Wedding planners on the French Riviera, as anywhere in the world for that matter, can generate their income in a number of different ways. Detailed below are four of the most common fee structures employed by wedding planners. Be aware that it is possible that a wedding planner may use a combination of all of the below methods or they may operate using one or two only. Make sure you are aware of your wedding planner’s fee structure and billing process from the beginning so that there will be no nasty surprises.
- Management fee: a fixed percentage of the total cost of the wedding. The total cost being sum of the purchase prices from all suppliers.
- Margin / mark-up: some wedding planners mark up on each item purchased from a supplier therefore the price presented to you will include a hidden mark-up charged either as a percentage or a fixed amount.
- Time spent: many wedding planners charge for the time they spend on the preparation in advance of the wedding and the time spent with the client on site during the actual wedding celebrations. Usually the cost for onsite time is greater than the preparation time and time is charged either per day or per hour. Each wedding planner sets their own rate depending on the fixed charges they need to cover in order to make a profit (office rental, salaries of employees, taxes and social charges etc.).
- Commissions (AKA Kick-backs): revenue from commissions is a real phenomenon in the South of France in a range of different sectors. By commission I mean being given a golden “thank you” for the referral of business to a supplier in a similar way to how an estate agent takes a commission as a percentage of the overall sale price of a given property. If you are either going to be billed directly by a wedding supplier or if a wedding planner bills you for any given service, either way there may be a commission for the “business bringer” integrated into the price which will be billed back after the payment of the service. This can be a rather strange concept for Anglo-Saxons as referrals usually do not come with a price tag in the UK or US, however this is very common business practice on the Cote d’Azur so don’t be alarmed
To find out about the wedding planning services I offer, please contact me by email on kerry@my-riviera-wedding.com.
