We’re back with the final installment in the Day of Coordination series.
Please note that many of these tips can be applied to any type of special event, not just weddings.
TIP #7 - ADVANCED DELIVERY
If you have place cards, favors, guest books, etc. to deliver to your ceremony and/or reception venue, have them delivered no later than the day of your rehearsal (based on the venue's policy).
Terrica Skaggs of Cocktails & Details once told us: "All items that need to be setup need to be in the room or at the very least, the same building, as to where they need to be setup, if you haven't given them to me the night before."
Final payments to vendors should be sorted in sealed, marked envelopes and given to your coordinator as early as possible. I suggest handing these over at the rehearsal. This eliminates the chance of leaving the payments in your hotel room or in the limo. Your coordinator should handle the distribution of these payments to your hired wedding professionals so you don't have to be concerned with it during the course of your reception.
NOTE: The above suggestion also applies to your marriage license. At a recent wedding, the bride left the marriage license in the hotel and only trusted her mother to go back to get it. So the ceremony officiant had to wait after the ceremony for the mother of the bride to return with the license. Meanwhile, the bride's mother had to miss out on many of the formal photos.
TIP #8 - OPEN COMMUNICATION
As with any relationship, it is best to keep the lines of communication open. Without it, there is too much room for misinterpretation. Does your silence equal satisfaction? Or does it mean you called off the wedding and forgot to tell your coordinator?
Make sure your coordinator's emails are not being filtered into your junk mail/spam folder. If this is happening, she may think you are ignoring her emails while you are thinking she has terrible customer service.
Tell your coordinator the best time of day for her to speak with you on the phone. Unless you tell her, she won't know that you have staff meetings on Mondays from 10 am to noon or yoga 3 nights a week.
Provide your coordinator with a copy of your venue/vendor contracts so that we know who we need to reach out to prior to the wedding. This also allows us to find out who our points of contact are for the day of the wedding. AND it helps us to create a timeline for the day.
Speaking of the timeline…
TIP #9 - TIMELINE
Your wedding coordinator is the team captain, show director, time keeper, troubleshooter… The coordinator’s timeline is bible. It is all-inclusive of all of the individual agendas prepared by your hired professionals. It includes delivery, set up, and pick up times. It includes hair & makeup appointment times. It includes the order of the ceremony and reception events. It includes the music to be played and the courses to be served for dinner. It includes off-site photo locations during cocktail hour. It includes everything everybody needs to know about everything.
Hair & makeup always takes longer than you think it will. The coordinator’s timeline will include a time cushion
The coordinator’s timeline may also allow a little extra time for friends & family who typically tend to be tardy for the party.
Your job, as the client, is to make sure your coordinator has all of the information needed to make this possible.
This concludes our Day of Coordination series. We welcome your comments on the items discussed. Feel free to post below.
We invite you to meet with us to discuss your wedding day coordination needs. Our “Wedding Management” services begin 30 days before your wedding day. We recommend you book us at least 3 months in advance. Contact us today to schedule an initial meeting: Call 800-941-2770, Email info@trilogyeventdesign.com, or use our online calendar
Until next time…
