Wedding planner jobs

What it pays

ZipRecruiter reports an average of $45,958 a year for wedding planners in the United States. BLS does not report wedding planners separately. It folds them into meeting, convention and event planners, whose median is $59,440 a year. Both figures describe employed roles. They tell you very little about a self-employed planner’s income, which depends on your fee model, your bookings and your market, and we will not publish an estimate of that.

• $45,958 per year

  average annual pay for wedding planners in the United States

  Source: ZipRecruiter(opens in a new tab). Checked July 2026.

• $59,440 per year

  median annual pay for meeting, convention and event planners (2024)

  Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook(opens in a new tab). Checked July 2026.

What employers typically ask for

• No license is required to plan weddings in any country we operate in
• A portfolio, real weddings, styled shoots or documented assistant work
• Vendor relationships in the market you intend to work in
• Contract, deposit and payment-schedule literacy; this is where new planners lose money
• Weekend availability, effectively year-round
• A wedding planning certificate, which studios routinely list and couples routinely ask about

Where the job leads

1. 1

   Assistant or day-of coordinator

   Working somebody else’s weddings. The fastest way to learn what actually goes wrong on the day.

2. 2

   Wedding planner, studio or venue

   A salaried or contract role planning weddings under an established brand and its vendor list.

3. 3

   Independent planner

   Your own clients, your own pricing, your own liability. Most planners reach this point within two to four years.

4. 4

   Studio owner

   Associates working under your brand, multiple weddings a weekend, and a business to run as well as weddings to plan.