KNOW YOUR WEDDING PROFESSIONALS
Planning a wedding is one of the most exciting times in the life of a young couple. Whether it is an exotic destination wedding or a family wedding at your hometown, you are sure to come across the need to work with certain wedding professionals. If this is your first time researching the types of professionals in the wedding industry, you might come across terms such as “planner”, “designer”, “stylist” and “coordinator. These all sound similar, and after all, they are all wedding professionals, but which should you hire for your special day?
Read on for the full breakdown of wedding professionals and their services.
WEDDING PLANNER
Some of the services a wedding planner offers are full planning, partial planning, consultation, destination wedding planning & coordination. Depending on your preferences and the amount of help you need with your wedding planning, any of these can be extremely helpful.
Full wedding planning is ideal for couples who do not have enough time on their hands or just want a seasoned professional take care of the entire planning process. They will still be included in the decision making of course, but the entire process is overlooked by a wedding professional. Wedding coordination is included in every full planning package and will be carried out by the wedding planner and their associates on the day.
Partial planning usually refers to “day of” or “month of” coordination. The couple will book the vendors themselves, but they need a professional in order to make sure everything runs smoothly on the day. The wedding planner comes aboard about a month prior to the wedding itself, in order to familiarize themselves with the vendor team, the venue and the timeline of the events on the day.
Destination wedding planning implies full wedding planning services where the wedding is due to take place in a country where the couple does not live. It is highly recommended to hire a local wedding planner for destination weddings. They have existing relationships with local venues and vendors and can also help with the legal paperwork in the destination.
Wedding planner is definitely the broadest role amongst the wedding professionals, seeing that they can also be designers, stylists and coordinators, but the reverse is not often the case.
WEDDING DESIGNER
Very often confused with wedding planners, wedding designers have an entirely different role in the planning process. Designers are wedding professionals hired to work on your wedding concept and making it come to life. Colour palettes, moodboards, flower arrangements and table mock-up are just a few of their specialties. In charge of the overall look, feel, mood and aesthetic of your wedding, they will listen to your ideas, assess the wedding venue and make your vision a reality within your budget. A wedding designer is the person to come to with all of your Pinterest moodboards and they will help make your dream come true.
WEDDING STYLIST
The main tasks of wedding stylists are flower and décor setup on the day of the wedding. Sometimes, your wedding planner or designer will also work as a stylist and set the décor up themselves on the day. Otherwise, they have a team member dedicated to this this task or a contracted vendor looking after this. Hiring a stylist is a great idea when your wedding venue is mostly a blank space that needs a lot of decoration, or simply when you don’t have the time or want to avoid the fuss of placing your own decorations prior to your wedding. You should be getting pampered and sipping champagne, not running around with flower arrangements!
VENUE COORDINATOR
We previously mentioned wedding coordination as being a part of the wedding planner packages and duties. What confuses couples often is the fact that venues come with their own coordinator (sometimes called venue wedding planner). Due to this, couples do not see a reason to hire an independent planner. As opposed to a wedding planner, the venue coordinator works for the venue, not you. They will look after the planning, setup and logistics that concern the venue, but nothing beyond that. Recommendations of vendors, setting up timelines and help with legal paperwork are beyond their domain. This is where a wedding planner comes in.
Now you know all the types of wedding professionals who can help plan and execute your ideal wedding day. Which one you choose to hire is entirely up to you and your needs. For more tips regarding wedding planning check out our Planning section of the blog.
Chantal
Ever since Chantal was a little girl, she knew all she wanted to do was to plan weddings. Fast forward to today, she has worked as an event planner & coordinator both in Ireland and Croatia, and is currently busy writing her blog Destination Weddings Croatia aimed to help brides that are looking to get married in her lovely homeland. Brides like you!
