Planners and coordinators, what is the difference?

A good wedding planner or coordinator can become a bride's best friend from the start of putting together a wedding file or mood board of ideas, throughout the entire planning process until the day of the wedding when they can be there to ensure that everything runs as smoothly as they had planned. Full time professional wedding coordinators have increasingly been calling themselves wedding planners - the American term for the role - in order to differentiate themselves from venue based wedding coordinators whose role it is to ensure everything runs smoothly on the day. As so many popular wedding venues have their own in house wedding coordinator there is not a market in the UK for the third type of wedding planner or coordinator available in America; known as a “Day of” coordinator they are employed by the couple to look after the arrangements on the day of the wedding, rather than assisting in the planning stages.

Do you need a planner?

Wedding Planners may seem like an unnecessary cost, particularly if the budget is tight, but a good professional planner can save you money by having reliable quality suppliers, by helping you avoid expensive mistakes and by knowing how to achieve what you want without unnecessary expense. Some work on a commission basis, with suppliers giving them 10% of the contract value in return for the introduction, however as few suppliers work this way it can lead to your planner only wanting you to use the suppliers that join their commission scheme, rather than the best supplier for your wedding. Planners are happy to be involved in as little or as much as you want, and some couples just use a planner to find a venue for them and then look after the rest of the arrangements themselves. Other couples hand over far more control, giving their planner a budget to work with and a detailed brief as to the sort of day they want.

So, your venue has a wedding co-ordinator?

Even if your chosen venue has an in house wedding coordinator you may still want to employ your own independent planner whose only priorities and loyalties will be to you, not the venue. As well as helping to choose suppliers before the wedding they will work alongside the in-house coordinator on the wedding day.