What Do Wedding Planners Do? Duties & What To Expect

Are you recently engaged and want to start planning your wedding? Are you wondering how to plan the wedding of your dreams? Planning a wedding on your own is no easy task. But you don’t have to do it alone – you could hire a wedding planner. But what does a wedding planner do, really? 

In this article, we’re going to explore wedding planner responsibilities and share some tips on how to choose a good wedding planner that’ll help you organize the wedding you’ve always envisioned. So let’s dive right in!

Let’s get started with an important question. 

 

Wedding Planner Duties & Responsibilities

A wedding planner is someone who helps engaged couples plan and organize their perfect wedding. 

Wedding planners have a lot of responsibilities that contribute to ensuring your big day runs smoothly. 

 

General List of Wedding Planner Duties

• Creates money-saving strategies
• Creates a realistic wedding budget at sticks to it. 
• Sets up a plan that outlines all the wedding details
• Finds wedding vendors including florists, caterers, photographers, DJs, bands, stationers, hair and make-up professional, venues, etc. 
• Schedules and Assist Wedding Meetings
• Oversees vendor contracts
• Coordinates Wedding Rehearsal 
• Creates day of wedding timeline 
• Sends out wedding invitations
• Handles RSVP’s
• Handles transportation
• Handles Travel Plans such as booking Honeymoon
• Booking Hotel Rooms
• Coordinates you, your guests, and vendors on the wedding day

 

Do I Need a Wedding Planner? 

Planning a wedding on your own is a daunting task. Besides the immense amount of time and energy that is required to organize a wedding, engaged couples often forget important wedding day details. 

Some forget to consider the weather and forget to make a Plan B. Others forget to inform the caterers about their guests’ food allergies and provide vegan and vegetarian options for their guests. 

There are numerous details to think about when planning a wedding. That’s why hiring a wedding planner to take care of all those wedding details that might have never occurred to you might be your best option. 

Plus, it won’t hurt to get some help from a wedding event planner who knows what they’re doing, especially if you’re planning a huge wedding. Also, wedding planners are stress savers and save you money. They know how to stretch your wedding budget and know all the right wedding vendors that are convenient for your wedding budget. 

If you can’t afford a wedding planner, however, there are plenty of affordable guides online to help you plan your wedding on your own! 

 

Types of Wedding Planners

Yes, there is more than one type of wedding planner. If you are going to hire a wedding event planner, you must know that you’ve got several options. To help you decide what kind of wedding planner you want or don’t want, we’ll tell you about the different types of wedding planners that are out there!

 

Full-Time Wedding Planner

If you don’t have time to plan your wedding or you have no idea how to plan a wedding, then hiring a full-time wedding planner is your best option. Full-time wedding planners help you plan out every detail and aspect of your wedding- from beginning to end. They take care of all the above mentioned general responsibilities of a wedding planner.

From recommending wedding vendors to coordinating you and your guests on the big day, full-time service planners are ready to make wedding preparations so you won’t have to worry. Hiring a full-time wedding organizer will ensure that your wedding day and other wedding-related events go according to plan. 

 

Part-Time Wedding Planner

Part-time wedding planners come equipped with the same knowledge and skills as full-time planners, but they don’t have enough time to plan out your entire wedding. As opposed to full-time wedding organizers, partial planners only focus on a few wedding planning elements. 

What aspects of your wedding can they help you with? They can help you with almost anything or a little bit of everything on your wedding planning checklist.

You can ask them to work on the most important parts of your wedding. Or you can ask them to give give you good referrals of wedding venues, especially since they know the right vendors for your wedding. 

Best of all, they provide professional support and guide you to ensure that you are making the right wedding planning decisions.

If you feel that you can do most of the wedding planning on your own, but still want some help to ensure that you’re making the right preparations, hiring a part-time planner is, undoubtedly, your best choice. 

 

Alternatives to Traditional Wedding Planners

Besides a traditional wedding planner, there are also other types of planners that help out at weddings. These include wedding designers and day-of wedding coordinators. Although some don’t help out on planning everything on the checklist, they focus particularly on one aspect of the wedding. 

These event planners are a great alternative if you decide that you don’t want a traditional wedding planner, but you would still like some help in making preparations for one aspect of your wedding.

 

Day-Of Wedding Coordinator

A day-of coordinator is there for the day of your wedding, to help make sure that everything it set up, running smoothly, and on schedule. 

Check out our blog post to Learn What a Day-Of Wedding Coordinator Does. 

 

Wedding Designer

What do wedding designers do? Wedding designers are creative event planners that oversee your wedding decor. Not only do they manage your wedding decor budget and vendors, but they also bring your wedding visions to life.

Simple, extravagant, outdoor, or royal- they know what decorations and arrangements look great for your wedding’s theme and location. They visit your wedding site, they create a wedding design concept, they create wedding floor plans, and they make sure that your decorations are all in the right place on the day of your wedding. 

Not sure what theme you want for your wedding? Hire a wedding designer to help you narrow your theme ideas. If you want you’re wedding to look unique and artistic, then you’ll want to hire a wedding designer. 

 

Destination Wedding Planner

Do you want a destination wedding far away from home at your dream destination? Perhaps you want your wedding to take place outside of the county. Or perhaps you want to get married at topical locations. If you decide you want a wedding far away from home, hiring a destination wedding planner might be right for you. 

Destination wedding planners provide travel guidance and plan to make you and your guests comfortable with the wedding trip. In addition, they plan for marriage license requirements and other permits needed for the destination wedding.

Plus, they know the best places or spots to get married as well as the best vendors near your dream destination wedding. Also, they research your desired wedding location, such as searching for the venues near that location. 

As you can see, there are many types of wedding planners available to you. Now that you know about the different types of wedding organizers, we’ll tell you how to choose the right one for your wedding day.  

 

How to Choose the Right Wedding Planner

If you think that finding the right wedding planner just means searching “wedding planners” on google and clicking on the first result, you’re mistaken. Just because you hire a wedding planner doesn’t mean that they’re a great one. 

There are a lot of factors that make up a good wedding planner. Below we share tips on how to choose the right wedding planner and what makes up a bad wedding planner for your big day. 

Let’s look at all the things you should consider before you hire a wedding planner. 

 

Do Your Research

Do plenty of online research before hiring anyone. Check out their websites, look for reviews and testimonials from other couples, or check out other review sites to ensure that you’re getting what you pay for. 

 

Ask for Wedding Planner Recommendations or Look at Online Reviews

Have you been to a friend’s or family member’s wedding? Did you love how their wedding was arranged and organized? If yes, then you’ll want to ask them more about who planned and coordinated their wedding.

They’ll probably be able to give you their wedding planner’s details and contact information so you can set up a meeting with them. Also, your friends and family can tell you about what they like and didn’t like about their wedding planner to help you decide whether or not you want to hire that same wedding planner. 

Another option to find more about the best wedding planners out there or near you is to look online for wedding planner reviews. Look at their ratings and read the comments that other former clients provide about their experience with the wedding planner.

 

Meet With a Wedding Planner

Before you hire a wedding planner, you should meet with them. Not only should you meet with them, but you should also interview them. 

Ask them many questions about the services and packages they offer. Or ask them about how their handled unexpected problems during a wedding they planned. 

After all, you are considering them for an important job- that is, planning the perfect wedding that you and you’re guests will never forget.

 

Questions to Ask a Wedding Planner

Need more questions to ask? We provide a list of questions you’ll want to ask your potential wedding planner. 

• How many weddings do you plan a year?
• Do you work by yourself, or do you have wedding assistants?
• How often do you plan to meet and speak with us?
• Are you available on this wedding date?
• What wedding packages do you offer?
• Do you provide full-service planning or just part-time?
• How many weddings have you planned?
• Do you have photos or videos of weddings you have planned?
• Can you provide references?
• Are you a certified wedding planner?
• Do you get discounts from certain wedding vendors?
• Are you currently working on other weddings?
• What is the average size wedding you plan?
• Can you stay within our budget?
• What type of payment do you take?
• Do you want to be paid upfront?
• How much do you charge?
• Do you have wedding planning insurance? 

 

To learn more about wedding planner costs, check out our post on wedding planner prices. 

 

Final Words

Now that you have all the details you need to choose the right wedding planner for your big day, you can relax. Let your wedding planner take care of all the wedding details, but make sure to tell them what you do and do not like for your wedding.

Comment below to let us know which type of wedding planner appeals the most to you. Let us know if our wedding planner tips helped you choose a wedding planner for your marriage ceremony. 

Find more wedding plan tips on our wedding planning page.