Making the best of a day of coordinator!

When do you decide "Maybe we should hire a planner..."?
What should you expect once you hire a planner?

Let's take a look at the day of planner. I'm sure when hiring, you'd look for someone to ensure the smooth flow of the events you have planned. One may have a natural desire to free up friends/family and hand the details over to a professional. Here's a few things to consider when hiring a day of coordinator:

1. Communicate your wishes openly and completely. How will your coordinator make sure you day is executed as you desire without all the underlining details? In other words, treat your planner as the person in charge. Give them all the information they request (contracts, contacts, logestic details). The more information the better. There's no reason the shield the details. Trust me, they won't tell your trade secrets.
2. Don't give useless details and a laundry lists of instructions for family to handle. I'm sure your family and friends want to feel like a guest at your wedding also. The last thing your coordinator wants to deal with is a close friend of cousin running around with a clipboard giving orders. After all, that is what you hired a coordinator for.
3. Tell your bridesmaids to be bridesmaids. I'm sure they think they're helping by giving orders. The best thing you could do is give them the okay to let someone else make the decisions. You allowing this sort of thing to happen only brings room for mass confussion. In the end, they are only complicating things by giving orders random orders you didnt' expect. This is another reason to leave the details to the coordinator.
4. The most important factor to a smooth wedding ceremony is a rehearsal. The most important factor for a rehearsal's success is participation. This is of greater importance when dealing with large wedding parties. You can't expect twenty people figure out where to go and what to do right before they the ceremony! Even more so when there's a fleet of volunteer coordinators running around.
5. By all means, and the sake of your coordinator. Let them run the show.

Okay... I'm done... (: