Planning, coordinating, designing - OH MY!

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.

3 Wedding Decisions You Can Make Right Now for FREE!

Hey, there lovebirds! 💍✨ So, you just got engaged? Cue the happy dance! 🎉 But now that the excitement is settling in, you might be thinking, "Where do we even start?!" The good news? You don’t have to spend a dime to start planning your dream wedding! In fact, there are 3 big wedding decisions you can make right now, absolutely FREE. Let’s dive in!

1. Determine Your Wedding Size 🏰 vs. 🏡

Before you even think about venues or caterers, it helps to decide how big (or intimate) your wedding will be. Do you want to create a party-like atmosphere with 200+ guests? Or are you dreaming of a more intimate gathering with just your closest family and friends? Figuring this out now will make everything else—venue, budget, invitations—SO much easier later on. So grab your fiancé, make a list, and start visualizing your perfect guest count! For an in depth look at making this decision see here.

Consider what kind of vibe you want (party like or intimate atmosphere) when choosing your wedding size

If you’re needing more support making your wedding guest list, be sure to grab the wedding guest list template below!

2. Choose Your Wedding Party 👯‍♀️💙

Now that you know how many guests you want at your event, you can move on to determining your wedding party. Who do you want standing by your side when you say, "I do"? Your wedding party plays a huge role in your big day (and the fun leading up to it!), so this is a great decision to make early. Whether you’re going traditional party or mixing it up your wedding crew, the choice is yours! When selecting your wedding party, focus on quality over quantity. Imagine your 5th, 10th, 20th wedding anniversary, would you still be in touch with those in your wedding party? For my own wedding, we only had our siblings in the wedding party because we felt the most connected and supported by them. If you have a lot of close friends and really want them all in the wedding, go for it, but remember there’s nothing wrong with keeping it small or skipping the wedding party concept all together. You do you🥂

It’s okay to have a small wedding party of close friends or family

3. Select Your Color Palette 🎨✨

Choosing your wedding colors early sets the tone for everything—décor, wedding party attire, flowers, and even invitations! Are you feeling classic with timeless neutrals? Or maybe bold and vibrant hues speak to your personality? Pinterest is your BFF here! Start pinning color schemes you love, and soon you’ll see a pattern emerge. The best part? It costs zero dollars to dream up a color palette that makes your heart happy! For some color palette inspo see the GHD Pinterest board (jewel tones, pink & red, and purple) and this blog post (includes a FREE wedding color quiz).

Color Palette Inspiration

Ready to Get Started? 💕

Making these 3 decisions now will give you a strong foundation for planning your big day—and the best part? It won’t cost you a thing to get started! So, grab your partner, pour a glass of something fabulous, and start planning. You’ve got this! 🥂✨

Need more wedding planning tips? Be sure to sign up for the GHD Weekly Wedding email for extra wedding planning and design support ✨

Kickstart Your Wedding Design: Choose the Perfect Color Palette 🎨

Last week we talked a little bit about wedding themes (see here), but maybe you’re feeling like you have no idea where to start with your wedding design and the thought of deciding on a theme is just too much for you right now.

That’s okay, I totally get it. Wedding planning overwhelm is REAL!

As a former DIY bride myself, I know exactly how stressful wedding design can be (especially if you’ve never done it before). If you’re newly engaged and just starting your wedding design journey, I have 2 things to say:

1. CONGRATULATIONS! This is such an exciting moment in your love story and I encourage you and your partner to take time to celebrate your engagement. There’s no rule (and even if there was, I would encourage you to break it) saying you have to start designing and planning your wedding the second you get engaged. Take your time and enjoy this magical time.

2. If you are ready to start designing your wedding and landing on a theme is too overwhelming (see here for some wedding theme inspo) - I encourage you to start with wedding colors.

Choosing wedding colors is easier than you may think. There are a lot of clues in your surrounding environment that will help point to your ideal wedding color palette. Once you choose your wedding colors, it will help serve as a creative foundation for all aspects of your wedding design. From invitations to decor, attire to florals, your chosen palette becomes the invisible string that ties every element together.

I love me some momentum, especially when it comes to making decisions. You’ll soon find once you get that wedding planning momentum going, you’ll want to keep going.

Here's why selecting wedding colors is so important and how it can help jumpstart your wedding design process:

Wedding Colors Define the Mood and Style

Your wedding colors are more than just a combination of shades you love; they reflect the mood and style you want to convey. Are you dreaming of a romantic and elegant celebration? Soft pastels or muted tones like blush pink, sage green, and ivory can evoke that feeling. Prefer something bold and modern? Jewel tones like emerald, burgundy, or navy can make a powerful statement. By choosing your colors, you’re creating the first building block of the atmosphere you want to create for your big day.

A Guide for Design Decisions

With so many choices to make, having a color palette in place simplifies decision-making. Whether you're selecting linens, centerpieces, wedding party attire, or even the icing color for your cake, your chosen colors will guide you. Without a defined palette, it’s easy to feel lost in a sea of options. Your colors act as an anchor, streamlining the process and ensuring all elements of your wedding feel cohesive. One of my favorite mood boards I’ve made tonight was a fictional wedding between Avril Lavigne and Elle Woods (see below).

Inspiration for Theme and Decor

Choosing your colors can also inspire the overall theme or aesthetic of your wedding. For example, a palette of soft blues, greens, and neutrals might inspire a coastal theme, while shades of burnt orange, rust, and terracotta are perfect for a fall or bohemian vibe. Once you’ve nailed down your colors, it’s easier to build a cohesive look and determine an overall theme that reflects your vision as a couple.

A Personal Touch to Your Day

Your wedding colors are a reflection of your personal taste and relationship. Maybe you’ve chosen hues that remind you of your favorite season, the flowers from your first date, your favorite travel destination as a couple, or even your home decor. Adding this personal touch not only makes your wedding feel more meaningful (no cookie cutter weddings here!) but also makes the design process more enjoyable.

If you’re feeling stuck with color selection, take the FREE GHD Wedding Color Quiz to help jumpstart your wedding color palette decision. 

Take the wedding color quiz

Tips for Choosing the Perfect Colors

1. Start with Inspiration: Look for inspiration in your everyday life. What colors make you happy? Are there tones in your wardrobe, home, or favorite artwork that you’re naturally drawn to?

2. Consider Your Venue: Your wedding venue plays a huge role in determining what colors will work best. A rustic barn might pair beautifully with earth tones, while a modern ballroom might call for sleek neutrals or metallics.

3. Seasonal Palette: Let the time of year guide you. Pastels are great for spring, vibrant shades work well for summer, earthy tones shine in fall, and rich, deep colors suit winter weddings.

4. Test Combinations: Play around with color swatches and mood boards to see how different shades work together. Get the FREE GHD mood board guide with templates here. For more color inspo, check out this GHD Pinterest (purple wedding, jewel toned wedding, red and pink wedding).

How Wedding Colors Drive Your Design Journey

Once your colors are chosen, you’ll find that many other wedding design decisions will become easier. Your floral arrangements, table settings, invitations, and even lighting can all be designed with your palette in mind. It’s like creating a roadmap for your wedding—giving you a clear direction to follow as you progress in your journey of making your wedding vision a reality.

By starting with your wedding colors, you’re setting the stage for a cohesive and memorable event. It’s a fun and creative way to kickstart your wedding planning journey and ensures that your celebration truly reflects your style and story as a couple. So, grab those swatches, open up that mood board template, raid your closet and home for favorite items, get inspired, and let your wedding colors lead the way!

“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…

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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.

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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!

FREE wedding resources

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.

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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).

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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. 

More about “Engaged 2 Planning”

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!).

Learn more about the course

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!

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Why wedding planning doesn’t have to be overwhelming

If you have ever planned a wedding, you know exactly how stressful and overwhelming it can be. There are 100+ decisions to make, millions of articles/videos/checklists online telling you what to do, and often never-ending unsolicited input from family and friends. 

Now if you’re new to wedding planning and aren’t aware of these things, my apologies if I just scared the pants off you.The truth is wedding planning can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

As a former DIY bride myself, I know what it feels like to be sitting on the floor surrounded by wedding magazines, trying to piece together a plan of how to DIY my wedding. Once I made it through my own wedding planning, I started supporting family, friends, and eventually couples online with their weddings. In 2019, I decided I wanted to use my wedding knowledge to support more couples through DIY-ing their weddings and thus Gathered Here Designs was created. Here’s a little breakdown of my journey to wedding design:

My journey to wedding design

While wedding design and styling are my absolute favorite part of the wedding process, I have learned you really have to start with planning first. I know, I know, talking guest-lists, budget, and setting the date are not the glamorous part of creating your dream wedding. I also know that if you skip to the design part, you’ll end up wasting time, money, and eventually you’ll have to go back to the actual planning part. 

“The truth is wedding planning can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be that way.”

Whether you like it or not, wedding planning is happening - it’s a must for pulling off a DIY wedding.

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To help make the process easier, I have put everything I know about wedding planning into a digital mini-course to help newly engaged couples DIY their wedding planning without the overwhelm. This course focuses on the 3 key decisions couples need to make first when planning a wedding and guides them through how to do so. It’s called Engaged 2 Planning.

While naturally I wanted to create a wedding design course, I really feel for all those stressed out couples trying to plan their wedding so I wanted to start with planning first (then we can get to the fun stuff later).

What this course includes:

• Welcome Video

• 3 Modules

• Multiple Video Lessons

• PDFs and Worksheets

• Bonus Section on Design

This course will be available before the end of the year. If you are a newly engaged couple or you know someone who needs help with their wedding planning, be sure to have them sign up for the Engaged 2 Planning waitlist. 

If you’re not getting married and are just curious about the behind-the-scenes aspects of Gathered Here Designs, be sure to join the Wedding Wednesday email list. I send wedding tips, along with personal updates in this (mostly) weekly email. Sign up here.

My hope is wedding planning with this course will be super chill…happy planning!!!

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The #1 Key Wedding Decision

Weddings require a lot of decision making…like A LOT. 

You make one decision about your venue and you feel pretty good about it, you feel accomplished. Then just as you go to let out a sigh of relief, 12 more wedding decisions pop up that require your immediate attention. If wedding planning was an arcade game, it would be whack-a-mole.

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To make all the decisions easier, I like to encourage couples to start with the “key decisions” of their wedding. While I could chat all day about wedding color palettes, which is a decision that will need to be made eventually, it’s definitely not a “key decision”. By focusing on the key wedding decisions first, it will help create a solid foundation for you to design the rest of your wedding from.

I feel so strongly about this that the entire first module of my online Wedding Design 101 course is dedicated entirely to the five key wedding decisions that help set couples up for success with their wedding planning. 

Wedding Design 101 Course - Get on the waitlist now!

Today, I wanted to share the #1 Key Wedding Decision I would encourage you and your partner to make first. Are you ready to learn what this magical key decision is?

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The #1 Key Wedding Decision is determining your wedding size (aka your estimated guest count). I know, I know, it’s not the most glamorous of the wedding decisions you’ll be making, but I promise you this one decision has a domino effect on all future decisions.

Knowing your wedding size will help you narrow down the scope of what’s possible for your wedding. Here are a couple of ways this key decision will help kick start other key decisions.

• Venue Selection - Knowing your estimated guest count, will help you narrow down which venues you want to consider. For example if you end up with an estimated guest count of 250, that quaint rose garden in the heart of the city will no longer be an option. Many online venue searches allow you to filter by wedding size and location. Knowing your wedding size can definitely help narrow down your list of venue options.

• Budget Range - Once you know your wedding size, you can start to get a better sense of your budget. Most caterers will have a per guest rate fee. In a 2022 study of wedding costs, couples paid an average of $75 per guest for catering (not this does not include the costs associated with an open bar). Let’s go with the $75 per guest average. If you know you’re having a wedding of 150 people, you could budget $11,250 (150 x $75) for catering costs. Did you just throw up a little? I know $11,000 is a small fortune. This is just an estimate based on averages. You should know my ENTIRE wedding cost less than half that catering bill. Take a breath. It’s going to be okay.

So how do you start getting an estimate of your wedding guest count? You and your partner will each need to make a list of who you want to invite to the wedding. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3…

1. List all guests you consider “mandatory” ; these are the people you feel absolutely must be at your wedding (siblings, parents, etc.)

2. List all close friends and family members (cousins, best friends, roommates, etc.)

3. List any additional guests you want to invite, but wouldn’t be devastated if they didn’t make it (co-workers, friends from college, clients, etc.)

Once you and your fiancé each make your own lists separately, go through them together and remove/add anyone else you might think of. Then, total it up. If you end up with way more people than you wanted, remove the guests from list #3 and see what your total is then. Still too many? Remove guests from list #2. Do this until you feel you’re at a number that feels good for both of you.

Need a visual? Of course I have you covered! See here for an easy to use template to help make your 1-2-3 wedding guest list.

“When it comes to weddings, size definitely matters!”

I promise if you take the time to prioritize making this key wedding decision first, it will make the rest of your planning so much easier!

Want to learn more about all the key wedding decisions? Get on the waitlist for my Wedding Design 101 course.

Join the Wedding Design 101 Course Waitlist

Have other wedding related things you need help with? Reach me directly at gatheredheredesigns@gmail.com!

Happy designing!

~Amanda Jean