Understand Your Costs Before Setting Prices

Before you can effectively price your day-of wedding coordination services, you must know your numbers. Guessing your costs is a recipe for losing money.

Start by calculating your time investment. This includes not just the hours on the wedding day, but also:

• Initial consultation and follow-up
• Vendor communication and confirmation
• Timeline creation and distribution
• Rehearsal coordination
• Administrative time (emails, calls, paperwork)
• Travel time (to venue, meetings, rehearsal)

Beyond your time, factor in your overhead. This includes:

• Business insurance (essential!)
• Marketing and advertising costs
• Website and software subscriptions (like CRM, planning tools)
• Professional development and education
• Office supplies or home office expenses
• Travel expenses (gas, parking)
• Membership fees (e.g., local wedding industry groups)

Track these expenses meticulously for a few months to get an accurate average. Once you have a handle on your costs per wedding (or per month, which you can then allocate), you have a baseline below which you cannot profitably price.

The Pitfalls of Hourly Pricing for Day-of Coordination

While hourly rates might seem simple, they are often the least profitable and most stressful way to price day-of wedding coordination. Why?

1. It Caps Your Income: You are directly trading time for money. There’s a physical limit to the hours you can work.
2. It Doesn’t Value Your Expertise: Couples aren’t just paying for your hours; they’re paying for your years of experience, problem-solving skills, vendor relationships, and the peace of mind you provide.
3. It Creates Client Anxiety: Clients watch the clock, potentially limiting necessary communication or tasks.
4. It’s Difficult to Accurately Quote: Predicting the exact number of hours needed for a complex wedding day is nearly impossible.

Moving to value-based or package pricing is a modern trend for a reason. It allows you to capture the true worth of your service, not just the time spent executing it.

Develop Clear Service Packages (Productization)

Instead of selling hours, create distinct, productized packages. This makes it easier for clients to understand what they’re getting and allows you to price based on the overall value and scope of work.

Consider creating 2-4 tiers, each with a clear list of included services. Examples:

• Essential Day-of Coordination: Focuses strictly on the wedding day execution (e.g., 10-12 hours coverage on site, managing timeline, vendor point person, basic setup oversight). May include limited planning meetings (~2-3).
• Premier Day-of Coordination: Builds on the essential package, adding more pre-wedding support (e.g., more planning meetings, vendor confirmation process, detailed timeline creation, rehearsal coordination).
• Luxury/Full Coordination: Note: This often overlaps with full or partial planning, but a high-end ‘Day-of’ might include elements like design consultation, extensive vendor management, multiple assistants on site, longer coverage hours.

Clearly define what is included and, importantly, what is not included in each package. This prevents scope creep. Packaging your services also makes presenting your pricing cleaner.

Pricing Your Packages: Value vs. Cost

Once you have your packages defined, how do you assign a price tag?

Combine your cost analysis with market research and, critically, value-based pricing.

1. Cost-Plus: Ensure your lowest package price more than covers your direct costs (time + allocated overhead) for that level of service, plus a healthy profit margin (aim for 50%+ net profit margin after costs).
2. Market Research: What are other experienced, reputable day-of coordinators in your specific geographic area charging for similar levels of service? Use this as a benchmark, but don’t let it be your only factor.
3. Value-Based: What is the value your service provides to the couple? Peace of mind, a stress-free day, flawless execution, saving them time and potential costly mistakes. This intangible value is often far greater than your hourly rate would suggest. Price based on the outcome you deliver.

Example Pricing (Illustrative, adjust for your market and experience):

• Essential Package: $1,800 - $2,800
• Premier Package: $2,500 - $4,000+

These are just examples. Your prices will depend heavily on your experience, reputation, location (costs are higher in major metros), and the complexity of the weddings you handle.

Incorporate Add-ons and Custom Options

Packages provide structure, but couples often have unique needs. Offer optional add-ons to increase the average project value and provide flexibility:

• Additional planning meetings
• Increased on-site coverage hours (beyond package limit)
• Attendance/coordination of the rehearsal dinner
• Setup or teardown of specific decor items
• Extra assistant coordinator hours
• Creation of custom signage or details

Clearly price these add-ons. This allows clients to tailor a package to their specific needs and budget while you maintain control over your scope. This is also where presenting options clearly becomes vital. Tools that allow clients to select optional items and see how the price changes in real-time can significantly enhance the client experience and potentially lead to higher sales.

Presenting Your Pricing Professionally

How you present your pricing is almost as important as the price itself. Forget sending a simple email with a number or a confusing spreadsheet. Your pricing presentation should be:

• Clear: Easy to understand packages and options.
• Transparent: Clients should know exactly what they are paying for.
• Professional: Reflects the quality of your brand.
• Value-Focused: Reinforces the benefits the client receives.

Common methods include PDFs, static documents, or sections within a larger proposal. These work, but can be cumbersome for clients who want to explore options or visualize different configurations.

A modern approach is using interactive pricing tools. Platforms like PricingLink (https://pricinglink.com) are specifically designed to let you create shareable links where clients can see your packages, select add-ons, and view the total price update live. This streamlines the quoting process and provides a sleek, modern experience.

While PricingLink excels at interactive pricing presentation, it is focused solely on this step. It does not handle full proposal generation with e-signatures, contracts, invoicing, or project management. For comprehensive all-in-one solutions or broader proposal features, you might look at tools like HoneyBook (https://www.honeybook.com), Dubsado (https://www.dubsado.com), PandaDoc (https://www.pandadoc.com), or Proposify (https://www.proposify.com). However, if your primary goal is to modernize specifically how clients interact with and select your pricing options before the formal contract phase, PricingLink’s dedicated focus offers a powerful and affordable solution ($19.99/mo).

During your consultation, focus on demonstrating the immense value you bring. Position your packages not as expenses, but as investments in a stress-free and perfectly executed wedding day. Discuss the desired outcome, not just the tasks involved.

Review and Adjust Your Pricing Regularly

The wedding industry is constantly evolving, and so are your costs and experience levels. Your pricing shouldn’t be set in stone.

Commit to reviewing your pricing at least once a year (or even quarterly) in 2025. Ask yourself:

• Have my costs increased (insurance, gas, software)?
• Have I gained significant experience or new certifications?
• Is demand for my services high?
• Are my ideal clients readily accepting my current prices, or are there objections?
• Am I consistently exceeding client expectations?

Don’t be afraid to raise your prices as your value, experience, and business costs increase. It’s a necessary step for sustainable growth and profitability.