The New Uses For Wedding Coordinators I could just use a little help with the wedding Brides and grooms who are already overwhelmed with the demands of their jobs, family responsibilities, home life, and business travel often start off with this wish to have an objective third party to help with the wedding. Their parents offer to help, and they will, but there can be a lot of family diplomacy and personality clash threats when you're talking about such a momentous occasion, such a large budget, and the fact that the wedding industry is a complicated conglomerate of so many different professionals. Having someone in-the-know who hasn't known you since birth is often the best investment possible. Your wedding coordinator is going to be your sanity-saver and a pro who will bring your wedding dreams to life. What surprises most wedding couples who look into hiring wedding coordinators is the new trend in multiple, personalized services in the form of different packages you can buy. Some coordinators will just help you find and book your sites, for one flat fee. They know the best locales and the ins and outs of the contract, hidden fees, and the best scenery in town. Some will work on the wedding day itself while you're getting your hair and makeup done in blissful peace, while they worry about late vendors and problems at the reception hall. These were the two big changes in wedding coordinator world - until now. Now, the trend is to hire a wedding coordinator to help out the others in your wedding party, and also to plan the additional events surrounding your day. Sharon Naylor, author of 1000 Best Secrets For Your Perfect Wedding and a resident wedding expert at PashWeddings.com, says, "It's well worth making room in your budget for a good wedding coordinator, since so much of wedding stress is about all the little things, those contract stipulations, timing, dealing with so many vendors and so many unforeseen questions that you don't know because you're not in the business. Hiring an expert planner means that you can hand off the details and let someone else work on their adrenaline while you're enjoying your wedding morning breakfast and sharing a champagne toast with your parents and bridal party. To know that you can get that for just a few hundred dollars in some cases is a welcome relief and a gift in itself! Peace of mind for you, and a flawless wedding day for all of you due to the work of the wedding coordinator." Hiring A Coordinator For Others Since most brides hand off several wedding tasks to their mothers, bridal parties and even the groom, the new trend is for wedding coordinators to offer special 'Mom's Assistance Packages' where they will help Mom order the cake, or plan a pre-wedding party. They also offer 'Maid of Honor Assistance Packages' for that equally time-crunched Maid of Honor or group of bridesmaids who need to plan a gorgeous shower worthy of the bride, or coordinate a dress shopping excursion. And the groom can get his own expert assistant in the planning of everything from the proposal to wedding night and honeymoon surprises. One coordinator in Houston arranged to get the bride's favorite recording artist to come sing at the wedding, as a gift from the groom. These 'concierge' plans are a welcome trend for everyone involved in the wedding plans, and brides say they love being freed from getting a hundred questioning e-mails from their moms and bridesmaids, knowing that the wedding coordinator knows her wishes and will handle the minute details or last-minute problems. The bride, then, is released from so much wedding-planning stress. Additional Wedding Event Help The newest trend in wedding coordinator packages goes beyond three tiers of involvement (initial planning, initial planning + ongoing negotiations and package arrangement, the full VIP package) to a longer list of extra event to co-plan. These are: - Engagement party planning - Bridal shower planning - Bachelorette party planning - Co-ed bachelor's/bachelorette party planning - Arranging for a co-ed trip in lieu of a rowdy bachelor/bachelorette party - Arranging travel and lodging for all wedding guests - Planning destination wedding celebrations and the post-destination wedding celebration with the larger guest list - Arranging the rehearsal dinner with the parents of the groom - Planning wedding weekend events, such as culinary tours, singles cocktail parties, events for families with children, adventure sports outings, family vs. family softball tournaments, and more. - Planning the wedding morning breakfasts at the bride's location and at the groom's location - Arranging a wedding morning activity for the groom and his men - Planning the morning-after-the-wedding breakfast or brunch before guests depart - Planning an after-party for the bride and groom and select guests who will continue on from the reception to another spot for drinks, dancing, and snacks or a late-night meal. - Handling all of the couple's guests' needs, such as arranging for childcare on-site, assisting with disabled or elderly guests' needs, and keeping party crashers away. - and more Brides and grooms say they enjoy their engagement months so much more when they know that their mothers and bridesmaids are 'in good hands,' and that all of their wedding weekend events will be planned with the help of a professional. In the absence of a crushing To-Do list, the couple has more time to enjoy each other, perhaps take a pre-honeymoon for a little romance in an exotic location, and be rested and calm enough to talk about the bigger issues about their future to prepare for the marriage ahead. "Couples who are buying a home or planning to move in to one partner's home have enough to worry about!" says Sharon Naylor. "Without a wedding coordinator doing the legwork on all these additional events, they would lose their minds, and they would fight more. Intimacy and closeness would be non-existent, and the pre-wedding period would be a burden, not a blessing." The trend in hiring wedding coordinators for their alternative packages, then, is a real life-saver. Find your perfect wedding coordinators, and assess their newest packages and plans, at www.bridalassn.com, www.ises.com, and www.juneweddings.com. About the Author Sharon Toris is a freelance writer and contributor to the top women's and bridal magazines such as www.PashWeddings.com. She lives in Morristown, New Jersey. © 2007, Blue Grotto Media, Inc.