on the day required, and obtain your vendor insurance certificates. On wedding day, they arrive early to oversee their staff has set up your ceremony & reception areas as required, catering staff is handling food and beverage services, including meal service, bar and beverage service and wedding cake service. They will set up your personal items such as place cards, menu cards, favors etc.
  
  WHAT SERVICES DOES THE "INDEPENDENT WEDDING COORDINATOR PROVIDE? My basic "month of" package ensures overseeing every element of your wedding. I contact all of your vendors to go over their contracted services,ensure all of your final payments have been made, and required documentation and guest counts have been turned in to the venue coordinator. We work with the venue coordinator to ensure the ceremony and reception areas have been set up CORRECTLY, based on the layout provided. We greet all of your vendors and troubleshoot any problems they may have. All of your personal items are entrusted to us...we put out your place cards, menu cards, favors, etc. You simply give them to us at your rehearsal and we take the worry off of your hands. We are the first to arrive and last to leave in order to assure you, your family and your guests are taken care of.
• DOES THE "VENUE COORDINATOR" STAY THROUGHOUT MY ENTIRE EVENT? In most cases no. Once dinner has begun or the cake has been cut, they leave and turn your event over to your banquet captain.
  
  DOES THE "INDEPENDENT COORDINATOR" STAY THROUGHOUT MY ENTIRE EVENT? I do. It's part of my package. I'm the first one to arrive and the last one to leave. We literally pack up your personal items and wedding gifts and ensure they go home with a trusted friend or family member. We are there to handle any emergency, or crisis that happens, even after your venue coordinator's shift is over. If your bustle rips after dinner, I'm there to stitch it up.
• DOES THE 'VENUE COORDINATOR" MAKE A TIMELINE? Only as it relates to the responsibilities of the venue and catering staff.
  
  DOES THE "INDEPENDENT COORDINATOR" MAKE A TIMELINE? Do we ever. It's a detailed road map of your entire day. From the time your hair and make-up is being done, to the time your final song is played and your vendors are breaking down. It's all in there. Everyone knows their job. That timeline is sent to the venue coordinator, photographer, videographer and DJ/MC. We go over it with a fine tooth comb to make sure every person involved in your wedding knows their duties and are on time.

In no way am I discounting what a "venue coordinator" does. I love them, and work with them on a daily basis. You may find in your venue search, that a large number of venues now require you to have your own "independent" wedding coordinator. More and more venue coordinators are finally recognizing what an independent planner does. We take great care of you and allow them to do their jobs more effectively. It's a win win situation for you.

Case in point...will your venue coordinator attend your final gown fitting to learn how your gown is bustled? No way! But I do. It's in my "month of" package.

This post is written for you THE BRIDE, as a public service announcement. I want you to make an informed decision.

There is high turnover rate of venue coordinators. Don't expect that the coordinator you originally met will be the one who is there on your wedding day. On a recent wedding in November, our venue coordinator changed three times before the wedding day. Thank goodness I was there with copies of everything to help the new venue coordinator who was there for five days prior to our client's wedding.

When you secure your venue, ask the questions I have posted here. Know what their services include. If you decide you want an Independent Coordinator, give me a call. I'm excited to work with you.


Posted by Wedding Jeannie Orange County Calif

by Julie Adams

The man of your dreams has proposed. After all the excitement of the moment has settled down, the first question that comes to mind is…Now What?

Straight away you’ll likely be bombarded with loads of advice from family and friends. After all, everyone’s excited for the two of you and they want to help.  However, most of the times you’ll find that about 80% of the advice just really isn’t you style.

Best advise? Take a deep breath and know that it’s OK!  Just keep smiling and thank them for their thoughtful input…then do what you want to do.

 

You’ll also likely find that your finance has little if any input to offer in the wedding planning arrangements. I recommend that you save you energy and even don’t brother getting frustrated with him. It’s not that he’s intentionally being uncooperative or that he doesn’t care; it’s just that he really doesn’t have a clue about weddings. In fact until he met and fell in love with you,  it’s a pretty safe bet that he’s likely never once entertained a wedding thought in any form or fashion whatsoever.  

 

He’s relying on his bride to get that all figured out for the most part. So put things into perspective and relax. The truth is your fiancé will like whatever you like. The most important thing to him is that you are happy. I’ll offer you a little wedding wisdom…if you are happy, then he’s happy. It’s really just that simple. Once you have become comfortable with this reality your nearly half way there.

 

 The next Big Bridal Hurdle is the “Wedding Budget”.

Unless you have very deep pockets from which to draw, the wedding budget is the all important key to your wedding planning and arrangements. Some of you maybe thinking, “Well, that just burst my wedding romance bubble.” The good news is it doesn’t have to.

 

There are loads of ways to make the budget that you do have work well for you. But first you have to know what your budget is. Once you have established your wedding budget you can begin to plan from there. To stretch those wedding budget dollars here’s a few wedding ideas and tips.

 

Look for all inclusive wedding venues for the best value. These are venues that specialize in weddings. Specialty Wedding Venues will  always offer the best pricing and wedding options available because weddings are their business. Sure, major hotels chains are an option too, but weddings aren’t where they get a majority of their business for the year. So you may find that your wedding is now suddenly being sandwiched inbetween the latest Seminar Guru and the annual meeting of Local Machinist Union.

 

I suggest specialty venues that are specifically designed for weddings and special occasion celebrations. It’s their bread and butter and they will happily go that extra mile to work with your budget and to make your wedding very special.

All Inclusive Wedding Venues get very involved with making sure that your wedding and reception is the best it can be.

After all, word of mouth is still the best form of advertising and specialty wedding venues know this very well. Also, consider this. Venues that specialize in weddings already have a long list of trusted wedding vendors that they work with and the best possible pricing has already been established between the venue and the vendor. This is a big load off of the bride. Yet another big perk is that all inclusive wedding packages are already bundled for you. Most all of the details of planning a wedding are already in place for you.  Of course there are always loads options and tweaks available in any all inclusive wedding packaging so you can always personalize and create your wedding style.  Hands down, in today’s economic situation All Inclusive Wedding Venues are always a stress free, safe and best bet and where you’ll always find the best possible value for your wedding budget dollars.

© 2012 Wichita Weddings & Events.
All Rights Reserved.

 

By www.PreciousVows.com Ceremonies and Celebrations

With a little imagination and some planning you can save loads on your wedding and reception budget and at the same time create an amazing and very personal wedding event. Home weddings lend a kind of intimacy and closeness to a wedding that simply can’t be duplicated when using an outside wedding venue.  If your home isn’t quite large enough to accommodate the number of guests you have in mind, you might consider asking a family member or a close family friend with a larger home if they would be willing to host your wedding for you. . Chances are, whoever you ask would be delighted to host your wedding for you. A home wedding can provide you with the best of all options. It’s a relaxed and light hearted event, you’ll have the freedom to naturally  express who the two of you are when celebrating your nuptials among your closest family and friends.

 However, if this isn’t an option, then you are likely to have a local community center near or a public park center that offers venues or covered shelters. It you select a covered shelter, normally family and friends will jump at the chance to help you decorate. Public parks generally offer a variety of beautifully landscaped options to choose from. Many community parks offer delightful ponds, stately fountains and / or impressive waterfalls to use as the perfect  backdrop for your wedding event. Also, with community parks and community centers, the price is very economical compared to traditional wedding venues. Of course, the possible downside to using a community center or park venue will be that they generally don’t allow alcoholic beverages. But if that isn’t a concern for you, then you can have a perfectly beautiful wedding location for a minimal price.

You’ll likely find that as you announce your intention to have a Home or Park Wedding to your friends and family, many will step forward to offer you the use of their hobbies and the skills to help you pull your wedding event together in beautiful and surprising ways. So stay open and receptive to those that volunteer their special assistance. Imagination, creativity and flexibility equal amazing and unique one of kind a weddings that everyone will remember and cherish always. Collaborating with those closest to you and remaining open to suggestion, you may well find that creating your wedding event has become more fun than you could have possibly imagined. And if you are the kind that enjoys going with the flow and delegating then the wedding planning stress will minimal. A very good thing!

So feel free to take inventory of everyone’s generous and heart centered intentions to help out with the wedding plans, you’ll likely have an absolute treasure chest of wonderful options at your disposal. If you are going for the community center or community park wedding option, keep in mind that even these venues book up well in advance, and most defiantly be sure to reserve your Wedding Officiate as soon as you decided on your wedding location. You don’t want to be the “Bride to Be” that’s so distracted with the wedding planning end of things that you completely forgot about having a Wedding Officiate reserved to officiate your wedding! Yikes! Just like Wedding Venues, Wedding Officiates also book well in advance. Once you have these two areas secured, “Wedding  Venue and Wedding Officiate”, then you can dedicate yourself completely to planning your wedding details. Jump into your creative zone, stay receptive and flexible, then have a blast making the most incredible wedding ever!
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