It’s interesting to see how fast people will waste their money on “$500 Day Of Coordinators” with no experience, but think that they are actually saving money by not going with a professional that has a higher rate. There is that old saying “you get what you pay for”, and we would like to speak with you about what it is you are actually paying for.
The inspiration for this blog is a recent Facebook post that we saw. It was a planner (so she claims) posting in an open group for those in the wedding industry, and she was asking for another planner to help her on an event. The event is scheduled for a few days from now and she needs someone else because her assistant is sick.
Does she have Ebola? She’s sick? The event is a few days away and she is already calling out?
And you don’t have a backup?
So this “planner” (picture me using air quotes and rolling my eyes) comes to a Facebook group looking for an assistant. If you were the bride, and you found out that the planner you trust is coming online to just find someone to help, how mad do you think you would be?
When we have consultations with our clients, we talk to them about the years of experience that we have and the projects that we have completed. We also mention that we always work with an assistant and depending on the project, may have a third one along for the big day. God forbid I get sick or die or something like that, there will be a back up. That backup will not come from Facebook, Craigslist, Tindr…Tinder..Timber? Whatever that site is….That backup will be a trained coordinator even if I have to get a coordinator that has his or her own planning business.
My best guess as to what happened here, is that the couple that hired this planner wanted to spend next to nothing. Who knows, maybe they were even in my office and couldn’t imagine actually paying more than $500. Now they have this person running their wedding day that is hiring off of Facebook. There is so much wrong with this that it is painful not to post the screenshot and shame this “planner”.
I have said it before and I will say it again: a real wedding coordinator is not going to charge you $500 for day of…the price is going to be higher. In fact, if you get that quote and you hire them, you are basically throwing your money into a pile on the floor and setting it on fire. Don’t hire this planner and if you cannot afford the professionals, then don’t hire one at all. Save your money and put it towards something else. Do not hire a planner just to say that you hired a planner. The real ones, the ones that help you will start their prices above the $2k mark and go from there.
Just to break down the math of the $500 planner for “Day Of”/Month Of Coordination.
6-8 weeks of work prior to the wedding, 7 days a week, 8 hours a day (it’s more than that, but let’s just keep it simple)
$500 divided by 6 weeks=$83 per week.
$83 divided by 7 days=$11 per day.
$11 divided by 8 hours=$1.48 per hour.
Now, is the planner working all 8 hours a day on your file? Probably not. But there will be days where they might work 12 hours on just your file, and every other day they will be on call to work on your file. We get calls at 2am, 7am, 10pm….every day of the week from our clients.
Get quoted $3,000 for “Day Of”/Month Of? Here is what that looks like:
$3,000 divided by 6 weeks=$500 per week.
$500 divided by 7 days=$71 per day.
$71 divided by 8 hours=$8.93 per hour.
So basically, if you hired a planner that is getting paid $1.48 per hour to work for you, trust and believe that her assistant probably came from Facebook or a similar site. That assistant is also (most likely) being paid even less….how motivating for them to make sure your day is perfect.
Please stop hiring hackjobs for what will be one of the most important days of your life.
*drops mic*