A planner is the only line in a wedding budget that is priced off the other lines. Choose full service and 13% of everything else leaves with the fee, so the venue, the flowers and the catering all shrink to pay for it. Here is what each tier costs, and what it costs the rest of your budget.
Full service is priced as a percentage of everything else you spend — 13% in this model — which is why it is the only vendor quote that changes when you change a completely different vendor. It buys design, the vendor search, every contract, and the day itself.
120 guests · National · standard service Wedding without a planner $43,725 Full planning fee (13%) $5,250 Extra contingency on the fee $400 Total $49,375 $411 per guest · the fee is 11% of the total
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
200 guests · National · standard service Wedding without a planner $58,600 Full planning fee (13%) $7,050 Extra contingency on the fee $550 Total $66,200 A percentage fee grows with the guest list even though the planner's work barely does.
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
120 guests · Northeast · standard service Wedding without a planner $53,350 Full planning fee (13%) $6,425 Extra contingency on the fee $525 Total $60,300 Same planner, same hours: the fee is $1,175 higher than national because the wedding under it is.
Source: Regional price parities, the basis for the regional multipliers — U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2025
The calculator below is preset to 120 guests with all three tiers. Pick one and the whole allocation re-runs in front of you, so the fee's cost to catering, flowers and the venue is visible instead of implied.
Partial planning is mostly a flat fee — $3,200 plus 2% of the wedding — so it behaves nothing like full service as the budget moves. On a lean wedding it is the most expensive tier as a share of the total; on a large one it is the bargain.
120 guests · National · standard service Wedding without a planner $43,725 Partial planning fee $4,000 Extra contingency on the fee $300 Total $48,025 $3,200 flat plus 2% — four fifths of the fee never moves.
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
150 guests · National · standard service Partial planning ($3,200 + 2%) $4,125 Full planning (13%) $5,925 Difference $1,800 Partial holds its price as the budget grows. Full planning does not.
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
100 guests · National · lean service Wedding without a planner $29,775 Partial planning fee $3,750 Extra contingency on the fee $300 Total $33,825 At lean pricing the flat part dominates: partial is 11% of the whole budget.
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
A day-of coordinator picks the wedding up four to six weeks out, confirms every vendor, builds the timeline and runs the day. The fee is flat, so it is the same number at 80 guests and at 200 — which makes it the cheapest tier as a share of a big budget and the most defensible line on a small one.
120 guests · National · standard service Wedding without a coordinator $43,725 Day-of coordination $1,400 Extra contingency on the fee $100 Total $45,225 3% of the budget, and it does not move when the guest list does.
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
80 guests · Midwest · standard service Wedding without a coordinator $32,650 Day-of coordination $1,250 Extra contingency on the fee $100 Total $34,000 Regional pricing moves the flat fee: about $1,700 for the same booking in the Northeast.
Source: Regional price parities, the basis for the regional multipliers — U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2025
150 guests · National · standard service Venue's in-house coordinator $0 Independent day-of coordinator $1,400 Difference $1,400 The venue's coordinator runs the building — doors, power, staff, closing time. Yours runs your day. Ask which one you are being given before you drop the line.
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
Every example above adds the fee on top. Most couples do not have that option: the budget is the budget, so the fee comes out of it and every other category re-prices downward. This is the number a planner's quote never shows you, and the reason the tier choice is a whole-budget decision rather than a vendor decision.
$45,000 all in · 120 guests · no planner → full planning Planning fee $0 → $5,175 Venue & rentals $9,875 → $8,750 Catering & bar $12,300 → $10,875 Photography $4,025 → $3,550 Flowers & decor $3,175 → $2,800 Everything else $12,275 → $10,900 Contingency (8%) $3,350 → $2,950 Total stays $45,000 · every other line drops 11.5%
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
$45,000 all in · 120 guests · day-of → partial planning Planning fee $1,400 → $4,025 Venue & rentals $9,575 → $9,000 Catering & bar $11,925 → $11,200 Photography $3,900 → $3,650 Flowers & decor $3,075 → $2,875 Everything else $11,875 → $11,200 Contingency (8%) $3,250 → $3,050 Stepping up one tier costs $2,625 — about 26 places at the table.
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
$30,000 all in · 80 guests · no planner → full planning Planning fee $0 → $3,450 Venue & rentals $6,450 → $5,700 Catering & bar $6,975 → $6,175 Photography $3,225 → $2,850 Flowers & decor $2,075 → $1,850 Everything else $9,050 → $8,000 Contingency (8%) $2,225 → $1,975 Under $30,000 the percentage tier eats $800 of catering — $10 a plate.
Source: Text My Wedding budget model, reviewed August 2026 — Text My Wedding, 2026
Three questions settle this: how much time you have, how many vendors you are booking, and whether your venue already puts a coordinator in the room. Nothing else matters much.
No planner line at all. Put the $1,400 you were going to spend into the contingency instead — it is the line that actually runs out.
Day-of coordination, about $1,400, booked four to six weeks out. It is a flat fee — it does not grow with your budget or your guest list.
Partial planning, about $4,000 on a $45,000 wedding: $3,200 flat plus 2% of everything else.
Full planning, 13% of everything else — $5,250 on a $45,000 wedding, $7,050 at 200 guests. Every dollar you add to the wedding adds about 14 cents to the fee.
Day-of only. Full service on a $30,000 wedding is $3,450, and at a fixed budget that money comes straight off catering and flowers.
Two of the three tiers are flat fees and one is a percentage, so the levers are not the same across them. Biggest first, and the magnitudes are against a $45,000 wedding at 120 guests.
Day-of to full service is a fivefold difference on the same wedding. No other input on this page is worth arguing about until this one is settled.
Only on full planning. The fee is a percentage of everything else, and the contingency then takes 8% of the fee, so every $1,000 you add to the wedding adds about $140 to the planning line.
Day-of coordination costs the same at 80 guests and 200. Full planning goes from $4,375 to $7,050 across that range, because the wedding under it grew.
The flat tiers track regional pricing: day-of coordination is about $1,250 in the Midwest and $1,700 in the Northeast.
It removes the line, not the work. A venue coordinator answers to the venue, and their shift usually ends when the building closes rather than when your last vendor loads out.
None of these are laws, but they hold often enough to plan against before you have a single quote in hand.
Every other line in the budget is independent. This one is derived from the rest, so it moves when your caterer's quote moves, and a fixed total means it moves the rest of the budget back.
Day-of coordination is 4% of a $34,000 wedding and 2% of a $60,000 one. Above about $36,000 all in, full service already costs more than three day-of coordinators.
Short of time buys full service. Short of contacts buys partial. Short of nothing but a person to run the morning buys day-of. Paying for a gap you do not have is the most common overspend on this line.
Each of these produces a number that looks right in a spreadsheet and is wrong by four figures by the time the contracts are signed.
13% of a $49,375 total is $6,420. The fee is 13% of the $43,725 wedding underneath it — $5,250. Charging the percentage against a number that already contains the fee double-counts it.
An 8% buffer applies to the planning line like everything else. A $5,250 fee quietly adds another $400 to the budget, and $5,650 is the number to plan around.
They are the venue's employee, they manage the building, and they will not chase your florist in the week before. Assume the two lines are separate until the venue's contract says otherwise.
Rentals, staffing, deliveries and vendor deposits are still yours. The fee buys the planning, not the things planned — read whether the contract is a fee or a fee plus pass-through costs.
Added last, it looks like an 11% overrun. Added first, at a fixed budget, it is an 11.5% haircut on every other category — the same money, but decided by you rather than discovered in month nine.
Preset to 120 guests at national pricing. Switch between no planner, day-of coordination, partial planning and full service, and watch the whole allocation re-run — everything happens in your browser.
Change anything — the allocation rebuilds as you go.
Last updated 2026-08-10
Between about $1,400 and $7,000 depending on the tier. Day-of coordination is roughly $1,400, partial planning about $4,000, and full service is a percentage of everything else you spend — 13% in this model, which is $5,250 on a $45,000 wedding and $7,050 on a 200-guest one.
A day-of coordinator is about $1,400 flat and joins four to six weeks out, once your vendors are booked. A full-service planner is 13% of the rest of the budget and starts at the beginning. The gap on a $45,000 wedding is about $3,850 — you are buying months of work, not a better wedding day.
It depends on which of the three things you are short of: time, contacts, or someone to run the morning. Full service pays for itself only if you would otherwise be booking twelve vendors yourself. If your venue is turnkey and your list is booked, day-of coordination buys most of the benefit for a quarter of the money.
Set aside 3% of your total for day-of coordination, 8–11% for partial planning, or about 11% for full service — then add 8% of that fee again, because your contingency should cover the planning line too. At $45,000 that is roughly $1,500, $4,300 or $5,650.
Sometimes, and never reliably enough to budget on. Planners often carry vendor relationships and catch contract terms that cost real money, but a 13% fee on a $45,000 wedding is $5,250 of savings to find. Treat any saving as upside, not as a way to afford the tier.
Partial planning is mostly a flat fee — $3,200 plus 2% here — and assumes you make the decisions while someone else steers and sources. Full planning is a straight percentage and assumes they run the search, the contracts and the design from the start. On a $45,000 wedding the difference is about $1,250.
Not usually. A venue coordinator works for the venue: they open the building, manage its staff and enforce its rules, and their responsibility typically ends at the property line. If nobody is confirming your florist, your DJ and your shuttle the week before, that job is still unfilled.
The percentage itself rarely moves, but what it covers often does — design, the vendor search, contract review, the rehearsal and day-of hours are all separable, and a planner will usually quote a narrower scope rather than a lower rate. Ask what is a fee and what is a pass-through cost, because rentals, staffing and deposits are still yours either way. Gratuities are a separate question, and /wedding-budget/vendor-tips prices them vendor by vendor.
Every figure on this page is derived from a guest count, and a guest count is a guess until people reply. Text My Wedding sends the invitation by text, collects the RSVPs and the addresses, and chases the people who have not answered — so the number underneath your planner's percentage is a real one.
At 120 guests you are mailing about 65 households, and the printed stationery line is $1,675 of this budget — more than a day-of coordinator costs. Sending the same three mailings by text — and collecting the replies — is $87, once, for up to 1,200 messages, which is three each to about 400 guests.
