Venue Doesn’t allow an outside planner

That’s very bizarre. If you live the venue, I would try to negotiate. If not, that would likely be a deal breaker for me. I can’t think of any valid reason why they would not allow a planner or day of coordinator not in their employment on the premises other than they want you to use their folks, who are likely more interested in making sure the venue is cared for.

The odd thing about such prohibition is that you could have a guest making sure that everything is flowing smoothly and on schedule. With a planner, you would just have someone paid to help facilitate the event.

That’s very weird to me. I’m not sure of any justification beyond just wanting you to hire their people. I would cross them off my list.

I think I would cross them off the list, or put them at the very bottom. Do you have any other venue's in mind that you liked??

What many people don’t realize is that when a coordinator is provided by the venue, they will not be working with you. They don’t function as an independent month of coordinator does, who works behind the scenes making your day flow without snafus, coordinating vendors and having ones they trust on speed dial and helping you with decorating/setup/tear down. A venue coordinator only works for the venue and makes sure that vendors are in and out on time, doors unlocked/lights on, and things of that nature. They do not assist the couple in any way. What you are describing is a major red flag, but the wedding industry pressures couples to use venues like that instead of identifying red flags and running in the opposite direction because that is not normal or good customer service. Scratch them off the list entirely and check into venuereport.com to find one that works for you.

So much of this is incorrect. There are venues that don't offer event planning, and there are venues that do. I'm an event director for a venue that is very hands on. We create the floor plan, timeline, seating chart, place cards, menus, coordinate with the vendors, collect COI's, provide day of coordination, including organizing the procession. We prefer not to work with 3rd party planners, because most of them are middleman who do not have a background in hospitality. If I have to deal with one more planner who thinks she knows what she's doing because she studied fashion or architecture, I will scream. When we handle everything in house, things flow smoothly. Some third party planners will also do everything they can to cover their mistakes by throwing the venue under the bus. I've seen this so many times in the 15 years I've been doing this. I will not accept 3rd party planners who I don't know because most of them are incompetent and have me running in circles because they are constantly making totally avoidable mistakes.

True Story: An inexperienced planner conned a couple into thinking she was an expert. I saw through her as soon as she said "tray passed espresso's." I'm not sure even Starbucks could accomplish this feat. After our venue mentioned repeatedly to the client and the planner that family style means we can't have a garland on the table, the planner completely ignored our advice and the result was that they paid for flowers they couldn't have on the table. The same planner forgot to order seat cushions for the chairs. If it weren't for our venue constantly being on top of them, they would have fallen flat on their face.

True Story #2: Another planner(worked in fashion) was obsessed with having bottles not be visible on the satellite bar. When we told her that this, while pretty, was not functional, she had a meltdown and started to cry. We always put the overall flow of the event first. Planners very often put aesthetics first over the functionality and flow of the event.

True Story #3: A planner who was an architect once upon a time thought she could put three tables and an installation in a space where it was only possible to put the three tables. After we told her it was not our recommendation, she insisted that she was an architect and that it should work. The result of course is that the guests didn't fit and had swing around a stair case to get to their seats. Being an architect does not mean that you can design people. This planner also printed off the wrong information on the menus, even after we sent her the right information. She was a total disaster.

Find out what your venue offers. If they have an in-house coordinator who does planning, then you don't need to hire a planner. It's a waste of time and money, and may very well just make things more disorganized. Go with who they trust. The reason they are making the suggestion is because they have had a good experience with those planners. They are looking out for you and the venue.

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At the same time, it is hard to know which vendors just get a higher profit by providing all the services or by selecting caterers and other vendors they like. With anyone helping get things coordinated for the wedding, you will have either have gotten sufficient help or things go badly. It can be anyone in the chain. If you find someone well qualified to fix problems, that is always worthwhile. It is especially important if a venue is not covering all the tasks to make sure there are workarounds for DJs, florals, scheduling, etc.