You've likely heard about wedding coordinators but you may have some misrepresentations about what a coordinator does.
Day-of Coordination is not a real thing. There is a big misconception with wedding coordinators because of the term "day-of coordinator." You may think why am I paying someone x amount of dollars just to work one day? Any wedding coordinator (at least any good one) knows that there is no such thing as a day-of coordinator or even a month-of coordinator. Our work starts months before the wedding date, reviewing all of the wedding aspects, creating or adjusting the timeline, and often times finding and fixing details that were missed during the planning process. Often times the work of a wedding coordinator is more stressful than a wedding planner because planners are involved in the planning and selection process from the beginning. Coordinators have to play catch up and learn everything about the couple, their vision and expectations, their venue and vendors, etc. all within a couple months (or less if a couple books last minute). And then review all the vendor contracts, the timeline, the logistics and likely find multiple areas that need to be fixed, adjusted, or completely redone simply because there wasn't a professional assisting the couple through the planning process.
Your wedding coordinator is not your personal assistant. They are not responsible for waking you up in the morning, blotting your face when you get sweaty, or driving you to your hotel. If you are planning your own wedding and are looking for someone to meet these aforementioned needs, you should instead look for a temporary personal assistant. A wedding coordinator will not be stuck to your side throughout the wedding day. They also cannot be assigned to a specific station like guest check-in. A wedding day has a lot of moving parts and will likely have some fires to be put out. In order for your coordinator to make sure everything stays on schedule and all the details are right, they need to be able to literally run around. Even if everything goes perfectly, your coordinator will make occasional rounds to check on details such as seeing if the buffet needs to be replenished, the DJ is ready for their next queue, etc. so they cannot be at your side at every moment or assigned to a specific physical station.
A wedding coordinator typically does not do venue set-up and breakdown. They will assist of course in making sure everything is set up and broken down as it should be. However, do not expect your day-of coordinator to set-up and tear down everything on their own. Your venue staff are typically the ones who handles the majority of the set-up. At the very least, the venue sets up whatever they are proving, such as tables and chairs, and the wedding party is responsible for setting up anything they are providing themselves. Some wedding specific venues go the extra mile and set up everything for you including whatever décor or rental pieces you provide. If your venue does not offer this, and you don't want your wedding party to do it, you may want to outsource set-up and breakdown staff through a third party company.
Not every wedding coordination package is the same. Different wedding coordinators have different coordination packages. Some coordination packages include timeline creation, some don't. Some include venue set-up, some don't. It's important to clarify with coordinators you're considering what their services do and do not include and don't assume or say "well so-and-so offers that so you should to."
