How Much Do Wedding Planners Make?
No agency publishes pay for wedding planners alone. The official figure, from BLS, counts wedding planners together with corporate, convention and hotel event planners, and only those on a payroll. Most wedding planners are paid another way: a fee for each wedding they take.
So this page sets the official pay beside what couples pay a planner and how many hours one wedding takes. Type your ZIP code below to see the official figure for your area, then use the calculator to work out a year from your own fee and your own weddings.
On your own, two numbers decide the rest: your fee per wedding and how many weddings you can carry in a year.
Employed event planners' median pay runs from $30,790 a year in rural eastern Kentucky to $90,560 around San Jose, California
Type a ZIP code to see what employed event planners, wedding planners included, earn where you work. BLS publishes this pay for 396 of 528 metro and rural areas; the other 132 use their state's figure. All 40,767 US ZIP codes are matched. Self-employed planners are not in these figures.
Sources: BLS May 2025 area wages for meeting, convention and event planners (13-1121), by metro and nonmetro area, the occupation that includes wedding planners; the Census 2020 ZIP-to-county file; USDA rural-urban codes. Where BLS publishes no figure for an area, the tool uses the state's. Puerto Rico's areas run lower than any on the mainland, down to $23,250 in Aguadilla. No agency publishes what planners charge per wedding by area, so the calculator applies the area's pay level to your fee too; that is our assumption, not a measurement. The lookup runs in your browser and loads only a small file for the first three digits of your ZIP code from this site.
The District of Columbia pays employed event planners the most, $76,970 a year; West Virginia the least, $35,760
The column is the median pay of employed meeting, convention and event planners in each state, May 2025, the occupation BLS puts wedding planners in. Corporate and hotel planners are in it; the self-employed are not. Small states rest on few jobs: West Virginia's median comes from 300.
| State | Event planners, median a year (BLS May 2025) |
|---|---|
| United States | $61,160 |
| Highest five | |
| District of Columbia | $76,970 |
| Massachusetts | $75,740 |
| New York | $74,730 |
| Hawaii | $74,460 |
| Vermont | $74,310 |
| Lowest five | |
| West Virginia | $35,760 |
| Mississippi | $44,680 |
| South Dakota | $47,050 |
| Oklahoma | $48,990 |
| Montana | $49,000 |
| Most people employed in this job | |
| California | $71,120 |
| Texas | $57,470 |
| Florida | $60,270 |
| Illinois | $59,840 |
| Georgia | $49,250 |
| Ohio | $49,900 |
BLS May 2025 state medians for meeting, convention and event planners (13-1121), the occupation that names wedding planner as an example. Employees only; self-employed wedding planners are not counted. BLS publishes no wedding-planner-only figure. Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are left out of the ranking.
The biggest pay decision: a salary at a venue or company, or a fee for each wedding you take
Most of the gap between the numbers at the top of this page comes from this choice. Venues, hotels and events companies pay a wage or salary, and that side is in the BLS figure. A planning business charges a fee per wedding, and no agency publishes what that side earns.
The calculator below works out a year on the second road.
Work out what your weddings bring in a year before tax
Put in your fee and how many weddings you take to see a year before tax. Two presets use The Knot's averages for day-of coordination and full-service planning. If you entered a ZIP code above, the fee follows local pay levels.
- Fees from your weddings$40,000
- Your share$40,000
- Card fees− $1,200
Example figures from the sources named, checked in October 2026. The Knot's averages are what couples paid, not what planners keep. Assistants, insurance, travel, marketing and tax are not taken off. The 3% card fee is close to a card processor's published US rate, 2.9% plus 30 cents a payment. With a ZIP code entered, the fee follows that area's event planner pay level, our assumption.
Wedding planners are on the IRS list of tipped jobs, entry 502, and Zola tells couples to tip $50 to $200
Zola, a wedding marketplace, advises couples to tip $50 to $200 per planner or coordinator. That is Zola's advice; no survey measures how often couples tip. Below are the federal rules as the IRS states them, not tax advice.
Entry 502 is "Private event planners": "Coordinate activities and arrangements for private events; may provide decor and creative design." Its example titles begin with "Wedding planner."
It applies to qualified tips received in occupations on the IRS list, and entry 502 names wedding planners. Employees and the self-employed can both claim it.
For the self-employed, the deduction cannot exceed the net income of the business in which the tips were earned.
Final IRS regulations list more than 70 occupations. Qualified tips must be paid voluntarily by the customer, not be subject to negotiation, and be reported on a W-2, 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, 1099-K or Form 4137.
What working planners say they charge and made, in their own words
Few wedding planners publish what they earn. These cards hold the figures we found from planners themselves: one part-time assistant's year, one firm's revenue as its business coach relayed it, and two luxury planners' fees. Every figure is theirs, unverified, labeled with the period as they said it.
About 12 weddings plus a few event-staffing days, at $120 to $300 a wedding depending on mileage. She works full time as a corporate event planner and is stepping back in 2026.
Two owners who now employ lead and assistant planners. Revenue is not pay. The host, Brandee Gaar, is a business coach who sells a coaching program they joined.
She called 20% "pretty standard" at her level. Each wedding comes with about three trips. She gave no count of weddings a year and no income figure.
Wedding days she plans averaged about $1 million over three years; her retainer runs about $30,000 to $40,000. Her first wedding paid $1,000. No income figure. Her channel speaks to planners; any sales to them are unconfirmed.
Weddings & Events by Raina, in Nashville and Murfreesboro, lists full service from $9,500, month-of coordination from $4,600 and a partial or day-of package from $2,600. Kelsey Morgan in Memphis lists full planning from $6,000 and partial planning with month-of coordination from $4,500. These are starting prices to couples, not income.
Many new planners start as day-of assistants for other planners: Shelby Tittle made $120 to $300 a wedding
BLS does not publish pay by experience, and no survey covers new wedding planners. These are one assistant's rates, the low end of the official range, and what BLS says about certification.
The amount depended on whether the planner paid mileage. Setup-only shifts paid about $25 an hour for about four hours. Part time, it came to $5,500 in 2024, gross.
BLS May 2025, employees only, wedding planners counted with corporate and hotel planners. The lowest 25% earn under $46,970. These are the lowest earners at every stage, not only new ones.
BLS says certifications for event planners are available but not required. We found no state license for wedding planning in any source we read; that is a search finding, not a review of every state's law. A general business license may apply where you live, the SBA says.
Measured by us in October 2026, from Google's US suggestions. A row on courses and certification (94 phrasings) was measured too and left off because it is about training, not what planning pays.
Wedding planner pay questions
If you plan weddings on your own, take consultations and deposits without the back-and-forth.
The free plan takes your first 100 bookings without a credit card. It is a permanent plan, not a trial.
- A booking page that works as the link in your Instagram bio
- Each service with its own length and price: a consultation, a day-of package, a full planning package
- A deposit at booking, or a card on file charged with the customer's permission, into your own Stripe account
- Tap to Pay on iPhone, to take a card in person with no reader
Sources
Where every number on this page comes from, with the release or date we used.
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners (13-1121), national, state, metro and nonmetro areas, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-05-15 Employees only; the self-employed are not surveyed. Wedding planners are counted with corporate, convention and hotel planners, with no wedding-only figure. The all-worker median of $50,980 is from the same file.
- Occupational Outlook Handbook: Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-08-27 172,100 jobs in 2025, 10% of them self-employed; industry medians; hours; certifications "not required". Its pay figures leave out the self-employed.
- SOC 2018: 13-1121 Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Lists Wedding Planner as an illustrative example of the occupation.
- The Knot 2026 Real Weddings Study: how much do wedding planners charge, The Knot, 2026-05-13 10,474 US couples married in 2025, recruited from The Knot and WeddingWire membership. What couples paid, not what planners earn. The live page blocks automated reading; we read the Internet Archive copies of this page and of the study's average-cost page (https://www.theknot.com/content/average-wedding-cost) from October 2026.
- How much do wedding coordinators cost, Zola, 2026-02-19 Zola is a wedding registry and marketplace. Its Wedding Cost Index average of $4,047, its description of pricing models and its tip advice to couples. What couples pay, not what planners earn.
- Weddings & Events by Raina, planning packages, Weddings & Events by Raina Nashville and Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Starting prices as posted when we read the page in October 2026.
- Kelsey Morgan, investment, Kelsey Morgan Memphis, Tennessee. Starting prices as posted when we read the page in October 2026.
- Shelby Tittle, How I Made $5,500 Last Year as a Day of Wedding Coordinator, YouTube Upload date approximate, about December 2025. Income year 2024, gross, part time.
- Brandee Gaar, How She Built a $200k+/year Wedding Planning Business, YouTube, Brandee Gaar Upload date approximate, about mid-2024. Paige and Rachel of Confetti & Co; 2023 revenue as stated. The host sells the coaching program the guests joined.
- Stef Cove, Wedding Planner to the Uber Rich, YouTube, Financial Tea with Mrs Dow Jones Upload date approximate, about July 2026. Her fee as a share of budget; no income figure.
- Persephone Says, What I Charge to Plan Million-Dollar Weddings (And Why), YouTube Upload date approximate, about October 2026. Her fee as a share of spend; no income figure. Whether the channel sells to planners is not confirmed.
- What Does a Wedding Cost, with planner Jacquelyn Aleece, YouTube, Girls Gotta Eat Upload date approximate, about October 2025. Her view on vendor commissions and kickbacks.
- Occupations that customarily and regularly received tips on or before Dec. 31, 2024, Internal Revenue Service, 2026-06-28 Entry 502: Private event planners, example titles beginning with wedding planner.
- Topic no. 761, Tips: withholding and reporting, Internal Revenue Service, 2026-10-12 The deduction of up to $25,000 of qualified tips for tax years 2025 through 2028.
- IRS Tax Tip 2026-06: How to take advantage of no tax on tips and overtime, Internal Revenue Service, 2026-01-26 The $25,000 cap, the phase-out above $150,000 ($300,000 joint) and the net-income limit for the self-employed.
- IR-2026-49: Treasury, IRS issue final regulations listing occupations where workers customarily and regularly receive tips, Internal Revenue Service, 2026-04-10 More than 70 occupations; qualified tips must be voluntary, not negotiated, and reported.
- Apply for licenses and permits, U.S. Small Business Administration Business license requirements vary by business structure and by state, county and municipality.
- 2020 ZCTA to County Relationship File, U.S. Census Bureau, 2021-12-09 Used by the ZIP tool to match a ZIP code to a county.
- 2020 Rural-Urban Commuting Area Codes, ZIP code file, USDA Economic Research Service Used by the ZIP tool to label an area urban core, suburban, small city or rural.
- Named planners' own figures, Various the four planner cards and two rate cards above
- Stripe pricing, standard US card rate, Stripe, 2026-10-25 the card processor kiwilaunch uses; quoted for the 3% card fee in the calculator
Not tax, legal or financial advice. Pay, fees and what you keep vary by state and city, and the tax rules on tips have conditions. A professional who knows your situation can answer for you.