What This Blog Post Will Cover

When it comes to planning your wedding, understanding the key differences between what may come with the venue and what may need to be outsourced to a specialist to run a smooth and successful wedding day.

These tips and this breakdown of different responsibilities will directly impact how you design your planning experience going forward after booking your venue.

An Event Planner: An Overview

Before you begin any conversation with a wedding planner, it is important to research their website, testimonials, and referrals from their business listings to learn more about recent experiences with couples and their wedding day.

Additionally, it will be as- if not more- important to learn about what a wedding event planning team specializes in. Are you looking for an event designer that specializes is visual design and the functional aesthetics of weddings, or do you need a wedding planner that will support you with the organizational tasks, such as guest list management/ RSVP’s, budget tracking, etc? Maybe you want more of a comprehensive or generalist planning team that can help you manage both the vision and execution of your wedding day. That will truly impact who you book with, especially after a discovery call with a wedding event planning team!

Early on in the planning process, depending on what organizational systems you may have already set up for yourself, and depending on how many vendors. you’ve already booked, it. may feel like a cake walk. It may feel like you DON’T need an event planner whatsoever. You got this, right?!

Well, I am here to kindly share what lies ahead in terms of responsibilities for running a smooth, seamless event that allows you to take in the day with as much presence as possible, and without having to worry about making any more decisions. After all, the goal is for you to have already made them in advance during your planning journey, leading up to the big day. You may want to consider hiring an event team after reading this entire blog post, once I share what the venue is and is NOT responsible for!

A(n) (Onsite) Venue Manager: An Overview

This is probably the person that you meet during your venue tour, or someone that is the first and continuous point of contact from the venue noce you’ve officially signed the venue contract and paid the retainer to lock in your wedding date.

The venue manager may also have a different job title or name, depending on the type of location you’re getting married at. For example:

• State or City Botanical Garden: Coordinator Special Events, Event Manager, Event Sales
• National or State Park: Permit Manager, Parks Event Manager
• Commercial Wedding Venue: Venue Manager (yes, it’s pretty straightforward!)
• Private Estate: Owner, or Property Management Third Party
• Airbnb: Host/ Property Management Third-Party

This specific person, or team that’s associated with the venue, tends to manage the payments, invoices, and contracts with the venue. However, the range and scope of responsibilities tends to be focused more around the function and basic operation of the venue itself.

Something really important to note: It is never guaranteed in any capacity that the venue interfaces before or during your wedding day with your vendors or guests, nor do they manage the vendor and guest experience other than access to the venue.

Instead, they are focused on managing things more with security, sanitation/ janitorial services, air-conditioning/ heating services, for example. If you are getting married in a public place, they manage that in relation to the public and open and closing hours for them.

Places like a state or national park, a botanical garden, or another location where it is expected in some capacity that the land will be open to the general public at any point during the day, the venue manager will be facilitating the day with them more than with you and your wedding guests. They may help assist in keeping the public from entering your wedding ceremony, or reception, depending on the time of day, if it does not transfer over to a private event.

Compare & Contrast: Key Differences in Responsibilities

You may be wondering- “who do I go to, for what?” “what is typical and standard from either type of role in the wedding industry, regardless of the type of venue?” Let’s help you understand that a bit better by sharing what each type of person or team is typically responsible for:

(Onsite) Venue Manager:

• Maintaining the onsite facilities – restrooms, air-conditioning and heating
• Opening the doors, turning on the lights, granting access to. vendors, clients/ couple, and wedding guests to venue
• Providing security. and engineering, and coordinating janitorial services
• Providing a list of preferred vendors, unallowed vendors, partnered vendors, and required vendors if applicable
• Providing a list of requirements and guidelines for hosting an event onsite, along with contracts and invoices associated with this
• Sharing what the venue ultimately does and does not provides, along with the types of vendors they do and do not partners with
• Informs client/ couple what the location is responsible and/or not responsible for, and sharing what the client/ vendors are liable or responsible for in order to be onsite for your event

Event Planner/ Planning Team:

• Managing your vendor execution- therefore, managing the setup, transfer of items, repurposing rentals and materials, as well as what is known as a takedown “strike” or breakdown of your wedding event
• Manages the overall look, feel, and experience of your event
• Provides suggestions and ideas for the client and guest experience based on how you want to experience your day, while providing consultation for color scheme and material/ floral design
• Partners with you to understand what is required and recommended for rental purchasing for your chairs, tables, and overall setup for an indoor or outdoor event, based on guest count, weather, and other essential factors that will impact the overall event experience
• Reviewing vendor contracts, payments, and requirements for your wedding event
• Create & manage your seating chart for your guests, while managing guest count
• Consulting on rental & experiential suggestions based on your guest count, indoor/ outdoor wedding, with food & floral breakdown
• Partnering directly with catering to understand setup needs & schedule (if applicable) your cocktail hour and/or reception food tasting for appetizers, dinner (and dessert)
• Manage your ceremony walkthrough and provide consultation on grand entrance location movement and logistics
• Creating designs for your floor plan for your wedding ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception seating and flow (whether there is a “flip,” or multiple spaces with vendors and guests throughout your day
• Supporting in different capacities your RSVP’s / guest count within the lead up to your wedding day (this can be partial planning/ 6-3 months out planning, month-out planning, or week-of/ day-of planning)
• Scheduling and providing assistance during the ceremony walkthrough to help design the flow for the wedding ceremony with wedding party & family

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🎯 Final Takeaway: Knowing Your Team’s Role

Ultimately, a smooth and enjoyable wedding day experienec for you truly hinges on clarity of responsibilities, and determining from there how you can ask them questions and determine what’s needed from them throughout your wedding planning journey.

While your (Onsite) Venue Manager is your essential partner for the building’s infrastructure—managing access, security, sanitation, and adherence to facility guidelines—they are not responsible for the experience within those walls. They are only responsible for the function of the space they operate in, so if your reception is elsewhere, that’s important to know.

If it’s high priority for you to have a smooth event between your wedding party, your guests, your vendors and yourselves, and for you to lean on someone to curate and finalize the best possible wedding-day timeline, you will need to lean into hiring a Wedding Event Planner, and in what capacity when it comes to aesthetic design, function, and coordination.

Understanding the distinct scope of each position—one managing the place, the other managing the event—is the critical step that transforms your planning journey from overwhelming to effortlessly organized. By ensuring every key responsibility is covered by the right professional, you grant yourself the most valuable luxury on your wedding day: the ability to be fully present and simply enjoy the magic you’ve created.

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