What Does a Wedding Planner Do? Full Job Description + Checklist

What a Wedding Planner Actually Handles

Before you hire vendors

• Setting and tracking your overall budget across every category
• Recommending venues, photographers, caterers, florists, and other vendors based on your style and budget
• Negotiating vendor contracts and catching red-flag clauses before you sign
• Building your month-by-month planning timeline

Ongoing, once vendors are booked

• Managing all vendor communication — emails, contract changes, payment schedules
• Tracking RSVPs and guest list changes
• Coordinating tastings, fittings, and vendor meetings
• Designing (or refining) the seating chart around family dynamics
• Building the day-of timeline, minute by minute

The wedding day itself

• Running the full day-of timeline
• Managing vendor arrivals, setup, and breakdown
• Handling anything that goes wrong — so you don't hear about it
• Making sure the couple, wedding party, and families all know where to be and when

The Wedding Planner Checklist (Month by Month)

12+ months out

• Set the budget
• Book venue and officiant
• Hire planner (if using one)

9–11 months out

• Book photographer, videographer, caterer
• Choose wedding party
• Start dress/suit shopping

6–8 months out

• Book florist, band/DJ, hair and makeup
• Send save-the-dates
• Plan honeymoon

3–5 months out

• Order invitations
• Finalize menu and cake
• Book transportation

1–2 months out

• Final dress fitting
• Confirm final guest count with caterer
• Create seating chart
• Write vows

1–2 weeks out

• Confirm final details with every vendor
• Pack for honeymoon
• Delegate day-of tasks to wedding party

This is the short version. For the full month-by-month breakdown with sub-tasks, see our complete 12-month wedding planning timeline.

Full-Service vs. Partial vs. Day-Of: What Each One Actually Covers

• Full-service planner — Does everything above, start to finish.
• Partial planner — Picks up around month 3–6, after you've booked your venue and major vendors yourself, and takes over from there.
• Day-of coordinator — Takes your existing plan and vendor list in the final 4–6 weeks and executes the wedding day. Doesn't help with earlier decisions.

Not sure which one fits your situation? Cost is usually the deciding factor — see our wedding planner cost breakdown for pricing by service level.

Build Your Own Checklist

Skip the generic template — the wedding budget calculator pairs with our planning dashboard to build a checklist personalized to your actual date, venue, and guest count, and re-prioritizes automatically as things change. Or browse vetted planners in our directory if you'd rather hand it off.