A lot of planners that offer wedding management mainly over full service planning struggle with doing too much for those clients. It’s important that planners are establishing boundaries for wedding management clients.
One planner told me she wants to help as much as possible, which sometimes leads her to not setting enough boundaries for herself. That leads to overworking for her clients that have not hired her for full service wedding planning. She’s providing full service duties without the compensation.
You have to establish boundaries and stick to what your wedding management packages entails. Or offer additional services they can add on.
Some additional services you could add on to Wedding Management would be:
- budget creation
- assembling save the dates and invitations
- welcome gift assembly, sourcing and delivery
- assisting with the wedding program information
- create floor plan
- assist with securing rentals
- hourly consultations
When a client books you for Wedding Management, share your additional a la carte services upfront. That way they know upfront that these additional tasks will be billed separately.
Anytime a client asks you to handle a service that is not included in the Wedding Management package you can share your a la carte services with them again. At that point they can decide if they want to hire you for these additional services, or if they want to figure those out on their own.
If you offer additional planning packages you can also offer an upgrade to the next package, or to full service wedding planning. Some clients get overwhelmed when they’re planning everything on their own. Then they may decide they need more help than they initially thought.
Ways to Establish Boundaries from the Start
- Initial Consultation: Begin by discussing expectations during the initial consultation. Clarify your role and responsibilities as their wedding coordinator. This is the perfect time to outline what services are offered and what is not included in your packages. You can share your a la carte services with them as well.
- Scope of Work: Define the scope of work in a written contract. This document should outline all the services you will provide, the timeline, payment terms, and any limitations or exclusions. Make sure both parties understand and agree to these terms before proceeding.
- Communication: Set expectations for communication from the start. Specify how and when you prefer to be contacted (email, phone, scheduled meetings), and establish response times. Make it clear that urgent or last-minute requests may incur additional charges.
- Availability: Clearly state your working hours and availability. Let clients know when you are reachable and when you are not. Ensure they understand that you may have other clients and commitments. Also, how much access they have to you when they hire you for Wedding Management.
What we Offer to Our Wedding Management Clients
All of my wedding management clients get access to our planning software, Aisle Planner. There they have access to our full planning checklist, vendor recs, our budget creation tool and tips and tricks.
I have found that sharing our checklist with them not only helps them, but it helps us as well. They know what they need to be doing month to month. Which leads to an easier transition when we take over the month or two before.
To properly take over and handle the Wedding Management services I send our Timeline Planning Questionnaire to the client. They are to complete this questionnaire two months before the wedding. This questionnaire asks everything I need to know to complete their wedding weekend timeline. I also ask for a copy of all vendor contracts, their floor plan and have them complete our decor worksheet.
Once I have their contracts and questionnaire I can then start contacting their vendors. As well as working on the schedule, order of ceremony and plan for the day.
We meet a month before the wedding at their ceremony and reception venue to go over their order of ceremony, timeline, floor plan, set up detils, decor items, etc. We make sure they’ve purchased everything they need, taken care of everything they were supposed to do and go over our Final Venue Walk-Through Checklist to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
In addition to our final walk through checklist, I also have a Final Vendor Checklist that I work through on my own before the final meeting. This is one of my most valued checklist and one that every planner needs to ensure everything is taken care of and nothing is forgotten.
I didn’t always have a final vendor checklist, but adding this a few years back has been one of the best things for reconciling with vendors.
xo, Terrica
