Partial Wedding Planning is one of those services that is a little hard to define.  This is mainly because it sits between Full Wedding Planning and Design and Wedding Day Management, but that’s not the only reason it’s hard to describe.  Partial Planning by its very nature, can mean something different to different couples. 

What is Partial Wedding Planning?

Partial Wedding Planning typically includes all of the services for Wedding Day Management (month-of wedding coordination) plus additional services to meet the needs of the couple.  And this is where it gets tricky to define what Partial Planning is.  Those additional services could be any number of things that a couple may need help with, for example:

• A set number of planning hours to help during the planning process.
• Budget planning and management.
• Help finding design vendors.

Offering Partial Planning as a Wedding Planner

I can imagine a Wedding Planner describing their service as ‘partial’ when a couple has expressed interest in their Wedding Day Management package but with a list of add-ons that fall just short of what’s offered in the full package. Or the reverse may happen. You present a couple with your Full Wedding Planning & Design package and they advise you of all the things within it that they’ve already done, or don’t need help with.

And in practice those of us who are custom designing our packages to suit our client’s needs are often editing our packages to some degree.  As long as you’re charging accordingly and enjoy the work this can work well for your business.

But if you find yourself doing this frequently it might be time to consider if your target market needs you to offer this mid-line service as a standard.

Should you Offer Partial Planning?

It’s tempting as a new Wedding Planner to offer the same mix of services that you see others offering.  And if you’re looking at other Wedding Planners who target a similar market this type of research can be helpful.  And as I said above, it’s also tempting to offer a service because you’re consistently being asked for it.  But if you’re considering making a service part of your regular line-up, neither of these factors should be the deciding factor.

Why shouldn’t I Offer the Services I’m Asked for?

I’m not saying you shouldn’t, but when deciding to offer a service you also need to consider whether you’re the right person to offer it and whether you will enjoy offering it.

This is something that sets me apart from others offering Wedding Day Management in my market.  At the I Do Crew (my wedding business) we specialise in Wedding Day Management.  Many others in our market offer this service but it’s not their preferred package.  It can be incredibly hard to walk into someone else’s wedding planning process and pick up the reigns.  I enjoy working with a couple to bring the plans they made to life on their wedding day.

Whilst I also enjoy Design and even full planning, I don’t get the same buzz from it that I do with Wedding Day Management.  I know this isn’t the same for everyone and others find it frustrating to Style and amateur’s wedding design.  That’s not me.  It’s something I love to do and over the years I’ve refined my processes so that the experience is a good one for me and my clients.

When it comes to Partial Wedding Planning some Planners find it less than rewarding to enter the planning process earlier than they would with Wedding Day Management but still have no control over the process.  If you’re considering making this service part of your regular list of offerings, I want you to think about how you will feel delivering it, especially if the way you usually work as a Full Planner may not suit the couple or work with where they are at in their planning when they hire you.  If you struggle with not having ultimate control of a process, this service could challenge you. 

But on the other hand, if you enjoy getting to know your couple and their wedding on a deeper level than can be possible with Wedding Day Management and you’re finding that your couples aren’t going for your Full Wedding Planning service as much as they’re asking you for this middle of the road service, it could be the right package for you to offer.

How do I Decide?

The message here isn’t whether Partial Wedding Planning is a good service to offer or not.  The message is to carefully weigh up any new service you offer to be sure of these things:

• Is there a demand for it?
• Does it suit my working style/skills/traits?
• Would I enjoy offering this service?

Could you use some help deciding which Services to offer and with putting together a package of inclusions that will speak to your couple’s needs? Head to the WedPro Shop to grab our Wedding Planner’s Packages Templates.  It all starts with our detailed Master List of inclusions for Full Wedding Planning + Design – segmented so you can easily see exactly what inclusions go with which step in the process of planning, designing and coordinating a couples wedding.