Wedding Planner or Wedding Coordinator – What’s the Difference?!?!

This question has been coming up more and more now that brides are looking for some help planning and handling details of their big day. After a bride starts working with so many different vendors it can get confusing to know who handles what tasks.

Well ladies, luckily for you we are featuring one of our favorite wedding planners, Sarah Rodriguez owner of Sarah Kathleen Events, and she is going to help explain the differences!

What is the difference between a wedding planner and a wedding coordinator? “While there are a lot of similarities between the two jobs, they are fairly different in the responsibilities. A wedding planner is more of a decision maker than a wedding coordinator will be. They can help you to create a theme or feel for the day, design decor, set and manage your budget, book vendors, and help to actually plan the wedding. A coordinator is there to make sure the plans you made are carried out properly. They’ll help fill in any holes in the information, and then make sure everything goes according to that plan on wedding day! Many planners also offer coordination services and both can certainly make recommendations on vendors or anything else wedding related!

“A [venue] coordinator is someone who helps to tie all of the pieces together that have already been made by the client and to make sure the [ceremony and reception] goes smoothly.” They assist with creating and implementing a timeline [for the ceremony & reception], communicating with the vendors [on site], and problem solving along the way”.

Why would I want to hire a wedding planner? “Hiring a wedding planner can help keep the planning process stress free. Planners have worked with many vendors across various different price points and can help booking the right vendor much easier. We’ve also seen a ton of different styles and trends and will help to incorporate your own style into those trends. Keeping on budget, staying on task and on time are tough when planning so many details, but a planner will be skilled in all of those arenas and keep everything on track. You can also count on them to make sure the wedding day details are covered and things go smoothly.”

Where is the best place to search for a wedding planner in their area? How does a bride choose the right wedding planner? “One of the best local resources I’ve found is actually on Facebook! There are various bridal networking groups where local brides offer up recommendations and ask wedding advice. It’s a great way to see how planners interact with their communities and how past clients view their experiences. Other websites like The Knot or Wedding Wire are also fantastic because they list verified reviews from past clients and those are a huge tell-tale sign as to who you’re booking! My best advice is to do your research! Sometimes the cheapest company is not always the best bet. Make sure to read reviews and look at all the past work you can before booking anybody. You’ll want to make sure you not only like the visual aspect of their work, but also the personality and work ethic of whomever you book.”

So…Who is Sarah Rodriguez??

How did you get started in wedding planning? This is goofy, but I knew I needed to specialize in weddings after I saw the movie The Wedding Planner as a youngster. I always had an interest in parties, throwing them for any reason I could find, but weddings specifically were my interest after that movie. It just looked like the perfect combination of all of my weird skills I acquired over the years and it was actually something I was good at!

How long have you been planning weddings and events? I started my actual work in event planning at age 17 so about 14 years now. I started my company, though, 3.5 years ago and have loved every second of it!

Why do you love what you do? It is the best feeling knowing that we are helping to make somebody’s dreams come true. Our clients think about their weddings for years and years and to see all of their ideas come to life is a wonderful feeling. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of the happiest days of people’s lives??

What upcoming trends are you seeing and obsessing over? I am obsessed with the richer color palettes that are coming back into style. Deep, rich blues and purples look so great when paired with copper metallics! I also really enjoy the whole acrylic/ glass trend that is coming in. There are so many beautiful ways of incorporating these trends! Also- unique escort cards and menu cards. You can bring so much pizzazz to your wedding by doing something creative with just those!