My venue has a Day-of Coordinator - do i need to hire a Day-of Planner?

My venue gives me a wedding coordinator/planner. They tell me she is supposed to take care of everything, welcome gifts, set up, take down, time line for the wedding day ect. She will deal with the vendors that arrive too. They actually told me I am not allowed to bring in an outside coordinator. I can see how it would be extra hard for you, as you have experience and know what needs to be done. Where I just have to go with it not knowing any better lol

Good luck!

Your day of coordinator will be your superhero for the day. I asked the same question to my wedding planner who works closely with my day of coordinator for the venue that I’m at. Your day of coordinator is in charge of everything as far as keeping the timelines, making sure everything is in its place, Making sure everyone is in line correctly for the ceremony, corresponding with your DJs photographers and other vendors throughout the day. They are also there to check on you while you get ready asking if there’s anything that you need or possibly forgot, and they are really just the superheroes of the day.

I would ask them first. Our venue provides a DOC and she's wonderful. All the reviews mention her and she's loved by literally everyone. I'm not doing anything in addition to our venue DOC because of that reputation.

Ask her what services are included in her DOC package. If it is very limited, it maybe beneficial to hire another one. However, she may be a true DOC that will take care of everything and you can save some money.

We also had a venue DOC that came with the venue we booked, but for us, hiring an outside DOC was a must. The one from the venue only took care of venue related things, whereas the independent one was with us all day and picked up the rest.

Ask them what you’re looking for and whether that’s included in their services.

Ask her what exactly she does and what she would be able to do for you. If what she says she can do works for you then I would skip hiring your own

I agree with the PP. just be very clear what she does and doesn’t do. My venue coordinator had another wedding that day (large venue) and wasn’t able to do everything I needed so luckily I had a friend who was my point person for everything the coordinator couldn’t do.

We worked closely with the event coordinator of our venue throughout the whole process (country club with catering included) and she took care of everything that we needed. We did not hire an outside individual.

I think it varies from venue to venue. Our venue has someone who will coordinate the day, but I did hire an outside DOC for the month up to the wedding. The venue is providing DJ and bar service while I hired the remaining vendors. There may be an overlap of duties, but I really wanted to make sure that nobody would have to lift a finger on the day of the wedding.

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Thanks guys - I'm getting the impression that most day-of coordinators will take care of everything. My venue has been great thus far so I imagine that will be the case, but I'll ask.

I figured it was probably just me having some trust issues lol, so thanks for the advice/sharing your experiences!

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That was my thinking Jaime - I don't want myself or any of my family/wedding party to have to worry about any details or dealing with my vendors. That said, I also don't think I could really justify spending more than $500-600 on it... and all of the coordinators I've been seeing charge at least $1400.

I'm going to talk to my venue first but if I still feel like I would like someone, I'm thinking of asking a friend to do it and offering to pay.

I literally have no idea what the difference between a Day-of-Coordinator and Day-of-Planner is. You can easily ask your venue what the role of the DOC is, and specifically ask if things like keeping your timelines in check, etc will be included. They should have a pretty clear list of "this is what we do, this is what we don't". Then if you decide you'd like to have someone on the day of your event that fills roles not included within your contract and hire them.

View Quoted Comment For sure! It can be a lot of money. The DOC I chose had experience with planning events and had started her own business within the past few years. Thus, her prices were lower than average ($800). I'm guessing she is more expensive now. But you might be totally good with the venue person! Good luck!