Planning, coordinating, designing - OH MY!
Planning a wedding can be overwhelming. Understanding the distinct roles of wedding planners, coordinators, and designers is crucial. In this post, you will discover 3 types of wedding professionals and how they can help support you on your wedding planning journey. You will want to choose the support that aligns with your needs for a seamless wedding experience. #WeddingPlanning #EventCoordination #WeddingDesign #DIYWedding #DIY Bride
When planning a wedding, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. Thankfully, there are all kinds of wedding industry professionals who can help support you through the process.
Now if you’re new to the wedding world, this is where it can start to get a tad confusing.
There are wedding planners, wedding coordinators, and wedding designers. You might be wondering if these are all the same role with different titles or do they each offer something different?
The answer? They are each unique in their own way. While there is some overlap between the roles, they each offer something different to get help get you and your partner from being engaged to living up your wedding day!
Understanding what each role entails can help you decide what type of support best fits your needs. Here’s a breakdown of each type of wedding professional and how they can contribute to your big day.
1. Wedding Planner
A wedding planner is the most comprehensive option for wedding support. They typically work with couples from the very beginning of the planning process until the last guest leaves the reception. A wedding planner’s role typically includes:
Budget Management: Helping you set a realistic budget and keeping you on track.
Vendor Sourcing and Management: Recommending and coordinating with vendors, such as florists, photographers, and caterers.
Timeline Creation: Developing a detailed timeline for the entire wedding.
Logistics: Managing contracts, permits, and any other necessary documentation.
Day-of Coordination: Overseeing the entire event to ensure it runs smoothly.
Wedding planners are ideal for couples who want full-service support or have complex weddings that require detailed logistics. Small caveat: some companies will offer different levels of wedding planning support to allow for high, medium, and low priced options.
2. Wedding Coordinator
A wedding coordinator typically comes into the picture anywhere from 4-8 weeks before the wedding day or just the day of the event, if you purchase a day of coordinator service. Their main role is to ensure that all the plans you’ve made are executed perfectly. Responsibilities of a wedding coordinator tend to include:
Finalizing Details: Reviewing contracts and confirming details with vendors.
Timeline Management: Creating a wedding-day timeline and sharing it with vendors.
Rehearsal Coordination: Managing the rehearsal to ensure everyone knows their roles.
Day-of Execution: Being the point of contact for vendors and guests, troubleshooting any issues that arise, and ensuring the event stays on schedule.
Me circa 2019 doing day-of coordination for a Central Oregon wedding
Wedding coordinators are a great choice for couples who have already done most of the planning, but want professional help on the day to ensure everything runs smoothly. This can be a great option, if you don’t want to have to tag in your family and friends to be the point people on the day of your wedding.
3. Wedding Designer
A wedding designer focuses solely on the aesthetics and atmosphere of the wedding. They are responsible for bringing your vision to life and ensuring the overall look and feel is cohesive. Wedding designers typically handle:
Concept Development: Collaborating with you to create a unique theme or style.
Color Palette and Mood Board: Establishing a color scheme and design inspiration.
Decor and Rentals: Selecting linens, lighting, flowers, furniture, and other decorative elements.
Venue Styling: Ensuring the venue is styled to match your vision.
Woodland Wedding Design I created for a styled photoshoot
Unlike planners or coordinators, wedding designers do not handle logistics or vendor management beyond decor-related vendors. They are ideal for couples who want to create a visually stunning wedding and need creative guidance. If you feel you don’t have a design bone in your body or know you want your wedding to look good, but have no idea how to do it - a wedding designer is a great option for you.
What support does GHD offer?
Gathered Here Designs offers a wedding planning course for those who want to DIY their wedding planning and need a roadmap to help them along the wedding planning journey.
Virtual design services are launching soon! There will be three levels of design services available, depending on how much design support you’re looking for.
Be sure to sign-up for the weekly wedding email so you’re the first to know when services go live!
Choosing the Right Support for You
The type of wedding support you choose depends on your needs, budget, and how hands-on you want to be in the wedding process. Some couples may opt for a full service wedding planner who also offers day-of coordination, while others may only need to hire a designer. No matter what you choose, having professional support can help make your wedding day stress-free and unforgettable.
If you’re unsure which option is right for you, consider your wedding vision and how much time and effort you can dedicate to planning. With the right team in place, your dream wedding can become a reality.
“Engaged 2 Planning” - Wedding Planning for DIY couples
The moment has finally arrived…my wedding planning course is officially live!
Now I know I’ve only talked about my wedding planning course a little bit recently (see here), but what you might not realize is this idea has been in process since 2016. Yes, you read that right, 2016, as in almost a decade ago - in other words…
2016 is when I first discovered online courses and the concept of running a virtual business. It was the year I purchased my first online course from, which happened to be right around the time I had my first baby (that’s a lot of firsts in 2016). At night between when this baby went to bed (around 7pm) and when baby got back up to “dream feed” (if you don’t have kids - google it - it’s a whole thing) at 10pm, I would stay up and work on learning about online business. While I was exhausted in a way only a new parent can be, I was energized by this idea of a virtual business.
Of course life gets in the way sometimes and causes delays and reprioritizing…since 2016 there have been multiple apartments/houses (6 to be exact), multiple jobs, and then baby #2 in 2018.
Note to viewers babies do not always sleep peacefully - do not be fooled!
When I finally launched GHD in 2019 (3 years after that first online course I took), I spent a year getting it up and running (building socials and my website, doing design giveaways online, having styled shoots, etc.). Then in March of 2020, I launched my first online offerings (4 years after taking that first course). In a cruel trick from the universe, a global pandemic hit at the EXACT same time and everyone was worried about well…not weddings.
Throwback to the original GHD Logo (circa 2019)
In 2021, I returned to the corporate world and shoved my design dreams in the back of my desk drawer (literally, my notebook for all my GHD plans was in my desk). For a while, I thought it was over - my dream would die a slow death (and gather lots of dust) in the back of my desk drawer.
If you’ve ever met me in real life, you know I’m not one who gives up or lets go easily (relentlessness is one of my most intense qualities - good and bad). Even in my corporate job, I always found ways to infuse design and event planning anywhere and everywhere I could, but I still missed wedding design. Turns out it’s pretty hard to fit color palettes and mood boards into the health care industry.
By December of 2023, I knew I just had to breathe life back into my wedding dreams - even if that meant doing it on the weekends or evenings while working full time. I rebuilt my website (from scratch), started a weekly newsletter (ps you can sign up for that here), launched my blog, and began creating all kinds of freebies (quizzes, guides, PDFs) to help support couples with their wedding planning and design. All those resources are free to you here!
By fall of 2024, it became very clear to me that for my virtual wedding business and dream of creating a course to ever be more than a “hobby”, I would need to be able to work on it full time.
Then came the doubt (“What if I fail?”), imposter syndrome (“Am I even a designer?”), and reality (“Can I even record a course while my house is undergoing major renovations?”). Oh doubt, hello dear friend.
Well the universe must have felt bad for being such a punk to me (to all of us) in 2020 and it created a very clear path for me to exit my corporate job and thus here we are.
It only took 9+ years from my original dream to get to this point and honestly I’m okay with that. While it didn’t go how I thought it would originally back in 2016, the journey to this dream has been the exact wild ride I needed.
That’s the thing about life, it always works out the way it’s supposed to in the end (even if it seems like absolutely NOTHING is adding up right on the way there).
Now that you know a little more about the journey I’ve been on to get to this exact moment, I couldn’t be more thrilled to bring you “Engaged 2 Planning”, the online course to help guide newly engaged couples navigate from their engagement into the wedding planning process.
This course guides couples through the 3 Key Wedding Planning Decisions they need to make first (before starting on any design elements of their wedding). These key decisions include: wedding size, wedding budget, and wedding date.
Since I’m such a design nut though, I included a bonus module in the course to help determine overall wedding vibe/style, color palettes, and mood board inspiration (including how to make your own wedding mood board!).
Features:
-120+ Minutes of Video Instruction
-14+ PDFs & resources including:
Wedding Budget Tracker
Money Mindset Activity
Mood Board Templates
Color Palette Concepts
Wedding Vibe Guide
Wedding Invitation Discount Code
AND MORE!
A MAJOR benefit of this course is the amount of time it saves newly engaged couples who are DIY-ing their wedding planning. From a fellow DIY bride to another, I KNOW exactly how overwhelming and time-consuming planning your own wedding can be. With this course, instead of scouring Instagram, Pinterest, wedding blogs and magazines, everything a couple needs to get started with wedding planning is “gathered here” (see what I did there?), all in one place, for easy access.
The course is a one time $47 payment. I’m putting that out there because I am a fan of transparency and I personally like knowing these sorts of things up front. So there you are, less than $50 bucks (pretty sure the bonus section alone is totally worth the cost of the entire course).
Sneak peak of the course BONUS materials
Not ready to spend the money, but still need help planning? I’ve got you covered. Check out my FREE resources page and snag your copy of the Ultimate wedding planning checklist.
If you’re not getting married, but know someone who is - be sure to share this link with them!
Have questions about the course? I’m here for it! Email me directly at gatheredheredesigns@gmail.com and we can set up time to chat, text, or email.
I am starting this New Year out on a mission to help support all those lovers who made it official during engagement season with getting the wedding planning journey started.
Cheers to your engagement, the wedding planning to come, and dreams realized! I hope to see you in the course soon!