A Guide to the Costs of Hiring a Wedding Planner
Many couples, although they feel certain they would like to enlist the help of a professional to plan, design and/or coordinate their wedding, feel really uneasy about pricing and what to expect to pay a quality and experienced professional for their work.
Read on to learn more about what you can expect to pay a wedding planner in the UK for their role in your wedding and to learn why this is typically the case.
Cost of Day Of Co-ordination / Wedding Day Management Services
Wedding Day Management is a service whereby a Wedding Planner or coordinator commits to learning about your Wedding plans in full before your Wedding day and is then there on the day itself (and sometimes the day before or after if you request it) to set up, receive deliveries, manage suppliers, run the timeline, look after your Bridal party and problem solve any last minute issues which may arise on the day.
Your Wedding Planner will also be in contact with all of your vendors in the weeks leading up to your wedding to reconfirm every tiny detail with them, and to buffer away any of the last minute questions and queries that can often arise.
Often couples misconceive that this service is really “just 12 hours” of a Planners time, but many hours will be put in by a dedicated professional to fully understand every detail of your wedding arrangements, from delivery quantities and dates to napkin folds and your Granny who may need assistance on the day. Usually a Wedding Planner will invest an absolute minimum of one weeks worth of prep time in to this service, as well as the time on the day and any additional time travelling or sleeping over near your venue.
Often the cost for this service will come in at around 5 – 7% of your overall wedding spend. Most wedding planners will offer a fixed fee for this service, but you can expect what you pay to be around this percentage of the overall cost of your day.
Why is it important to hire an experienced wedding planner for day of co-ordination?
In our experience, while this is often the smallest scope of planning support available, it is more important for this service than any other to ensure you invest in a Planner who is very experienced. Without the experience of understanding all the in’s and out’s of a wedding and knowing exactly which questions to ask to extract the right details from you ahead of the day, an inexperienced planner can be a huge threat to the success of the day.
We would suggest employing a Planner who knows at least a couple of your pre-existing vendors and has a good working relationship with them. This will instantly mean that your Planner has access to more open information and conversation with your vendors which will give your planner a further in-depth understanding of what you have arranged and want to happen on your wedding day.
Day of Co-Ordination / Wedding Day Management for luxury Weddings in the UK
Here at Timeless White, we offer a comprehensive Wedding Day Management service, where you have access to our amazing online planning suite to organise and upload all of your information over the course of your engagement. We also do not limit the amount of meetings or put a time restriction on when you can begin talking to us about your Wedding plans. We do this because no matter what scale of support our clients need from us, we are 100% dedicated to delivering the perfect end result. We also strongly believe that having little pieces of our input along the way can truly help guide your wedding and remove some of the stresses.
Wedding Day Management with Timeless White costs begin from £1200.
Cost of Partial Wedding Planning / Signature Wedding Planning
Many couples feel they need the extra support in the Planning process but don’t want to feel as though they are relinquishing all interest and excitement in their Wedding. Some already have a venue selected, or a couple of vendors lined up – others are perhaps living away from their Wedding location but are familiar with it and want someone in the locality to be able to manage some aspects on their behalf.
Every Planning company offers a slightly different take on what a partial planning service looks to be, however most will include help to source a limited number of vendors for your wedding day and provide a planner to manage the wedding day itself.
Most planners will invest around 100 hours of their time with you, researching appropriate vendors, participating in meetings with you and your suppliers, guiding and learning about the plans you are making yourselves and conceptualising the design of the wedding day with you.
For partial wedding planning services, you should expect to pay around 8 – 12% of your overall wedding budget. Some planners will charge you on a percentage basis of your budget for this service (this is particularly common in the USA & Canada and with luxury planners) and others will charge a fixed fee. In any case, you can expect the minimum fee for this sort of service from an experienced wedding planner to begin at around £2500.
Why is it important to hire an experienced wedding planner for day of co-ordination?
With more requirements comes more responsibility and if you are looking for a Planner to provide you with partial wedding planning services, it would be our recommendation that you opt for an experienced professional who is used to planning weddings similar in nature to yours – whether that might be marquee style weddings, intimate weddings or very large events.
It is so important to hire an experienced professional because ultimately you are looking for an experienced person who can guide you and add to the process while simplifying it for you.
We’d recommend seeking a full-time team, who have a lasting track record and can provide cover during times of absence due to sickness or leave, so that you aren’t left in the lurch at any point awaiting a reply!
Partial Wedding Planning for luxury Weddings in the UK
At Timeless White, our partial planning service is quite generously put together, to include our on hand assistance with sourcing up to six vendors for your wedding, as well as access to all of our recommendation lists in other vendor categories.
We will also help you conceptualise some looks for your wedding day and design as well as share with you some of our ideas for entertainment and how to keep your guests smiling and excited all day long!
Our partial planning clients also have access to our amazing online planning suite to organise, upload and communicate with us about all of their wedding details throughout the process. Time with your planner on calls or working on aspects of your wedding is never restricted, so you know if you need our input on something, we will be there all the way. You will then have the same Planner who has been dedicated to you from the beginning present on your wedding day for up to twelve hours to oversee every detail.
Partial Planning services with Timeless White Wedding Planning start at £2800.
Cost of Fully Comprehensive / Prestige Wedding Planning
Fully comprehensive wedding planning is no small feat and couples who are looking for this service tend to wish for a lot of professional input to their entire wedding weekends arrangements. Your wedding planner will play a huge role in the conceptualising and creation of your wedding and it is so important that you choose someone who you trust and are comfortable with!
Most fully comprehensive wedding planning services will include help to source and liaise with every wedding vendor who you wish to engage with for your wedding day and/or weekend. Your Planner will take a front and centre role in creating a happy working atmosphere between yourselves, themselves and all of your vendors and will be fully responsible for making your vision come to life.
A fully comprehensive planning service will include notifications of payment due dates, assistance to track and manage your budget, the creation of your wedding concept in full, all liaision with your suppliers and vendors, establishing a timeline for your wedding day and distributing all details to every vendor in the lead up to the day.
This service usually includes at least 12 hours coverage for your wedding day and often includes time the day before too, so that you can have a final chat about your wishes for the wedding and a run through of your ceremony before the big day arrives!
Why is it important to hire an experienced wedding planner for day of co-ordination?
In the role of a fully comprehensive planning task, your wedding planner is going to be the fairy godmother of your wedding! You truly should only invest in someone who has the experience, knowledge and network to give you complete confidence in their abilities.
As a couple it is wise to thoroughly research the wedding planners that you are considering and take a look through their social media accounts, google reviews, portfolio and testimonials before reaching out to arrange a first consultation.
We’d recommend seeking a full-time team, who have a lasting track record and can provide cover during times of absence due to sickness or leave, so that you aren’t left in the lurch at any point awaiting a reply!
An in-experienced planner in this role could lead to you overpaying for services, not getting the best of what is out there, critical timeline mistakes or underestimations and a lot of worry and stress!
Fully Comprehensive / Prestige Wedding Planning for Luxury Weddings in the UK
At Timeless White our Prestige wedding planning service offers fully comprehensive wedding planning assistance, from helping you select the perfect venue/s and accommodation through to selecting napkin shades and booking the best entertainment for both your arrival day and wedding day. We will manage all the supplier liaison you wish us too and there is no cap on the number of hours we work on your behalf, or the number of vendors that you select to work with.
We will also help you conceptualise some looks for your wedding day and design as well as share with you some of our ideas for entertainment and how to keep your guests smiling and excited all day long!
You will have access to our amazing online planning suite to organise and upload and communicate with us about all of their wedding details throughout the process. Time with your planner on calls or working on aspects of your wedding is never restricted, so you know if you need our input on something, we will be there all the way. You will then have the same Planner who has been dedicated to you from the beginning present for four hours the day before your wedding and on your wedding day for up to twelve hours to oversee every detail.
Prestige Planning services with Timeless White Wedding Planning start at £3750.