Role guide

Wedding planner jobs

Open wedding planner roles across the US, updated weekly, plus what the job involves, what employers ask for, and what it actually pays.

What wedding planners do

A wedding planner works for the couple: scoping the wedding, setting and defending the budget, sourcing and contracting vendors, designing the day, building a timeline the whole supplier team works from, and running the rehearsal and the wedding itself. Most wedding planners are self-employed or work for a small studio, so advertised salaried roles are a smaller share of the market than they are in corporate events.

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.

The occupation as a whole

155,800 jobs in 2024
5% growth projected 2024–2034
about 15,500 openings a year

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook (opens in a new tab). Checked July 2026. Figures cover meeting, convention and event planners, the occupation this role sits inside.

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

Assistant or day-of coordinator
Working somebody else’s weddings. The fastest way to learn what actually goes wrong on the day.
Wedding planner, studio or venue
A salaried or contract role planning weddings under an established brand and its vendor list.
Independent planner
Your own clients, your own pricing, your own liability. Most planners reach this point within two to four years.
Studio owner
Associates working under your brand, multiple weddings a weekend, and a business to run as well as weddings to plan.

Most employers listing this role ask for a certification.

Ours takes about six months, self-paced.

Certificate in Wedding Planning →Compare all programs

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