Wedding Planning Business - Setting Your Wedding Planning Fees

The first thing you must do before meeting with ANY potential clients is to set your fees. You may charge a flat rate, a fee based on a percentage of the total wedding or charge hourly for your services. Wedding planners might offer a variety of packages priced based on the services you provide. You might even work for free, and receive commission from vendors.

Flat Rates

Your customers might want to know up front how much your services will cost. If you choose to price your services this way, set a dollar amount for your time. Figure out how much time you expect it to take you to complete all of the services your clients have requested. Don't forget to include the time you will actually spend at the rehearsal, wedding, and reception. Multiply your hourly rate by the amount of time you anticipate to spend and you'll have a fee.

A word of caution: If you calculate that it will take you 75 hours to do the work and set your fee accordingly, you will not get paid for any additional time. Experience will teach you to how to estimate the time required for each task.

A flat rate works well for day-of wedding coordination services. In this case, you know exactly how much time you will spend at the wedding. Your fee should be set accordingly.

Percentages

A percentage-based fee works best with larger wedding budgets. Wedding planners typically charge 10 to 15% of the wedding budget. If the clients plan to only spend $10,000 on their wedding and you charge 10%, you will only earn $1,000. Even a small wedding requires a lot of planning, so in this instance you would be doing a lot of work for little money. If you choose to set your pricing this way, you must establish the client's budget beforehand. While turning away a customer might seem foolish, make sure that it will be profitable for you to plan the wedding.

Hourly Wages

Wedding planners often charge hourly fees for partial wedding planning services. Fees can range from $25 to $150 an hour, although somewhere between $40 and $60 is standard.

A word to the wise: if you choose to charge an hourly fee, do NOT set your prices to low. If your prices are far below your competitor's, you might actually drive customers away. Set an appropriate, competitive price early on.

Changing Things Up

Your fees are not set in stone. As you work with different customers and get involved in planning multiple weddings, your pricing should become a little clearer. You will get a better idea of the work that wedding planning entails and how much time you need to get things in order. If you begin charging a flat fee, you may choose to switch to a percentage-based system as you begin to work with bigger wedding budgets. You are the boss, and you create your own salary.