When you first connect with potential wedding planners, it’s always important to ask questions about their experience and planning process. Here are some guiding questions for you to refer to:
Their Process and Experience
- How many weddings have you planned professionally?
- How many weddings or events do you take on a year/month/weekend?
- Do you do destination weddings (if applicable)?
- What was the most unique wedding you’ve planned?
- What are some ideas you have for my wedding vision?
- What’s your secret for staying calm under pressure?
- How do you deal with day-of disasters?
- Do you have testimonials from recent couples you’ve worked with?
Logistics
- Are you available on my wedding date?
- Can you work within our budget?
- What sorts of services do you offer (month of coordination, full-service planning, or a la carte planning)?
- How many meetings will we have?
- How will we be involved in the process?
- Do you handle professional services like contracts and payment processing?
- Can you walk us through your process for working with couples to select vendors?
- Are you willing to step in as our advocate, conveying our visions and desires to pros when we can’t?
- Will you handle the invitations or is that something we will do on our side?
- Do you handle rentals? Will you coordinate delivery, arrival and set up times with the photographer, the florist, the musicians and the caterer/banquet manager?
- How many people will be on your staff the day of the wedding?
- Can you create a timeline that tells everyone involved in the planning process (other pros, members of the wedding party, to-be weds and families) what to do and when to do it? How will you make sure everyone sticks to the schedule?
- What happens if you’re sick or otherwise unable to be there on the day of our wedding?
- Do you also plan events surrounding the wedding (like the rehearsal dinner)?
- If our event is outside, will you put a contingency plan in place in case of bad weather?
- Do you work with a team? Will they be on-site at the wedding?
- Will you go with us to meet with vendors?
- What parts, if any, of the planning process are we solely responsible for?
Payments
- Do you charge a flat fee, a percentage of my total budget, an hourly amount, or some combination?
- How are payments broken out (what is due upfront, what does a typical payment schedule look like for your services?) Will there be additional expenses on top of your base fee (travel, parking, food, etc.)?
- Do you have personal liability and professional indemnity insurance?
- Do you charge a flat fee, a percentage of my total budget, an hourly amount, or some combination?
- Will you charge for things like mileage and office supplies used for my wedding?
- Do you take a commission from any of the vendors you refer us to?
- What amount do you require for a deposit?
- When is the final payment due?
- Do we need to pay our vendors directly or do we pay them through you?
- Are there any additional fees I should know about?
Communicating with Your Wedding Planner
Once all the logistical details are out of the way, have a conversation with your planner about your communication style and expectations. No one loves getting panicked phone calls at 2 a.m. or 35 emails a day. That includes your planner! To avoid this, it’s important to set out boundaries regarding how you’re going to communicate with each other. Remember, wedding planners are professionals; there's a reason that you hired one! Be honest and upfront about what you want, but trust their experience and expertise to get the job done without feeling the need to check in every 24 hours.
Some planners are more formal and like to communicate via email or scheduled phone calls. Other planners are more relaxed and flexible and are cool with texting for quick check-ins. It’s important that you communicate your preferred communication method and make sure it aligns with your wedding planner.
This is also a great time to let your planner know if there's anything that you’d like to handle personally. If you have particular DIY projects you’re excited about or something that's already set in stone, be sure to give them a heads up so that they're aware of every moving piece. On the same note, be sure to ask the planner to be upfront about anything they can’t or won’t handle. Planners aren’t necessarily going to take care of pre-wedding events like engagement parties, wedding showers, or a welcome cocktail hours unless you ask.
Having these conversations early on will be sure to save everyone a lot of frustration down the road. When everything has been properly delegated, you’re all set! You have yourself a wedding planner—and can take a giant deep breath or pure relief!
What if a wedding planner isn’t for me?
Wedding planners definitely aren’t for everyone. If you decide to skip a planner for budgetary reasons, lack of availability, or any other reason that’s perfectly fine! You'll certainly need to take a more hands-on approach in planning, but hey, we’re here to help! As you get closer to the wedding, you can always consider a day-of coordinator as long as there’s enough money left in your budget. Or, you can go for a wedding that is entirely self-planned—and by self-planned, we mean planned with lots of help from your partner, your friends and loved ones, and us, of course!
Keep in mind, if you choose to go this route, you NEED a list of what needs to be done before, during, and after the event. It's also important to assign various people to help support you in all of these tasks so you and your partner aren’t the only ones doing all the work. Also, make sure you assign these tasks to someone with a track record of responsibility who won’t be too tipsy at the end of the night to remember!
The Contract
In addition to the terms and full services, the contract should also outline the planner’s payment policy. Since a wedding planner is a long-term part of your wedding planning team, be sure to discuss payment expectations before signing the contract. Will they be invoicing you and, if so, how often? Do they work on an hourly rate or is it a flat rate for every invoice? Do any of their services cost extra? As we mentioned, a wedding planner is probably going to be a relatively large part of your budget. That means it’s so important to fully understand the size, frequency… everything about the payments you’ll be making to them. Don’t worry, we cover a lot about contracts in our other videos so you're extra prepared!
Plan your wedding like a pro.
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