Nobody publishes what a wedding planner charges, and we are not going to make a figure up. What IS published is what a planner EARNS: a median of $29.41 an hour, which is ABOVE the $24.51 median for every occupation in America. Put the fee you were quoted in the box, and the page will show you what it works out at per hour, and what a percentage fee quietly does that a flat fee does not.More
That last part is the reason this page exists. If your planner is paid a percentage of the budget, then the person advising you on what to spend is paid more when you spend more. This is not an accusation, and we are not suggesting your planner has ever talked anyone into a bigger marquee. It is a description of the incentive, it is arithmetic, and it is worth seeing in dollars: at a fee of 12%, every extra $1,000 you add to the budget hands the planner another $120. A flat fee does not do that. Neither arrangement is dishonest, both are entirely normal, and a good planner on a percentage will save you more than they cost. But you are entitled to know which one you are signing, and the contract does not usually spell out the consequence. So we do.
What the planner's fee works out at, an hour
$36
The planner's fee$3,600
What the rest of the wedding costs, on your budget$26,400
On a percentage fee, the person advising you on what to spend is paid more when you spend more.
That is not an accusation and we are not suggesting your planner has talked anybody into a bigger marquee. It is the
incentive, and it is worth seeing in dollars: at 12%, every extra $1,000 of budget hands the planner another $120.
A flat fee does not do that. Both arrangements are ordinary, and a good planner on a percentage will save you more
than they cost. You are simply entitled to know which one you are signing.More
And check what the percentage is charged ON. Some contracts take the percentage on the whole
budget including the planner's own fee, which is a slightly bigger number than you were picturing. Some exclude the
venue, which is a much smaller one. Two minutes and a direct question will settle it, and the answer can move the fee
by thousands.
The fee is not the planner's wage, and the gap is not a markup. BLS puts an event planner's median
at $29.41 an hour, which is ABOVE the $24.51 median for every occupation in America. We report that as readily as we
report the trades that come in below it. But the fee you pay is a gross collection, and out of it come the insurance,
the software, the travel, the assistant on the day, the months of the year with no wedding in them, and the tax a
self-employed person pays both halves of.
Are you being overcharged? We do not know, and we are not going to imply it, because there is no
sourced price to compare yours against and a comparison to nothing is worth nothing. What we can do is show you what
the fee works out at, per hour, and what its structure does.
§ 02 What the fee works out at
The planner's fee$3,600
The fee, as a share of your budget12%
What each extra $1,000 of budget adds to the fee$120.00
The fee per hour, against a planner's hourly WAGE1.20
The wage is BLS's and it is exact. The fee is yours, because no federal source publishes what a wedding planner charges and we will not invent one. The 100 hours is ours, it is a guess, it is an input, and the page tells you so on the input itself. One correction, published rather than buried: the hours worked in the nearest industry (convention and trade show organizers) ARE published monthly by BLS CES, this page once said they were not, and a class revenue per employee-hour could be built from them. We have not built it, and it would be the wrong class for a wedding anyway.
Recommended next steps
Between $30 and $100 an hour of the planner's time is where most full-service fees land once you divide them out. Remember what comes out of it before anybody is paid: insurance, software, travel, the assistant on the day, the empty months, and both halves of self-employment tax.
On a percentage fee, every extra $1,000 of budget hands the planner more money. At 12%, another $120.More
It is the incentive, not an accusation. A planner on a percentage is paid more when you spend more, and a planner on a flat fee is not. Neither is dishonest, both are completely normal, and a good planner on a percentage will negotiate you savings far bigger than their fee. But the contract does not spell out the consequence, and you are entitled to see it in dollars before you sign it.
An event planner earns a median of $29.41 an hour, which is ABOVE the $24.51 US median.More
We publish that as readily as we publish the photographer at $21.47 and the dog trainer at $19.22, both of whom come in below it. A site that only ever finds numbers flattering to the person being hired is not measuring anything. This is BLS's Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, SOC 13-1121, May 2025.
Check what the percentage is charged ON. It is not always what you think.More
Some contracts take the percentage on the whole budget INCLUDING the planner's own fee, which is a slightly larger number than you had in mind. Others exclude the venue, which is a much smaller one. On a $30,000 wedding those two readings can differ by thousands. It is one direct question and it is worth asking before you sign.
Nobody measures how many hours go into planning a wedding, so we made it an input.More
BLS measures wages, not task durations. The Economic Census measures receipts. Neither times a job. Full-service planning runs for a year; day-of coordination might be forty hours all in. The default here is 100 hours, it sits between the two, it is ours, and it is a starting point rather than a finding. Change the number and everything moves with it.
The fee is a gross collection, not a wage, and the gap between them is the business.More
Out of the fee come the liability insurance, the planning software, the travel, the assistant on the day, the tastings, the months of the year with no wedding in them, and the self-employment tax that a freelancer pays both halves of. Presenting the fee-per-hour as the planner's pay would be the easiest lie on this page, and we are not going to tell it.
Nobody publishes what a wedding planner charges. The HOURS in the nearest industry are published, and this page used to say they were not.More
The correction is worth more to you than the fact. BLS gives the wage and no billed rate. The Economic Census gives receipts for convention and trade show organisers and no hours column, which is true. We then wrote that there was no denominator and no rate could be constructed, and that was false: BLS's Current Employment Statistics has published those hours, at that exact industry code, monthly since 2006, series CEU6056192002. A revenue per employee-hour for that class is constructible, we have not built it, and that is a gap in this page rather than in the data. Read what it would and would not be, though. NAICS 56192 is trade shows and corporate conferences, so it would be a rate for conference organisers rather than for the person planning your wedding, and a class average bounds nobody's quote. What genuinely nobody publishes is a measured wedding-planning rate. What we did not search: the paywalled wedding-industry surveys, which are surveys of their own customers rather than of the market, and no state agency.
Sourced: the wage. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC
13-1121 (Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners): median $29.41 an hour, 142,860 employed, with a state median for
43 states. Ours, and the page says so on the input itself: the 100 hours. Nobody measures how long
planning a wedding takes, so it is an input rather than a statistic.More
The asymmetry is the point. What a planner EARNS is measured exactly, by a federal survey,
every year. What a planner CHARGES is measured by nobody. Three sources were searched, and the third one is a
correction we owe you. BLS publishes wages rather than rates. The Economic Census publishes receipts for convention
and trade show organisers with no hours column, which is true, and an earlier version of this page concluded from
that alone that no rate could be built at all. FALSE. BLS's Current Employment Statistics publishes those hours, at
that exact industry code, monthly since 2006 (series CEU6056192002), and a revenue per employee-hour for the class
falls straight out of the two together. We have not built it, which is a gap in this page rather than in the data,
and there is a second reason we would treat it carefully if we had: NAICS 56192 is trade shows and corporate
conferences, so its rate would be a number about conference organisers wearing a wedding planner's name. This page
does arithmetic on the fee YOU were quoted, and it will not compare that fee to a national figure, because a measured
wedding-planning rate is what nobody publishes.
Rule 22, stated rather than buried. SOC 13-1121 is Meeting, CONVENTION, and Event Planners. It
contains the people who organise trade shows and corporate conferences alongside the person planning your wedding, and
most of the occupation is not weddings at all. The wage is the occupation's. Read it knowing that.
And OES excludes the self-employed, in BLS's own words, which a great many wedding planners are. The
142,860 it counts are the ones on somebody's payroll. We say so rather than divide by it.
Where every number above comes from
Wage data
BLS, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, national. Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners (SOC 13-1121): 142,860 employed, median $29.41/hr, $61,160/yr, 10th percentile $17.71/hr, 90th percentile $48.90/hr. All occupations (SOC 00-0000): median $24.51/hr
BLS, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics FAQ: 'Does OEWS have occupational employment estimates that include the self-employed? No.' This is why the 142,860 count above is the planners on a payroll, and why we do not divide by it
BLS, Current Employment Statistics, series CEU6056192002: average weekly hours of all employees for convention and trade show organizers (NAICS 56192), monthly since 2006, with average hourly earnings (CEU6056192003) beside them. These are the hours this page spent a version insisting the statistics did not carry
Every one of these is a place the number could be off. They are here because you should be able to check our working, not because we are hedging.
The 100 hours is ours, and it is the number everything below depends on.
Nobody counts the hours in a wedding. Full-service planning runs for a year and is a great many hours; day-of coordination might be forty. The default sits between the two, and it is a starting point rather than a measurement. Change it, and if you are buying full-service, change it a long way up.
The fee is a gross collection. The page never calls it a wage.
Insurance, software, travel, the assistant on the day, the empty months, and both halves of self-employment tax all come out of it before anybody is paid.
SOC 13-1121 is Meeting, CONVENTION, and Event Planners, which is wider than weddings.
Trade shows and corporate conferences are in the same occupation, and they are a large part of it. The wage is the occupation's, and you should read it knowing so.
A percentage fee is not a scandal, and the page is not implying that it is.
It is a structure with a consequence, the consequence is arithmetic, and the reader is entitled to see it. A good planner on a percentage routinely saves a couple more than they charge. That is also true, and it is why the page shows you the incentive rather than telling you what to do about it.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a wedding planner cost?
Nobody publishes a national price, so anybody who gives you one has either invented it or is quoting a survey of their own customers. What this page does instead is arithmetic on the quote you were actually given. Put in the fee, or the percentage and the budget, and it will show you the fee in dollars, the fee as a share of the budget, and what the whole thing works out at per hour of the planner's time. For context, BLS puts an event planner's median wage at $29.41 an hour, above the $24.51 US median. That is what they earn, not what they charge.
Is a percentage fee or a flat fee better?
They point in different directions, and that is the honest answer. On a percentage, the person advising you on what to spend is paid more when you spend more: at 12%, every extra $1,000 of budget adds $120 to the fee. On a flat fee, it adds nothing. This is not a claim that percentage planners inflate budgets, and a good one will negotiate you savings that dwarf their fee. But it is a real incentive, it is arithmetic, and it is worth knowing which one you are signing. If you go with a percentage, ask what it is charged on: some contracts include the planner's own fee in the base, and some exclude the venue.
What does a wedding planner actually earn?
A median of $29.41 an hour, or $61,160 a year, which is above the $24.51 median for every occupation in America. That is BLS's figure for Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners, SOC 13-1121. Two warnings on it. The occupation includes people who run trade shows and corporate conferences, and they are a large part of it. And BLS excludes the self-employed, which a great many wedding planners are, so the 142,860 it counts are the ones on somebody's payroll.
Am I being overcharged for a wedding planner?
We do not know, and we are not going to imply it, because there is no sourced price to compare yours against and a comparison to nothing is worth nothing. What the page can show you is the fee per hour of the planner's time, and what comes out of that fee before anyone is paid: the insurance, the software, the travel, the assistant on the day, the months with no wedding in them, and the tax a self-employed person pays both halves of. If the per-hour figure looks high, the useful question is not whether the planner is greedy. It is how many hours they are actually going to spend, which is the input at the bottom of the form.
