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Our wedding day has come and gone and we have so many people to thank! We were very fortunate to have been surrounded by amazing vendors and resources. One of them being our Day of Wedding Coordinator, Stacey Price from Marry Me Productions.
I made the executive decision this week to hire a day-of wedding planner, and I can’t tell you how I happy I am that I did.
Other bees have blogged from both sides of this issue: those who went without one on their special day said they managed just fine, thank you very much, and those who did have one said it was an asset they couldn’t have done without. I guess it’s the kind of thing you don’t need, but is nice to have, if you can afford it. For me, I had just started to feel, with four months to go, like things were getting just a bit too crazy for just my own little body to shoulder all the weight. I’m happy someone else is sharing the load now!
So, what will this person (and her two assistants) do for me?
I can not even begin to tell you how frustrating it has been to not have web access for just shy of 2 months. Since I have been out of touch for so long, I am hoping that what I have to offer to Weddingbee is still relevant. I guess I will start at the beginning and if I miss something or if there is something specific you readers want to know, just let me know in the comments and I can address it in a future post.
Alright…here we go…
The wedding was the most amazing day ever; I didn’t want it to end. I know every bride says that, but as a bride-to-be I didn’t quite understand how that could possibly be until my wedding day arrived.
There had been a lot of drama surrounding the day, with losing my job and the aforementioned sad family situation. But as the day got closer, it got easier and easier to just focus on the fun of the event.
I had contemplated hiring a day-of-coordinator ever since I got engaged. I’ve been to weddings with and without coordinators, and while all of them were equally beautiful and fun, the brides who had hired wedding coordinators just seemed so much more relaxed and a lot less frazzled. And I want that. I want to be able to kick back, have fun, and fully enjoy my wedding day.
Mr. Peony wasn’t too thrilled at the idea of paying someone to do this. “Just let our bridal party take care of everything - that’s what they’re there for,” he said. But I want our bridal party to have fun too! They can help out all they want before the wedding, but I want them to have a blast and be able to fully celebrate with us on our wedding day without any worries. In addition, with a wedding of 250 guests, a charter bus, high possibility for rain (April showers), and a remote location in Westchester, I felt that the chance of something going wrong would be more than what we could handle. I told him that I would be willing to pay for a DOC out of my personal budget just for the peace of mind they would give me on our wedding day.
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This weekend my bridesmaids and I helped throw an extra special birthday bash for our girlfriend. It was a smashing success! We had a pal that generously let us host the party in his loft/office space in SF, a perfect location with exposed brick walls and wooden rafters. All the guests were instructed to dress in classy black and white attire, while the birthday girl made her appearance a hot little red dress. The birthday girl, an at-home gourmet, created a menu of 5 different canapes and various other finger foods including: grilled asparagus with horseradish dresing wrapped in roast beef, smoked salmon over baguette slices topped with lemon and chives, white and dark chocolate dipped strawberries, and many more! YUM.
There was one take away that I learned from this weekend’s event: I’m so glad I invested in a day-of wedding coordinator. Before the party, we had an hour and a half to set everything up (the same amount of time that my vendors will have at my wedding) and even though the birthday girl had already instructed us with what to do, we were all still bombarding her with question after question: “Where do you want the tissue paper pom poms? Do they look ok? Which wine do you want opened first? Do you want the desserts before the canapes on the food tables? Do you want us to make more pom poms? Did we get ice? (No, we didn’t so we had to make a grocery store run.) Where do you want the guestbook table set up?”
Seeing Miss Peppermint’s post the other day reminded me that I wanted to write this…I used to be an event planner for a company that produced conferences for the pharmaceutical and international and domestic energy industries. Since then, I have worked for a large scale event production company and for a large firm planning very elaborate meetings and functions with complicated details and complex time lines. Before Mr. Corn and I were even engaged I knew one thing: I wanted to hire a coordinator for our wedding.
The only issue was that I knew we couldn’t afford a coordinator. Or at least, I thought we couldn’t.
I am not exactly sure how I did not know of the concept of a Day of Event Coordinator with all of the event coordination jobs I have held in the past, but it wasn’t until I looked up the cost of wedding coordination one day on a whim that I realized there was such a thing as a DOC. Once I knew THAT was an option I started to feel hopeful. Shortly after Mr. Corn proposed I brought up my request to him that we not skimp on two things for our wedding budget; photography and a Day of Event Coordinator. Thankfully, he agreed!
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
I made a fatal mistake.
I agreed to come along to meet Day of Coordinators (DOC) with a close friend of mine who just got engaged. It was all very innocent. Helping a friend in need, right? Okay, this may not sound fatal, but let me explain.
From the start Mr. Peppermint and I agreed that we were not going to hire a planner and we have not budgeted for one. My family also felt that it was an unnecessary cost and with over a year to plan the wedding, we could do without. In the mind of my family it all seems like an extravagant waste. I mean, if we had the budget and were more pressed for time, then maybe we’d consider a planner.
Why did I let myself be tempted by the forbidden fruit?! Of course a planner is going to sound nice. Of course it would be nice to have someone to hold my hand in the days before the wedding and then graciously take all the responsibility on the day of. What will I do without one?? I mean, I had planned to just delegate the tasks on the wedding day between my bridesmaids and family, but wouldn’t it be nice to have someone else be in charge?
Is anyone else out there toying with this idea? How did you brides without coordinators cope? Any tips on remaining sane and delegating tasks??
Did any of you ladies get a DOC or full-on wedding planner? Is it worth it?
Since my “failed” mock table appointment, I received an email response from the Catering and Sales Manager. She was quite apologetic and seemed genuinely sincere. Here is the kicker:
“We will provide you with a new Special Event Planner (insert name here). She has many years experience and is very professional and personable. I’m sure you will get on very well with her.”
Ummm, ok? I was really shocked and surprised at this point. This was the last thing that I expected. I sure hope I didn’t get someone into trouble, or even worse maybe she didnt want to work with me anymore. I can hear the “It’s not you, it’s me” speech in my head.
Anyway, our new special event planner, we shall call her, New Event Planner or NEP for short, is the best thing that has happened to us. She immediately called us to set up a meeting to go over all our reception details *jaw dropping*.
Practically every vendor that I’ve spoken with has recommended that Mr. Eggplant and I hire a wedding coordinator. Even our lighting vendor told us that if we had to choose, a day-of coordinator is better a much better investment than pink uplighting. Knowing the amount of time, thought, effort, and money that we’ve invested into the event, I’ve decided that it’s in our best interest to get a wedding coordinator for the day of the event.
Although it would save us time (and perhaps money) to hire a coordinator to guide us through the planning the entire event, I actually want to plan most of it ourselves because I’m really enjoying the process. When the big day finally arrives, it’ll be neat knowing that Mr. Eggplant and I can be proud of the event. After all of our blood, sweat, and tears, we’ll have put together a (hopefully) spectacular day for our friends and family.
Having (prudently? foolishly?) decided not to hire a professional wedding planner, Mr. Lovebug and I went recently to our local big box bookstore in search of some DIY guidance. A recently married friend assures us that a self-planner is all we need to stay on track, on task, and on budget.
The section housing these frighteningly saccharine tomes is housed intuitively enough between Pregnancy and Etiquette. I figure an hour’s research in this row, and I have every conceivable social scenario covered, leaving me no excuse to violate decorum when my water breaks during high tea.
Apparently, wedding planners are pretty much all subsets of the sames species: pastel, flowery, and feminine. Imagine if your Filofax was the sort of Filofax that douched–that’s what a wedding planner looks like. Mathematically, that’s: Read more…
We’ve officially been engaged for a whole year. 365 days of almost married. 
Now, we’re at the 7 month out mark, and all the big things have been taken care of. I’m finally getting that break that I should have taken when we first got engaged, the one everyone told us to enjoy!
I’m in a weird position right now, because I feel like all the major details have been taken care of, and it feels like I shouldn’t be in a standstill. Up to last night I felt I had it all in good order, and was just waiting for the rest to catch up - the dress coming in, tastings, things like that. Why up to last night? I just found out the coordinator at our reception venue is leaving the middle of the month.
I don’t know if I should be panicked or what, because so far, nothing important had to be taken care of. I DO wonder, though, why she hasn’t notified us. Hm.
What kind of things will her leaving affect? We’ll still be having the same food, the same colors, things like that, so is it any different?
Has anyone had an experience like this?
Does anyone want to be my day-of coordinator for my wedding?! Just thinking about the entire “wedding weekend” gives me a headache/makes me stressed out!
Of course, you will be paid in monopoly money and my eternal gratitude - haha I don’t have any moola left in the “budget” to pay for a coordinator. 
well, that and I’m a cheapo.
LOL.
Are you using a noncoordinator coordinator?
This past weekend I had a little dinner party at my house celebrating my “One Year Before 30″ birthday party/housewarming party (though we moved in about 6 months ago). I made some salmon and egg dip, finger waldorf sandwiches, cheese balls, white chocolate pretzels with pink sprinkles, mimosas (with an added ounce or two of triple sec and sweet and sour mix!) My wonderful friends got me just what I wanted on my wish list - World Market Gift Certificates! Love it !
My MOH also got me this adorable book from B&N, The Brides Essential Wedding Planner - Deluxe Edition. It basically lets you organize anything and everything wedding related in this nifty little book with tabs labeled, “Ceremony,” “Reception,” “Stationery,” “Fashion & Beauty,” “Music & Flowers,” “Parties,” “Gifts and More,” etc. It even has great little advice on what kinds of questions to ask vendors, party favor ideas, photo pages, and a cool calender to keep up with all of my appointments!
I’ve been using a big black binder for most of my wedding planning titled “My Master Plan” but it’s starting to fall apart (not the wedding planning but the book 
) . I can now use this new planner to organize and then use it as a keepsake later. This would be great for brides who are struggling to find a good book to journal their wedding planning bliss.
Have State Farm Insurance???
Well, they will send you a great wedding planning guide for free if you carry any insurance with them!
When our agent heard we were getting married, she called my mom and let her know about the free planning guide. I just got it in the mail today, and it’s awesome - it has pictures of flowers with the genus species names, timetables for the reception, hints for music and much, much more!
Check it out…
YEAH! We have a day of coordinator!
It was a lengthy debate on whether or not to hire one. Since I am a little OCD, I have been pushing to have one to make sure I don’t feel any of the snags on our wedding day.
After looking into hiring one, my mom suggested asking one of our friends who will be attending the wedding, and instantly I thought of the perfect person. Our day of coordinator will also be doing a reading and she got married last October, so she has a plethora of wedding knowldge. I know she will make sure everything goes perfectly.
So now I need to start getting things organized for her. She is going to make a trip up to New York with me in the spring to meet everyone. I thought I would make a phone list of everyone she could possibly need to get in touch with the day of; photographer, videographer, florist, etc… Also, I thought we should make an “ideal” agenda for the day, as far as when the guests should sit for dinner, cake cutting, the first dance, etc.
What am I missing? What things have you made sure that your day of coordinator knew and had access to?
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