The Basics: Article 2

So...once you have a vague idea of where, what, when and who for your event, you need to consider getting an event coordinator. This mainly relieves you of the stress on the day-of. Many Wedding Planners offer packages for:

• Full-service (they help you with everything, go everywhere with you, contract all of your vendors, set up meetings and viewings and tastings etc)

• Partial-service (this is something less than full service, but more than day-of

• Day-of (self explanatory)

Think about just how much help you will need, and how many events you need help with. Most wedding planners (including myself) are willing to be flexible to suit your needs and price-range.

Also, make sure you get a notebook or use a laptop, so that you can stay organized. No matter what the event is, there are always a lot of details, contracts and prices to make a note of. It is smart to get multiple quotes for all your needs from different vendors and put them in a spreadsheet for easy comparison.
***I highly recommend Google Doc's for this. It is free, web-based, and all you need is a Google account. It is specially useful when you have multiple people to collaborate with and share documents with.***

I had a full-service coordinator for my Indian Destination Wedding in Cabo San Lucas, MX. Because she didn't have much experience with Indian/Hindu weddings, I ended up doing a lot of the leg-work, but could not avoid having just a day-of coordinator, because I needed her help speaking in Spanish to vendors, and wanted her to be in the loop when it came time to have the event.
When you have a destination wedding, a coordinator is a necessary expense, because you are not physically located in the place where you are having the event, and cannot swing by anytime to look at the place, taste a cake, or have a hair trial!!
I found that when I finally did get to Cabo and put things completely in her hands to handle, she was amazing! She and her assistants all communicated over walkie-talkies, decorated my mandap (Indian term for altar), and everything flowed well because of them.

I will write a seperate post about this point, but I have noticed that more and more Indians are going for Destination Weddings. I think it is because it allows you to have a smaller wedding without offending anyone because they were all invited, but only your closest people will attend! We invited about 400 to our wedding and the turnout in Cabo was 110 people. It was perfect!