What’s actually included in full-service wedding planning?

Full-service wedding planning means your planner is with you for the whole engagement: from the budget and venue search through every vendor, the design, your guests’ logistics, the wedding day and the wrap-up afterwards. You still make the decisions. Your planner makes sure you’re making them at the right time, with good options in front of you, and then carries out everything that follows.

That’s the definition. What it looks like in practice is more useful, so here it is month by month, followed by what full service doesn’t include and how it’s usually priced.

Month by month: what a full-service planner does

Full service usually starts 10 to 18 months before the wedding. Shorter engagements work too; the same steps just happen faster.

12+ months out: the foundation

• The budget conversation. A realistic one, with where money tends to disappear and where it actually shows up on the day.
• Guest count and priorities. The two or three decisions everything else depends on.
• Venue scouting. Shortlisting venues that fit your date, guest count and budget, then touring them with you. The questions I ask are usually about load-in windows, noise cutoffs and rain plans, not the view.

8–12 months out: the team

• Vendor sourcing for every category. Photography, catering, florals, music, officiant, rentals, hair and makeup, transportation. The vendors who book first get booked first.
• Contract review. Every contract gets read before you sign it: overtime rates, cancellation terms, and what’s actually included.
• Negotiation and booking, plus tracking every deposit and due date.

5–8 months out: the design

• A full design concept. Palette, florals, tabletop, paper, lighting and how the room flows.
• Sourcing and mock-ups where they matter, so you see the table before committing to 20 of them.
• Rentals ordered and the floor plan drawn.

2–5 months out: the details

• Guests. RSVP tracking, hotel blocks, transportation and welcome bags.
• Paper and websites. Stationery, signage and your wedding website, coordinated so the details match.
• Trials and tastings, scheduled and attended.
• The timeline, drafted early and rebuilt as the details firm up.

6 weeks to the day: the handoff

Every vendor conversation now runs through your planner. You stop answering emails. The timeline is finalized and shared with everyone who needs it.

The weekend

• The rehearsal, directed.
• The rehearsal dinner and morning-after brunch, coordinated.
• The wedding day with a full team. For my full-service couples, that’s me and two assistants for up to 12 hours.

After the wedding

Rentals returned, gifts and personal items secured, and final vendor payments reconciled while you’re on your honeymoon.

What full service doesn’t include

• Vendor costs. Your planner’s fee covers planning. Your venue, catering, flowers and everything else are paid separately, directly to those vendors.
• Making the decisions for you. A full-service planner narrows the options, explains the trade-offs and tells you honestly when something won’t work. The choices are still yours.
• Unlimited events. Full service usually covers the wedding weekend. Mine covers a single wedding day of up to 200 guests, plus the rehearsal dinner and brunch. Multi-day celebrations and much larger guest counts are quoted separately.
• Travel. Mine covers weddings within 60 miles of Salt Lake City. Beyond that, travel is quoted up front.

How full-service planning is priced

1. A flat fee, often listed as “starting at,” based on guest count and complexity.
2. A percentage of the total wedding budget, commonly 10 to 15 percent.

A flat fee is easier to plan around. A percentage can make sense for larger or more complex weddings, where the planner’s workload grows with the budget. Some planners, me included, offer either.

For current national and Utah price ranges, see what a wedding planner actually costs in 2026. My own full-service price is listed on the planning page.

Is full-service planning worth it?

It’s usually worth it if:

• Your time is worth more than the fee. A 150-person wedding takes a few hundred hours of work.
• You’re planning from out of state. Your planner becomes your eyes on the ground for tours, tastings and walkthroughs.
• The design matters a lot to you, and you want someone to make it real rather than just recommend a florist.
• You’d rather make ten good decisions than two hundred small ones.

It’s probably more than you need if you enjoy planning, already have most vendors booked, or mostly want someone to run the day. In that case, look at partial planning or month-of coordination.

Questions to ask a full-service planner

1. How many weddings do you take a year, and will you book two on the same weekend?
2. Who is actually there on the day, and how many people?
3. Is vendor sourcing unlimited, or capped at a number of categories?
4. Do you take commissions from vendors?
5. What’s included in the wedding weekend: rehearsal, dinner, brunch?
6. What happens if you’re sick?

If you’re planning a Utah wedding and that sounds like you, see what’s included in my full-service collection, or check if your date is open.