Planning
What is a wedding concierge? And do you need one?
Somewhere between “wedding planner” and “very organised friend” sits a job title that keeps appearing in venue brochures and Instagram bios: the wedding concierge. The term drifted over from hotels, and like most borrowed job titles it means slightly different things depending on who’s selling it. Some people call it a wedding receptionist, a guest concierge, or just the person who answers the questions. Here’s the plain-English version.
A wedding concierge is a personal-assistant service for a wedding. They don’t design your day or manage your vendors - that’s a planner. A concierge looks after the people at the wedding: the errands, the bookings, the touch-ups and, above all, the endless questions.
What a wedding concierge actually does
It depends on who they’re serving.
For the couple, a concierge is an extra pair of hands: chasing RSVPs, booking beauty appointments, assembling welcome bags, arranging transport, holding the bouquet and fixing the veil on the day. Anything that isn’t the wedding itself, but orbits it.
For the guests - the half most people forget - a concierge is the person who fields the questions. What’s the dress code? Where do I park? Is the ceremony outdoors? What time does it actually start? What’s a Sangeet? Every one of those questions otherwise lands on the couple, usually in the same week they least have time for them.
Concierge, planner, coordinator - who does what
| Role | What they own | When they work |
|---|---|---|
| Wedding planner | The wedding itself - vendors, budget, design, timeline | Months ahead, through the day |
| Coordinator | Execution - running the schedule on the day | The final weeks and the day |
| Concierge | The people - errands, questions, comfort | Around and on the day |
These aren’t competitors; they’re layers. A planner builds the wedding, a coordinator runs it, and a concierge absorbs everything that would otherwise interrupt the first two - or interrupt you.
What a wedding concierge costs
For human concierge services, The Knot cites a typical range of roughly $800-1,400 in the US, with packages varying widely. In the UK the term is younger - concierge support mostly appears as a venue add-on or a boutique service - so pricing is less standardised. For comparison, full wedding planning is commonly quoted at 10-15% of your total budget, which is why a concierge is usually framed as the lighter, cheaper layer.
If you’re still settling the overall number, our wedding budget calculator will give you a working split to argue with.
The new kind: the chat concierge
The newest wedding concierge isn’t a person - it’s a chat. Guest-facing concierge services now run over WhatsApp: guests message a number, ask whatever they’d otherwise ask you, and get an instant answer drawn from the couple’s confirmed details. No app to download, no login, and no 11pm text to the bride about parking.
The chat format fixes the two things a human concierge can’t: hours and languages. A chat concierge answers at 2am and in whatever language the guest writes in - which matters enormously for multicultural weddings with family arriving from three continents. Maya is one of these: a WhatsApp wedding concierge for your guests, flat £100 per wedding.
Do you need one?
Honest answer: not every wedding does. The signals that you’d feel the difference:
- Your guest list is large - past about a hundred people, question volume stops being cute.
- Guests are travelling - flights, hotels and unfamiliar cities multiply the logistics questions.
- The wedding is multi-day or multicultural - more events, more dress codes, more “what happens at this one?”
- You’ve become the help desk - if you’re already answering the same question for the fifth time, that’s the job description arriving uninvited.
A planner runs your wedding. A coordinator runs your day. A concierge - human or chat - saves your inbox.
Quick answers
What does a wedding concierge do?
A wedding concierge handles the personal, peripheral side of a wedding - guest questions, errands, bookings, day-of assistance - rather than planning the wedding itself. Think of them as an assistant for the couple and their guests, not a manager for the event.
What is the difference between a wedding concierge and a wedding planner?
A planner designs and delivers the wedding: vendors, budget, design, timeline. A coordinator runs the day itself. A concierge is a service layer for the people - fielding questions, running errands and smoothing the small stuff. Couples often pair a concierge with a planner rather than choosing between them.
How much does a wedding concierge cost?
Human concierge services are typically quoted in the high hundreds to low thousands, while full wedding planners are commonly priced at 10-15% of the total budget. Chat-based concierges cost far less - Maya, for example, is a flat £100 per wedding.
Do wedding guests get a concierge too?
Increasingly, yes. Guest-facing concierges answer the questions that would otherwise land on the couple - dress codes, timings, venues, travel. Chat-based services do this over WhatsApp, around the clock, in each guest's own language.