Choosing an event planner is a significant decision. You are not simply hiring someone to source a venue and book a caterer — you are bringing a person or a team into one of the most important projects you will undertake, giving them access to your vision, your budget, and in many cases your most significant personal or professional moments. The stakes are real. And yet the process of choosing a planner is often rushed, driven by a quick online search and a single introductory call. The right questions, asked early, make an enormous difference — not just to the outcome of the event, but to the entire experience of planning it.
The first question worth asking any event planner is deceptively simple: how do you prefer to communicate, and how often? It sounds administrative, but it tells you a great deal about how the working relationship will actually feel. A planner who goes quiet for weeks at a time and resurfaces with updates only when chased is not a partner — they are a supplier. The best planners maintain consistent, proactive communication that keeps you informed without overwhelming you, and they establish clear expectations about how and when you will hear from them from the very first meeting. The second question follows naturally from the first: who will actually be managing my event? In larger agencies, the person you meet in the initial presentation is not always the person running your event on the day. Understanding exactly who is responsible for your project, and having direct access to them throughout the process, is non-negotiable.
The remaining three questions are equally important but less frequently asked. How do you handle problems on the day — can you give me an example of something that went wrong at a past event and how you resolved it? This question is not designed to catch anyone out. It is designed to understand how a planner thinks under pressure, and whether their instinct is to protect the client’s experience or to protect themselves. The fourth question: how transparent are you about supplier relationships and commissions? Some planners receive referral fees from venues and vendors they recommend, which is not inherently wrong — but it should be disclosed, and it should never compromise the advice you receive. And the fifth, perhaps the most telling of all: what would you do differently if this were your event? A planner who can answer that question honestly — who has genuine opinions, who will push back when something could be better, who cares about the outcome as if it were personal — is the kind of planner who will deliver something truly exceptional. The ones who simply tell you what you want to hear will deliver something adequate. And adequate is never what you were hoping for.
We welcome every one of these questions and a few more besides. If you’re considering working with us, get in touch — we’d love to have the conversation.
