At a wedding up in Red Lodge, MT, Pat poses with a couple of newlywed and happy clients!
Every bride and groom requires backup.
Be it a wedding planner, day-of coordinator or officiant, that backup equates to less stress and more fun. Today’s brides and grooms are opting for day-of or weekend-of coordinating, where your designated “person” saves all their energy for the big event instead of signing off on the nitty gritty details in the months – or year – leading up.
“The industry has changed significantly, especially here with the coming of Better To Gather (Events),” said Pat Clark of Patricia Clark Weddings. “We really use (the terms) ‘coordinator’ and ‘officiant’ more often. Very few people use a wedding planner anymore; I do really little of that.”
Pat is an officiant, coordinator and planner. She prefers one high-anxiety day over months of smaller commitments, emphasizing that wedding decorators like Better To Gather Events can plan for the logistical and aesthetic details of the special day while other vendors, like wedding florists and photographers, can fill in the remaining blanks.
Pat’s role is to protect the bride. In doing so she works with every wedding vendor the couple hires, sometimes advising brides and grooms on who to hire if they haven’t done so already. Since starting her business in 2007, Pat has worked with enough vendors in the Billings, Montana, area that she’s created a brochure and online directory of wedding vendors to help couples choose.
“We have a great group of vendors here in town. We are so fortunate,” she said.
It’s time to get excited!
One of Pat’s key roles as wedding coordinator is designing a timeline. That’s why vendors like venues and photographers need to be chosen by the couple first. Pat then coordinates with each vendor to ensure the event runs smoothly.
“The timeline is the first step in having a stress-free wedding.”
Pat will ask every bride and groom she works with: “Are you a late person or an early person?” And regardless of their response, she doesn’t mince words. “Well, guess what? We’re going to make this wedding in a timely manner. That’s a big deal for me.”
Adhering to timelines should be a big deal to weddings guests, too. If the food’s not tasting good, it’s normally because the food has been delayed, Pat said.
Patricia Clark Weddings offers couples two meetings to design the timeline, plus one free three-hour consultation before a bride or groom even hires Pat.
“I want that couple to always feel like they’re my only couple. I never talk to them about another (couple),” Pat said. “I try very hard not to say, ‘Mary had this and Bill had this,’ (but) I can offer suggestions from previous experiences.”
Pat got her start in event planning while working at Montana State University Billings and Riverstone Health. After taking an early pension, she knew she wanted to work more. When her children planned to get married in her backyard and the pastor dropped out, she went to the courthouse, asking, “How do I do this?”
From that first official role as officiant, Pat went on to orchestrate Jeff Ballard’s wedding at the Yellowstone Country Club. Then, it was word-of-mouth that made Pat Clark a household name for Billings, Montana, weddings.
“I’ve actually married a stepmom and dad, and then did their kids’ weddings afterward,” explained Pat. “The wedding (I’m doing) this week—the family will be with me for the fourth time.”
Pat admits she can’t say, “No.”
“Truly, if somebody walks in the door and says they have a really small budget … they can hire me for four hours of planning along with officiating, which makes me more available to them. I don’t want to say ‘no’ to anybody.”
What happens when you say ‘yes’ to Patricia Clark Weddings?
Be prepared to be protected. That goes for your time, your interests and your sanity.
“I’m there to protect that bride,” Pat said. “I need to find a way to fix it or hide it. I don’t want her to have to deal with those issues.”
What issues? It could be family members not able to stick around after the reception to help clean up. It could be caterers leaving before the venue has inspected the kitchen and deemed its condition acceptable. It could be a DJ singing along to tunes when you didn’t want that.
“I sometimes have trouble with the groom’s mom who wants to be part of the wedding,” explained Pat. “Groom’s parents never have much to do at a wedding and it’s important to include them.”
If brides are concerned about including their future mother-in-law, Pat has ideas for their participation. The last thing Pat wants is for the bride to be doing what motherly figures should be doing (and probably want to be doing).
When officiating, Pat spends part of the big day with the parents, seeing what information she can use from them to incorporate into your personalized ceremony.
“I give parents a card asking for their child’s best qualities. I mention before vows the qualities that their families see about you,” she said. “I do some things that couples don’t expect.”
Pat’s main goal in officiating and coordinating, however, is to prevent surprises. She plans for everything ahead of time, giving the couple a booklet broken down into sections.
“You need someone that’s going to put that ceremony together for you,” explained Pat. “No one wants to dig for material for their ceremony.
“They take the book, they come back to me, and I go through instructions for rehearsal.”
What makes for a good ceremony? Pat says it’s inviting guests to participate.
“If couples are there who’ve been married a long time, let’s name them and recognize them,” she suggested.
How do you know you hired the right wedding officiant or coordinator?
With officiants, Pat says it’s important to look for someone that’s going to run the rehearsal for you. With coordinators, you need somebody with a great local knowledge of vendors, she said.
“Things that worry me the most are that couples will hire caterers who do not bus tables,” Pat explained. “If you have 300 guests … all those dirty plates are kind of discouraging.”
In other words, if your day-of coordinator isn’t shifting the weight of worry from your shoulders to hers, then you might have hired the wrong person.
What else does Pat worry about so you don’t have to? Following a wedding venue’s strict no outside alcohol policy.
“If you’re lucky, the bar will tell me,” she said. “If you’re really unlucky, the bar will have to close.
“People don’t get it—every single wedding, (guests) still sneak alcohol into the weddings.”
And did you know that most wedding caterers charge per slice to cut the cake?
“As a coordinator, I always make sure they’ve hid a table and a linen for me; then, I bring the extra table out and cut those pieces out,” said Pat.
Her advice is nonstop, like suggesting bringing a second pair of shoes or reserving space for a florist to prepare arrangements onsite. Didn’t know florists did that? Well, Pat is pretty up on the trends, too.
In 2019 alone, Patricia Clark Weddings has been hired to help with a little more than 50 weddings. Pat officiates about 60 percent of those, with coordinating being her most sought-after service.
“I’ve never dreamt that I’d find something I’d love to do as much as this.”
Patricia Clark Weddings prefers to be contacted a year in advance of your special day. An online listing of wedding vendors in the Billings, Montana area that Patricia Clark Weddings has compiled can be found at: billingsmontanaweddings.com
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