02 Giu When The “Wedding Planner” Is Actually A Venue Coordinator
Wedding venues with on-site wedding planners
Many couples who want to get married in Italy like the idea of looking for the wedding venue by themselves, that means they have direct contacts with venue owners and managers. And in these occasions it is not uncommon for them to be offered the services of an on-site wedding planner included in the total price.
This obviously look like a very good offer, and very interesting for the couples too: the help of a professional wedding planner with no additional costs is surely useful and convenient! Wedding venues, on their hands, are happy to have a wedding planner who takes care of the spouses, and helps them to offer a more attentive, detailed and customized service.
This is surely like that, and on-site planners are precious professionals during the planning of a wedding; the problem is that they are not real wedding planners, what they do is a bit different.
Here in Italy the professional figure of the wedding planner is quite recent and this means that there is still a not perfect knowledge of what a wedding planner actually does. Moreover, there is not a clear awareness of the fact that there are many other similar (but only similar) figures who should be called differently.
The result is that the term “wedding planner” is used not only to indicate actual wedding planners but also wedding designers, wedding stylists, and venue coordinators. And what a wedding venue offers is not a wedding planner, but a venue coordinator.
A wedding reception at Tenuta Pinto
The difference between wedding planner and venue coordinator
The venue coordinator, as said, is a precious professional, who can perfectly cooperate with the couples and with wedding planners for the success of the event. They have a deep knowledge and competence in event planning and in all the reception related aspects of a wedding.
They give advice about the composition of the menu for the wedding banquet , help the couple to choose among the different services offered by the venue, and to create a coherent style for the reception, by choosing the proper accessories, decorations, and sometimes also items such as the seating plan, the place cards and so on.
And they can also give some advice about other wedding professionals, giving the couples the names and contacts of trusted suppliers they have already collaborated with.
But that’s not what a wedding planner does. Wedding planners don’t only give you some references, they look exactly the professional you need according to your requests. They don’t give you advice only about the reception but about the whole event.
The venue coordinator may create a timeline of the wedding banquet together with the maitre, to make sure there are no problems or delays, but the wedding planner will create the timeline of the whole day… and even a customized timeline of all the months of preparations so that everything will be planned at the right moment.
The venue coordinator is present during the event to make sure everything runs smoothly, but the wedding planner coordinates every moment of the wedding day, not only the reception! For example, a venue coordinator won’t check if the car for the bride is on time or if the florist has decorated the church as agreed.
And if you have problems with your legal procedures, the venue coordinator won’t be able to help you, because only wedding planners specialized in destination weddings are prepared to do that. Neither they will search for the best accommodation for your guests or arrange transportations for you at your arrival in Italy, or give you assistance during your whole stay before and after the wedding.
What should couples do?
Perhaps now you’ll be wondering: what should we do then? Refuse the help of the venue coordinator? Not at all! You don’t have to deny yourselves this precious help, you just have to realize that there is a difference between this figure and a wedding planner.
And if you want to avail yourselves of the help of Apulia Weddings for your destination wedding in Puglia, contact us: we will be more than happy to liaise with the venue coordinator and all together make your wedding the event of your dreams!
.
.
Lots of (Apulian) love!
♥♥♥ Claudia
[your friendly neighborhood wedding planner]
Cover photo: Puglia Catering
No Comments