Wedding planner reviewing her run sheet on a clipboard at an outdoor wedding reception
Anyone who’s planned one wedding for a cousin can call themselves a planner. Nothing stops them, and a good pitch can make a year of experience sound like ten.
Booking a wedding planner is a big call, and you’re usually making it after one or two conversations, long before you’ve seen how anyone actually works under pressure.
These questions exist to tell the difference between someone who’s done this once and someone who does it for a living. Ask them before you sign anything and you’ll know exactly who you hired, not just what they charge.
Wedding planner vs. wedding coordinator: what’s the difference
“Planner” and “coordinator” get thrown around like they mean the same thing. They don’t, so it helps to know which one you actually need before you start calling around.
Which type of planner do you need?
Three scopes, three very different levels of involvement.
Full-service planning
In from day one: budget, venue search, vendor picks, and design calls.
Partial / month-of
For couples who’ve already made the big calls. Steps in closer to the date to catch gaps and run the timeline.
Day-of coordination
You build the plan, they run it: managing the timeline and cueing vendors on the day.
Destination weddings, micro-weddings, and event design and styling can stack on top of any of these. Micro-weddings sometimes get a scaled-down package instead of full-service rates. Design and styling is its own skill, focused on the visual layer: florals, decor, lighting.
Destination adds travel logistics and local vendor sourcing, and most planners handle this by partnering with a local planner or coordinator on the ground rather than personally knowing every vendor in another country or state. Ask directly whether that’s the model, who the local partner is, and how site visits and travel costs get handled, since that’s usually billed separately from the planning fee.
When to hire a coordinator versus a planner
- Starting from zero, or juggling multiple events and traditions that need one connected plan instead of five separate ones? That’s a full-service planner.
- Already booked your vendors and made the big decisions, but want someone to catch the gaps in your contracts and take logistics off your plate in the final stretch? That’s partial planning or month-of coordination.
- Plan’s done and you just need someone other than your cousin running point on the day? Day-of coordination covers it. For multi-day Desi or multicultural weddings though, month-of or day-of alone usually isn’t enough. Coordinating five events and two families’ expectations needs to start earlier than that.
Your 10-question checklist
Save this for your first call ↓
- What level of planning do you actually offer?
- Have you planned weddings like mine before?
- How many weddings do you take on, and how big is your team?
- What’s included in your starting price, and what costs extra?
- Do you have preferred vendors, and am I required to use them?
- How do you handle multicultural or multi-event weddings logistically?
- Can I see a full wedding timeline or run sheet from a past event?
- What happens if you’re sick or unavailable on my wedding day?
- How do you communicate with clients, and what do you use?
- Are you licensed or insured?
Now that you know what you’re hiring for, here’s what to ask
1. What level of planning do you actually offer?
Full-service, partial, and day-of are three different jobs, but “wedding planner” gets used loosely for all three. Ask exactly what’s included at each stage. Full-service means they’re with you from the first vendor meeting. Day-of means they show up the week of to run a plan you already built.
Whatever the level, vendor management, the timeline, and the checklist are close to universal. That’s the baseline: sourcing and negotiating with vendors, building the day-of schedule, and keeping the task list sequenced so nothing gets missed.
Budgeting and guest list work are where it actually varies. Some planners build and track your budget line by line, some just flag a vendor quote that looks high, and some don’t touch numbers beyond their own fee. Guest list and RSVP management is similar: a few planners handle it, most don’t, and a smaller number offer a travel concierge add-on for out-of-town guests, flights, hotel blocks, shuttles. Don’t assume any of it’s included. Ask specifically.
What’s usually covered, and what to confirm
Usually included
- Vendor sourcing & contracts
- Day-of timeline
- Checklist & task sequencing
Ask about it
- Budgeting & expense tracking
- Guest list & RSVP management
- Travel concierge for out-of-town guests
Get all of it spelled out in your contract before you book anything. It’s the number one thing couples wish they’d nailed down earlier. If you’re starting from scratch, our wedding planning checklist walks through what needs to happen at each stage, so you know what full-service should actually cover.
2. Have you planned weddings like mine before?
If your wedding involves multiple ceremonies, a specific religious tradition, or two cultures sharing one weekend, ask for real examples. A planner who’s only worked single-day Western receptions might not know how to sequence a Sangeet, Haldi, and Baraat across three venues, or how to keep two families on the same page when the traditions don’t match.
This isn’t about ruling anyone out for lack of experience. It’s about knowing what you’re walking into and what you’ll need to explain yourself. Our guide to planning a multi-day South Asian Muslim wedding breaks down exactly this kind of sequencing, if you want to see what it should look like.
3. How many weddings do you take on, and how big is your team?
A planner juggling four other weddings your weekend isn’t going to give you the same attention as one who blocked your date exclusively. Ask how many events they typically run in a month during peak season, and whether that changes closer to your date.
Also ask who’s actually on the team. A solo planner running fifteen full-service weddings a year works very differently than one with associates, or an agency model where you might not meet the person actually on-site until the week of. If the numbers don’t add up for the size of the team, ask about it directly.
4. What’s included in your starting price, and what costs extra?
Get the difference between the full-service price and the partial or day-of rate spelled out line by line before you compare quotes. Then ask what triggers an extra charge: more events, extra vendor meetings, travel outside their usual radius, a guest count past a certain number.
Multi-event weddings especially tend to get quoted at a base rate that doesn’t reflect five separate functions, so confirm exactly how many events the number covers. Our wedding budget calculator breaks out the same categories most planners quote against, so you’ve got something to check a quote against before you sign.
5. Do you have preferred vendors, and am I required to use them?
Preferred vendor lists are normal, and often useful. The real question is whether you’re locked into them. Some planners take a referral fee that gets built into vendor pricing without saying so. Ask whether you can bring in an outside photographer, caterer, or decorator without it costing you on the planner’s end.
6. How do you handle multicultural or multi-event weddings logistically?
If your wedding spans multiple ceremonies, guest lists, or religious requirements, ask how they actually coordinate all of it. One master timeline across every event, or each function handled separately? What happens when a Mehndi and a Sangeet land back to back and vendors overlap?
A planner who answers with specifics instead of general reassurance is the one who’s actually done this before. Our multi-day Indian wedding timeline guide shows what that master timeline looks like across five events and three venues.
“Every planner has a pitch. Only some have a run sheet to back it up.”
7. Can I see a full wedding timeline or run sheet from a past event?
A timeline or run sheet tells you more about someone’s organization than any conversation will. Look at how they structure time blocks, how they account for vendor arrivals, and how much buffer they leave for things running late.
If they can’t produce one, or the one they show you is vague, that’s worth knowing before the deposit, not after.
8. What happens if you’re sick or unavailable on my wedding day?
Every planner needs a backup plan, and you should know it before you need it. Ask who steps in, whether that person has worked with them before, and how familiar they’ll actually be with your timeline and vendors.
9. How do you communicate with clients, and what do you use to do it?
Some planners run weekly check-ins through a shared portal. Others mostly go quiet and only respond to texts between milestones. Neither is wrong, but you want to know which one you’re signing up for, especially in the final weeks when small decisions start piling up.
Also ask what they’re actually using behind the scenes. A planner working off a shared planning platform can pull up your timeline, budget, and vendor contracts in one place. One working off a personal Google Sheet and email threads is riskier: if something happens to them, there’s no clean handoff, and updates don’t always reach everyone who needs them.
10. Are you licensed or insured?
Licensing rules vary a lot by state and aren’t a universal standard for wedding planners, so treat this as one data point, not a dealbreaker. Insurance matters more consistently: a lot of venues won’t let a planner on site without proof of liability coverage. Ask about insurance, and ask to see documentation if the answer’s yes.
Final thought
None of this is meant to put a planner on the defensive. A planner worth booking will answer all ten straight, usually without needing to check with anyone first.
Frequently asked questions
How far in advance should I book a wedding planner?
Most couples book full-service planning nine to twelve months out. For multi-event Desi or South Asian weddings, booking earlier gives your planner more room to coordinate across venues and vendors.
What’s the difference between a wedding planner and a day-of coordinator?
A wedding planner is usually involved from early planning through the wedding day, including vendor selection and budget. A day-of coordinator steps in during the final weeks to run a plan the couple already built.
Do wedding planners charge a percentage or a flat fee?
Both exist. Flat fees are more common for day-of and partial coordination, while full-service planners sometimes charge a percentage of the total budget instead. Worth asking which model applies before you compare quotes.