Today, we’re diving into a hot topic in the wedding world: the month-of coordinator. And while you might have been told to run for the hills when it comes to this service (and other BS advice like the only way to make money is by selling luxury), the truth is that you can make good money offering month-of wedding coordination. So, is being a month-of wedding coordinator a niche? Let’s talk about it!
What Exactly is a Month-of Coordinator?
A month-of coordinator is a wedding planner who steps in around 8-12 weeks before the wedding, taking the reins from the couple and making sure everything they’ve planned runs smoothly. You’ll be tying up loose ends, confirming details with vendors, creating a timeline, and being the point person on the day of the wedding. This role can also be called “wedding management” or “day-of coordination.”
It’s a great option for couples who’ve done most of the planning themselves but want a pro to ensure their vision comes to life without any hiccups. Plus, it’s a perfect way for new wedding planners to get their feet wet without taking on the full load of planning from start to finish. It’s also one of the easiest services to book (because the demand tends to be high and the price tends to be low), so it can be a great way to fill holes in your calendar when you’re not fully booked.
In the 8-12 weeks before the wedding, you’re:
- Collecting all planned details
- Reviewing contracts
- Identifying missing information
- Communicating with every vendor
- Creating a master wedding day timeline
- Running rehearsal
- Fully managing the wedding day
Just as importantly, here’s what month-of coordination typically does not include:
- Sourcing vendors
- Attending planning meetings throughout the engagement
- Managing budget or design
- Handling all communication from day one
And because month-of coordination requires a TON of communication in a compressed timeframe, planners often rely heavily on templates, scripts, and tools like AI to stay efficient. If you want help with that, my guide on how to use ChatGPT for your wedding biz is a great place to start.
The Big Question: Is Month-of Wedding Coordinator a Niche?
Okay, here’s the tea: Month-of coordination can be a niche, but it doesn’t have to be. What that means is you can offer month-of coordination as your main service, or simply keep it as one part of your overall lineup. Both approaches can work beautifully.
Why Month-of Coordinator Can Be a Niche
1. It Requires a Unique Skill Set
Offering month-of coordination is truly a unique skill set that requires a special kind of talent. You need to be excellent under pressure because you’re stepping in at the last minute to pull together all the moving parts of a wedding. Unlike a full-service planner, you won’t have the chance to select the vendors or shape the planning process from the start, so your ability to adapt quickly and work seamlessly with a diverse group of people is going to be key. Most planners avoid month-of because it requires speed, efficiency, and strong communication systems (with a lot of factors outside of your control). But if that’s your strength, this service is made for you.
If you’re still building your foundational planning skills, my guide on how to become a wedding planner walks you through the core abilities every planner needs, month-of or otherwise.
2. Defined Target Market
There’s a clear audience for month-of coordination: couples who enjoy the DIY aspect of wedding planning (or don’t have it in their budget to hire for full service) but still value hiring a professional to make sure everything comes together perfectly. By marketing to this group (that, let’s be honest, most other wedding planners are ignoring), you can carve out a specialized niche for yourself.
3. Focused and Efficient Services
By zeroing in on month of coordination, you can streamline your processes and become highly efficient in your business. Streamlined operations are KEY to making this a profitable service for you despite the lower price point. If you’re not sure what a wedding coordination workflow should look like, you can grab my playbook detailing the entire service (from start to finish) here.
And if you want to streamline your communication and save time writing emails, timelines, or confirmations, my list of ChatGPT prompts for wedding pros will help you automate more of your month-of workflow.
4. Flexible Time Commitment
If you’re not interested in lengthy planning engagements, don’t want to book your calendar two years in advance, or have other commitments, month-of coordination can be absolutely ideal. It allows you to work with more couples over shorter periods, offering a better work-life balance while still growing your business.
Being a Month-of Coordinator Doesn’t Have to Be a Niche
We’ve just talked about why month-of coordinator can be a great niche, but it doesn’t have to be! Here are three ways that it can fit well into the services you already provide as a wedding planner.
1. It can be a great way to fill your calendar
Many successful wedding planners offer month-of coordination as part of a broader service lineup, including full-service planning, instead of choosing to go “all-in” on month-of coordination. In my experience as a business coach for wedding pros, month-of coordination is one of the easiest services to book, so it’s a good idea to offer it in the early stages of business or if you are having trouble filling your calendar.
2. There are opportunities to upsell
Month-of coordination can serve as a gateway service, where once couples get a taste of what it’s like to work with you, they upgrade their packages or add additional planning hours. By keeping your options open with month of coordination, you can maximize your revenue potential from the service for couples who can’t afford full planning.
Upsells are easy when:
- A couple realizes their design vision needs help
- They’re overwhelmed picking their last few vendors
- They need rehearsal dinner coordination
- They want extra hours on the wedding day
- Their DIY approach hits a wall
You can also price-add for:
- Additional planning meetings
- Design assistance
- Vendor recommendations
- Rehearsal dinner or farewell brunch management
One key boundary: Don’t accidentally give away partial planning. This is where clear service descriptions (and template wording) are crucial.
If you want help strengthening your brand voice so everything you write sounds polished, here’s a guide on check out my guide on how to train ChatGPT to write like you.
3. You don’t need to book as far ahead
Some planners choose to offer full planning services up to two years in advance but only open the doors to coordination services 6 months before the wedding. There’s a strategy behind this! By reserving those precious Saturday dates for full planning clients, planners make sure that they’re saving their time and resources for higher-ticket services that require more extensive involvement (and might be more of what they prefer to book!).
The Pros and Cons of Making Month-of Coordinator a Niche
Now that we’ve talked about whether or not you should consider making month-of coordinator a niche, let’s dive in a little deeper into the pros and cons of the service itself.
Pros
- You become the go-to expert in your niche, making you the person everyone thinks of for month of coordination, which can lead to more referrals.
- Marketing is easier when you’re promoting one clear service instead of a wide range of options.
- Focusing on one type of service allows you to create highly efficient systems and streamline your processes.
- With shorter client engagements, it might be easier to achieve a better work-life balance.
Cons
- There’s less flexibility if a client who initially wants month of coordination realizes they need more help, potentially leading to missed opportunities.
- Full-service planning usually commands a higher fee, so you might earn less per client by focusing solely on month-of coordination.
- If you enjoy the creative aspects of full planning, you might miss out on that experience by offering only month of services.
- The wedding industry’s seasonality can be challenging—offering just month of services could leave you overwhelmed during peak seasons and with little work during the off-season.
So, What’s the Verdict? Is Month of Coordination a Niche?
Here’s the thing, wedding pros: there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. The beauty of this industry is that you can shape your business to fit your skills, passions, and lifestyle. If you love the idea of swooping in and helping couples during the final weeks, then make month-of coordination your niche! Own it, market it, and become the go-to pro in your area.
But if you’re like most of the wedding planners I coach and you love the variety of offering different service levels, then keep that month of coordination as part of your wedding planning toolkit (and book it when it best serves you). Use it to attract clients who might later upgrade to full service or to fill in gaps in your schedule.
If you want to dive deeper (and build your business as a month-of coordinator), make sure to grab my Month-of Coordination Playbook where I walk you through everything you need to know (and do!). And, if you really want to grow your wedding business, make sure you hop on the Planner’s Playbook waitlist for the next time doors open! I’d love to support you even more inside!
Want more? Check out this video on my YouTube channel ↓
Explore More Wedding Industry Resources
For More Wedding Planner Business Secrets Follow Me On Instagram
12 years of being the luckiest girl on the planet.💜 happy anniversary to the person who makes everything about this beautiful life we have possible.
📷 @c10ike
DAY TWO // WPI Spring Retreat 💜
If Day 1 was about getting closer to the question, Day 2 was about getting honest with the answer.
We came back together over mimosas and morning hugs (a WPI staple at this point 😉) and got right back into refinement — this time turning the lens inward. What are you actually building? And are your standards, your pricing, and your daily reality all telling the same story?
The member gives went THERE. We talked about how a systems strategist can help you untangle your process, and how saying no (A LOT) helped two photographers book better weddings.
I spoke about two important topics: setting standards and nervous system – two topics that have become very important inside WPI!
In between these conversations was room for the good stuff: small group breakouts, real talk, a few happy tears, a homemade Caribbean lunch (those pressed sandwiches 🤌), and an afternoon of feet in the pool and brains fully stretched.
Not pictured was the homemade Guac I whipped up and other poolside treats!
All these gorgeous moments captured by our retreat photographer + my business bestie @c10ike 💜💜💜
You might see the highlight reel and think ending up here was always my plan all along but you’d be wrong.
Like any good career, there have been lots of pivots and hiccups, and lessons that had to be learned the hard way.
Not seen here? The time…
- I forgot to add chairs to a rental order and ended up footing the $2,000 bill
- A client sat across from me crying that I ruined her wedding because her parents table had a low centerpiece
- I had to borrow $4,000 from Grandma Vera to make payroll, because I didn’t pay attention to my numbers
- About a hundred “dream clients” hired a different planner than me and I felt like an absolute failure
- I cried in my car before a wedding because I was completely and totally overwhelmed with the amount of responsibility on my shoulders (OK, maybe I did this more than once)
- My seasonal launch of The Planner’s Playbook completely bombed and I felt like my entire business was falling apart
…and roughly 700 other moments I’ve chosen to leave off the highlight reel.
So if you’re at the messy, nothing’s-working stage right now? Just know that if you have been to one wedding in your life, you are starting with more experience than I had.
I’m getting ready to embark on an exciting new chapter that I cannot wait to share with you… it’s big, and scary, and I’m sure in another few years I’ll have a lot more lore to share… but in the meantime…
Cheers to all the ups and downs I’ve experienced over the last 19 years!
And a special thanks to the photographers who made a lot of this lore possible: @c10ike @allanzepedaphoto @stevedepino @withincreative @robertandkathleen @thebrandedbosslady 💜🫶🏼😘
I’ve come to realize that many of us want to have a village, but we don’t recognize that we have to be a villager first.
My friend carla @c10ike is one of those rare exceptions and I want to introduce you to her!
When I started my planning business, I had no contacts and no real idea what I was doing. I was so green it makes me laugh to look back on it now!
And somehow, I got lucky enough to be taken under the wing of this incredible woman who showed up for me then when I was a little baby business owner, and has kept showing up ever since in more ways than I could possibly count.
She’s taught me so much over the years, and I don’t mean in the traditional sense of teaching someone something. She simply lived her life, and I paid attention.
She modeled what it means to be a friend.
A sister.
A daughter.
A wife.
A mother.
A business owner.
A boss.
I learned generosity by watching her be generous.
Compassion, connection, leadership… none of it came from advice. All of it came from the way she carries herself and the way she treats the people around her.
She has taught me more than she will ever know by the sheer act of living loudly and joyfully in every corner of her life.
I am so lucky to call her my friend. So lucky to be one of the many, many people she has been a villager for.
Carla thank you for letting me grow up right beside you. I love you. 🤍
filed under:
+ show Comments
- Hide Comments
add a comment