The services of a wedding coordinator are becoming increasingly popular at Russian weddings. What are the duties of this person and whether his presence at your wedding is rational – you will learn after reading this article.
Who is a wedding coordinator?
The coordinator is the person who makes sure that everything goes as planned on the wedding day. He coordinates the actions of individual professionals, controls the timeliness of certain events, and solves minor problems that arise in the course of the celebration.
Wedding coordinator is a profession, although interesting, but very responsible. To successfully cope with the variety of tasks entrusted to him, the coordinator must have a number of qualities: organization, good memory, stress resistance, resourcefulness, communication skills and diplomacy.
Why do I need a wedding coordinator?
What exactly are the duties of a wedding coordinator? Depending on the specifics of the wedding, as well as the arrangements with the young people, the range of duties of the coordinator can be different, but in general its functions can be reduced to five main groups:
Interaction with specialists
On the eve of the wedding, the coordinator calls all the specialists to see if they are ready. If the wedding is in a particular color or style, he recommends the appropriate dress code for them. On the day of the wedding, party makes sure that none of the participants are late, supervises the preparation for the banquet and check-out, monitors the work of waiters (timely serving of food, drinks and cake). Provides coordinated work of individual contractors and settles accounts with them for services.
Interacts with guests
Wedding coordinator answers the calls and questions of the guests (for this purpose, his phone number can be specified in the invitations), tells them how to get to the right place, helps them to arrange themselves in the banquet hall, tells who is in what car to move during the walk, if necessary calls a cab at the end of the evening.
Organizational matters
The coordinator supervises the arrangement and arrangement of tables at the banquet, location of guest cards and seating plans. Arranges donated flowers. Ensures that performers attending the wedding (videographers, photographers, etc.) are fed as agreed upon with the restaurant. The most important task of the coordinator – makes sure that nothing is forgotten: rings, pads, wedding accessories and so on.
After the banquet is over – supervises the collection of the remaining food and drinks, as well as flowers.
Time management
The coordinator can help the bride to make the best plan of the day (including the route of the walk), which will be written by the minute the main stages of the celebration (timing). On the day of the wedding, he keeps this plan in front of him and makes sure that everything goes exactly according to schedule.
Force Majeure
Mishaps and minor mishaps happen quite often at weddings. The task of the coordinator is to quickly find a way out of the situation. For example, a wedding coordinator always carries a first aid kit, umbrella, makeup bag, tissues, needle and thread and other items for various occasions.
In addition, the wedding coordinator plays an important psychological role – it gives the young people the feeling that the situation is under control, and this, in turn, calmness and confidence, so necessary on the wedding day.
Coordinator. Manager. Organizer. What is the difference between these concepts?
Often in the wedding lexicon, the term coordinator and steward are used with an equal sign, but according to experts, there is still a difference.
A wedding planner is a specialist who not only coordinates the wedding day, but also actively helps the young couple in the preparation stage. He can advise on proven professionals, travel with the newlyweds to the banquet hall, help with the composition of the menu, the choice of cake, suggest ways to optimize the wedding costs, etc. Thus, the concept of a wedding planner is somewhat broader than just a coordinator.
A wedding planner is a specialist (firm) who, as the name suggests, deals with the organization of the wedding, up to the service “turnkey wedding”. More often than not, the role of an organizer is a wedding agency. The organizer is involved in all stages of the wedding preparation, if the young person wishes, the agency can develop the style and concept of the wedding, select all the professionals (and the organizer is fully responsible for the quality of their services), make a script, provide a wedding planner (coordinator), etc. This option is ideal if you do not want (cannot) prepare the wedding yourself, or if we are planning a large-scale celebration that is not possible to organize by ourselves.
Should you personally resort to the help of a wedding coordinator?
The Internet is replete with conflicting opinions about whether you need a wedding coordinator. Many newlyweds who used this service were very satisfied. On the other hand, there are a huge number of couples who can assure that their wedding was wonderful and without a coordinator. Whether it is worth ordering the services of a coordinator is up to you to decide, based on the specifics of your wedding.
Here are a number of situations when you should seriously consider hiring a coordinator:
- If you are planning an offsite registration (especially when the registration and banquet are in different locations);
- An exuberant wedding with many participants (the more guests and professionals involved in the event, the greater the likelihood of confusion);
- If you are exhausted pre-wedding preparation and feel that a nervous breakdown is not far off (in this case, a person on whom you can fully rely on the wedding day, will not be superfluous);
- If you don’t want to be distracted on your wedding day by minor organizational matters and want to relieve your relatives of these responsibilities.