12 Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Southern California Wedding Planner

Your photographer captures the day. Your caterer feeds it. Your planner is the reason it actually happens.

It's the one hire that touches every other one, so it's worth interviewing carefully. A great planner will welcome hard questions. The wrong one will get vague.

We're a Southern California wedding planner, and yes, we'd love for you to hire us. But we'd rather you hire the right fit. These are the 12 questions we'd ask if we were in your shoes.

Experience and fit

1. Can I see a few full weddings you've planned, not just the highlight photos? A gallery shows taste. A full wedding shows range: the timeline, the vendor team, how they solved the hard parts.

2. Have you planned a wedding like ours? Same size, same style, same budget range. A planner who excels at 40-person elopements may not be the right lead for 250 guests across three days.

3. Who will actually be with us on the wedding day? Some firms send an associate. Know who's running your day, and meet them before you sign.

4. How do you like to communicate, and how fast do you reply? Email, text, a shared planning portal? A mismatch here causes more friction than anything else.

Services and pricing

5. What's the difference between your full-service, partial and day-of packages? A "day-of coordinator" usually starts four to eight weeks out. Full service starts at the beginning. Ask exactly where each package begins and ends.

Package

Typically starts

Best for

Full-service planning

12–18 months out

Busy couples, destination weddings, big guest lists

Partial planning

4–6 months out

Couples who booked key vendors and need a pro to finish

Day-of coordination

4–8 weeks out

DIY planners who want someone to run the day

6. How do you charge: flat fee, percentage or hourly? None is wrong, but you should know what moves the number.

7. Do you accept commissions or referral fees from vendors? A good answer is honest and transparent. You want recommendations based on fit, not kickbacks.

8. What isn't included? Travel, overtime, rehearsal attendance and extra assistants are common add-ons. Get them in writing.

Questions only a local planner can answer well

9. Have you worked at our venue, or in our region? A planner who knows the loading dock, the noise curfew and the venue manager by name saves you hours.

10. How do you handle beach, park or city permits? In Southern California this is a real job. Ask who applies, who pays and what happens if a permit is denied.

11. What's your plan for weather, from marine layer to desert wind? Listen for specifics: tent holds, heater rentals, a backup ceremony site, a sunset-based timeline.

12. Which vendors would you recommend for our style and budget, and why? A strong local network is half of what you're paying for. The "why" tells you if they understood you.

Red flags: when to keep looking

• No written contract, or a contract with no clear scope

• Vague answers about pricing, add-ons or vendor commissions

• No recent references you can actually call

• Pushback when you want to bring in a vendor you already love

• Slow, scattered replies before you've even signed

• No liability insurance (many Southern California venues require it)