How to Choose a Wedding Planner 

If you’re recently engaged, congratulations! Now begins the exciting part of starting to plan your dream wedding. You’ve likely spent hours reading articles, following accounts on Instagram and flipping through bridal magazines looking for inspiration. 

If the amount of research and number of tasks you need to accomplish are keeping you up at night, it could be time to consider a wedding planner. From choosing a location to finding a ceremony space to picking a florist, the number of decisions that need to be made throughout the planning process can feel overwhelming. For a wedding planner, none of this is a problem! 

Making the decision to hire a professional wedding planner can make the journey to your wedding day a more enjoyable one. First, you’ll need to know around how many guests you’ll want at your event and how much money you are willing to spend on hiring help because this will inevitably help determine who you hire. 

Different Kinds of Wedding Planners

The size and complexity of your celebration determines what kinds of services you’ll need. The most common types of wedding planners are:

• Full service wedding planner: arranges every detail 

• Day of coordinator: helps with planning details 30 days before the event

Once you have established your needs and selected your date, you are ready to find a planner to help create the wedding of your dreams. 

7 Questions to Ask a Potential Wedding Planner

Picking a person to help plan this extremely special day requires some questions to be answered. Here are some essential questions to ask potential planners before choosing one.

1. Are you available on my wedding date?

This is a crucial first question because you do not want to waste your time interviewing a potential wedding coordinator only to find out that they are not available on your date. This is also the time to talk about travel if you are planning a destination wedding.

2. How many weddings do you expect to have during the month of ours? 

There’s already enough stress involved with planning your own wedding and the last thing you need is a planner who is planning three other events that month. It’s important to hire someone you know will be dedicated once it gets down to crunchtime. 

3. What is your rate and what are your payment terms? 

You want to know the minimum wedding budget your potential planner will work with to know if they fit within your budget. Staying within that budget is important when controlling wedding costs once deposits and final payments start coming in. If you have not established a budget beforehand, this is a good way to gauge the expenses for your special day. It’s advised to keep wedding planning expenses to 15% of your overall budget. You’ll want to ask if the planner charges a flat fee or if there will be additional fees they charge along the way. You’ll want to discuss cancellation policies as well. 

4. Have you worked at the venue before? 

If you’ve already picked a venue, it’s a major plus to find a wedding planner who has worked at your wedding venue before. They will be more familiar with the layout and event staff which can lead to the day running more smoothly. They will also have preferred vendors and ideas to share with you from the previous receptions they have planned there.

5. How many weddings have you done and what were your responsibilities?

Finding a planner with previous experience is a must. Their role on your big day is to make your life easier, so it’s important to find someone who has worked at least a few weddings before. This is not just any celebration, so you need to make sure they will know how to plan for this emotional and special day to add just the perfect touch.

6. How do you communicate with clients? Do phone calls or emails work better? Can we meet in person?

Your wedding planner will likely be busy planning other events as well, but it’s important to find one who is available to communicate with you as often as you’d like. If you want to be fully involved in every decision leading up to the day of your wedding, this will require a planner who will be able to communicate frequently. Some planners offer a limit to communications depending on the package you select, so be sure to get a full understanding of what each service entails and what the best way to reach them will be.

7. Do you work by yourself or with a team? 

This question is crucial if you're planning to have a large guest list. A large guest list means a lot more to plan and execute on your wedding date. Will your planner have an assistant on-site the day of your event? Make sure you feel comfortable enough with the amount of support they will have on your big day, as you want the day to run as smoothly as possible.

Final Thoughts

Once you have finished interviewing your potential wedding planners, choose the one who most closely meets your needs and is interested in becoming as involved as possible. If you aren’t feeling a connection with a planner, chances are down the line the feelings won’t change. Make sure to find someone who both you and your fiancé connect with because this is someone in charge of planning the wedding ceremony of your dreams.