What Do You Include in Wedding Day Management Services?

We have all had that bride who asks if we can do tasks that are beyond our scope of work as a wedding planner. A few of the most common things that brides ask about include:

Will you set up my tables and chairs?

Will you hang my decor from the ceiling?

Will you bus the tables and take out the trash during the reception?

Can you pick up my cake and bring it to the reception?

Will you run errands for me the day before the wedding?

Can you remove my centerpieces after the reception, pack them up, and return them to the florist?

Can you be my DJ or emcee if we use an iPod instead of hiring a professional?

As a professional wedding planner, you may or may not include some or all of these items in your wedding management services. Personally, these are all tasks that I do not offer as part of my services. When you run your own business, you get to pick and choose how to run your business, including which services you want to offer and which services you have no interest in doing.

So, what do you do when a brides asks you to do work that you aren’t contracted for?

1) Refer to your contract. Your wedding planner contract can have a clause that specifically states what IS included as well as what ISN’T included (i.e. bussing tables, hanging any decor that requires a ladder). Simply tell the bride that what she is asking for is not a service you offer per your contract.

2) Add on an additional fee. If you are happy to run last minute errands for the bride but it isn’t part of the wedding services she booked, simply let her know that you charge an hourly fee for that and will email an invoice and/or contract addendum to add on that service (the wording from this blog post will help). If you are in a small town and there isn’t anyone else to take out the trash and bus tables after dinner, consider offering this as an add-on service that you can do or that you can hire out help for.

What tasks have you been asked to do as a wedding planner that are not part of your services? How did you handle it with the client?

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leslie@leslieherringevents.com says:

July 20, 2016 at 5:04 pm

I’m similar to Kathleen! I totally learned the hard way and now have it clearly written in my contract what I do and don’t do, even down to putting grandma’s pearls around a bouquet!
- Planner's Lounge - Debbie says:
  
  July 22, 2016 at 8:50 am
  
  Very smart Leslie! Thanks for commenting!
Kathleen Kepler says:

July 19, 2016 at 6:09 am

This is a great post and wish I would have read it before I started my business several years ago. I wasn’t sure about what I had to do or what I didn’t have to do as a “Wedding Coordinator.” Now, after making mistakes when I first started out, I put in my contract what is included and what is not included just to make sure we are all on the same page. If my bride wants me to put linens on the tables, there is a fee for that so that I can hire the appropriate amount of assistants to help in this task. If my bride wants the room cleaned after the wedding, I hire a cleaning crew to come in after the event and charge the client accordingly. I learned the hard way!
- Planner's Lounge - Debbie says:
  
  July 19, 2016 at 9:36 am
  
  We live and learn, right Kathy? Thanks for sharing your experience. I had a similar experience when starting out as well.