I recently read a bride's account of her experience with a wedding coordinator. According to the bride, the coordinator was contracted to arrive at noon on the wedding day. She didn't. By 1:00, the bride had to contact her to find out where she was. That's when she learned the coordinator would be approximately two hours late. Friends and family stepped in to handle setup. The groom spent part of his wedding day coordinating instead of getting ready. But that wasn't the part that stopped me. According to the bride, the coordinator later left the reception for approximately four hours to work another wedding about 40 minutes away. The couple says they were never told beforehand that this was going to happen.
Read that again. They hired someone to coordinate their wedding. And during their wedding, that person allegedly left to coordinate someone else's. There are legitimate reasons event professionals build teams. There are legitimate reasons to use assistants. There are businesses successfully producing multiple events on the same day because they have the staffing, systems, leadership and communication to do it properly. That isn't the issue. The issue is responsibility. What did the client believe they were purchasing? Who did they believe would be there? What was disclosed before they signed the contract? Was the person left in charge qualified and prepared to carry the responsibility? And if something significant changed, when was the client told?
A contract may define what you're technically obligated to provide. But professionalism asks another question: What did I promise this client I would carry? Because a wedding day isn't the day to discover that the person you trusted to manage it has somewhere else to be. I've said this before, and I mean it literally: If you hire me to carry something, I carry it. That doesn't mean I personally touch every centerpiece, answer every vendor question or perform every task. Good event production requires delegation. But delegation is not abandonment. The responsibility remains mine. And if I've built my business in a way that prevents me from delivering what my client reasonably believed they purchased, that's not the client's problem to solve. It's mine.
Couples: when you're interviewing a planner or coordinator, don't ask only what services are included. Ask: Will you personally be at my wedding? Are you accepting another wedding that day? If you're unavailable, who takes over? What experience does that person have? Under what circumstances could you leave my event? Those aren't rude questions. They're buying questions. Because you're not simply buying a timeline. You're buying responsibility.
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