How much to charge for wedding planning work

What to take away

Gate one: pick one package and freeze it

Not "coordination" as a category. One package: this scope, this responsibility date, this many vendor categories, this many meetings, this size of day-of team.

Two packages carry most of the market, and both have public price bands. Month-of coordination, where the planner takes over four to eight weeks out, typically runs $1,000 to $2,500 in most U.S. markets.

Full-service planning, from venue search to the final vendor leaving, typically runs $3,000 to $8,000. In expensive metros such as New York, San Francisco and Washington, planners often quote 10 to 15 percent of the total wedding budget instead.

If you cannot write it on one page with an inclusions column and an exclusions column, you are not ready to price it. The package structures worth pricing are those whose edges fit on one page.

Freeze it for the whole exercise. Pricing two packages at once is how planners end up with a middle package that costs them more than the top one.

Gate two: count the hours it takes

From your own record, for engagements that matched this scope:

Until your log exists, benchmark with typical counts: month-of coordination usually takes 25 to 60 hours, and full-service planning 150 to 250 hours across the engagement.

If you have no record, use your best estimate, mark the number as provisional, and start the log today.

A season of real hours is the single most valuable thing this business can own. It makes every subsequent price a measurement, not a guess. Beyond pricing, see the pricing and profit overview.

Gate three: write what is not included

This is the gate. A package with no exclusions is priced as if the couple will ask for exactly what you imagined, and no couple does.

Also give your weekday response window and what the day-of team consists of.

Then write the change order that sits beside it: a short form naming what changed, the hours it adds, and the cost. Sign it before doing the work.

Added hours need a published rate, or the change order turns into a negotiation. Hourly wedding consulting typically runs $75 to $150 in major metros and $50 to $100 in smaller markets. A five-hour addition is a $375 to $750 line, not a favor.

This is the mechanism that lets a flat fee stay a fair fee when a couple keeps adding guests, which they will.

Gate four: cost the day

Everything you will pay out for this one wedding, before your own time:

• Assistant and second-lead hours, at what you actually pay. Local wage estimates by occupation and metropolitan area are published in U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics Tables, and they are an input to that decision rather than the answer.

Contract assistants in most markets bill $20 to $35 an hour, so one assistant on a 12-hour day costs $240 to $420 before travel. The IRS standard business mileage rate was 70 cents a mile for 2025, which makes a 60-mile round trip about $42.

Call the total the direct cost of this wedding. It is the floor. A fee below it loses money on a day you cannot get back, and since the day-of team is usually the largest part of it, every staffing decision is also a pricing decision.

For a typical Saturday with one assistant, direct costs land between $400 and $900 in most markets.

Gate five: allocate the year

Your fixed costs do not care how many weddings you run. Insurance, registrations, software, website and phone are the first group. Accounting, the equipment replacement cycle and the business share of the vehicle are the second.

Add them for a year. General liability coverage for a wedding planning business typically runs $300 to $800 a year, and planner software such as HoneyBook, Aisle Planner or Dubsado commonly runs $20 to $100 a month. Website, hosting and domain fees add $100 to $400.

Then divide by the number of weddings you honestly expect to run that year, not the number you hope for. New owners overstate it and land on a fee that works only at a volume they never reach.

A planner with $6,000 in yearly fixed costs who books 12 weddings carries $500 on each one. Booking four instead pushes that to $1,500 a wedding, which is why the count matters more than the fee.

Your count is capped by sellable Saturdays. Being clear-eyed about that ceiling is the whole point of the capacity arithmetic in the startup and market orientation.

The kit and its replacement cycle belong here rather than in the day's costs. See the equipment and setup overview for what that kit actually is.

Gate six: pay yourself

Take the hours from gate two and multiply by what your time is worth. Not your hoped-for hourly rate, but the rate you would pay a competent person to do that work instead.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts median annual pay for meeting, convention and event planners in the mid-$50,000s, about $27 an hour, and metro medians vary widely. Seasoned contract leads bill more, often $35 to $60 an hour.

That number keeps the exercise honest by forcing you to notice when you are working for less than you would pay an employee.

Now add the day's direct cost, the year's fixed costs per wedding, and your own time. That sum is the break-even price including your labor.

Anything above it is margin. Anything below it subsidizes the couple. You may do that once, in your first season, for a venue relationship you want.

One worked example: 200 hours at $30, a $600 direct cost and $500 in fixed costs per wedding gives a floor of $7,100.

Gate seven: test it against the market you have

You now have a floor. What you do not have is a price, because a price is what someone pays.

Take the number to the market you can actually reach. Over ten inquiries, watch three things: how many book, how many go quiet at the number, and how many book then push the scope. If nobody hesitates, your price is too low.

If everyone goes quiet, the number is wrong for your market, or the package does not describe something couples want.

Do not test it against competitors' websites. Their published figure covers a different scope, at different venues, with a different day-of team. Comparing them tells you nothing except that they publish a figure.

Which services carry the best return per Saturday is a separate and better comparison, worked through in which services carry the best margin.

Keep the quotes, signed scopes and change orders. They are the record of what each price actually bought. Federal guidance on keeping documents that support income and expenses, Internal Revenue Service: What kind of records should I keep?, is the reason to file them properly.

The other reason: the couple who remembers buying something you did not sell.

However you describe the price publicly, it has to be truthful and supported, which is the standard in Federal Trade Commission: Advertising FAQs: A Guide for Small Business. "Starting at" means somebody has actually booked at that figure.

The seven gates on one page

When to run the gates again

Every winter resets gate five. So does adding a second lead, working a venue much further away, a rise in insurance or software costs, or an hours log showing the same package takes longer.

Growth resets gate five entirely. A second team changes both fixed costs and the number of weddings they divide across. That is the arithmetic behind the routes past the Saturday ceiling.

Common questions

What if the number comes out higher than anyone in my area charges?

Then either your scope is larger than theirs, your hours are longer than theirs, or your market is smaller than you thought. Check the scope first. Planners almost always find they are including work their competitors charge separately for.

Is there a single going rate for wedding planning?

No. Month-of coordination clusters around $1,000 to $2,500 in most U.S. markets, full-service planning around $3,000 to $8,000 or 10 to 15 percent of the budget, and hourly consulting $75 to $150. The spread reflects scope more than skill.

Can I price by the couple's total wedding budget?

You can, and it puts your fee on the same side of the table as every vendor's price increase. If you do, say so plainly and explain what happens when you save the couple money. A 12 percent fee on a $40,000 budget is $4,800.

How do I raise a price on a couple who inquired last year?

You do not have to. Honor what you quoted, note the date on every quote from now on, and give quotes an expiry.