Is Hiring a Wedding Planner Worth It?

Some couples (perhaps 10%) will already know they need a wedding planner. Others will know immediately that they don't need one. But most couples aren’t sure what wedding planners do, what options are available, and how hiring one will affect their budget, stress levels, and planning experience.

First, let’s differentiate between wedding PLANNING and wedding COORDINATING. Most couples will need a wedding coordinator, which is someone to greet vendors, make sure all decor is in place, gather your bridal party and parents when important rituals are about to start, make sure that the band or DJ is working in harmony with the photographer and caterer, and guide guests from one phase of the wedding to the next.

Day of Coordination is done by almost all wedding planners, but not every coordinator is skilled enough to plan the wedding.

Your wedding planner is the person who helps you craft your vision, develop a budget, seek out and negotiate with the right vendors for your needs, answer all your questions along the way, and make the process smooth, consistent, and easy. Planners make your engagement much more enjoyable and increase the chance that your wedding will come together without snags, mistakes, omissions, and drama.

A few common package options most planners offer are full-service, partial planning, or month-of review.

A full-service planner is exactly what you would expect. They handle everything related to your wedding and only need input for specific details that are unique to you and your partner. Basically, you’ll have a meeting to discuss your vision, a meeting or two to choose vendors from a short list of pre-vetted options, and maybe 2 or 3 meetings to ensure that all other elements are coming together nicely.

A partial planner will point you in the direction of vendors, but you’ll most likely reach out and negotiate contracts yourselves. Partial planners often help you solidify your vision and design, but they don’t necessarily research and buy all the items you’ll need. They may be available to answer your questions at regular intervals, but they won’t be able to give you the time and focus that some couples need.

Finally, some planners offer a month-of review, where they help you brainstorm what elements you may have forgotten. This type of planning package may also be called an hourly consult package, where you pay hourly for advice only when you need it.

Most couples still choose to plan their wedding themselves because they are trying to stretch an already tight budget. For those couples, we’ve created the Wedding Foundations video series that gives you the information you need at a fraction of the cost of a planner.

So, let’s revisit the original question: Are wedding planners worth it? Here are a couple of example scenarios to help you decide.

Scenario 1: You’re a couple that makes enough money to live comfortably and save up, but your work or other life obligations don’t leave you with a lot of time to allocate to planning your wedding yourselves. Hiring a full-service wedding planner makes the most sense in this situation. You can afford to hire a planner without any major interruptions to your financial stability, and you’ll be able to get married on your timeline since the planner reliably makes all of the arrangements. You will essentially be able to show up as a guest at your own wedding.

Scenario 2: You’re a couple that began planning on your own, but you’ve run into a few speed bumps that you don’t know how to manage or overcome. This could include anything from finalizing all the details leading up to your wedding day or having a planner to meet with every few months to ensure everything is running smoothly. Finding and securing a partial wedding planner might be the right choice for you in this situation.

Scenario 3: You’re strapped for cash either because you haven’t built savings yet or because you want to squeeze the most you can out of the funds you have available. You are employed, but your hours and stress levels are more manageable at this point in your career. You’re not in any rush to get married right away, so you have more time than cash. In this situation, forgoing a planner may be the right decision. Going back to the 5 elements of wedding planning we discussed in a previous blog post, you can easily make it work by giving yourself more time to plan and find savings. Hiring a planner in this scenario would be a bigger stressor for you since full-service or partial planners might not fit into the budget you have available.

We’ve seen thousands of successful and beautiful weddings performed with and without a full-service professional wedding planner. And with the help of the Wedding Foundations video series, you’ll feel like you’ve got a planner with you anytime you need it.