Who Manages Wedding Ceremony/Reception?

I was going to post this question earlier. I want a very laid back vibe and but I'm a control freak and want to make sure that everything goes smooth and isn't chaos! So this is my plan, I'm putting some general details of the events of the night on a program fan (outdoor ceremony in August so those are a must anyway), then I'm having my officiant direct guests to the on site reception, letting them know it will be a few mins before dinner will start. Then having my stepfather give a dinner blessing. We aren't doing cake cutting, or first dances or toasts. So after that we are just going to have a ipod play list to cover the evening and that's that.

Alexandra - will your ceremony be within the Philadelphia city limits or an outskirt area?

I sucked it up and hired a DOC off of Craigslist. She's fantastic and she's only charging me $500 for the entire 8 hour day, which I thought was quite reasonable. Most of the DOC rates in this area are $1200 to $1800 for the day, which I personally find unconsionable. She will also be the emcee if I need her to be, since my DJ is a guest and friend and he's preprogramming all the music ahead of time.

If you decide to do this, hire a pro and pay market rate for them. I have done too many weddings with enthusiastic amateurs and they do nothing to help the process along. The last wedding ran over an hour late JUST FOR THE CEREMONY because the first look was so disorganized.

A lot of what a good DOC will do is keep everything on time, make sure people are where they are supposed to be and vendors are doing what they need to do.

@shannon Haha! I'll get right on that!

@MinD Outskirts (about 30 minutes)

I would look for an affordable coordinator with flexible packages. I'm using Designing Memories for a huge package but I know they do more inexpensive smaller packages, too and work all over PA. I wouldn't want to stress out a friend or family member and not sure I would personally trust anyone who wasn't a pro. Haha. Good luck!

An emcee?