What does a wedding planner actually do?
Short answer: a wedding planner does whatever scope the contract you sign covers — and that scope varies enormously by tier. A day-of coordinator (national median $1,500) takes the plan you've already built and executes it: handoff at 4–6 weeks out, vendor confirmations, master timeline, rehearsal, 8–12 hours on the wedding day. A partial planner (median $3,200) adds 3–6 months of vendor sourcing, contract review, and design help to that scope. A full-service planner (median $5,500, often $15,000+ in major metros) takes a couple from engagement to wedding day over 10–18 months — full vendor sourcing, budget creation, design from zero, and the entire planning process. The right tier depends on how much time and design taste you bring to the table; the calculator below estimates your specific tier's fee in your metro before you start vetting planners.
Day-of coordinator: what they actually do
Day-of coordination is the smallest tier and the one with the cleanest scope definition. The engagement is short (4–6 weeks before the wedding, sometimes 8–12 weeks for "month-of" variants) and the work is concentrated in two windows: a structured handoff in the weeks before the wedding, and the wedding day itself. The fee runs $800–$3,000 nationally with a median of $1,500; major metros (NYC, SF, Boston, DC) run $2,000–$7,000. See day-of coordinator cost for the full per-metro pricing breakdown.
The 4–6 week handoff
- Initial handoff meeting (1–2 hours). The couple shares everything they've already planned — venue contract, vendor list with contracts and contacts, design choices, ceremony plan, timeline draft, family logistics. The planner takes ownership of the master timeline from this point forward.
- Vendor confirmation calls (5–10 hours over 2 weeks). The planner contacts every vendor, confirms arrival windows and load-in instructions, gathers any missing details (florist's setup time, DJ's sound check, photographer's shot list).
- Master timeline build (3–5 hours). A minute-by-minute schedule from vendor arrival in the morning through breakdown at the end of the night, distributed to every vendor and the wedding party.
- Rehearsal coordination (1–2 hours, often included; sometimes an add-on). Walking the wedding party through processional, ceremony cues, and recessional.
- Final week check-ins (2–3 hours). Last-minute changes, RSVP final counts, weather contingencies, dietary updates.
The wedding day (8–12 hours on-site)
- Setup oversight. Arriving 2–3 hours before the ceremony to direct vendor crews, confirm setups match the floor plan, troubleshoot anything that doesn't.
- Timeline ownership. Cueing every transition — ceremony start, processional, recessional, cocktail hour, reception entrance, first dance, toasts, cake cutting, last dance, sparkler exit.
- Vendor management. The single point of contact for every vendor on-site; problems get routed to them, not to the couple.
- Family and wedding-party logistics. Where to stand, when to walk, photo-group corralling, last-minute issues.
- Final payment and tip distribution. Many day-of coordinators distribute final-balance checks and tip envelopes to vendors at the end of the night, so the couple doesn't have to think about it.
- Breakdown oversight. Confirming vendor crews leave the venue clean and on time, gathering the couple's gifts and personal items, locking up.
What day-of does not include: vendor sourcing, contract negotiation, budget management, design direction. Day-of is execution of an already-built plan; if you need help building the plan, you want partial or full-service.
Partial planner: what they actually do
Partial planning is the middle tier and the one with the most contract-to-contract variance. The engagement begins 3–6 months before the wedding and the scope is whatever pieces of full-service the couple needs help on. The fee runs $1,500–$6,000 nationally with a median of $3,200; major metros run $3,000–$10,000. See partial wedding planner cost for the per-metro pricing.
A partial-planning engagement typically includes:
- Initial planning audit (3–5 hours). Review of what's been booked, what's still open, what's in the budget, what's the design direction.
- Vendor sourcing for open categories (10–30 hours over 2–4 months). Researching, vetting, and presenting 2–3 options per remaining vendor category. Common open categories at the partial tier: florist, photographer (if not booked), DJ or band, hair and makeup, transportation, stationery, rentals.
- Contract review on booked vendors (3–5 hours). Reading what's already been signed, flagging gaps or risky terms, recommending amendments.
- Design refinement (5–15 hours). Mood boards, color palette, floor plan, signage, escort cards. Not full design from zero (that's full-service) but iterating on a couple's existing direction.
- Budget tracking against actuals (ongoing, 3–5 hours total). Updating a spreadsheet as deposits and final payments hit, flagging overruns.
- RSVP management (5–10 hours). Tracking responses, dietary restrictions, plus-ones, follow-up on non-responders.
- The full day-of-coordinator scope. Everything above gets layered on top of the day-of work — handoff, vendor confirmations, timeline, rehearsal, wedding day execution.
Partial planning's range of acceptable scope is wide. One couple's partial is another couple's full-service-minus-the-venue-search. This is why the scope-of-work statement in a partial-planning contract matters more than in any other tier — get every line item assigned to either the planner or the couple in writing before signing.
Full-service planner: what they actually do
Full-service is the largest tier and the one that takes a couple from engagement to wedding day. The engagement spans 10–18 months and the planner is the project manager for every decision along the way. The fee runs $3,500–$15,000+ nationally with a median of $5,500; in NYC, LA, and SF Bay Area, full-service for 150-guest+ weddings commonly runs $15,000–$35,000 because the wedding budgets being managed are also larger. See full-service wedding planner price for the per-metro detail.
A full-service engagement typically includes:
- Kickoff and discovery (5–10 hours). Vision, aesthetic direction, budget, guest count, geographic constraints, must-haves, must-avoids. The output is a written planning brief that drives every subsequent decision.
- Venue scouting and selection (10–25 hours). Shortlisting venues that match budget and guest count, scheduling tours, negotiating the venue contract.
- Full vendor sourcing (40–80 hours over 6+ months). Researching, presenting options, vetting, and negotiating contracts across every category — typically 8–15 vendors for a 100–200 guest wedding (catering or banquet, florist, photographer, videographer, DJ or band, hair and makeup, transportation, rentals, stationery, officiant, sometimes more).
- Contract review and negotiation (5–15 hours). On every vendor contract, not just the venue.
- Design and aesthetic direction (15–40 hours). Mood boards, floor plans, color palette, ceremony design, reception design, signage, escort cards, paper goods. The design lead is the planner unless the couple has hired a separate designer.
- Budget creation and tracking (ongoing, 10–20 hours total). Building the budget from a target dollar number and the planner's typical line items for the metro, then tracking actuals against it monthly.
- Guest management (10–20 hours). Save-the-dates and invitation timing, RSVP tracking, hotel block negotiation, transportation logistics, dietary restrictions, plus-one decisions.
- Rehearsal and rehearsal-dinner coordination (5–10 hours). The wedding rehearsal itself plus often the rehearsal dinner planning, depending on contract scope.
- Day-of execution. The full day-of-coordinator scope, plus typically a senior assistant on-site for weddings past 100 guests.
- Post-wedding wrap-up (3–5 hours). Final payment reconciliation with all vendors, returning rented items, closing out the budget.
Total hours for a full-service engagement run 150–300+ depending on the wedding's complexity. The hourly equivalent is roughly $25–$50/hour, which is why almost no planner sells hourly — the flat-fee tier model is cleaner for both sides and protects the planner from scope creep when the couple keeps adding decisions.
What planners do NOT do (across all tiers)
Five common scope misunderstandings. Confirm none of these are assumed-included before signing:
- Hair and makeup. Booked separately. The planner may recommend artists from their preferred vendor list (full-service tier) but does not provide the service.
- Officiant. The couple chooses. The planner may suggest local officiants but does not book on the couple's behalf.
- Marriage license and legal paperwork. The couple's responsibility. State-specific filing windows; the planner is not a notary.
- Honeymoon planning. Separate scope. A small number of high-end full-service planners will help with honeymoon logistics as an add-on, but it is not part of standard wedding-planner scope at any tier.
- Vendor payment beyond the planner's own fee. The couple pays the florist, photographer, caterer directly. The planner may distribute final-balance checks and tip envelopes on the wedding day but does not extend credit or pay vendors out of pocket.
Tier-specific exclusions worth confirming: at the day-of tier, rehearsal coordination is sometimes an add-on rather than included; at the partial tier, scope-of-work specifics vary contract to contract; at the full-service tier, post-wedding photo album curation is typically an add-on.
Which tier matches your wedding
A simple decision rule, sorted by what's already done:
- Day-of coordinator if you've already booked the venue, caterer, photographer, DJ or band, florist, and the major vendors, and you just don't want to run the wedding day yourself. The handoff happens 4–6 weeks before the wedding.
- Partial planning if you've booked the venue and 2–3 major vendors but need help filling the remaining gaps — florist, design, RSVPs, smaller logistics — over the next 3–6 months.
- Full-service if you have the budget for it but not the time, the taste, or the vendor knowledge — and you want a planner to take the wedding from engagement to day-of without you having to drive every decision. Engagement starts 10–18 months before the wedding.
Two cross-cutting considerations. First, geographic constraints matter — destination weddings, multi-site weddings, and weddings in metros where you don't live all push toward higher tiers because the planner's local-vendor knowledge becomes the entire value of the engagement. Second, taste matters — couples with strong design direction often need less help than couples who are starting from scratch, regardless of their budget.
If you're between tiers, the safer bet is the higher tier. Partial scope creep into full-service work mid-engagement is more painful than buying full-service at signing — you'll either be paying for the higher tier anyway via add-ons, or compressing 6 months of work into the final 8 weeks. For the ROI math by tier, see is a wedding planner worth it.
Find the fee for your tier and metro
Plug in your metro, guest count, and the tier that matches your wedding from the rule above. The calculator returns the typical flat-fee range for your specific situation, with the included and excluded scope listed alongside.
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Related cost questions
Once you've matched a tier to your wedding, the next step is to size the fee against quotes and figure out how to hire. The most relevant deeper-dive pages:
- How to hire a wedding planner — shortlist, interview, contract review, payment milestones.
- Questions to ask a wedding planner — the 25 vetting questions to bring into discovery calls.
- Wedding planner deposit — typical 25–50% retainer at signing and what's refundable.
- Wedding planner vs venue coordinator — when the venue's included coordinator covers enough scope to skip hiring separately.
- Do wedding planners save you money — tier-by-tier ROI ledger.
- Day-of coordinator cost — the lowest tier in detail.
- Partial wedding planner cost — the middle tier in detail.
- Full-service wedding planner price — the largest tier in detail.
Frequently asked questions
What does a wedding planner actually do?
A wedding planner does whatever scope of work the contract you sign covers — and that scope varies enormously by tier. A day-of coordinator (national median $1,500) takes the plan you've already built and executes it: handoff at 4–6 weeks out, vendor confirmations, master timeline, rehearsal, and 8–12 hours on the wedding day. A partial planner (median $3,200) adds 3–6 months of vendor sourcing, contract review, and design help to that scope. A full-service planner (median $5,500, often $15,000+ in major metros) takes a couple from engagement to wedding day over 10–18 months — full vendor sourcing, budget creation, design from zero, and the entire planning process. The right answer for any specific couple depends on how much time and design taste you bring to the table.
What is the difference between a day-of coordinator and a wedding planner?
Scope and engagement length. A day-of coordinator engages 4–6 weeks before the wedding and runs the wedding day plus a structured handoff — they don't source vendors, don't manage the budget, don't do design work. A wedding planner (partial or full-service) engages months earlier and adds vendor sourcing, contract negotiation, design boards, and budget tracking. The day-of coordinator is the right fit when you want to plan your own wedding but don't want to run it the day-of; the wedding planner is the right fit when you don't have the time, taste, or vendor knowledge to plan the wedding yourself. Same wedding day, very different work over the months leading up to it.
What does a full-service wedding planner do?
A full-service planner takes a couple from engagement to wedding day over 10–18 months. The scope includes: kickoff and discovery (vision, budget, guest count, geographic constraints), venue scouting and selection, full vendor sourcing across every category (typically 8–15 vendors for a 100–200 guest wedding), contract review and negotiation, design and aesthetic direction including mood boards and floor plans, budget creation and ongoing tracking against actuals, RSVP and guest management, hotel block coordination, transportation logistics, rehearsal coordination, day-of execution including all the day-of-coordinator scope, and post-wedding final-payment reconciliation. National median fee is $5,500 but full-service in NYC, LA, and SF Bay Area commonly runs $15,000–$35,000 because the wedding budgets it manages are also larger.
What does a partial wedding planner do?
A partial planner is the middle tier — engagement begins 3–6 months before the wedding and the scope is whatever pieces of full-service the couple needs help on, typically vendor sourcing for the remaining open categories, contract review on already-booked vendors, design refinement, and the full day-of-coordinator scope. The contract-to-contract variance in partial planning is the highest of any tier — one couple's partial is another couple's full-service minus the venue search. This makes the scope-of-work statement in the contract more important than in any other tier; get the line drawn explicitly. National median fee is $3,200, range $1,500–$6,000 nationally and $3,000–$10,000 in major metros.
What does a wedding planner NOT do?
Five things to confirm are not included before signing. (1) Hair and makeup — booked separately, not the planner's scope. (2) Officiant — the couple chooses; the planner may suggest but doesn't book. (3) Marriage license and legal paperwork — the couple's responsibility. (4) Honeymoon planning — separate scope, even at full-service tier (a small number of high-end full-service planners will help, but it's an add-on). (5) Vendor payment beyond the planner's own fee — the couple pays the florist, photographer, etc., directly; the planner may distribute final payments and tips on the wedding day but does not extend credit. Some contracts also exclude rehearsal coordination at the day-of tier; confirm whether rehearsal is included or an add-on.
How many hours does a wedding planner spend on a wedding?
Day-of coordination is typically 25–40 total hours: 8–12 hours on the wedding day plus 15–25 hours over the prior 4–6 weeks for the handoff meeting, vendor confirmations, timeline build, rehearsal, and post-wedding wrap-up. Partial planning runs 60–120 hours total over 3–6 months. Full-service runs 150–300+ hours over 10–18 months, depending on the wedding's complexity and the number of vendors involved. The hourly equivalents work out to roughly $40–$60/hour for day-of, $30–$50/hour for partial, and $25–$50/hour for full-service — which is why almost no planner sells hourly: the flat-fee tier model is cleaner for both sides and protects the planner from scope creep.
Which wedding planner tier do I need?
A simple decision rule. Day-of coordinator: you've already booked the venue, photographer, caterer, DJ or band, florist, and major vendors, and you just don't want to run the wedding day yourself. Partial planning: you've booked the venue and 2–3 major vendors but need help filling the remaining gaps (florist, design, RSVPs, smaller logistics) over 3–6 months. Full-service: you have the budget but not the time, the taste, or the vendor knowledge — and you want a planner to take the wedding from engagement to day-of without you having to drive every decision. If you're between tiers, the safer bet is the higher tier; partial scope creep into full-service work mid-engagement is more painful than buying full-service at signing.