Tag: less stress on your wedding day

Why It’s Easier to Film a Wedding With a Coordinator in Charge

It's so sweet when someone else worries for you.
It's so sweet when someone else worries for you.

While there are plenty of articles out there that will tout the merits of a planner or coordinator, I can attest from personal experience that those weddings with an organized, friendly, calm coordinator at the helm are much easier to capture on film.

A calm person in charge keeps everyone focused on their own role, while they focus on problem solving.  You see, I haven’t been to a wedding yet (my own included), where something didn’t go wrong.   Last week I lunched with one of my favorite coordinators and she told me a story about how the band’s drummer got into a car accident on the way to the wedding.  He was fine, but was running late.  She kept this information under wraps and managed to sneak the drums in the back door during the salad course and the couple was none the wiser.  When her bride and groom bemoaned the fact they hadn’t a souvenir favor or program from their wedding day, she paid out of her own pocket to order an extra set from the manufacturer.  Problems solved.

For those events where there has been no coordinator involved, we have had a much harder time doing our job.  I’ve had my shooters ironing a wrinkled wedding dress, checking on the weather and bringing the DJ food and drinks, just to help things run smoothly when they’re starting to wobble.  Without a coordinator, we often end up having to stay overtime because the schedule runs late and we haven’t filmed the cake cutting when we’re supposed to be leaving.   If you end up paying for all your vendors to stay late, you may as well have hired a coordinator for the money you’d otherwise be spending on surcharges.

If you want to enjoy the most expensive party you’re ever going to throw, then having someone else worry about it for you is just about the nicest thing you can do for yourself.   Your vendors will better be able to bring their true talents to the table and shine (not that we’re not good at ironing).   And that’s a wrap!

For more ideas on how to reduce stress on your wedding day, check out some of our other articles in the Dolce “Less Stress” series!  See the “How to Reduce Stress on Your Wedding Day” category in the right margin.

The Less Stress Binder

The Less Stress Binder can be chic too!
The Less Stress Binder can be chic too!

As you plan your wedding day, you’re probably starting to gather all your correspondences, ripped out magazine pages and contracts with vendors in a pile somewhere, hoping to keep your ideas and plans together in one place.  While you may not have a problem finding that one important piece of information YET, I recommend reducing your future stresses with, what I call, The Less Stress Binder.  I did this for my own wedding day, and it was a real time saver.  It also saved me from an enormously stressful situation on my wedding day. The flowers arrived.  Dead.  Because my sister-in-law had my version of The Less Stress Binder in her hot little hands, she was able to call the florists, email a photo of the flowers, fax a copy of the contract and have replacements delivered and set out, all before I showed up at the wedding.  I did not learn about the fiasco until after my honeymoon and was saved an enormous amount of stress on my wedding day as a result.

So what is The Less Stress Binder?  Gather all those papers you’ve accumulated and separate them into piles according to vendor category.  Everything cake related goes in the cake section, everything DJ related goes in the music section, everything place card related goes in the stationary section…and so on.  You figure out what divider tabs you need based on what you are planning to hire and incorporate.  Now, when you meet with vendors you have pictures and ideas to show them. As you sign contracts, put the signed contract AT THE FRONT of the section.  Keep the oldest ideas and papers at the back of the section and the newest ones at the front.

Now, here is the best part about the Less Stress Binder project!  On the day of your wedding, give the binder to SOMEONE ELSE and ask them to be in charge of that information and the use of it on the wedding day.  Ideally, you have a planner you can give it to.  If not, chose a friend or relative who you know can handle a stressful situation and be an advocate on your behalf.  My sister-in-law can be really sweet, but she can also be a real battle axe, and that worked out well for me with the flower debacle!

While it may take a little bit of effort to pull The Less Stress Binder together, it could result in being your free pass for enjoying the most out of your Big Day.  And that’s ultimately what it’s all about!