What's the difference between a day-of coordinator and a wedding planner?

A wedding planner is hired early (often right after the engagement) and handles budget building, vendor sourcing, contract review, negotiations, and the wedding day itself. Pricing typically runs $6,000 to $15,000+. A day-of coordinator is hired for the final 4 to 6 weeks, builds your timeline, confirms vendors, and runs the wedding day. Pricing typically runs $1,200 to $3,500. The day-of role does not include reviewing your contracts, tracking your budget, or negotiating with vendors. That work stays on you unless you hire someone explicitly for it.

Does a day-of coordinator review my vendor contracts?

Usually no. Standard day-of scope starts about a month out and focuses on logistics: timeline, vendor confirmations, and running the wedding day. Contract review is generally not included. Some coordinators offer it as a paid add-on, often $200 to $500, but you have to ask. If you want contracts reviewed as a baseline service, you're looking at a partial or full planner, or a tool that audits quotes and contracts for you so you can catch markups (like an $800 jump from proposal to invoice) before you sign.

When should I hire a day-of coordinator?

Most day-of coordinators book 6 to 12 months out, even though their active work doesn't start until about a month before the wedding. Popular coordinators in busy markets book even earlier. Hire as soon as you've locked your venue and date. Waiting until the last few months often means the coordinators you actually want are unavailable, and you'll be choosing from whoever has a gap in their calendar that weekend, which is not how you want to pick the person running your day.

How do I track my wedding budget if my coordinator doesn't?

Three realistic options. One, upgrade to a partial planner ($3,000 to $6,000) who handles budget tracking from earlier in the process. Two, build a spreadsheet and commit to updating it every time a quote or invoice lands, which most couples start strong and abandon by month three. Three, use a tool like Altared where you drop in any quote or contract and it tracks your real running total, flags markups, and compares vendors line by line. The goal is making sure someone (or something) is watching the money besides just you.

What questions should I ask before hiring a day-of coordinator?

Ask when their involvement actually starts on the calendar, not just 'month-of.' Ask whether they review contracts before you sign, whether they track your budget or just receive your numbers, and whether they negotiate with vendors or only confirm logistics. Ask if they're on-site for the rehearsal, what their overtime rate is, and how many other weddings they're working that month. Get the answers in writing in the contract. Verbal promises about scope are where most coordinator disappointments start.

Your Day-Of Coordinator Isn't a Planner: The Gap Nobody Warns You About

A day-of coordinator isn't a wedding planner. Here's the scope gap that costs couples thousands, and how to cover it before your wedding day.

A bride I talked to last month found out, three weeks before her wedding, that her florist's invoice was $800 higher than the original proposal. Different line items, same flowers, no explanation. She forwarded it to her day-of coordinator expecting backup. The response: "I can flag it on the day-of timeline, but contract questions are between you and the vendor."

That's the gap. The words sound almost identical. "Day-of coordinator" has coordinator right in the name. But what you're actually buying is someone who shows up the morning of your wedding with a printed timeline, and that's it.

day 1 vs day-of: what you're actually paying for

A full-service wedding planner is hired early, sometimes the week you get engaged. They build your budget, source vendors, review contracts, negotiate, manage payment schedules, and run the day. You're typically paying $6,000 to $15,000+ for that scope, depending on your market.

A day-of coordinator (often more accurately called a "month-of" coordinator) is hired for the final stretch. They usually start meeting with you four to six weeks out, confirm vendors, build a timeline, and run the wedding day itself. Typical cost: $1,200 to $3,500.

Both roles are real. Both are useful. The problem is that couples hire a day-of, hear the word "coordinator," and assume someone is watching the budget and the contracts behind the scenes. Nobody is.

what a day-of coordinator actually does

Their job starts at 9am on the day (or sometimes the rehearsal the night before). Here's the realistic scope:

Builds the minute-by-minute timeline from vendor arrival to last dance
Confirms vendor arrival times the week of the wedding
Manages the ceremony lineup and processional cues
Handles vendor questions on-site so you don't have to
Troubleshoots the day-of fires: a late hair stylist, a missing boutonniere, a cake delivery at the wrong door
Packs up your personal items and gifts at the end of the night

That's a real service. It's worth the money. It is also not planning.

what they don't do (even though it feels like they should)

No vendor negotiations
No reviewing your contracts for hidden fees
No flagging that your florist quote jumped $800 from proposal to invoice
No comparing three photographer quotes line by line
No tracking your running total against your budget
No catching that your venue's "service fee" is taxable in your state and your caterer's isn't

Everything before that day, the budget tracking, the quote comparisons, the back-and-forth with six vendors, was always on you. A lot of couples don't realize that until they're already deep in it.

the scope gap, in dollars

Let's make this concrete. A standard wedding involves roughly 8 to 12 vendor contracts: venue, catering, bar, photographer, videographer, florist, DJ or band, hair and makeup, officiant, rentals, transportation, stationery. Each contract has its own deposit schedule, cancellation terms, overtime rates, and a list of add-ons that get quietly upsold between the proposal and the final invoice.

Here are the cost categories a day-of coordinator is not catching for you:

Quote-to-invoice drift. That $800 jump on the florist invoice is the most common version. Boutonnieres get added. Stem counts change. "Installation labor" appears as a new line. None of it is fraud, but none of it is being audited either.

Service charge vs gratuity confusion. Many caterers charge a 22% to 25% "service charge" that is not gratuity. Couples tip on top, thinking the service charge went to staff. That can be a four-figure mistake on a $15,000 catering bill.

Overtime triggers. Your photographer's contract says 8 hours. Your timeline runs 8 hours and 45 minutes. Overtime kicks in at $300 to $500 per hour, rounded up. A day-of coordinator might mention it in the rehearsal. They are not redesigning your timeline weeks out to avoid it.

Vendor minimums you signed. Bar minimums, catering head-count minimums, room rental floors. If you signed it, you owe it, even if your guest count drops.

Duplicate charges across vendors. Your venue charges for chairs. Your rental company also delivered chairs. Nobody is cross-referencing.

red flags that you have a scope gap, not a planner

If any of these sound familiar, you have the gap, whether you've hired a day-of coordinator or not:

You have a folder (or 14 browser tabs) of vendor PDFs and no single running total
You've gotten an updated quote from a vendor and you're not 100% sure what changed
You're tracking your budget in a spreadsheet you started in month one and stopped updating in month three
You don't know what your venue's service charge covers, or whether it's taxable
You assumed your coordinator would "look over" your contracts before you signed
Your partner asks "are we still on budget?" and the honest answer is "probably?"

None of this means you hired the wrong coordinator. It means the role you hired doesn't cover this part.

how to close the gap without hiring a full planner

You have three real options, and they're not mutually exclusive.

1. upgrade to a partial planner

A "partial planning" package sits between day-of and full-service, usually $3,000 to $6,000. The planner joins around the time you're booking your top three or four vendors and helps with contract review, budget tracking, and vendor sourcing for the categories you haven't filled. If your budget allows and you genuinely don't have the bandwidth, this is the cleanest fix.

2. ask your day-of for a contract review add-on

Some day-of coordinators will review contracts as an add-on for a flat fee, often $200 to $500. They won't negotiate, but they'll flag the boilerplate problems (overtime rates, cancellation windows, force majeure language). Worth asking before you assume it's not on the menu.

3. run your own audit with a tool built for it

This is the part the day-of coordinator doesn't do, and it's the part Altared was built to handle. Drop in any quote or contract and it tracks your real running total, flags markups between proposal and invoice, and compares vendors line by line. When the florist's number jumps $800, you see exactly which line moved and why, before you sign.

For couples who don't want to spend an extra $3,000 to $5,000 upgrading their coordinator package, this is the practical middle path: keep the day-of you already hired, and stop being the only person watching the money.

questions to ask before you sign a coordinator contract

Before you book any coordinator, ask these directly. The answers will tell you exactly which version of the role you're getting:

When does your involvement start, calendar-wise, not "month-of"?
Do you review vendor contracts before I sign them? If yes, how many?
Do you track my budget, or do I send you my totals?
Do you negotiate with vendors on my behalf, or only confirm logistics?
What happens if a vendor sends an updated quote, do you review it or just forward it?
Are you on-site for the rehearsal, and is that included?
What's your overtime rate if the wedding day runs long?
How many other weddings are you working the month of mine?

Write the answers down. If the coordinator says "I can do some of that," ask what's in writing in the contract. Verbal scope creep cuts both ways.

the honest summary

"Day-of coordinator" and "wedding planner" sound similar and are not the same job
Day-of scope starts roughly 4 to 6 weeks out and runs through the wedding day, typically $1,200 to $3,500
Full planners cost $6,000 to $15,000+ and cover budget, contracts, and vendor sourcing from day one
The gap in between (budget tracking, quote audits, contract review) is where couples lose the most money
A florist quote can jump $800 from proposal to invoice and nobody you've hired is checking
Ask your coordinator exactly when their job starts and what's in scope, in writing
Cover the planning gap with a partial planner, a contract review add-on, or a tool that tracks every quote line by line

The day-of coordinator is doing the job you hired them for. The question is whether anyone is doing the rest of it. If the answer is "just me, in a spreadsheet, at 11pm," it's worth fixing before the next contract lands in your inbox. More on hidden costs and vendor tips if you want to keep going.