day of coordinators
did you have one, adn if so, what did you pay them?
i learned that my florist does this on the side for $60 an hour, adn was shocked that people actually pay this amount (although in a $30K budget, i suppose its peanuts). she told me the last wedding she did, they paid her to sit through the ceremony. her "coordinating" basically consisted of putting out the programs, "timing" the girls as they walked down the aisle, door duty, and setting up the receiving line. she was there 3 hours and made nearly $200 to do stuff that people (IMO) should be able to figure out on their own.
that said, how successful do you think one could be putting an ad out there on craig's list offering to do this type of stuff? would you hire a DOC off of craig's list if they were slighly less than the going rate for a pro (and can you really be a pro?)?
Re: day of coordinators
At the reception, she let us know when things were happening. She'd say, "it's such and such time, do you want to get people seated for dinner?" Then she asked when we wanted to do the first dance (and saved the day on that when the DJ had the wrong song), when we wanted to do the cake cutting, etc. For everything I was thinking, "Oh, that's happening now?!" Seriously, I was pulled in so many directions that I probably would have forgotten to cut the cake if she wasn't there. Worth every penny.
I hired someone who was in my budget and recommended by my local board. I've heard horror stories - I wouldn't hire someone without a recommendation.
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[QUOTE]would you have considered hiring someone like me, off of craig's list? or would you want a "pro"?
Posted by Calypso1977[/QUOTE]
<div>I'd hire you as long as I was sure you were actually a DOC and not some creepy man coming to my house to murder me.</div><div>
</div><div>Along the same vein...many of the people that have Etsy shops aren't "professionals", but it doesn't make any of their stuff any less awesome. I buy most of my jewelry from Etsy as opposed to some big jewelry store. </div><div>
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Planning / Married / TTD /
You have to be in control of everything. You have to create a schedule, master that schedule, keep to the schedule (which is a lot harder than it sounds), organize things/people/decorations/food/dj/photographer/MC, deal with any little or not-so-little blips with the venue/caterer/bride/groom/family/guests, all the while making things appear as seamless as possible to bride, groom, and guests.
40/112
[QUOTE]If I were to become a coordinator, I'd offer up free services until I could build up some recommendations.
Posted by msmerymac[/QUOTE]<div>
</div><div>Ditto. I would offer your services to your friends until you have a reputation and recs for this.
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I paid $300 for a DOC for 8 hours the day of the wedding, plus a 2-hour prep meeting, unlimited emails, and coordination with my vendors the week of the wedding. Worth every penny!! She showed up at 1:30 for my 5pm ceremony and did the following --
I would never hire someone from Craigslist. However, I would have been willing to hire a friend of a friend, or someone looking to get into the business.
Would I hire someone off craigslist? Probably not. Too risky for something so important. My SIL hired a DOC who was AWFUL, so I'd never take that risk.
I do wish she had of stayed later to do clean up and stuff with me, and transport the gifts to the hotel room, but I was on a budget, so she cut a few hours afterwards out (we had more than enough folks who were willing to help us throw things into a car and go).
Another DOC I looked at was about $800, and she did all that stuff plus had a helper, and even did things like decorating the bridal suite with rose petals and having the dress pressed for you, etc.
Our coordinator and the others we met with all do DOC as well, and I think all charged $700 or $750 for it. Their "day-of" packages really aren't day-of, though- they all contact your vendors a month before the event and coordinate everything from then till after the reception ends.One of their main reasons for that was that if someone misses something then hires them for only day-of and something goes massively wrong, the mistake appears to fall on them and could damage their reputation as a planner.
I'd probably be more likely to hire a 'non-professional' if they'd at least interned with or assisted a professional event coordinator for awhile.
As far as hiring someone off craigslist goes I probably wouldn't but that's just because I get paranoid and would prob never purchase anything or hire anyone off craigslist but I'm sure there are plenty of people who would.