How Much Does An Event Planner Cost?
time, and often with very little information around it to be able to even give some form of a guide.
Think about the building a house analogy- You can’t just go to the builder, “I want to build a house, how much will it cost in labour?”. There are so many elements and factors that go into this; How big is the house, is the block clear, is it a full build or just a renovation, what sort of materials are you using, and the list goes on.
The same can be said for event planning and the costs associated with planning.
Before we go on, lets clarify what we mean by event planning fees, because this can sometimes result in some confusion for people.
Event planning fees are the total cost to engage an event planner. This is the cost that we make for our labour to do the job. This does not include event elements. For instance, if an event has a total cost of $50,000, that money does not go to the event planner. Majority of this cost will go to the suppliers and venue who help to deliver the event.
The event planning fees are the amount, usually paid up front to lock your planner in and get them working on your project, it then covers all the endless hours of hard work and expertise that your planner brings to the event.
How do event planners charge?
Like with any project based work, there are many ways event planners will charge for their time, and there is no right or wrong answer. Each planning company will have its own pricing strategy and structure they will follow.
- Flat Fee – this is a rate that covers the scope and complexity of the event at task. The fee usually includes everything from initial consultation through to execution of the event. However, be sure to check the scope document when reviewing a flat fee, as they will often outline parameters that are not included.
- Percentage of the budget – a lesser popular model is a % fee of the total budget, usually between 15-20% of the budget. This is an easy model to quote off, and usually helps to ensure that the bigger the budget (and thus more work to coordinate), the higher the compensation to the planner.
- Hourly rate – subcontractors and casuals will typically work off an hourly rate method, keeping track of the hours spent on the project, and invoicing the client for the number of hours at a predetermined cost per hour.
- Commission based – this is an incredibly rare model for event planners in Australia, but this model works off the client paying a minimal base rate, and the planner making a commission off each of the suppliers they engage.
What factors will impact your event planner cost?
There are so many factors that go into pricing an event planning project, and so many elements that can determine if the event planning will be expensive or not so expensive.
1. Day of the week
Like whenever you go out for dinner and there is a public holiday surcharge, or a Sunday surcharge. The same applies for event planning. If your brand activation requires a bump out between 12am – 2am, there will be a penalty rate applied in comparison to an event that can bump out between 12pm and 2pm.
2. How many days
This one is pretty common sense, but the more days the event runs for, the more elements there are to coordinate and organise, and the more man hours required on site for the event, means the higher the cost.
3. What stage of planning we are bought in on
This is always an interesting one, and one of the first questions I will ask when we have our discovery call. What is already planned and where are we at? Some clients will engage us as event planners at the every end when it just needs to be finessed and pulled together, these quotes of course don’t require as many hours and as much man power as an event starting from absolute scratch that doesn’t even have a venue.
4. How many guests are involved
The number of people at your event can quickly increase or decrease the amount of work involved. For instance, if we are engaged to manage your RSVP process, organise your seating chart, name cards etc, then an event with 100 people is already has a lot less touch points than an event with 10,000 people. It’s now 10,000 people who may email in with questions, 10,000 name badges, 10,000 seats to assign – you get the gist.
5. How many suppliers are involved
Yes, this one does impact how many hours are going to be involved in planning your event and thus the cost of your event planning quote. If your event is a simple straightforward one where you only need a venue, a caterer and maybe a photographer is very different to an event where you need marquees, Portaloos, security, road closures, power, waste management etc. More suppliers means more research to find the best of each one, more elements to contact and coordinate along the way, and more suppliers to manage on the day.
6. Your teams involvement
This element can be a tricky one to determine. Sometimes we will work alongside a clients internal team and ‘share the load’, this can mean we can reduce our costing by using your team and their internal skill sets and man hours. However, this isn’t always a direct correlation, meaning just because you have more internal help, doesn’t always mean our fees will be less. Have you ever heard the saying too many cooks in the kitchen?
7. Your teams assets
What do you already have that we can use? Often in events we need to create new template documents, slide decks, budget trackers, branding elements etc. Having the majority of these already developed from past events that we can use, will save us on hours to recreate or create these from scratch.
8. Location
This one should be pretty self-explanatory. If the event is in a city we are based out of, there will be less cost associated with it, then if we needed to travel.
9. Experience
Like with anything, you get what you pay for, and as the saying goes, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. If you are wanting someone to deliver an incredible event with a relatively stress free experience, then this will cost more than a junior who is just starting out.
Is it worth it?
Of course it is! Just like you engage an accountant to get the best tax return, or a lawyer to get you out of that speeding fine, or an electrician to install the dimmer light switch you’ve been eyeing off, getting a professional event planner is going to save you every time.
It will save you financially, save you time and save you on the dreaded stress that can sometimes come with event planning.
Okay but what does it really cost?
We never like to give out numbers whilly nilly because they simply may not be relevant. A good event planner typically starts at $5,000 for a simple event, and all the way upwards from there depending on the answers to the above factors.
When it comes to quoting event planning services, we are always here to chat. We get it, sometimes you may not know if you can afford a planner or not. It may feel like something super unachievable, but may not be that far off.
If you want to chat and find out about how you can fit a planner into your budget. Reach out!
