{"id":5999,"date":"2015-06-22T11:07:36","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T15:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weddingsforaliving.com\/?p=5999"},"modified":"2018-02-14T09:08:16","modified_gmt":"2018-02-14T14:08:16","slug":"charge-initial-wedding-planner-consultation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weddingsforaliving.com\/charge-initial-wedding-planner-consultation","title":{"rendered":"Should you Charge for the Initial Wedding Planner Consultation? &#8211; WFAL388"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When someone contacts you because they&#8217;re interested in your wedding planner services, assuming the price-point and your availability are a match, the next step is usually to schedule a face-to-face meeting.<\/p>\n<div class='et-box et-shadow'>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class='et-box-content'><h3>LISTEN TO THIS &#8211; EPISODE #388<\/h3>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_3962\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/confetti\/content.blubrry.com\/confetti\/wfal_388_20150622.mp3\" title=\"Play\" onclick=\"return powerpress_embed_html5a('3962','https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/confetti\/content.blubrry.com\/confetti\/wfal_388_20150622.mp3');\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/weddingsforaliving.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/powerpress\/blubrryplayer6.png\" title=\"Play\" alt=\"Play\" style=\"border:0;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/confetti\/content.blubrry.com\/confetti\/wfal_388_20150622.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/weddingsforaliving.com\/?powerpress_pinw=5999-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Keep in mind that this very first meeting isn&#8217;t a &#8216;true&#8217; consultation. Your goal is <em>not<\/em> to spend hours providing them with an extensive this-is-how-to-plan-your-wedding blueprint.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, think of this initial consultation as a meet-and-greet; an opportunity for both parties to learn a bit more about the other and to see if there&#8217;s a &#8216;fit&#8217;.<\/p>\n<h3>How to Decide<\/h3>\n<p>The majority of the professional wedding planners that I&#8217;ve communicated with do not charge for this meeting.\u00a0 The professional wedding planners who do charge a fee for this first-time meeting, however, seem to have little to no resistance receiving payment for it.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line: If your experience and research determines that your ideal customer is willing to pay for your initial meeting (without it hurting your business), go for it.<\/p>\n<p>And, just so you know, currently, my initial consultation with interested prospects is free and lasts approximately 45 minutes. (And, I like to think that because of the questions\u00a0 I ask beforehand, I don&#8217;t waste a lot of my time meeting with unqualified tire-kickers).\u00a0 But, I do charge a fee, if I have to travel outside of what I determine to be my local area &#8212; 25+ miles away.<\/p>\n<p>Would love to know what you&#8217;re doing.\u00a0 <strong>Any success with charging a fee for the initial wedding planner consultation?<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 Please, post your comments, below.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HAPPY PLANNING!<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Related Articles<\/h2>\n<p><a title=\"HOW TO: Meet with Brides\" href=\"https:\/\/weddingsforaliving.com\/how-to-meet-with-brides\">How to Meet with Brides<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To charge a fee or not to charge a fee&#8230;that is the question!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[92,71,129],"post_series":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Should I Charge for the Initial Wedding Planner Consultation?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How to decide if you, the wedding planner, should charge a fee for the initial client consultation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/weddingsforaliving.com\/charge-initial-wedding-planner-consultation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should I Charge for the Initial Wedding Planner Consultation?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How to decide if you, the wedding planner, should charge a fee for the initial client consultation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/weddingsforaliving.com\/charge-initial-wedding-planner-consultation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Weddings for a Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-22T15:07:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-14T14:08:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/weddingsforaliving.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/INITIAL-CONSULT1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"428\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Debbie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Debbie\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/weddingsforaliving.com\/charge-initial-wedding-planner-consultation#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/weddingsforaliving.com\/charge-initial-wedding-planner-consultation\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Debbie\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/weddingsforaliving.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c034f0454dd3042b17efaa198fc8caa3\"},\"headline\":\"Should you Charge for the Initial Wedding Planner Consultation? 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