Coordination Fee vs. Flat Rate and all in Between (Sorry Its long)

motoLyn · March 2011

Hi Ladies,

I have scoured this site and found recommendations for wedding planners/coordinators. I was pretty much set on a coordinator or actually deciding between two of them when my older sister made me doubt myself. I had originally contacted a coordinator at WOW and they told me it would be $4K to book Olowalu through them. I was floored and then on top of that I was told that I could not book my own vendors if I chose to. WOW came recommended from one of my older sister's friends who used them when she got married at Olowalu last year. My sister's friend had booked some of her vendors on her own and left the rest up to her WOW coordinator, so the contradiction leaves me wondering. I was also told that WOW does not provide day of services, which has me all confused cause I was told they do.

Anyways I figure I couldn't and probably shouldn't work with WOW, I think it wouldn't work out in the long run. So then I went to a coordinator that charges a flat rate to recommend, book and coordinate vendors for me. Well I was sold on the idea (I really would like to just find a coordinator and move on with planning). BUT my older sister then says well this flat rate sounds fishy, how do you know she's getting you the best deal? You would have to go and research the vendor to ensure you were getting a great deal and then you're basically doing the work yourself and paying someone else. So she told me to go look at more coordinators. So here is who I contacted:

WOW
Tropical Wedding Maui
Maui'd Forever
A Paradise Dream Wedding
Perfect Wedding Maui
Blue Sky Weddings
Merry Maui Weddings
Precious Maui Weddings
Belle Destination Events
Events by Evonne

I talked to someone briefly over at Paradise Dream Wedding and they were helpful but not as informative as I had hoped. So can anyone tell me what your opinion is on flat rate versus coordination fee? I am in the middle of booking the venue on my own. I don't mind booking the caterer, florist, dessert, music and other things on my own. But when it comes to photographer, rentals and small details where I don't know who is the best and where to go to get a good deal I will need to refer to the coordinator. Also I would need the coordinator to put everything together for me and make sure things run smoothly the day of. Paradise dream wedding has a base package where first 2 hours of on-site is included but its $75/ hour after that. Meaning for Olowalu that's an extra $575 for some one to be there till the end of the reception.

If you read this far you're a trooper thank you for any words of wisdom or a reality slap in the face. This is probably a post and run since i have to be on campus in 20 minutes.

Tanq&Tonic · March 2011

Not on your list, but definitely recommended - Debi Winckler of Pacific Island Weddings. She just pulled off an amazing night for us this weekend. She had a flat fee for coordination and handled anything we asked for, but allowed us to pick our own vendors for anything we wanted, including changes mid-process. For example, she initially reserved a DJ for us, but after talking to him, we opted to go with someone else. She just removed the DJ charges from our invoice and let us book our own. It was perfect for someone like me who needs to pick the A-team so that I don't have to fret about the details of their execution.

AKWinterBride · March 2011

Hi Lyn!
You know what I think about WOW and the price they gave you - total BS. I think your sister is tending towards WOW because her friend used them. I am working with Cherise, as you know, and if you are going to use a coordinator, you do have to place some trust in them. When I was booking vendors, Cherise didn't always recommend the most expensive person, she gave me a list of companies that she has confidence in and I chose from there.
Yes, the coordinators who charge flat rates most likely get kick backs from their preferred vendors, but the WOW charges are unbelievable. $4K for a property that is listed on their own site for $2500 is unbelievable to me, and then that is on TOP of her fee? No way.
Plus, add to that this tidbit: If I wanted a vendor that Cherise didn't normally work with - I could still book them. I definitely wanted flexibility to do some research, but as you contact vendors you may start noticing that they won't even give you prices without knowing who your coordinator is. I got so frustrated with that with photogs, that I booked someone from California.
Did you ever receive an answer from WOW as to why the cost of booking Olowalu through them is so high? And what exactly her coordination rates entitle you to receive from WOW? It's just not adding up for me, but then again, I started talking to them too and stopped cause I felt like they were jacking up prices on everything and I personally didn't want to spend large amounts of money on coordination since all they really do is make sure vendors show up and do what their contracts require.
I am in no way trying to push you towards Cherise just cause she is my coordinator, I think Lori and her crew do a great job too. Just be careful with fees, I really feel like WOW is screwing you over with their price. Did you speak with them and see if they would lift the 'hold' on Olowalu? Feel free to message me anytime hun - I know how confusing it can be starting to plan from thousands of miles away.
Good luck!

carrieoz_76 · March 2011

What I thought was important was freedom to choose my own vendors even if they weren't someone who the coordinator recommended and no %-age charges for the work (I needed a flat rate so that we could predict the cost in advance and budget for it).

For some vendors, I did the groundwork and chose the vendor (photographer), for others, Lori at Tropical Maui Weddings did it (florist and cake), and for others it was a combo - she kept giving me recommendations until we found someone we liked (officiant). I loved having the freedom to choose the vendor that fit us best, but also having someone on the island familiar with the vendors who could recommend vendors who were likely to fit us best. There is NO WAY that we would have ever let someone else choose our vendors for us or limit us to only those that they recommend.

maui2011 · March 2011

I too looked into WOW as i really liked their beachhouse and wanted to get married on the south side. To make a long story short i would recommend looking elsewhere...their communication is poor, their 20% coordination fee is ridiculous on top of their package rates and wanting you to use only their preferred vendors...don't waste anymore time on them and look elsewhere...seriously.

I also looked into Tropical Maui Weddings...Lori and especially Jackie were really nice but i found their fee a bit high for what i was being offered.

Love love love Evonne from Events by Evonne. She is extremely knowledgeable and has a great designer look to her weddings. I did not book her because there was some uncertainty at the time...this was two years ago...if she was going to remain on Maui or move to Oahu or Cali.

I ended up choosing a coordinator that was a recommendation from my florist. Erica from Couture Events. I paid her a flat fee. I can use my own vendors or go with her recs. She is not into cookie cutter weddings, i have unlimited communication with her and obviously day of as well...usually we communicate via email...earlier on we spoke on the phone quite a bit. I am really happy i chose her.

You should only book Olowalu once you have a coodinator as they have the insurance that Olowalu requires.

HTH! If you have any questions please feel free to PM me. J. :-)

suwannee79 · March 2011

I completely second the vote for Cherise with The Perfect Wedding Maui - she is awesome!!

Her price is fantastic for how much work she does (an incredibly reasonable flat rate), she provides you with a spreadsheet breaking down all of your costs which she then updates throughout your planning process (and you can adjust it yourself if you want to play around with numbers), she's incredibly nice, and she's fantastic at communicating through email which is great with the time difference. Oh and included in her price is the day of coordination - if you're having a restaurant reception she stays with you through the ceremony and then gets you started at the restaurant; if you're having an estate ceremony/reception she's there from the beginning of the setup process and stays til the very end meaning through the cleanup process to ensure everything gets taken care of.

Plus as AKWinterBride mentioned Cherise gives you a list of people she recommends or has worked with but if you have someone you prefer to work with she has no problem booking them and setting everything up. She's also really helpful if you're looking to cut costs - she gave me a range of vendors that she trusts, with descriptions and depending on the service pictures of their work, and worked with me every step of the way to figure out how to get what I want for a lower price.

Having not worked with any of the other planners I suppose I can't compare Cherise to them but I really cannot recommend her enough!!

motoLyn · March 2011

Thanks everyone! I think the beginning is a bit rough for me. So many coordinators and just not enough patience to steep through them to see who best fits what it is that I need. I think that I'm writing WOW off, Stacy seems to bristle me a bit. I have contacted Cherise, she's on vacation till the first week of April. I have also talked to Lori and I get a great vibe from her. I'm waiting to talk to Cherise. The only difference between Lori and Cherise's flat rate is a $100 so that's not significant. Evonne has informed me that she's taking a year off planning to focus on Photography.

Maui2011 you are right I shouldn't book Olowalu till I have a cooridnator. I was thinking about the insurance issue last night. Which means I should find a coordinator soon as I would like to book Olowalu soon. I'm going to contact Erica to see what she's like. Thanks for the recommendation.

I hate to admit this, but I was stressing so much about this that I gave myself a tension headache that dogged me all day yesterday. Didn't think that a wedding related event was going to stress me out this early. Poor FI told me to take a break, but I feel like a dog with a bone, like I don't want to give in. I get like that sometimes when I start something I need to see it finished. Thanks to you all for giving me your thoughts.

In reality what I want is for someone to guide me through this process, be my eyes and ears on the island and to reassure me that its going to be ok

and give me a reality check when needed.

BTW AKwinterbride- I heard back from Stacy and she didn't give me an explanation why the venue was 4K. She knew my wedding was on a weekday, she knew it was under 50 ppl. Yet she told me yeah $4K just for booking the venue. Then her associate Barbara, based here in California called me yesterday and I told her about the cost of the venue and Stacy and even Barbara said Stacy must have been mistaken. I told her no, because Stacy had all the info so there was no way that she could have been mistaken. Barbara reassured me that she would look it over and send me a new quote. I don't have any faith that its going to be any better, but I am interested in seeing what they try to give me.

Tanq&Tonic · March 2011

Lyn, don't stress. I know it sounds very easy for an outsider to say, but it will really work out just fine. You have more time before your wedding than we did when we started. Picking a coordinator was absolutely one of the hardest things because all of the packages are so different, and you just don't know enough about the process or the vendors to know what will work. It was certainly more stressful to me than picking the venue or photographer.

What helped for me is to figure out what is of key priority and choose a coordinator from there.

- Pricing structure?
- All-inclusive?
- Flexibility of choosing vendors?
- Rapport with your coordinator?
- Time & speed of responses?
- Popularity / known reviews?

From there, it can become easier to sort through everything. I think it's time to just move past WOW -- regardless of the price of the venue, you want the flexibility to change up your vendors. Cherise and Lori sound like they could both do amazing events -- be sure to be upfront about what you expect from them timewise. Lori was actually so booked she had a wedding on the other side of the island the night before ours and couldn't run a rehearsal for us...I was not pleased about finding that out the day we were ready to sign the contract. As a point of reference, Lori was also many times more expensive than who we ultimately went with.

So really, don't stress. 7 months is more than enough time to plan a gorgeous wedding in Hawaii. Also, if I recall, Olowalu is pretty flexible about letting you personally hold the date until a coordinator is booked. I was very pleasantly surprised at that.

motoLyn · March 2011

Thanks Tanq! I contacted Pacific Island Weddings and got Ron on the phone. He was kind enough to go through the whole process of how wedding planning companies work and very detailed at that

But when I asked about how he charges or his rates, he told me that a wedding like I wanted on a private estate say Olowalu is not a flat rate. The only times that they really charge flat rates is when dealing with package weddings. In the case of a wedding where I would want it in Olowalu with 50 guests and have it catered they would have to charge me retail price on the services that they get from the vendors that they got on wholesale price. I'm not sure if it was me that didn't explain myself clearly or that some how along the way the way they plan and charge their rates changed. Ron asked me to email him the details of what I was looking for so I guess I will have to wait and see what they quote me.

AKWinterBride · March 2011

Hmmm, I am not quite sure what he means by saying that a wedding like you want at Olowalu isn't a flat rate. My wedding is at Olowalu, I've picked all the vendors that I wanted, and I am paying a flat rate for our coordinator.

I wonder if was thinking that you wanted a flat rate for the entire wedding but didn't want to use a package? That seems confusing to me.

BTW - have you 'liked' Olowalu on Facebook? You can see pictures of a bunch of different weddings and they are categorized in their albums by coordinator. Might give you some new leads to take a look at! While you're there, I posted on there yesterday, feel free to friend me! : )

Tanq&Tonic · March 2011

Well, I think his point is, on top of the flat rate for day-of coordination, they also make some money on the vendors they help you with, but in my experience, it was not unfairly.

In my experience, it was about $14 to rent a chair from any of the rental companies on island. Ron will charge you $14, too. But they'll handle everything...the reservation, delivery, set up, clean up. The cost to him to rent may be less (eg, wholesale prices) but it's not like you're paying any more than if you rented it yourself directly...

I liked their model because the other vendors like Belle Destination Events charge you $14 for the chair, and then 20% on top of that. Lori quoted us almost $3k for their "flat rate" services, and the chair still ended up being $14.

None of Ron's packages were quite right for us, so we paid a flat rate for Day-off, and then used them only for the elements we needed (marriage license, venue insurance, dance floor, tables, chairs) and not for the ones we didn't (photo, video, tent, DJ). I know they made more than the flat rate at the end of the day, but I still didn't pay much more than if I had done it myself...AND they handled the logistics.

Does that make sense?

FWIW, we struggled to understand Ron & Debi's rate structure at the very beginning and ALMOST went a different direction b/c it was so hard to understand. It's really not that complicated, IMO...I am by no means pushing you, I just wanted to help explain since I think it turned out to be such a steal and their help was instrumental.

motoLyn · March 2011

Ahhhh that makes more sense! Yeah it is hard to understand their rate structure at first but when you explain it like that then I understand. So you had them there to coordinate the day of your wedding and booked vendors like photo, video, tent, DJ yourself and had Ron and Debi take care of the details like marriage license, venue insurance, dance floor, tables, chairs. The reasoning being that through Ron and Debi they would get it wholesale and make the profit by charging retail unlike say another coordinator that charges you retail anyway and you would being paying their flat rate on top of that.

Thanks Tanq, I needed some type of clarification. Now it is starting to make sense to me. Well hopefully I can get the quotes back from Ron and Debbie, as well as Cherise, and Lori and see who would work best for me.

Tanq can I ask why you didn't go with the estate that they manage and instead went with Olowalu? Also who was your caterer?

maui2011 · March 2011

Lyn, if you PM with your email addy i can give you more info on the package i have with Erica. Thx. J. :-)

Tanq&Tonic · March 2011

Actually, we didn't get married at Olowalu. We looked at it, but once we visited Sugarman, it was no contest. While some people compare them, I think there's actually no comparison. Depending on the feel you want, and the part of the island you want to be based in, it's a pretty clear cut choice. So we selected our venue, and only then started looking at coordinators. It just happened to work out that PIW is also the management company for Sugarman

motoLyn · March 2011

Ahhh ok Tanq, there's goes me assuming things again. I do agree the estate is also very beautiful in its own way.

Maui2011 YGPM.

maui2011 · March 2011

Back at cha! J. :-)

motoLyn · March 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_hawaii_coordination-fee-vs-flat-rate-between-sorry-its-long?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:73Discussion:bbd3edf4-702a-4544-98c0-71f7949d5fe6Post:e19e309f-73cc-4297-87aa-e3544ea14494">Re: Coordination Fee vs. Flat Rate and all in Between (Sorry Its long)</a>:
[QUOTE]Back at cha! J. :-)
Posted by maui2011[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the info!

maui2011 · March 2011

My pleasure...anytime! J.

AKWinterBride · March 2011

A big difference between Olowalu & Sugarman's for me (I looked at both and was a signature away from booking Sugarmans) is that there is very, very little parking at Sugarman's, you will have to rent busses to accomodate your guests.

Also - this is the most dreaded part for me - port-a-potties. I am not sure if there is a cut-off, like if you have 30 people you have to get port-a-potties, but I know the number was lower that Olowalu's 75. I hate, hate, hate port-a-potties, so to me that nixed my desire to go with Sugarman's. It's a beautiful property, but ultimately not 'the one' for us!

Tanq&Tonic · March 2011

Ooh, I feel you, AK! I *hated* that too, but our guest list was only 50 so on the day of, Ted said everyone can use the restrooms inside the house. They have also now built an additional separate restroom to the side of the parking lot so no more port-a-potties needed.

AKWinterBride · March 2011

Very nice!! I'm glad they made that change cause who wants their wedding guests all dressed up to have to go in a PAP? Yikes!

kaesha · March 2011

FWIW, I booked Olowalu through my caterer and avoided all of those added fees.

Definitely don't go with WOW - they've had a terrible reputation on the boards for YEARS now.

Coordination Fee vs. Flat Rate and all in Between (Sorry Its long)

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