Weddingbee Blog

We are having a DOC, and the closer we get to the wedding date (2 mos away right now), the firmer I am in my belief that it is the best $$ we will spend on the entire wedding.

I originally felt the same way you do, that I have plenty of capable friends and family members, and it’s only a matter of being organized and delegating tasks. However, I’ve come to realize that no one will care about this as much as I do, and understandably so. It sounds sort of messed up, but I don’t want to have to trust my family/guests with important tasks, I want them to be able to relax and have fun, and to eliminate the possibility of tension between us (ie - me turning bridezilla on them for fooling around when they should be tying ribbons around the tin pail handles dammit!). Also, our DOC is going to “break-down” the wedding at the end, and take all of our stuff back to the hotel in her van - I can’t imagine me in my dress and my BM’s at midnight trying to pack up vases and centerpieces (they have to be out by 10am the next morning, as there’s another wedding that day).

We have been fine doing the planning on our own, with minimal guidance from our DOC (and most of the guidance is to make sure her job is easier on the day of - example - have you ever worked with/had problems with this videographer, we’re thinking of hiring them). But the day of, I really want to relax, and let my family and guests relax, secure in the knowledge that everything will go as I planned. I also think Mrs. Pumpkin feels strongly about this after NOT using a DOC herself.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do, but we are UBER happy that we’re using a DOC.

Forbidden fruit! So funny. But alas it is forbidden for me as well. I do have a friend of a friend that is dabbling in coordinating business so I have asked her to help out with the visual setup that I need at the reception site. Thankfully the church has a coordinator that was included in with that bundle of costs. She is wonderful! I don’t have a thing to worry about at the church. But hiring a whole day coordinator was not something I was willing to spend the money on, but I have heard they are well worth it.

i hired a coordinator and it was the best money ever spent! if budget is an issue, i would go ahead and at least hire a doc or month of. there are too many horror stories out there not to hire one!

We hired a wedding planner, and I’m so very grateful we did (FH had to talk me into it, because I was afraid he/she wouldn’t listen to our very specific ideas about what we want) — so far, we’ve been heard on everything, and have been able to concentrate on executing on our vision instead of racing around meeting with vendors, only to find they’re not in our budget.

Probably what I like the most, I think, is how I’m not second guessing our vendor choices — our planner presented us with several choices for photography, catering, flowers, etc. in our price range, and we were able to meet with them and choose from there. She’s worked with all of them before, so she knows how they really work.

And, being able to turn all the day of details over to her will take a lot off my mind and spirit that day — w really didn’t want our friends and family to have to work at our wedding - we do want them to be able to relax and enjoy it as much as we will

I have at DOC which happens to be my floral designer. It worked out great because she’ll already be at the event and her fees were very reasonable because we didn’t have to pay for an extra body. I’m happy because she’ll really “get” our vision since she’s not just coordinating the day, but designing the florals.

We’re also hiring a lighting vendor who has done music and lighting in the wedding industry for the past 12 years. when we met with him, he told us that if we had to choose between his services or a DOC, he would tell us to go with the DOC.

do you have a family member or friend that wants to gain wedding experience? this also could be an option for you.

I talked to five different coordinators ranging in price from $500 for DOC to $10000 for full-on planning. I ended up with one for $750 for DOC plus partial help along the way. So far I am so glad that I did, as she is amazing at bouncing ideas off of, suggesting ways to tweak ideas and make them even better, and even getting us a couple of deals with vendors. So I would highly recommend at least a little help- I have really loved it. Even if you don’t plan on hiring one, at least call around, see what the prices are, and talk to a few. I actually picked up quite a few tips just from the initial phone conversations with the women that I didn’t end up hiring. Hope that helps

We didn’t have one…in our circle (of lower middle class southern weddings) it’s just not something you do. Why? Beyond the financial factor, it’s because there’s always some older woman who has served as a DOC for so many weddings that she’s able to do this for the family. This becomes her gift, and it’s even more special because she’s usually someone you’ve known for quite a while. Mine was my elementary school librarian, who had also worked with my mom.

Yes, we were making our own decorations, and I was in my dress at midnight helping take things down, along with my closest friends and family members. But that’s part of the togetherness of our kind of wedding. Having helped other family members do this I was able to go into my wedding knowing how much work went into things, and also having an idea of what kinds of things would work in certain spaces. It was like pre-planning without the giant notebook.

Anyway, I just wanted to present this different view of doing things, and to show that the hard work isn’t always a burden or something that’s resented.

btw i paid $1500 in march (off season). they now charge $2500 in nyc. you can probably find someone in the $1000 range in the palm springs area?

I work in TV production and I hired a friend/co-worker to be my DOC. I paid her her usual day rate ($400) for when she coordinates commercials and she was worth every cent.

I planned the entire wedding myself and in the days before I showed her the plan, gave her all my vendors contracts and contact info, and on the day of, as of the moment I stepped in to get my hair done, I worried about NOTHING. And neither did my bridesmaids, or mom, or friends. She helped me enjoy the 1000’s of hours of planning I put into the day.

It’s worth considering…depending on the value it would add for you.

Miss Peppermint:
you’ve had a lot of comments so far but I wanted to post a comment from a DOC’s point of view.
I have been event planning for over 5 years and recently decided to get into wedding planning in Vancouver BC. I posted an ad on Craigslist under event services and said that the first 3 or 4 people to contact me would get my services for free this summer. Well, about 40 emails later, I chose the first 4 who had emailed me and met with them all and took on their weddings this summer.
I didn’t feel right about charging since I was trying to build my business and hadn’t actually coordinated a wedding where I wasn’t working on behalf of the hotel.

I don’t know if you would like to go this route but you may want to consider checking out Craigslist or any other boards where Coordinators may be new to the wedding side of things but not new to Event Planning. You can get a good feeling right off the bat(or bad one) about someone by the way that they answer questions or ask questions about your wedding. I’m not saying that you will find someone who is willing to work for free (this has been a huge amount of work for me with my full time job), but you may be able to pay a newbie half of what anyone else would charge and they will want to do such a great job, you just might get better service than if you hired someone who’s been doing this for 10 years!

Good Luck!