Questions to Ask When Interviewing Your Wedding Planner

The beginning of the year is always filled with such joy in the wedding industry, as we celebrate new couples recently engaged over the holidays and ready to start planning their wedding celebrations! Selecting your wedding planner is an important initial step in the planning process, so we thought to share some tips for couples interviewing planners to ensure you choose a team that best fits you.

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Tell us about your brand and why you started your business.

The average wedding planning process is six months to 1.5 years, so we find it important that our couples understand why we love what we do and how this carries through into planning their special day. Your planner’s passion for design, organization, logistics, and production (or lack thereof) will either guide the planning process to feel fun and effortless or add stress. It is also important that you genuinely like your wedding planner, considering the months of communication and how he/she will be intimately involved with your family and friends. Ultimately, you should feel there is potential to develop a genuine, trusting relationship between you and your planner.

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How many weddings do you produce within a year?

It is important to understand your planner’s workload, as this affects your planning experience and communication. Some companies produce 20+ weddings per year while others produce less than 10. We believe in quality over quantity, and we share the importance of signing a limited number of couples every year when speaking with potential clients. This is to ensure we set aside the time needed to be of service to the fullest.

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Who supports you and who will be our main point of contact throughout the process?

It is important to have a general understanding of who is involved in the planning process and who will be dedicated to capturing every detail and ensuring it is realized on your wedding day. It is also important to ensure that the main POC or principal will be present for your wedding celebration. This is a given for us as I spearhead all client communication, but this is not a guarantee with every company.

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Ask about experience and versatility.

Hiring a wedding planner is equivalent to hiring a designer, project manager, and part-time therapist in many ways. Because wedding planning requires both creativity and extreme organization, it is important to ensure your planner / planning team has versatile skills. Hospitality wisdom can look like years of experience in the wedding or events industry or a past career in operations for a fashion brand, catering for a hotel group, or designing for an advertising agency. There are many avenues which lead individuals to choosing a career in the hospitality industry.

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Ask about their production fee.

This is a given, but please ask as many questions as needed to understand a planner’s fee and the inclusions. Almost all planners are small business owners so when inquiring, this is a friendly reminder to please remain respectful and understanding of their chosen pricing structure.

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Xo,

Michelle

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