Question 1

How do I decide what to charge as a wedding planner or photographer?

Accepted Answer

Work backward from the life you need the business to pay for, not forward from what the planner down the street charges. Start with the income you want to take home, add the taxes you'll owe on it, add your yearly overhead, add the costs of delivering one wedding, then divide by the number of weddings you can genuinely handle in a year. That number is your target price. Competitor pricing is useful as a sanity check afterward, never as the starting point, because you have no idea what their costs, volume, or take-home actually look like.

Question 2

What's the difference between the break-even price and the target price?

Accepted Answer

The break-even price covers your per-wedding costs and that wedding's share of your yearly overhead, and pays you nothing. It's the price where you're working for free but not losing money, which makes it the real floor for any discount or friend rate. The target price adds the income you actually want, grossed up for taxes. Anything between the two is a wedding you're subsidizing.

Question 3

Why does the calculator add a tax percentage?

Accepted Answer

Because self-employed wedding pros pay both halves of self-employment tax plus income tax, and a price built on your desired take-home without that gross-up leaves you short every April. Setting aside 25 to 30 percent is a common working range in the US. Your actual rate depends on your state, entity type, deductions, and household income, so treat this as a planning estimate and confirm the real number with your accountant.

Question 4

What if the target price is far above what I charge now?

Accepted Answer

That's the normal result the first time through, and it doesn't mean you have to double your prices tomorrow. There are three levers and they combine: raise the price, take on more weddings, or cut what each wedding costs you to deliver. Most pros close a big gap over two or three booking seasons by raising prices on new inquiries only, trimming the scope that clients never valued, and cutting the hours that software can absorb.

Question 5

Why is there a slow-year price?

Accepted Answer

Because the target price only works if you actually book the number of weddings you planned for. Book 20 percent fewer and your overhead doesn't shrink with them, so the shortfall lands entirely on your income. The slow-year price is what you'd need to charge to still reach your goal in a lighter year, which makes it a useful anchor for your top package or for a season where inquiries are down.

Question 6

Does this compare my price to other planners in my area?

Accepted Answer

No, deliberately. There's no reliable public dataset of what wedding pros actually charge by market, and made-up benchmarks lead to worse decisions than no benchmarks. This calculator only uses numbers you enter about your own business, which is the only pricing input you can actually verify.

Question 7

Is this calculator really free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. No account, no credit card. Adjust the numbers, print the worksheet, and rerun it whenever your costs or your capacity change. It works for wedding planners, photographers, and any wedding pro selling packages.

What Should I Charge? Wedding Pricing Calculator