Image: Elizabeth Fogarty Photography
I get inquired as a day-of coordinator at all different times in a couples’ wedding planning journey. Sometimes I get inquiries for weddings that are well over a year away and other times an inquiry pops in my inbox for a wedding that is just a few weeks away. And while there is no simple, one-size-fits-all, answer to when the right time to hire a day-of coordinator is, I can offer at least some guidance around it to help you make the best decision for you.
But before we get to timing, the very first step would be to decide whether you need a full-scale wedding planner or a wedding coordinator. Not sure what you need? Check out the podcast I did with Put A Ring On It to help you decide! Simply put, if you need a lot of hand-holding, want someone to make & drive your decisions, and do a lot of the actual PLANNING on your behalf, chances are you need a wedding planner. If you are down with making decisions, going to meetings & talking to vendors yourself, but need some help & guidance and someone to tie it together on your wedding day, a wedding coordinator would probably be the best for you.
So now that you’ve decided between the two, and landed on the coordinator option, my advice to you would be to book him/her as soon as you can. And here is why:
> Coordinators, even if their main focus is just your wedding day, book out just like other vendors – 6 months to a year in advance (maybe more for your popular months like April/May and September/October), so if you wait, chances are the coordinator you want, might not be available!
> Coordinators can help you with SO MUCH MORE than just your wedding day. I love to give vendor recommendations, and advice on issues my couples come across as they are planning – it saves them time & sanity, and enables me to help them create a stress-free day.
> Coordinators can actually help you save money! So while some couples wait until the end of their wedding planning, to see if they have enough room leftover in their budget for a coordinator, it might make more sense for you to find that room in the budget early for a coordinator, and then let them help you cut costs in other places that you haven’t even thought about!
There are probably a lot more reasons – and I will let my readers and fellow vendors sound off in the comments below with them, but the main moral of this blog post story is that just because we have the phrase “day-of” in front of our title, does not mean that we work only on the “day-of” your wedding day. The earlier you can hire a day-of coordinator, the earlier you can start reaping the benefits of having a trusted, experienced, knowledgeable wedding pro at your side to help you through the wedding planning process!
[icon size=”small” image=”icon-heart”]
2 comments
We hired ours over a year in advance, and she still is a great resource to bounce things off of as we approach the day-of. Even the most minor logistical questions were met with a past experience or best practice. It also helps a ton for vendors that your coordinator is familiar with, so you can ask your vendors less questions and get answers more quickly!
<3 <3 <3 !!!