Planning a wedding without the help of a wedding designer is a great option for brides and grooms with a distinct vision or experience with event planning. But on the day of your wedding, the last thing you want to do is make sure the caterers are on time and your linens have been delivered.
That’s where day-of coordination comes in. Before now though, getting experienced planners to take on anything less than a full-service date was difficult, if not impossible.
Kimberly Rhodes of Hitched Events is aiming to change that, addressing a gap in the market for both brides and coordinators. In creating Almost to the Aisle, a new month-of coordination service that brings together her favorite Dallas planners, she’s making month-of coordination services with top-notch talent more accessible for Dallas brides. She hand-picked the roster of planners—which includes Julian Leaver of Julian Leaver Events, Luke Wilson of Luke Wilson events, Mary Wright Shah of Diamond Affairs, and Hannah Kohler of Brooks and Barnes—each of whom have at least a decade of experience. “It doesn’t matter who you get, because they’re all fabulous, they all run their own businesses, they’re all successful,” Rhodes says.
It works like this: You book your date up to 16 months in advance, and eight weeks before the wedding, you’re assigned one of five experienced planners. Six weeks before your big day, coordination begins. And then on the day of, all you have to do it sit back and relax as your planner takes care of all the little things. “This is a luxury service,” Rhodes says. “It’s for a client who is having a high-end wedding. But want a quality pro to execute it that day.”
For the planners, they get to keep long-lead dates open for more profitable full-service wedding planning and fill in empty slots in their schedule later on.
The fee starts at $4,500 and increases in price as your needs increase. A large wedding or transportation coordination could mean additional fees.
If you’re not sure where to start, Almost to the Aisle will even help get you started with a list of recommended vendors to use as you plan. Visit almosttotheaisle.com for more details.
