The Evolution of a “Wedding Planner”

10 years ago, the title “wedding planner” meant one thing: you plan weddings. As with anything, over time, the role of the traditional “wedding planner” has been split apart, expanded upon, and artisianized. In today’s industry, we have multiple professions living under this titular umbrella. I’m talking about the specialized jobs that are generally lumped into a catchall wedding planning bucket that deserve to be broken down into what they really are: designing, styling, planning and coordinating.

While each of these roles have their own nuances and responsibilities, I want to focus on the two main career choices that often get mistaken for one or the other: 
the designer and the planner. 

Yes… these are two very different things. 
Some planners also design and some designers also plan (like our team!), but it’s important to equip yourself with the knowledge on both of these roles so that you can better understand what you're looking for when you’re planning a wedding, while giving you invaluable insight into what your team is doing in the days, weeks, and months leading up to your wedding day. 

This will help you better understand your vendor’s process, and, hopefully, it will shed some light on how much work actually goes into planning and designing a wedding.

Here’s a quick breakdown between the roles of a planner and designer:

A PLANNER is your backend mastermind. They work closely with other vendors to assemble a day-of timeline while handling all the logistics of your wedding day. Planning and coordinating go hand-in-hand, as a planner will work closely with a coordinator to handle day-of implementation of the plan.

A DESIGNER creates the look of your wedding day. Every detail from the color palette to the texture of materials to, from the dimension of a ceremony design to the feel of your tables-cape is intentionally curated by your designer. Designing and styling serve as counterparts, too, as a designer will rely on a stylist to physically bring the design to life on the day of your wedding.