What’s a Day-of Coordinator–and Does Your Wedding Need One?

We love to host DIY weddings at TALEA. Want to arrange your own flowers, manage your catering, and coordinate your vendors? More power to you! But for couples who want a little extra help to make the day of the event run smoothly (or just don’t want to cue their own music for a walk down the aisle!), we recommend bringing in a day-of coordinator.

What does a day-of coordinator do?

If you think of your wedding as a cake, you’re the one who writes the recipe and buys the ingredients, while a day-of coordinator is the one who bakes it. Your day-of coordinator can oversee all the plans you’ve put in motion on your wedding day, and make sure they go off without a hitch. For example, day-of coordinators won’t help you select a florist, but they will help the florist load into your venue, get the arrangements set the way you want them, and give a basket to your flower girl–so you can focus on the fun stuff, like drinking mimosas with your friends and family. What if you find out last minute that one of your guests has a nut allergy? A day-of coordinator can liaise with the kitchen to make a nut-free plate or arrange an alternate meal. Need a steamer for your veil? No need to send the mother of the bride on a last-minute Target run–you day-of coordinator brought theirs. 

What’s the difference between a wedding planner, site manager, and day-of coordinator?

A wedding planner will typically begin working with the couple getting married well in advance of the wedding–right from the very beginning. Wedding planners touch every aspect of a wedding, and are often the ones selecting venues, bakeries, florists and caterers for their couples to select from. Wedding planners often have existing relationships with venues and vendors, which allows them to sometimes get better pricing. Typically, your wedding planner will work within a budget, and manage that budget accordingly. In addition to all the pre-wedding research, site visits, and coordination, a wedding planner will serve as a day-of coordinator, or bring in a secondary, more junior planner to work the day of. Wedding planners take a lot of the wedding work off a couple’s shoulders, but can often cost ~10% of the wedding budget in New York City. 

A site manager, or venue manager, is usually employed by the venue, and oversees everything related to the venue itself. At TALEA, that would be a member of our private events team, and our manager on duty at whichever taproom the event is at. Venue managers can handle anything to do with the building–like adjusting the existing lighting, hooking the playlist up to the Bluetooth speakers, checking the bathroom for paper supplies, or flipping the room from ceremony to reception, but are not involved in the production of the event. 

A day-of coordinator is the middle ground between a site manager and a wedding planner. While they won’t be involved in the wedding planning, they’ll have a full view of how you want your wedding to be–from florals to timing–and will be the point person for executing that vision.

What problems does a day-of coordinator solve?

• Vendor coordination: By introducing your day-of coordinator to your vendors in advance of the wedding, your coordinator can make sure they’re arriving on time, loading in correctly, and setting up the way you want them to. Plus, if your vendors have any questions on the wedding day, they’ll know your coordinator is the point of contact, so you can spend more time with family and friends. 

• Setup: Put down the folding chair! Let someone else handle the ceremony floor plan, positioning the chuppah, and setting up the seating chart. 

• Wedding party wrangling: Can’t find the Maid of Honor for her speech? Does the Father of the Bride need a Tide Pen? Your coordinator will wrangle the aunts, uncles, and childhood friends into their seats for the ceremony, bring the bridal party to the photographers, and cue the wedding party down the aisle.
  

• Ceremony run-of-show: If your flower girl needs a pep talk, or the ring bearer needs a signal to start down the aisle, that’s the day-of coordinator’s ballpark. 

• Guest management: We hope it never happens, but guests have been known to get rowdy at weddings. Leave getting them into a cab to your wedding coordinator. 

• Breakdown and cleanup: Venues, including TALEA, can charge a fee for holding on to oversize wedding decor items overnight–but who wants to stick around after the reception to clean them up? That’s right: your day-of coordinator!

How much does a day-of coordinator cost?

In New York City, day-of coordinators with experience usually start at $2,000-3,000 per event. You may be able to find someone who is just starting out at <$1,000, but their experience will most likely be limited, or you may be their first event.  Day-of coordinator packages will vary, with some offering different types or amounts of communication prior to the wedding, so make sure their package works for what you need!

Where can you hire a day-of coordinator?

TALEA keeps a list of our preferred vendors, and we have a few day-of coordinators on staff (shoot us an email for our recommendations!), but we also love the team at Cheersy. Cheersy is a marketplace that hosts lots of different day-of coordinators. You can reach out to a few different options to find out who is right for you. Speaking of…

How do you make sure the day of coordinator is right for you?

There are a few things to keep in mind with your day-of coordinator, including:

• Do they match your budget?

• Do their packages align with your needs?

• Are they based locally?

• How experienced are they?

• Do they have reviews from previous weddings they’ve staffed?

• How do they like to communicate–text, email, phone calls, zoom. Is that how you like to communicate? 

• Should your coordinator speak any specific language to work with your vendors and guests?
  
  

You can absolutely request to hop on a call first for a vibe check!

When can you start working with a day-of event coordinator?

Usually, you can start working with a day-of coordinator about a month in advance. While there won’t be much active work for them, that’s a good time frame to introduce them to your vendors and make sure they know your timeline and run of show.

Is it worth it to have a day-of coordinator?

That’s up to you! While TALEA doesn’t require having a day-of coordinator, some venues do. Ultimately, the value of a day-of coordinator is in allowing the couple to be fully present during their wedding and reception.

Interested in hosting your rehearsal dinner, welcome drinks, or wedding at one of TALEA?’s five bright and airy taprooms? Our experienced team makes planning a breeze. Inquire here.