Wedding planner,or plan it yourselves?
What a wedding planner does, the kinds there are, and what it takes to plan a wedding yourselves, so the two of you can choose.
What a wedding planner does
A wedding planner takes on the finding, the organising and the running of a wedding, as much or as little as you ask them to. In Australia you'll find four kinds of help, and the names overlap, so it's worth asking exactly what's included.
- Full planning
- A planner works with the two of you from early on: what you want the day to be, the budget, finding and booking every supplier, the design, the timeline, and running the day itself. You make the decisions; they do the finding, the chasing and the paperwork.
- Partial planning
- You plan the first part yourselves, usually the venue and a few key suppliers, and a planner joins partway through to take over the rest and run the day.
- On-the-day coordination
- You plan the whole wedding yourselves. A coordinator starts in the weeks before the day, learns your plan, confirms every supplier and runs the day, so neither of you, and none of your family, is the one fielding questions.
- The venue's coordinator
- Many venues include a coordinator. They look after what happens at that venue: its rooms, its staff, its food and drink and its timings. They work for the venue, so suppliers they don't deal with and anything away from the venue sit with you.
What planning it yourselves takes
Planning it yourselves means the two of you hold every decision and every booking. The work is the same work a planner does: deciding what you want, finding the people and places, keeping track of what's booked and what's paid, building the timeline, and handing the day to someone so you can be in it.
What's hard is rarely any one task. It's knowing what to ask and in what order: which bookings go first, what a venue doesn't include, what has to be sorted before the invitations go out. That's the part a planner carries in their head, and the part Rosel writes down for you.
Side by side
- What you want the day to be
With a plannerThey ask the questions and shape your answers into a plan.
Yourselves, with RoselYou work it out together, with Rosel's prompts for each part of the day.
- Finding suppliers
With a plannerThey bring people they've worked with before.
Yourselves, with RoselYou search and choose the people and places yourselves.
- Knowing what to ask
With a plannerIt comes from their experience of many weddings.
Yourselves, with RoselRosel carries a planner's checklist on every part of the day.
- The timeline
With a plannerThey hold it and tell you what's next.
Yourselves, with RoselRosel builds it from what you've decided and shows what's next.
- The budget
With a plannerThey track it alongside the bookings.
Yourselves, with RoselYou keep it in Rosel, filled in from the decisions you make.
- On the day
With a plannerThey run it, and suppliers call them.
Yourselves, with RoselYou hand a run sheet to someone you trust, or to an on-the-day coordinator.
- How it's paid for
With a plannerA fee to the planner, set by how much they do.
Yourselves, with RoselYour own time, and a one-off Rosel membership for the planning tools.
A planner is worth a look if
- You're planning from interstate or overseas and can't visit suppliers yourselves.
- The wedding runs over several days or several places.
- The months before the day are already full, and you'd rather hand the finding over.
- You want one person suppliers answer to, from the first booking to the last.
Planning it yourselves suits you if
- You want to make every choice and find every supplier yourselves.
- You've got friends or family doing parts of the day, and someone needs to hold it all together.
- You enjoy the planning as much as the day.
- You'd like a planner's knowledge without handing the planning over.
Doing both
You can plan the wedding yourselves and still have someone else run the day. An on-the-day coordinator takes the plan you've built, confirms every supplier in the final weeks and is the person everyone calls on the day.
In Rosel the run sheet, the supplier contacts and what's been decided on each part of the day are already in one place, so handing over is a link rather than a folder of emails.
Questions to ask a wedding planner
- What's included, from the first meeting to the end of the day, and what isn't?
- Who will be there on the day: you, or someone from your team?
- How many weddings do you take on at once, and on the same weekend?
- How is your fee worked out, and do you receive anything from suppliers you recommend?
- Can we bring our own suppliers, including friends and family doing parts of the day?
- What happens to our plan, our deposit and our bookings if either of us has to cancel or postpone?
Questions couples ask
What's the difference between a wedding planner and a wedding coordinator?
A planner works with you over months and is involved in the decisions and the bookings. A coordinator takes a wedding you've already planned and runs it, starting in the weeks before the day. Some people do both and use the names loosely, so ask what's included.
Does the venue's coordinator plan our wedding?
They plan what happens at their venue. Suppliers the venue doesn't deal with, a ceremony somewhere else, transport, accommodation and the rest of the day sit with the two of you, or with a planner.
Can we plan a wedding without a wedding planner?
Yes. What a planner brings is knowing what to ask and in what order. Rosel puts that knowledge on every part of the day, so you can plan it yourselves and still know what comes next.
Is Rosel a wedding planner?
No. Rosel is a planning platform for couples who'd rather run their own wedding, with a planner's knowledge built in. Nobody from Rosel plans your wedding for you or comes on the day.
Can we use Rosel and a planner together?
Yes. You can plan in Rosel and bring in an on-the-day coordinator, and hand them the run sheet and the details from your plan.
Planning it yourselves?
Other tools are spreadsheets for a wedding you’ve already planned. Rosel plans it with you, from the first spark to the day-of run sheet.