Well … not quite. But it got your attention! When asking my brides & grooms if they have a wedding consultant, 9 times out of 10 the response is “oh, our venue provides a site coordinator, so we don’t need one”. Valid answer, to be sure, but sometimes couples don’t realize exactly what services the site coordinator will provide or how valuable hiring a wedding consultant could be. Here to clarify the difference for us is Nicole D’Ambra of Nicole D’Ambra Wedding Consulting and Design.
I don’t blame Brides and Grooms for being confused with the difference between site coordinators, people who manage the site where your wedding is taking place, and wedding consultants, people who manage the details of your wedding day. Since I know that most Brides and Grooms don’t even know what I do, I can’t expect them to understand the fine differences between these two sorts of professionals. Even site coordinators and wedding consultants don’t understand each other’s role entirely! I always tell my Brides and Grooms that 99.9% of my career is spent teaching what I do, .01% is spent doing what I do. I hold my Certified Title and belong to the board of directors for an association called the ACPWC (Association of Certified Professional Wedding Consultants), and one of our goals for the future is to help educate site coordinators on what wedding consultants do, and vice versa, so that we can all understand our roles, and work together seamlessly for our clients. Right now there is a huge difference between what one site coordinator might do for a client vs. another. For example, there are some sites who offer “coordination” services for a small additional fee. The problem with this is that the site coordinators most likely do not have professional training for this, and might not have enough years of experience either. At other sites the site coordinator is simply only responsible for the details regarding the site, the building not burning down, and the food being served on time. It’s ok if your site coordinator does a little above and beyond what is expected of them. Some high end sites will offer assistance with your timeline, your site layouts, setting up your day with the favors, programs, etc… This is fine, but the major difference that still remains between site coordinators and wedding consultants is that wedding consultants know everything about your wedding, and help you plan every single detail, and execute it. Site coordinators may know all about your wedding, but they won’t be able to help you create a budget, find a site for your ceremony and reception, help you choose a wedding date, track your hiring of vendors, bring you to vendor meetings, negotiate your contracts with vendors, design your event from top to bottom, help you save money, meet with you in person off site, do phone and e-mail consultations with you, give you advice based on years and years of valuable experience, and basically be your right hand woman or man while planning the entire event. My best advice to you Brides and Grooms is to sit down with your site coordinator/s and ask them to list out what they are responsible for, once you know that, you can decide if a wedding consultant is right for you. We can do as little or as much as you need help with to fill in the spots that your site coordinator doesn’t have the experience or bandwidth to provide you with. About 2/3rd s of Brides and Grooms today are hiring personal wedding consultants to help them plan and manage their wedding because it is a smart decision to make! Having a wedding consultant allows you and your fiancé, your family, and friends, to enjoy every special moment on the wedding day without interruption. We take care of all of the stressful things you don’t want to deal with so that you can just have fun and be the Bride and Groom, and that’s the way it should be! Happy Planning!
Always, Nicole D’Ambra
Be sure to visit Nicole’s blog for lots of great tips and advice!
