Day of Coordinator - Yes or No

I was having the same debate with myself! I am also doing a very DIY wedding and not hiring a wedding planner. Luckily, our venue that we ended up with provides a day of coordinator. Knowing I have one was a huge relief and allowed me to stress a lot less. I would say you should hire one if you're thinking about it! On your wedding say, you won't want to worry about everything being set up properly or logistics of any sort. A DOC is defintely worth it for the peace of mind they provide!

View Quoted Comment I think I need to first ask my venue to what extent they setup! Because this may be mostly covered but the centerpieces are going to be massive and I’m doing my own cake, favors, photo booth, etc so there’s a lot of extras I don’t necessarily expect them to setup.


I’m just questioning if the extra hands I’ll have from friends not in the wedding will be enough because we only get 1.5 hrs before the wedding for setup.

View Quoted Comment Oh wow, that doesn't seem like a lot of time! I haven't actually experienced setup myself yet though. How much the venue does will definitely determine if that 1.5 hour timeframe is realistic!

View Quoted Comment Well vendors can come in 1.5 before the actual venue will be setting up long before that but since we won’t have a flower vendor, etc it’s not as easy as saying ok everyone drop off your stuff. I’ll probably have to get into more specifics with the venue about those things. Luckily they’ve been really great to work with.

I did all my DIY myself, with a little help from my best friend and fiance. As far as the day of, I was instructed to give everything to my caterer because they would finalize the layout and the design elements based off my instructions.

This was all before my venue cancelled all its events, though, so now I'm getting married on park grounds very quickly without seating and no reception.

I was absolutely going to hire a day-of coordinator because I didn’t want to be worried about that on the day, but the venue we picked includes one. I read the reviews and everyone said she was excellent so I am not hiring someone else.

In my opinion, a DOC is a necessity! They help with set up and break down, which takes a lot of stress off of you! They are the point of contact for all of your vendors. They keep your day running smoothly and on time. Plus they are a great resource to lean on with any questions or concerns.

We had a planner/DOC (same person) and I really feel like without her and her team, I would have been very stressed on my wedding day. Knowing she was there to take care of everything really look a weight off of my shoulders.

View Quoted Comment Well here’s my like welll..... situation.
We have an event manager at the venue day of, their team will be doing most of the setup, we’ll drop off our stuff the day before. They’ll be keeping everything on schedule and coordinated.

We also have an event coordinator leading up to the wedding (might be the same person) from the venue.
Plus a bridal attendant all day long to keep me on track. Is an additional DOC necessary at that point. I don’t want to skip it if I’ll need the help/hands but I’m also like well... what’s the point of my other people at the venue lol!
I definitely need to understand how involved the venue will be before deciding.

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What you just described is basically a DOC. If your venue is providing all of that, you don't need another DOC, because you already have one....

I would just ask for a full description of what the staff will do that day and make sure nothing is missing.

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Yeah, I’m going to have to & that’s what I kind of thought but because I’m literally providing everything from decor/flowers to dessert and photo booth I wasn’t sure if it was too much & I needed extra hired hands to basically do the pretty part of the setup.

But It’s sounding like probably not after confirming w/ venue.

I was in the same boat and I hired one because the set up and clean up is worth enough to have one, someone to tell you when to go down the aisle

My venue has the same, a coordinator but they only do so much and I have a vision with a lot of diy that I want to make sure gets executed. So I did hire a doc. I didn’t want friend or family to have to put in a lot of effort either. I hated to spend the extra money but it’s peace of mind that I can leave it to someone else.

I hired one because I logistically needed someone else to do it while I was at the ceremony since I wanted my ceremony and reception to be back to back

I have a planner who will also be there the day of . You probably need a DOC because you want the day to be carefree and have to be worried about everything getting set up correctly. All of that will take time out of you getting ready and enjoying the day.

Absolutely yes to a planner/DoC, unless it is in your contract the venue coordinator will perform all the duties of a DoC including set up / take down. Our venue coordinator was nowhere to be found half the time so I am glad we had a DoC.

If we had room in our budget we would have a day of coordinator. We are trying to buy a house so we decided to save money wherever we could with the wedding. I'm having a diy wedding as well and I decided to take off from work the week of the wedding so I can get everything ready so the night before maybe we can have everything all set and ready to go.

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I had the same situation you're looking at - you don't need anyone on top of what the venue is providing (in my opinion)

Hey, I’m a fellow DIY bride and they were my favorite parts of my wedding. I didn’t have a DOC and I kinda regret it. I’d definitely recommend getting one if the budget allows it. My wedding wasn’t scheduled to start until 5:30 and it we still ran late. There were also little details that were missed because there wasn’t someone there to keep us on track and/or remind me of certain things. Once the drinks start flowing, as a person threat doesn’t drink, I was a lot more care free and less anal about things that still needed to be handled. My wedding day was MAGICAL and there are only a few things I’d change and having a DOC is one of them. Good luck with everything and I hope this helps

View Quoted Comment I’m also a DIY bride and I suggest starting the decorating sooner than later when possible. Starting the night before may not be enough time depending on how many helping hands you have and how many spaces your decorating. I know you didn’t ask but I wish someone told me things because I cut it too close the day of my wedding

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Thanks! I appreciate that. Luckily our venue is handling a LOT of what we need. I'm thinking between the management/coordination they provide for the basic setup plus my one super over the top organized friend to add the extras, I think I'll be good to go. Plus, her boyfriend is a groomsmen but she is not a bridesmaid so I like having a "job" for her (that she will really enjoy which is funny).