Five stages.
From first browse to vow: how a Cordelia wedding moves from discovery to the day itself. You always know which stage you are in. You always know what has been paid for, and what has not.
Discovery.
Where you find vendors who actually fit.
Every venue, every planner, every photographer, every florist on Cordelia has earned their place by passing the Verified Passport audit: seen in person, three past clients called. There are no paid placements anywhere.
Vendor profiles are built to make a decision easy to defend. You see the Market Manager’s audit notes. You read references from past Cordelia couples. You see response time history, language fluency, and what the vendor delivered for their last three weddings.
Browsing is free. No account required. A couple should not have to commit to a platform just to look around.
- You see Cordelia Verified vendors only. No directory padding. No paid placements.
- You read references from past Cordelia couples, not stars from anonymous accounts.
- Ranking follows past client outcomes and Verified Passport status. Never ad spend.
- You can shortlist, save, and compare without creating an account.
Booking.
Where the contract is signed and the date is held.
When you have chosen a vendor (the venue, the planner, the photographer, anyone else), you book through Cordelia. No PDFs traded by email. You never send money directly to an account you have not seen. The booking flow is one continuous session: contract, first payment, the steps that follow, signed and timestamped on both sides.
The bilingual contract is reviewed in advance, written to be enforceable when it matters, and signed in your language and the vendor’s. The first payment covers one thing: booking the date. No payment is sent before the step it pays for.
From this moment, your wedding date is reserved on the vendor’s calendar. Each vendor you add later goes through the same booking flow.
- You make the payment that books the date, and nothing beyond it.
- Your money moves when the work does. Each payment releases against a step you approve.
- Bilingual contracts are signed by both sides in the same session.
- Your date is held on the vendor’s calendar. Venue, planner, photographer, or any other vendor, your booking blocks the date from anyone else.
Planning.
The open phase. Where everything is still on the table.
This is the creative heart of a Cordelia wedding. Your planner builds proposals, mood boards, sub-vendor recommendations. You react. You revise. You explore. Nothing is locked yet. Everything is timestamped.
Sub-vendors come from one of two sources: vendors already inside the Cordelia Verified network, or vendors brought in from your planner’s own rolodex. Either way, every sub-vendor passes the same Verified Passport audit before they’re attached to your wedding. Your planner can recommend, but cannot lock anyone in.
You see what’s been proposed, what’s been approved, and what’s still being worked. Your planner sees the same. Communication is timestamped and searchable. If anything needs to be re-litigated later, the full record is there.
- Sub-vendor proposals circulate, with full Verified Passports attached.
- Mood boards, sample menus, music cues all live in one shared workspace.
- Every decision is timestamped. No “I never agreed to that” disputes later.
- You sign off on each sub-vendor before they’re locked in. The planner proposes; you approve.
Design Lock-In.
The single moment everything becomes real.
Lock-In is the moment that makes a Cordelia wedding different from every other planning experience. In one deliberate session, you approve the full design, the line-item budget, and the confirmed sub-vendor roster. Scope locks.
This isn’t a soft commitment. After Lock-In, changes flow through a formal change order process. You can still make changes. Each one is documented, repriced, and re-approved. No surprise items on the final bill. No vendors added or removed without your knowledge. No scope creep.
Lock-In is also the step that releases the payment for sourcing: flowers ordered, rentals booked, ingredients bought in Tulum, Cabo, or San Miguel. It releases because you approved it, and it covers that step only.
- You approve the final design in one deliberate review session.
- You approve the full line-item budget, including every sub-vendor.
- Scope locks. Changes from this point require a formal change order.
- The sourcing payment releases to your planner and primary vendors, against the step you just approved.
Fulfillment.
From 60 days out, through the day, to 48 hours after the vow.
Between 30 and 60 days before the wedding, you fund the remaining balance. Funding it is not the same as sending it. As pre-event steps are met, working capital releases to sub-vendors against documented invoices, and no payment is sent before the step it pays for.
On the wedding day, your Market Manager is on the ground or on call, with the authority to intervene live. If a vendor doesn’t show, the Market Manager activates the regional bench. If a vendor underperforms, the final release can be paused until the issue is resolved.
Forty-eight hours after the wedding, if no dispute is filed, the final balance clears. Cordelia’s commission is collected from that final release, only on the dispute-free outcome.
- The remaining balance is funded 30 to 60 days pre-event.
- Working capital releases to sub-vendors against documented invoices.
- The Market Manager lives where you are marrying and is there on the day, with authority to intervene live.
- The final balance clears forty-eight hours after the wedding, if no dispute is filed.
Five stages. One trust layer. Zero loose ends.
You always know which stage you are in. You always know what has been paid for. You always know who is accountable for what. Vetted vendors. Contracts that hold. A local human, in Tulum, Cabo, or San Miguel.
Ready to start?
Cordelia is hand-picking founding couples for pilot weddings in Tulum, Cabo, and San Miguel.