Jay was not as confident as I was about what a Wedding Coordinator helps with that we could not do on our own. To spell it out for you: Jay was not sure it was worth the investment. Jay's arguments were that I like to plan events and nobody is as Type A as me to do everything I will expect. I initially gave him the typical sales pitch: "We live thousands of miles away, we do not know what our options are, we have never hosted such an elaborate event, she will take the day-of schedule off our hands so that we just have to show up and she will make sure everyone is where they need to be." And the list went on. But at that time, I could not quantify the value that Ryan would bring to the table as my list was a fabulous list of intangible benefits.
At this point in our planning (4 months in), I think Jay is more on board with the idea of having a Wedding Coordinator than I am. Thanks to Ryan, he has seen minimal meltdowns and the Bridezilla has yet to (officially) be unleashed.
Here are some of the ways that General Ryan saved the day within the first few months of planning:
* Venue Selection - We did not know which hidden costs to look for and Ryan pointed them out, had the various venues list them out for us, and helped us make an apples to apples comparison. We almost signed at a venue we liked less than CIC for THOUSANDS of dollars more. PHEW!
* Selecting A Date - This is easy, right? When do you want to get married and does your top venue have availability? Wrong. Actually, many major cities are host to numerous conventions throughout the summer months, which will not affect the execution of your wedding, but will affect your guests' ability to attend. Our first choice of date was June 2, 2012. We were set on this date until Ryan investigated and discovered that a 40,000 attendee Oncology Convention is being held in Chicago that week and over 90% of Chicago's hotel rooms were already booked. And the hotel rooms that were not booked were ridiculously overpriced (for example, the Holiday Inn in a slightly sketchy neighborhood was starting at $420 per night). Had we signed the contract for June 2nd without doing some research on city-wide events, we would have ended up in an awful situation. Ryan then looked into our second and third choice dates, only to discover that there were similar situations for each of those. We finally chose our date based on available hotel rooms, and are very happy that we (Ryan) did this legwork.
* Hotel Blocks - Hotels have this thing called "attrition" which they utilize when executing room block contracts. Most bride/groom offer their guests a discounted rate at a few hotels near their venue so that the trip to attend is more convenient for them. What the average person does not know is how attrition works and how the bride/groom can really get stung by committing to more rooms than their guests will need. (In a nutshell - help, I'm in a nutshell! - if you contract 30 rooms in your block, your guests need to reserve 85% of the rooms and if they do not, the bride/groom pay for the rooms that are unbooked to reach the 85% booked level. That is dangerous stuff!). Ryan saved the day and setup attrition at our main wedding hotel, and setup a few other courtesy blocks at other hotels so that guests who are not set on staying at the wedding hotel can stay at a hotel that matches their loyalty program.
* Vendors - They are sneaky. That is all I am going to say. Ryan knows what to expect, and brings out the sneaky before you sign a contract.
* Save The Dates - OH. MY. GOD. This has been a painful process. We started using a graphic designer/printer here in HK whom I have used for a number of projects previously and whom many of my friends here use. She is normally a little slow to response, but always meets my deadlines. Until now. She got the first draft of our mock-up to me on-time, and then went radio silent for 3 1/2 weeks until one of our Canto-speaking friends hunted her down and got her respond. Why the delay? Because she did not fully understand what we wanted to change; so she did not do anything. Seriously. It was then that I cried to Ryan for help and she pulled a favor from a graphic designer who tidied up our design in less than 24 hours. After that, she called a printer she knows in LA who was willing to match the price of the HK printer and in addition, include letterpress instead of digital (girls will understand what those words mean, boys just need to know that they are very different styles although equally beautiful). And to top it all off, she found address labels that match our theme perfectly for the printer to create. She is bringing the Save The Dates and envelopes to Chicago when we meet up in September and has proven that once again, she is my wedding hero.
And in addition to the "save the day" moments listed above, she also deals with my random crazy requests at all hours. Ryan keeps a rolling list of every idea that we email her (we are at over 20 already) and finds a way to make each one happen, and more importantly, within our budget. She gives good advice as to whether the logistics of a specific request will work and if it will, she researches to find a way to make this happen. I do not want to give away our specific details just yet, because we are VERY attentive to detail and want it to be part of the experience for our guests, but I will just say that Ryan is a very patient woman. VERY PATIENT. I email her at least three times a day and she responds to every single email, very quickly, and usually with a smiley face.
The list goes on and on, but Ryan has saved us lots of money, time, arguments, and stress, and we have not even got to the nitty gritty items. I am very thankful to have a Wedding Coordinator that I not only get along with so well, but whom is also just as OCD about my wedding as I am. If you are not sold on using a Wedding Coordinator for an out-of-town or destination wedding yet, then you must be Wonder Woman or someone who has found a way to squeeze 30 hours out of a day.
I hope that all of our guests get to meet her on the day-of; she will be the LA girl with clipboard.
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