Is a day-of coordinator worth it?

We had one, and it was a very simple wedding, but she helped keep us on time, and helped cordinate when to cut the cake, garter and boquet toss...I would have lost it without her!

Okay so here's my other question: How much did it cost you?

Our ceremony and reception are from 530 to 10. About 80 people. And in one location.

Thank you for all the advice!

In STL you'll pay less than somewhere like NYC. I'd guess quotes from $500 to $1000. Shop around and compare, they should be available to you in advance somewhat to go over what you want and answer your questions about the day of. It's going to be a decision between budget and how well you jive with the person about what you want them to do day of.

Almost all my clients that hire me for DOC only want me for about 2-4 hours. If that's all you want, then check around and see who is willing to do that. I usually have a 1-2 hour meeting prior as well, but some brides just want me to set up what they created, and I never even meet them! Or they just want me to check on the final set-up and fix what needs to be fixed, and perhaps welcome the guests and take care of guest concerns during arrival and cocktail hour. I don't feel I need to stay once dinner begins unless there wiill a lot of things going on beyond what the DJ normally tends to.

I would give a word of caution re: on-site venue-provided DOCs...too often they only care about their normal set-up and don't care if the extras you want are done the way you would expect. And even the "normal" setup can be haphazard---even at "upscale" venues! Good Luck in your search!

I was looking around my city (Las Vegas) and most places were $1500 for a DOC. Only one place had a under $500 dollar one, and I hate to say, but the operation was a little too ghetto fabulous for me, which I probably could have overlooked if I could have found any reveiews. So it was looking like it would be my aunt with a clipboard but in a desperate attempt I entered a local wedding coordinator blog's sweepstake and won their services for a DOC.

My venue provides one for us which I am grateful for. Honestly I never even thought about it until she mentioned it during our cenue visit.

I think it depends on the size of your wedding and your family and friends.... If you have some great friends/relatives they could do alot of it for you. Some people don't mind doing things for you and like to help you. You could maybe designate 2 people to do favors, and packing up things at the end of the wedding and maybe have one person kinda watching the clock and maybe write out a schedule of how you want things to run. Some people like having that power, lol. I did not have one, but I had a small destination wedding. My maid of honor kept me on track with some things, and some things were a little unorganized but not terrible. I should have asked more relatives to help me too, because they would have.