How much does a wedding planner cost, and how much is a wedding planner worth

What suppliers publish, and what they do not

How to get a planner price you can compare

1. Decide which of the three jobs you are buying. Full planning from the start, partial planning from a point you choose, or coordination of the day itself. These are different amounts of work and the price gap between them is the largest in this trade.
2. Fix your total budget before you call. A planner quoting a percentage needs your total to quote at all, and a planner quoting a flat fee will want it anyway to judge the scale of the job.
3. Ask what happens to the fee if the budget moves. On a percentage model, a budget that grows takes the fee with it. Ask whether the percentage is capped and what it is calculated on.
4. Ask what the fee does not cover. Travel, overnight stays for a distant venue, and the hours of a second coordinator on the day are commonly outside the headline fee.

The three pricing models, and what each one hides

A percentage fee is the oldest model and the one that scales worst for the organiser. The planner takes an agreed share of everything you spend, so a wedding that grows from sixty guests to a hundred grows the planner's fee as well, without any change in the work of finding you a florist. If you are quoted a percentage, ask whether it is calculated on the whole budget or only on the parts the planner sources, and whether there is a floor underneath it, because most planners have one.

A flat fee for the year is easier to compare and harder to get. It fixes the planner's income against an unknown amount of work, so planners who offer it usually attach a scope: a stated number of meetings, a stated number of suppliers sourced, and an hourly rate for anything beyond. Read the scope, not the number. Two flat fees a thousand apart can describe completely different amounts of somebody's time.

A coordination fee for the last six weeks is the cheapest way to buy a planner and the one most organisers should look at first. You do the choosing, the coordinator takes over the timeline, the supplier calls and the day itself. It is priced as a fixed job because the scope really is fixed, which is why it is the model where published figures are easiest to find.

Why so few planners publish a figure

Planning is the category in this record where published prices are rarest, and the reason is structural rather than evasive. A planner's cost is their own hours, and the hours depend on how decided you already are, how far the venue is, and how many suppliers you need found rather than booked. A number published without those facts would be wrong often enough to be useless.

That is a fair reason for a quote and not a reason to accept a discovery call as the only route to any number at all. A planner who will not name a range, a minimum, or the fee for coordination alone is telling you something about how they sell, and you are allowed to ask again. The suppliers in the price record who do publish, in the categories where publishing is possible, show what the alternative looks like.

Questions organisers ask before they book

Is a percentage or a flat fee cheaper?

It depends entirely on your total. A percentage is usually cheaper on a small wedding and more expensive on a large one, and the crossover is different for every planner. Ask both planners to quote your actual budget rather than comparing the models in the abstract.

Do I need a planner if the venue has a coordinator?

A venue coordinator works for the venue and looks after the venue's part of the day. They are not there to chase your florist, rebuild the timeline when the ceremony overruns, or handle a supplier who does not arrive. Those are different jobs and it is worth asking the venue precisely which of them theirs covers.

When should I book one?

A full planner is booked first, before the venue, because choosing the venue is part of what you are paying them for. A coordinator is booked once the suppliers are in place, commonly six to nine months out, and popular dates go early.

Will a planner save me more than they cost?

Sometimes, through supplier discounts and avoided mistakes, and no honest planner will promise it. Treat any saving as a bonus rather than the reason to hire, and judge the fee against the hours and the worry it removes.

What this costs where you are marrying

• What a wedding costs in the UK, from published supplier prices