How to Price Event Planning Services: Fee Models Explained

What are the steps to price an event planning package?

Pricing a planning package is a short calculation followed by a judgement about your market. Do the calculation first, so the judgement starts from a number you trust.

• 1. Log your owner hours on two or three real events: planning, meetings, travel, supplier work and the event day.
• 2. Decide the pay you want per hour of your own work. This is your choice, not a market rate.
• 3. Add up your monthly overheads (software, insurance, phone, studio, accountant, marketing) and divide by the hours you can realistically bill in a month.
• 4. Add team cost (coordinator and assistant hours times their cost) and direct costs (travel, materials, printing).
• 5. Calculate the floor price: owner hours x (pay per hour + overhead per hour) + team cost + direct costs.
• 6. Compare your current fee with the floor, and calculate the effective hourly rate.
• 7. Choose a fee model you can explain in one sentence and that clears the floor at the budgets you serve.
• 8. Review prices every quarter with your latest logged hours.

Why do planners underprice?

Planning is labour-heavy, paid in advance and seasonal. The first two facts hide the true cost of the work: by the time an event is delivered, the deposit was spent months ago and nobody added up the hours. The third fact makes the busiest months feel like proof that prices are fine.

Most underpricing starts with copying. A competitor's website does not know your hours, your overheads or how much you need to earn. Two planners charging the same fee can have very different businesses underneath.

There is also a measurement trap. Gross margin, the fee minus team and direct costs, often looks healthy in a planning business because suppliers are paid by the client directly. A gross margin of 75% or more can still mean a poor hourly rate if the work takes 120 hours.

What is a floor price and how do you calculate it?

A floor price is the lowest fee that pays you the hourly rate you want, carries your share of overheads and covers the team and direct costs of the event. Below it, the event costs you money once your time is valued.

Overhead per owner hour is your monthly overheads divided by the hours you can realistically bill in a month. If your overheads are 1,450 a month and you can spend 110 hours on client work, each hour must carry about 13.18 of overhead. Add the pay you want, say 30 an hour, and your floor rate is about 43.18 per owner hour.

The floor is not your price. It is the line you do not cross without a written reason, such as an entry service capped at a few events a year.

A worked example: one full-planning wedding

Here is a worked example from a fictional two-person planning business, using the same formulas as a simple spreadsheet. Amounts are in one currency before tax. The planner logged 124 of her own hours on a full-planning wedding (110 planning, 14 on the day), 36 team hours at 18 an hour and 350 of direct costs.

At the old fee of 3,900, the event left 2,902 after team and direct costs: 23.40 per owner hour, well below the floor rate of about 43.18. At the new fee of 6,600 the effective hourly rate is 45.18 and the fee clears the floor of about 6,353 with room for profit.

Which fee model should an event planner use?

Planners use four models, often more than one across their services. The right choice depends on how predictable the work is, what your market expects and how budgets vary between clients.

• Flat fee: one price for a defined scope. Easy to compare and approve; protect it with a clear list of what is and is not included.
• Percentage of budget: a share of the client's total spend, common in some luxury and destination markets. It ties pay to spending, not work, so set a minimum fee.
• Hourly: fair for consultations and advice, usually with a minimum block. Hard to sell for full planning without a cap.
• Hybrid: a base fee that covers your floor plus a share of budget above a set level, reflecting the extra suppliers and decisions of bigger events.

How do the models compare for the same event?

Take a wedding with a 47,000 client budget, 130 owner hours, 40 team hours at 18 and 380 of direct costs. The floor price, at 30 pay plus about 13.18 overhead per hour, is about 6,714.

A 12% percentage fee gives 5,640, below the floor. A flat fee of 7,200 gives an effective hourly rate of about 46.92. A hybrid of 4,500 plus 15% of the budget above 30,000 gives 7,050, about 45.77 an hour. An hourly fee at 60 per owner hour plus team hours at cost plus 50% gives 8,880, which is the highest but the hardest to sell for full planning. The planner chose the hybrid model, rounded up to include a second venue visit, because she could explain it in one sentence and it scales fairly with the size of the event.

How should deposits and payment schedules work?

A deposit, sometimes called a retainer, secures the date and pays for work done before the event. Many planners take a share of the fee at booking and the balance a set number of weeks before the event, so suppliers can be confirmed with money in hand.

Cancellation charges should reflect real loss and be written clearly. Consumer law in many countries expects fairness, and consumers can have cooling-off rights for contracts made at a distance or away from your premises. In the UK, for example, a consumer who asks you to start during the cancellation period and then cancels pays a proportionate amount for the service supplied, under regulation 36 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. Check your own country's rules with a lawyer.

Show tax separately. Registration thresholds differ: the UK VAT registration threshold is 90,000 of taxable turnover over the previous 12 months, and in Australia the GST registration threshold for most businesses is 75,000. Your accountant decides what applies to you.

How do you explain your fee to a client?

Clients rarely object to a fee they understand. They object to a number with no reason attached, or to a model that seems to reward the planner for something unrelated to the work. So write one sentence for each fee model you use and practise saying it aloud. For a flat fee: one price for everything listed in the proposal, which does not change unless we agree extra events or hours in writing. For a hybrid fee: a base fee for the core planning work, plus a small share of the budget above a set level, because bigger events bring more suppliers, contracts and decisions.

Put the explanation where the client will see it: in your brochure, in the proposal next to the fee, and in your contract in plain words. Show tax separately, show the deposit and the payment dates, and list what is not included as clearly as what is. If a client asks for a discount, offer a smaller scope rather than a lower price for the same work. Keeping the same fee for the same work is fairer to every client and easier to defend.

Finally, disclose any commission or referral fee a supplier pays you, in writing, before the client books that supplier. It does not have to change your fee, but it does have to be visible. Transparency is part of the price you are asking clients to trust.

Common mistakes when pricing planning services

• Pricing from competitors' websites instead of your own hours.
• Judging success by gross margin % alone; check the effective hourly rate too.
• Using a percentage fee without a minimum.
• Leaving travel, extra events and extra hours out of the scope and the price.
• Spending deposits for next year's events on this year's running costs.
• Accepting supplier commission without disclosing it to the client in writing.
• Never revisiting prices after the first year, even as hours and costs change.

How often should you review your prices?

Review once a quarter with your latest logged hours, and at least once a year before you update your brochure. Look at the effective hourly rate by package and by month, the share of enquiries that book and where the extra hours went on recent events.

Remember that a price change shows up slowly in a planning business. Weddings are often booked a year or more ahead, so the events you deliver this year may have been sold at last year's prices. Track new bookings separately so you can see the effect early.

If you want a single place to do all of this, The Event Planner Business Kit from Bodhih Training includes a workbook that calculates floor prices and effective hourly rates, and a calculator that compares the four fee models for one event. To check how you handle pricing conversations, the AssessAll Pricing and Discount Discipline assessment is one option, and you can turn the results into a development plan on Jobulary.