Wedding planners and coordinators in Australia

Wedding planners and coordinators by region

• New South Wales15

  • All of New South Wales
  • Sydney11
  • Central Coast7
• Victoria10

  • All of Victoria
  • Melbourne10
• Queensland15

  • All of Queensland
  • Brisbane9
  • Gold Coast and Tweed Heads7
• Western Australia4

  • All of Western Australia
• South Australia2

  • All of South Australia
• Tasmania2

  • All of Tasmania
• Australian Capital Territory2

  • All of Australian Capital Territory
• Northern Territory2

  • All of Northern Territory

What to ask a planner or coordinator before you book

1. Planning and coordination are different jobs

   A wedding planner is with you from the first venue search to the final pack-down, helping you build your vendor team, manage the budget and shape the day over many months. An on-the-day coordinator takes everything you have already planned and runs the day. They are different jobs at different prices, so choose the one that fills the gaps in your own time and energy.

2. How much help do you need?

   Wedding help comes in steps: set-up only (a few hours on the day), a shorter coordination focused on the ceremony, on-the-day coordination for the whole day, partial planning (joining part-way through to take on particular things) and full planning from the engagement onwards. If you are already organised, you may not need full planning, and a good planner will tell you so.

3. Find out what your venue's coordinator covers

   Some venues include a 'wedding coordinator' in the venue fee, so read the contract carefully. That role is often the venue's operations contact: they make sure the venue runs as it should, and may not look after your other vendors, your guests or your run sheet. Ask what the venue's coordinator covers, and who looks after the rest, well before the morning of the wedding.

4. Ask whether they have worked at your venue

   Knowing the venue counts for a lot. A coordinator who has worked there knows the loading dock, where the vendors park, the curfew, the wet weather plan and which vendors the venue prefers. Ask them directly: have you coordinated a wedding at our venue, and what did you learn there?

5. Tell them how many vendors you have

   Every vendor on the day adds work for someone, and that someone is usually the coordinator. A bigger wedding, a wedding over more than one day, a destination wedding or one with cultural ceremonies can need more people on the coordination team, so be honest about your vendor count on the first call.

6. Lock in the run sheet four to six weeks before

   The run sheet is the document everyone works from on the day: each vendor's arrival time, the photographer's golden-hour window, the celebrant's cue for the walk down the aisle, when the caterer plates up and when the band plays. A good coordinator owns the master run sheet and shares it with every vendor. We suggest locking it in four to six weeks out and sending it to every vendor one to two weeks before the wedding. If you are going without a coordinator, you can build your run sheet in Managing Matrimony on the Manage plan and download it as a PDF or CSV to send to your vendors.

7. Agree who makes the calls on the day

   On the day, someone needs the authority to make the calls: when to start the ceremony, when to hold the speeches, when to take the golden-hour portraits, when to keep the dance floor going. Make sure your coordinator, or someone from the wedding party if you are going without one, has that authority in writing, and that your vendors know to go to them.

Common questions about wedding planners and coordinators in Australia