Day of Coordinators- worth the money?

Rebeth11

I am very new to this wedding planning process (and knot posting), but we have set a date for 10/29/11 in Frederick MD.  I am wondering how many people, who are not planning to or did not get married at venues who provided coordinators, hired someone for the wedding day to take care of a lot of the details and provide direction during the event? 

Was it worth it?

How much did it cost?

Any recommendations?

Thanks!

LauraT25

Like lovethebeach, I am not very useful in the price/recommendation category, but I think that the main thing is to make sure that you have someone other than you to take care of certain things.  It may be someone you hire, or someone may volunteer - as in, you really can't ask someone since it's a big undertaking, and remember that free isn't always better, so don't accept the offer unless it's someone you really count on.  Anyway, PP had a pretty good list. 

I would say the main things are setup and teardown, as well as coordinating timing and placement of the wedding party for the ceremony.  Little things like payments may be spread out amongst your parents, WP, etc (ex, give the payments to the best man, marriage license to the MOH, etc).  If you have your florist doing centerpieces, he/she will likely set them up for you, so you have less things to worry about.  Make sure you know your venue's rules on how soon the reception must be cleaned out (sometimes it's immediately following, sometimes you can do it the next morning) because that makes a huge difference in the responsibility - and likely whether you hire someone or not.  Additionally, your caterer may include teardown in their contract, or do it for an additional fee (I recommend this over having friends and family do it).

All that being said, I think that if you don't have someone completely reliable who volunteers for this job, OR if your wedding requires a lot of work to set up and take down, then yes, it's worth it.  It's one less thing to worry about, and if anything goes wrong the issue is with a professional, not a friend.  Our DOC took care of so many more things than I had even thought of, so I was very grateful to have her. 

Teri&Poz

I DEFINITELY recommend a day-of-coordinator.  I was amazed at all the little things that she took care of, that my mom/family members didn't have to worry about.  From setting up the candy buffett, putting out the seating cards, setting up the tv/dvd player to show our slideshow...and then making sure the appropriate goodies (including leftover cake!!) got to the right places.  She also came to the rehearsal, and was a HUGE help with the organization.   

I honestly would have gone a little crazy without her 

I recommend Briana from Nouvelle Weddings - http://www.nouvelleweddings.com  

holly-in-love

We thought it was for sure! I guess it depends on what you are looking for the day of...we went with Heidi with entertainme-de.com and really liked her.

simbidi

Does anyone have a good DOC checklist?