10 Wedding Planner Interview Questions
By Kastina / April 5, 2021
10 Wedding Planner Interview Questions
Choosing a wedding planner or day-of-coordinator is not something people do often so we wanted to offer a strong list of questions to help couples interview any wedding planner before you hire them.
Typically a couple works with one wedding planner in their lifetime, so how do you find a good one? How do you know what to look for if you’ve never hired this service before? What exactly do wedding coordinators do and what makes a valuable coordinator is not common knowledge to those outside of the wedding industry. To make the process more daunting, it’s a growing ‘gig economy’ niche filled with new vendors popping up all the time. As a result, the pool of choices has widened, especially now that many event venues require a “day-of coordinator”. With this expanded wedding planner market, the range of experience and commitment levels has expanded with it. From friends planning parties on weekends as a hobby to seasoned professionals that plan and coordinate full-time, with a staff they support, working everyday and weekend.
As a professional that has witnessed the Minnesota evolution of wedding “Day-Of Coordinators” – I want to give couples some tools for success when narrowing down their wedding planner or day-of coordinator options. Below is a list of interview questions that can help couples weed through event planners. Insider note – if the planner is experienced and knowledgeable they should be able to easily answer these questions, even if the answer is “no I don’t do that” they should be able to explain in a reasonable way.
Interview Questions:
- What’s your experience level? How many weddings have you coordinated and what size were they?
- Are you personally on-site the day of the wedding or do you send a different coordinator?
- What deliverables can we expect from you? Is there tangible work we can see from you leading up to the event? For example: timelines, detail lists, etc. What does your plan for us look like?
- Would you say you are more interested in the decor details or the logistical management of the day?
- What responsibilities will be on your plate the day of the event?
- What are you not responsible for? Are there tasks or duties that I might assume you would do for us that you might not actually be able to handle?
- Will you set-up rental items or set linens?
- How do you connect with the other vendors that day? Would you say you’re collaborative or directive with my other wedding professionals?
- How long do you stay? Do you stay through take-down/clean-up? If not, how is that handled or planned for?
- If something unexpected happened to you and you were not able to be there, how might that be handled? Do you have other people that could fill in for you?
I love when couples ask the hard questions! So feel to reach out and ask! And in case you missed it, we also wrote a piece on questions to ask when finding your wedding venue too!