Fitting A Wedding Planner Into Your Budget

by Corey Mejia 17 Jan 2024 •6 min read

The number one service on most couples’ wedding wishlists is a wedding planner! Someone whose contacts, keen organization, and professional know-how help glue all ends of wedding planning together into a cohesive day of grand celebration.

Yet when you’re on a tight budget, hiring someone to plan your event might feel frivolous. In many cases though, a wedding planner doesn’t cost as much as you might believe! There’s no hard-and-fast rule for how much a wedding planner will run you. There are a lot of variables to consider, and these factors will affect just how much a planning service will cost.

A complete top-to-bottom wedding planner—usually hired very early on in the planning schedule—averages at around $3,000 but for more luxury planners the price can be anywhere between $4,500 to $12,000. If those numbers scare you, don't worry! We'll outline the different variables in cost below to help you figure out just how much your wedding planner will likely cost.

Your Budget

Most of the time, the bigger your budget, the more extravagant your wedding. And more extravagance means more planning will be required — that’s why lots of planners charge a certain percentage of your total wedding budget. You can expect to spend 10 to 20 percent of your budget for your planner. Since the average wedding budget is around $31,000, you’re likely looking at about $3,000.

Your Wedding Location

There’s no getting around the fact that a swanky soiree in Manhattan is going to cost you way more than a hometown party in a rural state. Following that 10 to 20 percent rule, you’ll pay more if you’re getting married in a high-demand area.

Your Guest Count

A lot of planning revolves around your guest count. You don’t have to know the exact number, but if you’ve invited 100 guests and only 65 responded to your RSVP’s then this factor will weigh on how much planning will be involved as well as your overall budget.

Your Level Of Service

Planners offer all different levels of service — you can hire someone to be 100% responsible for every aspect of the wedding, you could hire just a day-of-coordinator, or select a level of service somewhere in between. Of course, the more you ask of the planner, the more they’ll charge you.

The Type Of Service You Choose

Traditionally, you’d have to find a local wedding planner and meet in person several times. That’s no longer your only option! Online wedding planning services like our wedding planning checklist can help keep you on track with all your wedding to-do's and it's totally free.

Whether you’re looking for a full service planner or you’d rather choose a specific service off their list a la carte style planners, producers, and designers all have specific responsibilities they include into different packages.

Full-Service Wedding Planner

Facilitate in venue scouting and negotiations
Facilitate in vendor sourcing, interviewing, and negotiations
Facilitate with stationery design and printing
RSVP and guest list management
Timeline management
Rain contingency plan
Floral design, florist interviews, and proposal reviews
Rental recommendation and sourcing
Catering negotiation, communication, and menu development
Wedding day staffing, pre-production, and post-production management

Wedding Designer

Creates the wedding design concept (based on your ideas)
Provides advice (sometimes direction) on the color palette
Puts together a floor plan that works with your venue space
Sources special equipment or props (such as bohemian style furniture or a power lift for hanging drapery)
Makes sure all your decor elements arrive on time for set up on your wedding day

Wedding Coordinator

Keeps in contact with wedding vendors to ensure full understanding of event details
Oversees the rehearsal
Creates a floor plan and detailed timelines to follow on the day-of
Handles any overlooked items
Performs a final walkthrough of the ceremony site and reception area
Damage control
Supervises vendor setup and breakdown

How Wedding Planning Companies Typically Calculate Costs

There are three standard ways wedding planners determine their final bill:

Flat Fee

Planners who charge a flat fee usually offer a few base packages (each detailing the extent of services provided) as well as a la carte options for couples who need only select services, not entire packages. These include full-service planning and coordination packages all the way down to month-of planning and partial services.

Percentage & Flat Fee Mix

Many wedding planning companies incorporate a percentage of the total venue and vendor cost into their final bill as well as a retainer fee for designing and planning, along with the flat production fee. This percentage usually revolves around 15-20%.

All-Inclusive

Another term we’ve been seeing lately is “wedding producer” as a way to describe those whose services cover the full extent of a wedding from venue to vendor to day-of coordinator, in-house set design and lighting, they do it all. With an all-inclusive bill, the planner/producer works with your specific budget, rarely ever going above it. You tell them your budget and they work with it.

Venue Coordinator VS. Event Coordinator

If you're starting to scout out the perfect spot for your big day, this question is bound to come up. So, before you find yourself feeling too confused here’s the difference between "event coordinators" and "venue coordinators."

Venue Coordinators

When you're picking out your wedding venue, one of the first things you should ask is whether or not there's an on-site wedding coordinator at your disposal. If your venue offers a coordinator as part of its package, that means there's no added cost for this added benefit.

A venue coordinator works for the venue, not directly for you. They'll act as a liaison between you and the venue's operations team. This means they'll show you the venue, help coordinate any services offered on-site (from in-house catering to valet parking) and process the final invoice.
They'll typically deal with the logistics of the actual wedding day, such as giving vendors access to the site for setup and breakdown, setting up tables and chairs, ensuring the power and plumbing works, cleaning the space before and after the event, keeping things safe (cleaning up that glass your drunken uncle dropped on the dance floor), and more.
Make sure you have a firm understanding how much the venue coordinator is willing to do for you. If they will ONLY handle the big picture elements of your big day, then you need to consider who will help with the little details.
Perhaps your wedding party and reliable family members can chip in with tying lavender to each napkin, but it might be wise to hire a wedding planner to tackle these tasks.

Event Coordinators

If the venue you're considering does NOT offer an on-site coordinator, you may want to hire an event coordinator. This person is separate from the venue and will be hired directly by YOU, which means you'll need to factor this expense into your budget. It's an added cost, but will prove to be a very worthwhile one!

An event coordinator is a wedding planner, so they'll help you plan the details of your big day from wedding style to providing inspiration as well as tips to keep track of your guest list. If you hire someone from the very start, they'll be present for every major wedding-related decision you make and will help turn your dream into a reality.
If you'd rather plan the wedding yourself but want someone present to help with the day-of details, a day-of coordinator will help carry out your vision on the actual day. Whether you bring someone on from the start or at the last minute, a planner will be an advocate for YOU.
There's usually no limit to what an event coordinator will do for you. They'll handle a moody bridesmaid, track down a missing vendor, tie some bowties when the groom suddenly realizes no one knows how, and generally ensures everything you planned comes to fruition. Your event coordinator will travel with you from wherever you're getting ready to your ceremony and then on to your reception.
Your event coordinator will also act as the liaison between you and ALL of your wedding vendors in order to make sure everyone is on the same page at all times.
Their goal is to make sure you are able to enjoy every moment of your wedding without worrying if the right people are in the right place at the right time or about whether or not you're sticking to the schedule. Consider your coordinator your big day BFF, there to guide you and your partner through the whole process as smoothly as possible. After all, they'll be by your side from the moment you start planning until you make your grand exit.

Now that you know the breadth of responsibilities a wedding planner is capable of, it’s your call whether you’d need an extra pair of hands, tying up a few loose ends, or would you rather have the planner doing it all? One thing’s for sure—wedding planner or not—Loverly’s Free Wedding Planning Tools will help you get your stay organized while planning!

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About The Author

Corey is a writer of poetry and prose whose interests gravitate between lifestyle, travel and entertainment. He lives in New York City and currently works at Loverly as a writer. His latest book of poetry, “That Cold Wind Called Life” depicts the strangeness of life and the journey of finding inner peace. Corey graduated from Queens College City University of New York with a Bachelor of Arts in Literature.

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