Congratulations! You’re engaged and planning a wedding, and no matter where you are in the process of planning, you’ve probably thought about whether or not you need a wedding planner to help you.

Maybe you’re not totally clear on what a wedding planner does. Maybe your wedding is small and you’re sure you can manage it yourself. Maybe your budget is tight and you believe that a wedding planner is the one place you can save yourself some money.

But ultimately you’re not sure and keep asking yourself the same question: Do I need a wedding planner? Here, we help you understand what exactly a wedding planner does, and ultimately hope to help you decide if you need one.

What does a wedding planner do?

In short, a wedding planner’s job is to help you with the planning of your wedding. That can be a full-service wedding planner who, starting from day one, guides you through all the research of finding your perfect venue and hiring wedding professionals, to helping you manage your priorities and budget.

Or, you can hire a wedding coordinator just for the day of your wedding, managing the details of the day while you focus on celebrating with your friends and family.

For most wedding planners, you can discuss with them what you’re looking for and they will help to create a package that works specifically for your needs — because their job is to help you in the way that you need it.

What does a wedding planner do that I can’t do myself?

Even if you are very familiar with where your wedding is being held and the various wedding venues and vendors that are available to you, AND you feel like you can manage the multiple tasks and deadlines associated with large event planning, there are a few important benefits of hiring a wedding planner:

Wedding planners know the local wedding vendors — like really know them — because they work with them all the time. They know which ones are always late or unprepared. They know which ones have left their couples in a lurch. They know which ones go above and beyond for their clients, and they know which ones have great problem-solving skills when something unexpected happens. Even if you know of wedding vendors in your area, it’s unlikely that you have this level of insider knowledge — but a good wedding planner will.
Wedding planners know the rules and ordinances for events. A wedding planner will ensure your event won’t get fined or shut down because you didn’t have the proper liability insurance, or will know which venues can or can’t serve a full bar versus just beer and wine, and they will be able to tell you if your event needs to end at a certain time due to a noise ordinance. That can be important to know before you book a venue.
Wedding planners work the wedding day so you don’t have to. As the bride or groom on your wedding day, you shouldn’t have to work. Your job is to spend the day getting ready, marry your soul mate, and party surrounded by friends and family. On your wedding day, it shouldn’t be your job to problem solve or answer questions from wedding vendors like, “Where do you want me to set up?”, “Where can I store these items?” or “What should I do about…?” Let your wedding planner handle all of the inevitable wedding vendor questions that will arise on the day of your wedding. We promise it will be worth every penny.

What does a wedding planner cost?

The cost of a wedding planner will range for the amount of help and service you are looking for. Obviously, if you would like to hire a full-service wedding planner to help you from the very start, there is more work to do, and it will cost you more. If you want to hire a wedding planner for just the day of your wedding it will cost less.

For Northern California wedding planners, expect to budget a minimum of $1500 for a wedding planner to help you on the day of your wedding, including some time in the month prior to collect the details of your event. Big cities might see similar or higher rates.

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The best way to gauge how much a wedding planner will cost is to check out Event Hollow’s wedding planner packages for pricing and to add the customizations you think you’ll need. You’ll also want to chat with some of the planners to get a sense of who you’ll work best with and to talk over what you need and get their feedback, insights and suggested customizations to add to your wedding planner package.

Keep in mind that cheaper is definitely not better, and read below on what to look for in a wedding planner to be sure you’re not getting a less experienced wedding planner just to save a few bucks — it probably won’t be worth the savings.

How do I find a wedding planner and what do I look for?

There are better, and less risky, ways of finding a wedding planner than Googling “wedding planners near me”.

If you know other couples that have gotten married in your wedding location, ask them if they used an event planner and if they liked them. Referrals and word of mouth can be the best way to find a trusted planner.

If you have found the perfect venue already, and they don’t offer their own, you can ask for a list of event planners they have used before.

Event Hollow also has a curated list of wedding planners in our vendor database. We recommend taking the style quiz first to find the right wedding planner for your wedding.

Speaking of finding the right match, probably the most important criteria is finding a wedding planner that you get along with and that understands your wedding style and vision. Your wedding planner will be your partner, and no matter how much, or how little, you use them during the wedding planning process, you want to be sure you both communicate well with one another, you trust her/him and that you feel confident that they’re guiding you towards wedding professionals that will support your wedding style.

When interviewing event planners, experienced, knowledgeable and expert planners will:

Have strong communication skills and ask several clarifying questions to truly understand your event
Have a full and broad portfolio and/or social media presence with plenty of imagery from a diverse set of real weddings
Offer a professional proposal with details and expectations clearly outlined
Have a network of assistants available if your event should need more than one planner

New, inexperienced, or amateur wedding planners will:

Have a limited portfolio or social media presence and may use a lot of stock photography in the absence of real wedding shots
Not ask enough questions about your event or say something like “Don’t worry about that, the whole event is included!” – this shows they may not understand how large or complex the planning process may be
Have fractured or inconsistent communication, or you may find yourself always being the one to reach out for answers instead of having your event planner provide the information to you first.
Give you an informal proposal and contract
Have a “friend” that could come help them out the day of your wedding if needed
Probably be the least expensive

When you interview possible wedding planners they should also be able to offer you several additional services for your event should you want them. Most will be an extra cost.

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Extra hour of wedding day coverage
Rehearsal Dinner Planning
Rehearsal Dinner Coordination
Detailed Day of Timeline
Budget Creation and Management
Layout Creation Assistance
Additional Assistant Coordinator

Spending your planning time or your wedding day worrying about whether your wedding planner “knows what they’re doing”, is doing what you need them to do, or wondering when you’ll hear from them is money very poorly spent – and only adds more work to your plate instead of taking work off of it. So be sure to interview your wedding planner and hire an experienced one you click with from the start.

**So, do you really need a wedding planner?**

The answer is YES, you probably do need a wedding planner in some form for your event. Being very honest with yourself about your capabilities, bandwidth and knowledge about what it takes to plan a wedding will help you understand why. To create the ideal wedding that you and your partner have been dreaming of with the least amount of stress and worry for you both, be sure to allocate a portion of your budget to hire an experienced wedding planner or to join Event Hollow’s Wedding Planning Club. Congrats and happy planning!

Helping You Answer The Question: Do I Need A Wedding Planner?

What does a wedding planner do?

What does a wedding planner do that I can’t do myself?

What does a wedding planner cost?

How do I find a wedding planner and what do I look for?

So, do you really need a wedding planner?

**So, do you really need a wedding planner?**