Why your venue coordinator is not your event planner

Almost every venue includes a coordinator, and almost every couple assumes that means the planning is covered. It is the most expensive assumption in the industry, and it usually surfaces about three weeks out.

What a venue coordinator actually does

A venue coordinator works for the venue. Their job is the venue's side of the night: the room set, the catering service, the staff roster, the bar, the building. They are frequently excellent at it.

What they do not do is manage the eleven suppliers who do not work for the venue. The florist, the band, the photographer, the celebrant, the stylist, the lighting company, the cake, the transport, the hire company — none of those are in the coordinator's remit, and none of them report to them.

Where the gap opens

The gap is the bump-in. Your florist wants three hours and access from the loading dock. The band needs the stage clear and power before the room is dressed. The lighting rig has to go up before the tables go in, not after. The photographer wants the room shot before a single guest enters it.

Somebody has to sequence that, share it with everyone, and be standing there when it does not go to plan. The venue coordinator will run the venue's part of it beautifully and will not be running the rest.

The other gap: nobody is yours

If the catering runs twenty minutes late and your speeches are already scheduled, whose problem is that? The coordinator will solve it in the venue's interest. That is not cynicism, it is their job. They are one of the parties in the room, not your representative among them.

The question worth asking at the site visit is blunt: "On the day, who is responsible for my suppliers, and who do they call if something goes wrong?" The answer tells you exactly how big the gap is.

What to do about it

You have three options, and all three are legitimate.

• Run it yourself. Workable if your supplier list is short and the venue is genuinely all-inclusive. Build the bump-in schedule yourself and send it to every supplier a fortnight out.
• Hand it to a member of the family. Cheapest, and it costs them the event. Whoever holds the run sheet is working, not attending.
• Bring in on-the-day coordination. Smaller scope than full planning and priced accordingly. Somebody who is yours, holds the plan, and is there from the first delivery to the last guest.

The mistake is not choosing one of the three. It is assuming the venue already did.