After years of weddings, we’ve learned that having a professional Wedding Coordinator help out on your wedding day makes a big difference in 3 important areas.  We’d like to share what we see, from inside of weddings days, on why you should consider hiring one….and we have an awesome deal for our MotionWorks couples who are looking for planning and coordination services!

Differences: Planning and Coordination

First, we want to talk about the difference in planning and coordination.  Many event professionals will often offer both services, but some will specialize in one or the other.  Different event professionals will define this differently, but the basics carry through the industry.

A Wedding Planner helps you plan your wedding.  They may assist with some design aspects (some specialize in planning AND design), recommend vendors, put together timelines.  Often this service is completed with “Day-Of” coordination.

Actual “Day Of” coordination, if hired as a separate service than planning, usually starts well before the actual wedding day.  Your coordinator will help to nail down a timeline for the day that will include not just the event, but set up, tear down, and prep times for those events.  They will be on hand the day of your wedding to help make those things happen, assist with set up and tear down, communicate with vendors, and keep everything flowing smoothly.

There are two times during your wedding day that we really notice (and one, overall, big difference).

Walking Down the Aisle

Even if you’ve asked your most organized friend to help with some details on your wedding day, this is when things go awry.  That organized friend or family member will either sit down to watch or often is in your actual wedding party, so they can’t help with the timing of people coming down the aisle.

This sounds like a small thing, but on your wedding day, it’s huge.  Ushers often need to be told when to seat people.  Your grandmothers will be escorted in and seated, but they don’t know what their cues are to start walking.  You want people spaced out so the timing of the music works, but everyone is nervous, and most of them have never done this before.  You’re hoping that everyone will walk down the aisle with a smile on their face, but if they aren’t even sure they’re entering at the right time, all you see is a look of slight confusion.

Sometimes, people will walk up the aisle and realize they do not have the (very important) things they were supposed to bring with them: rings, flowers, tissues, etc.  A Wedding Coordinator will see that it all happens, in the right place, at the right time.

These are not things you’re likely to notice in our Highlight videos.  We carefully edit those to share the very best portions of your day.  But you will notice them during your actual wedding, and you don’t want anything to take away from your enjoyment of the day.  You will also see those when you watch the documentary edit of your wedding ceremony.

Timing at the Reception

This is the other time when you well-organized friend or family member likely cannot help, for the same reason as during the ceremony: they are seated and taking part in the event.

If you thought lining everyone up before the ceremony was difficult, you’ll be unpleasantly surprised at how difficult it is to get everyone into the reception.  It’s like herding cats.  Slightly drunken cats. Slightly drunken cats who have never rehearsed this part of the day (as they likely rehearsed the ceremony).

Once everyone has been introduced, your reception will likely proceed according to the schedule you’ve given either your DJ or the band’s MC.  Those vendors are very skilled at what they do, but while they’re doing their jobs, it’s hard for them to notice the behind the scenes problems that arise.  They may not be aware that the Best Man has ducked into the restroom right at the time they were planning to start speeches.  Or that dinner is taking longer to be served at it’s a bad time to start those toasts.  We always recommend waiting a bit after all the food has been served, to avoid servers walking around and the noise of forks hitting plates while someone is sharing a heartfelt speech. Again, these are things you won’t notice while watching a highlight video, but you will notice (and be distracted by) during your wedding day.

We’ve saved our final reason for hiring a Wedding Coordinator for last, but it is by far the most important.

A Stress-Free Wedding Experience

Stress-free couples are happy couples, and happy couples make for amazing wedding videos.  While that video is my main product and a large part of the reason I want you to be happy….it’s mostly because it’s your wedding day and I think everyone should be happy on their wedding day!

When you’re worried that everyone might not be finished with hair and makeup on time, or trying to text directions to a hopelessly lost vendor, or making sure you don’t drink too much and have that reception wrapped up in the time clean up before dropping into bed….you are not happy.

When something has not gone according to plan, you do not want to be the person who has to problem solve that.  It’s your wedding day.  The only thing you should be doing is getting married and having the time of your life.

Now for the deal!

We are super excited to share about a new partnership with Brittany Anne!  I recently asked Brittany Anne to plan the wedding portion of a styled shoot for me, and she did an absolutely brilliant job.  I am not at all a planner, so I gave her some rough ideas and completely turned the thing over to her and it was beautiful.  She has a great eye for design, is meticulously organized, and was super easy to communicate and work with.

Any MotionWorks couples who book planning and coordination services with Brittany Anne will get a free backdrop well.  She has so many great walls to choose between, from beautiful florals and greenery, to structured wood walls, even a new champagne wall that we absolutely love. You can catch a glimpse at her walls in several of our videos, including Brittany + Kevin, Marisa + Trey, and Taylor + Clayton.

If you’re currently a MotionWorks couple, just get in touch with Brittany Anne, let her know we sent you, and enjoy your planning experience.  If you’re currently one of Brittany Anne’s couples and are looking for a fabulous wedding film to capture your day, we’d love to talk to you (and have a little something special for you as well)!  Contact us today to start the conversation about your MotionWorks Wedding Film!

Join the MotionWorks mailing list to get lots of great wedding planning tips right in your inbox, and be the first to learn about deals and new products!