Wedding Coordinator v. Venue Coordinator: What is the Difference?

Although your venue will most likely include a venue coordinator in your rental fee, few include a wedding coordinator. This is either left for you to select one or go without, depending on the venue. Before you make your decision, it’s important to know what they both do. In this podcast episode, we are talking about the difference between a wedding coordinator and a venue coordinator with Rudy of Rudy and Marta Photography. 

As a wedding photographer in the area for the past 9 years, Rudy and his wife Marta have worked hundreds of weddings and have great insight on the difference of the two when it comes to your experience on the wedding day! 

Check out this podcast episode below!


Photo: Rudy and Marta Photography | Venue: The Acre Orlando

Managing Your Wedding Vendors

When you go to visit a venue, you will most likely meet the venue coordinator. They represent and work for the venue. Therefore, any details that have to deal directly with the venue and its role on your wedding day, they will be your point of contact. However, they will not be in contact with all of your vendors to make sure the day runs smoothly. The exception to this may be your rental vendor(s), florist, DJ, and cake artist. The contact would only be to verify load in and set up but this is not always the case. 

On the flip side, a wedding coordinator works for you. This means that they are much more hands-on with the coordination of not only all your vendors but also your wedding day timeline to make sure everything runs smoothly. A great wedding coordinator allows you to be hands-off the month before and the day of your wedding so that you can enjoy everything. Another HUGE perk of having a wedding coordinator is they will review the contracts that you have with your vendors so there are no surprises the day of. Not all packages will include this, so make sure to ask your wedding coordinator what services they include in the package you book.

Roles the Day of Your Wedding

Since the venue coordinator works for the venue, they will not be moving with your event. By this we mean, if your getting ready location or ceremony is separate from your venue, you’re on your own until you get to the venue. For your cocktail hour and reception, if you have in house catering, your venue coordinator will make sure the food is running on time and will stay until all meals are served.

If you hire a wedding coordinator, not only will they be following your wedding to multiple locations but they will be there throughout the entire day making sure everything is running on time. Another bonus is that they stay until the end of your event. They will make sure gifts go with whomever you designate and any other details are taken care of so your loved ones don’t have to worry about it.

To sum up, the venue coordinator is there to guide you and answer questions throughout your engagement, make recommendations for vendors, help with details along the way. A wedding coordinator handles all of the logistics, creating a timeline, and vendor communication leading up to your wedding and on your wedding day, so you can enjoy every second stress-free.

So do you need them both?

Honestly, it depends on your needs for your wedding day. This is up to you and your future spouse to lay out the pros and cons and what will work best for you. Something to note, many venues are now requiring that, at a minimum, couples have a licensed and insured month-of wedding coordinator on their wedding day. Their venue coordinators are not physically able to cover all the moving parts and there needs to be someone else in charge of making sure the wedding runs smoothly.

If we are being totally transparent, we are all for hiring a wedding coordinator/planner. We have seen so many weddings where they have been able to help couples bring their wedding vision to life and create those happy lasting memories.  

*Please note that not all services for wedding coordination listed above are standard with each package. Every wedding coordinator/planner offers different packages so it is important to clarify what you are getting before booking.

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