Wedding planner pricing: what to charge, and how to work it out

Most planners set their first fee by looking at other people’s. It’s understandable, and it’s a mistake: a competitor’s published price says nothing about their hours, their costs, how many weddings they do a year, or what they actually earn. Copying a price means copying a number whose calculation you don’t know.

The right method starts from the other end: what you need to earn, what you cost, and the hours you really spend on a wedding. It gives you a floor. Only then do you look at the market, to decide how to present it.

The three ways to charge

The flat fee

A fixed price per package: on-the-day coordination, partial planning, full planning. It’s the most common method and the clearest for couples. Its risk: a wedding that overruns, in hours or in demands, and costs you more than it pays. Hence the importance of defining what’s included (meetings, venue visits, hours on the day) and what isn’t.

A percentage of the budget

Often 10 to 15% of the total budget. It has the advantage of following the size of the wedding: a hundred and fifty guests take more work than fifty. But it creates a fair suspicion that you have an interest in pushing the bill up, and it doesn’t follow the time spent: a small, demanding wedding can take as many hours as a large, well-organised one.

The hourly rate

Fair in theory, hard to sell in practice: no couple likes signing without knowing what they’ll pay. The hourly rate is mostly useful internally, to calculate your packages, and externally to charge for overruns beyond what the package covers.

The calculation that holds over a season

1. What you want to earnA yearly net income, not a monthly one: the season is uneven. Example: €30,000 net a year.
2. What you costProfessional liability insurance, travel, phone, software, website, accountant, wedding fairs, training. Often €5,000 to €10,000 a year. Add your social contributions: in France, as a micro-entrepreneur, 21.2% of turnover for commercial services and 25.6% for non-regulated liberal activity (2026 rates). Elsewhere, check your own.
3. The turnover you needWith €30,000 net, €6,000 of expenses and contributions of around 22%, you need about €46,000 of turnover.
4. Your billable hoursOut of 1,600 working hours a year, a good share goes on prospecting, quotes, admin and social media. Expect around 1,000 hours left for the weddings themselves.
5. Your minimum hourly rate€46,000 divided by 1,000 hours: €46 an hour. Below that, every wedding costs you money, even when it looks profitable.

Then apply that rate to your packages. On-the-day coordination that takes 35 hours, preparation meetings included, is worth about €1,600. Partial planning of 80 hours, nearly €3,700. Full planning of 140 hours, nearly €6,500.

Typical market ranges

Once you know your floor, the market tells you how to present it. Ranges vary a lot by country, region and positioning. Here are the most common ones in France, where Weddtap is based: between Paris, the big cities and rural areas, and between accessible and high-end planners, the gaps are wide.

• On-the-day coordination: about €800 to €2,000, including the final weeks of preparation
• Partial planning: about €1,500 to €4,000, depending on how many suppliers you need to find
• Full planning: from €3,000, often 10 to 15% of the wedding budget
• Destination weddings: a higher fee, plus travel and accommodation

What should be on the quote

The price, of course, but above all what it includes. Couples compare quotes, and a vague quote always loses to a precise one, even a more expensive one. List the number of meetings, venue visits, hours on the day, whether there’s a second person on site, the travel included, and the rate for extra hours.

Be transparent about commissions too. If some suppliers pay you a percentage, say so: the couple will find out one day, and it’s better they hear it from you. Many planners have chosen not to take any, and make it a selling point.

Deposit and payment schedule

Ask for a first payment on signing, often 30 to 50%, a second halfway through if the planning is long, and the balance before the wedding. Never after: a balance collected after the day is a balance that gets negotiated. And say clearly in the contract whether the first payment is refundable; we come back to this in the article on contracts.