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Email templates · Event and party service

Email template to request a quote from an event planner

You are hosting something bigger than you can organize between work and everything else: a wedding, a 50th anniversary party, a fundraiser, a corporate retreat. An event planner can run all of it, or only the day itself, or just the first few weeks of finding a venue and vendors. Planners charge in different ways, too: a flat fee, a percentage of the total event budget, or an hourly rate, and the same planner may offer all three.

Email is the way to start because your first message defines the job. When you write down the date, the size, the budget, and how much help you want, the planner can answer with a real proposal instead of a "let's hop on a call" that goes in circles. It also gives you their fee structure in writing before any deposit changes hands.

Before you send

  • The event: what it is, the date or the month, the city, and a rough guest count. If you already have a venue, name it.
  • How much help you want. Full planning from scratch, partial planning where you have some vendors booked, or day-of coordination where they run the timeline on the day. Say which; it changes the price by a lot.
  • Your total budget for the event, not just the planner. A planner needs it to tell you whether your vision fits and what their fee would be if they charge a percentage.
  • Anything already decided or already booked. A venue, a caterer, a date that cannot move, a family member who is handling the flowers.
  • Two or three things that matter most to you, such as staying on budget, a specific style, or not having to talk to a single vendor yourself.
Subject Planning help for [event type] on [event date or month], [city] 
Hi [planner or company name],

I'm hosting a [wedding / anniversary party / fundraiser / other] in [month and year, or exact date] in [city] for about [guest count] guests, and I'm looking for a planner to [handle everything from venue search to the day itself / take over from where we are now / coordinate the day so we can enjoy it].

Where things stand: [nothing is booked yet / the venue is booked, and its name / we have a caterer and photographer, nothing else]. Our total budget for the event is around [amount], [including / not including] your fee.

What matters most to us is [staying inside the budget / a specific look or feel / not having to manage vendors ourselves / other]. [One sentence on the style or mood if you have one.]

Could you send me a written proposal that covers what your service includes at the level we need, how you charge (flat fee, percentage, or hourly), what the payment schedule looks like, and whether you're available on our date? If it would help, I'm glad to fill in details by email first. We're hoping to choose a planner by [date].

Thanks,
[Your name]
[Your phone number]

Everything in brackets is yours to fill in. Keep the rest as it is or change the tone to match how you write.

After you send

  • A serious planner replies within a few days, often with a short questionnaire or a request for a 20-minute call before the proposal. That is reasonable; just ask for the proposal in writing afterward.
  • Read what "full planning" actually includes. Some proposals cap the number of meetings or vendor contacts, and a low fee with a low cap can cost more than a higher fee with none.
  • If they charge a percentage, ask what counts as the event budget. Whether it includes the venue or your own purchases changes the fee substantially.
  • Ask for two references from events like yours and look at their recent work. A planner whose portfolio is all corporate galas may not be the right fit for a backyard wedding, no matter how good the proposal reads.

Or don't send it yourself

Forward the job to myagent@standinfor.me and let StandIn run the whole thread.

StandIn is an email assistant that handles conversations with businesses for you. You write it one email saying what you need. It writes to the business, waits for the answer, follows up when they go quiet, pushes back on the number when it should, and brings the results back to your inbox for you to decide. You don't need to install an app or sign up. The first email you send is already the start of the task.

Hand this to StandIn opens an email to myagent@standinfor.me with the job already written out

To myagent@standinfor.me Subject Find me an event planner and get proposals 
Hi StandIn,

Please find an event planner for me and collect written proposals.

Event: [type, date or month, city, and guest count].
Help I want: [full planning / partial planning / day-of coordination].
Already booked: [venue, vendors, or nothing].
Total budget: [amount, and whether it includes the planner's fee].
What matters most: [two or three priorities].
Style: [a sentence, or "open to ideas"].

Reach out to three or four planners who do this kind of event in my area, confirm they're available, get each one's proposal with a clear fee structure and what it includes, ask for references, and bring me a comparison so I can choose.

Thanks,
[Your name]

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