Do you need a planner if your venue has a coordinator?

This is the question I get asked most often right after a couple books their venue. The sales tour was lovely, the contract mentions a “dedicated coordinator,” and now they’re wondering whether they just got a planner for free. I want to answer honestly, because venue coordinators are some of my favorite people to work with, and because the answer is still usually no.

What a venue coordinator does

A venue coordinator works for the venue. That isn’t a knock; it’s the job. They make sure the building is ready, the venue’s staff are in place, the tables and chairs the venue owns are where the floor plan says, the kitchen fires on time if catering is in-house, and the rules of the property are followed. They are the expert on that room. They know where the outlets are, which door the caterer should use, and exactly how long it takes to flip the ceremony space for dinner.

On the day, a good one is invaluable. On the day, they also have a building to run, and sometimes another event in the next room.

What they don’t do

Here is the list of things that, in my experience, no venue coordinator has ever done for a couple, because it isn’t their job:

• Manage your florist, your photographer, your DJ or your cake delivery. If the florist is 40 minutes late, the venue coordinator will let you know. They won’t have called the florist at 8 a.m. to confirm.
• Build your timeline. They’ll tell you the venue’s hard times: when you can load in, when the music has to stop. Everything in between is yours.
• Cue your processional, line up your wedding party, or find your dad when it’s time for the toast.
• Fix your bustle, pin a boutonniere, or hand your grandmother a tissue.
• Read your other vendors’ contracts, chase their invoices, or hand out the tips at the end of the night.
• Pack up your card box, your guest book and the top tier of the cake and make sure they get in the right car.

The venue coordinator makes sure the building has a good day. Someone still has to make sure you do.

Where the gap shows up

The gap almost never shows up during the planning; it shows up at about 3:40 p.m. on the wedding day, when the ceremony is supposed to start at 4:00, the officiant hasn’t arrived, the flower girl is crying, and a bridesmaid is asking your mother whether they’re supposed to walk in pairs or singly. The venue coordinator is, quite rightly, in the kitchen making sure dinner is on schedule. The person who answers those questions is either a planner or you.

So do you need one?

Ask yourself three questions:

1. How many outside vendors do you have? If the venue is providing catering, bar, tables, linens and a coordinator, and you’re bringing in a photographer and a florist, you might be fine with a very organized friend. If you have eight vendors arriving from eight places, someone needs to be conducting.
2. Who is going to run the ceremony? Someone has to line people up, cue the music, and send them down the aisle at the right moment. If your answer is “the officiant” or “my maid of honor,” know that they are also in the ceremony.
3. Do you want to be reachable? On a wedding day, your phone is either in a clutch across the room or in your hand answering vendor questions. A planner’s job is to make sure it’s the first one.

If those answers make you a little nervous, month-of coordination exists for exactly this. You plan the wedding. About six weeks out, I take over the vendor communication, build the minute-by-minute timeline, run the rehearsal, and run the day, working alongside your venue coordinator, who will be delighted to have someone else answering the flower-girl questions.

The best version

The best weddings I’ve worked have both. The venue coordinator knows the room; I know the couple. We meet a week out, walk the space together, and trade phone numbers. On the day they run the building and I run the wedding, and nobody has to ask you anything at all.