Wondering what to expect when using Kelsey Gray Events for month-of coordination services? This guide will answer your questions and give you an in-depth guide to the experience.
Initial Consultation
When you contact us for a consultation, I’ll start by scheduling a get-to-know you talk, either by phone or video chat. This will give me an opportunity to gather some basic information about your wedding and give you a chance to ask any questions. You’ll spend a lot of time with your wedding planner, as she will be guiding you through the entire wedding day, so it’s important that you choose someone who is a good fit. If that’s not me, that’s okay!
Booking
After the consultation, I will hold your event date for 7 days. This will give you time to review our contract and pay the deposit. After seven days your date is open to other couples. Your date isn’t booked until we have a signed contract and a deposit. I can send you a secure link to pay online, take a card over the phone, or you can mail a check; just let me know your preference.
Planning the Wedding
Once your date is booked, we will open a shared drive. As you go through the planning process, you will upload copies of any vendor contracts or important documents to this drive. If your venue has a set of rules and regulations, then I want a copy! As your wedding draws closer, your wedding coordinator will review your vendor contracts for any gaping holes or missing details. Now, I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t give legal advice. However, I can check that you have covered the important parts of the planning process. Check out my article on important things to include in a wedding catering contract. These are the kinds of critical details that I’m looking for in your contracts.
Need another reason to give me copies of your contracts? Imagine this. You’ve rented 150 beautiful glass plates with gold-beaded edges. On the day of the event, the rental company claims you’ve ordered only 100, and that’s all they have on the truck. This really happened once. If I didn’t have the contract, then I wouldn’t have the proof, and we would’ve been missing 50 dinner plates. Ugh. Nightmare. But with all of your contracts loaded into an online drive, your coordinator can pull them up instantly on her phone and get those missing plates on a truck asap. The bride need never be bothered.
Communication
After the initial contact, I may check in on you from time to time, but mostly I will leave you to your wedding planning. If you find that you need help with the design, just let me know. We can always add on consulting at an hourly rate. But if you just have a quick question or need a vendor recommendation, please feel free to email anytime!
With communication during the planning process, you can expect a response within 24 hours on a weekday. Please remember that weekends are my busiest time, and I like to give 100% attention to the couple on the wedding day, so weekend response time is a bit slower.
You will also have my personal cell phone number, but I have one rule about texting: Don’t send me important information in a text! I want anything important in an email, so that I can keep track of any changes you’ve made. Now, if you just want to say that you’re going to be late for a meeting, then I’m happy to text with you. And on the wedding day, text anytime! That’s why you have the coordinator’s personal cell number, so that you can reach me anytime on the day of the event.
Month of the Wedding
About 2-3 weeks before the wedding, we will sit down for our planning session. We’ll pick a comfortable place to meet near you, like a local coffee shop. We’ll settle in with drinks and snacks, because we’re going to be there for a while! In the planning session, we will go through every step and detail of your big day. We will create a minute-by-minute timeline and map the layout of the event. The whole planning session typically takes about 2 hours.
At the planning session, I will make any final recommendations for details that you need to address in the last few weeks. We will finalize vendor arrival and departure times and communicate those to the vendors during the final week before the wedding, as well as send them a final timeline.
The Timeline
Your final timeline has too many technical details for all of your friends and family. They tend to miss important details in the many pages that is your official timeline. Therefore, I ask that you don’t share the full timeline with your bridal party. Instead, I will create a special, shorten versioned timeline specifically for bridal party and key family members. I will highlight all the important times and locations, so that they always know when and where they are supposed to be at any given moment. I will send this to you the week of the wedding, so that you can forward to all key people.
Rehearsal
I ask that you give us your rehearsal date and time 60 days in advance, so that I can get it on my calendar. I provide coordination for a 1-hour rehearsal. If everyone is on-time, we can usually get through the rehearsal pretty quickly. The key to a smooth ceremony is practice, practice. And if you have little kids in your wedding, then it will be practice, practice, practice, and then practice one more time.
Wedding Day!
Finally, we reach the big day! Your wedding coordinator is one of the first people on site and the last one to leave. We supervise vendor set-up. We will corral the bridal party for line up and get them down the aisle on time. Then we will keep your event flowing on time through dinner, dances, speeches, cake-cutting, and party-time! Finally, we will supervise clean-up and leave the venue as we found it.
After the Wedding
Enjoy the honeymoon! When you get back, I’d love to hear from you. I want to know how much you enjoyed your special day. When you get a chance, leave me a review. You can find Kelsey Gray Events on The Knot and Wedding Wire. And when it’s time for your friends to get married, send them here. Many of my brides were bridesmaids in one of my other weddings! It is truly a joy to help these ladies with their own wedding, as well as see former brides again as bridesmaids.
More questions? Interested in booking? Send me an email: kelsey@kelseygrayevents.com or use the contact form.
It is so important to have a planner to make sure all the details are taken care of. A wedding is one of the largest events you’ll ever plan and probably the first. I think your month of coordination covers a great deal of what couples need at a bare minimum. Meaning couples need AT LEAST this much coverage. Great service you are providing!
So true! Month-of coordination is the minimum needed. I always say that “Day-of” coordination doesn’t really exist. It’s not possible for us to show up on the day and run the event without some preparation ahead of time.