What Does A Wedding Planner Do All Year? A Very Elegante 2025.

While many people imagine ‘wedding season’ to be primarily in the summer months, in actual fact it tends to stretch out languorously throughout the year like our cat Boots in his favourite sunny spot. In 2025 our first wedding was in April and the last in December, meaning that throughout the year we work on a rolling cycle of planning, designing and delivering. When I’m not physically at a wedding or in the office, you’ll find me on planning trips, site visits, food tastings, industry networking events, symposiums, conferences and, yes, lots of Zoom calls. At the end of 2025 I’ve banked 35+ flights, worked on 11 weddings, attended 8+ industry events, and secured one very special award – so if you’ve ever wondered ‘what does a wedding planner do all year?’, this is our very Elegante year in review.

What does a wedding planner do all year?

Over a decade since I first started wedding planning, here is how 12 months in business pans out.

January-March

In the first few months of the year we dived into the details for 2025 weddings and laid lots of the groundwork for 2026.

Site visits

Once your venue has been chosen and you’ve started to build a picture of how your wedding day will flow and what elements will be included, it’s crucial that we have a site visit. Actually standing in the space and envisioning how things will look and feel, meeting with the venue team that will be present on the day, and physically getting the lay of the land for things like supplier load in, kitchen access and so on are all vital steps that shouldn’t be missed. We may do more than one of these for each wedding. In 2025, we:

Visited London’s Corinthia hotel for a site visit for Emily and Louis’ wedding which would take place there in April
Flew to Sottogrande via Gibraltar for a site visit at a brand new venue; newly opened locations or those that are new to us at Elegante are especially important to plan site visits at

Venue search trips

For our couples having destination weddings, more often than not we will go together on a venue search trip to their chosen country. Seeing a venue online and seeing it in person are two very different experiences, and it is not uncommon for us to make requests of wedding venues that are outside of their normal ‘packages’ or previous events. Early in the year, we went on two venue search trips with our couples:

First to Florence, one of our favourite parts of Italy, to view venues for their May 2026 wedding – we are currently deep in the planning process for them, and very much looking forward to their celebration at one of our most loved venues (but you’ll have to come back in May to find out which one!)
We also headed to Sicily with another of our 2026 couples, and whilst there chose their castello venue where they’ll have their wedding in June

Planning trips

Site visits, venue search trips and planning trips all serve distinct purposes at different points in the process. How many planning trips we go on depends on a number of factors, but the first few months of 2025 were particularly busy with these!

We went to Portugal twice (once in January and once in March) for Emily and Avery’s May wedding; first for a food tasting with their caterer, and secondly for logistics planning. I met with all of their suppliers on site at their venue, ensuring every single meticulous detail had been discussed and agreed – this is invaluable to allow everyone to arrive at the wedding feeling confident, excited, and with one goal in mind: deliver an exceptional experience for our couple
In March I also headed to Spain on a planning trip for Chhaya and Harry’s multi-site wedding, visiting both Barcelona and Sitges for food tasting and detail-diving
Slightly less far afield, we also had a food tasting for Emily and Louis’ upcoming wedding with their caterer in London

While it might seem frivolous for your wedding planner to attend your food tasting, it’s actually very important – discussing menu options, requesting changes and negotiating all of this within the confines of a contract can become complex. Of course, it’s a lovely experience to sit down with my couples and get a flavour (pun intended) of what’s to come at their wedding, but I’m there in a professional capacity to ensure everyone is on the same page. Any catering issues on your wedding day are very noticeable to your guests, so I work proactively with your team both during the planning and on the day to ensure everything is smooth…and delicious!

Industry events

After more than 10 years of wedding planning, I have learnt to become selective with the industry events I attend – I now know what is beneficial and what just makes a busy calendar, so I’m very intentional with the networking I do these days. Every industry event serves a purpose.

In early February I took part in La Lista’s Hyde Park walk event, where couples joined us for a stroll around the park to chat about planning their wedding in Italy and were able to get tips and advice from various planners and professionals
In January I went to RSVP Club’s ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ at Harrods in London, a networking group I absolutely love being a part of
Finally, I flew to Palermo in Sicily for an event with Italy 4 Weddings – a chance for wedding professionals to connect with venues and vendors throughout Italy. I was hosted at the fabulous Rocco Forte Villa Igea for 3 days, and met so many wonderful people who I know I will recommend to my couples in future

Other notable events in the first few months of the year were two of our couples getting featured in Smashing The Glass, dozens of planning meets via Zoom and in-office, flower sampling meetings, new client consultations and detailed logistics conversations to ensure the granular details are just as fabulous as the bigger design picture.

Whew, quite the start to 2025!

April-June

During April-June there was, of course, many more hours of planning, chatting to potential new clients, and all the important day to day business jobs we can’t do without. Skipping over the repetitive parts, here were the highlights of these few months:

Weddings

Emily and Louis at the Corinthia in London; an elegant Jewish wedding which was later featured on Smashing The Glass
Emily and Avery in Portugal; a gorgeous celebration in the Algarve, taking place partially at Emily’s grandfather’s home, partially at a stunning venue filled with orange groves, and partially at a private beach club. You’ll find the link to their very own blog at the end of this one, a whopping 5 events over 4 days!
We also travelled to Spain for Chhaya and Harry’s multicultural, multisite, multiday wedding which consisted of 5 events over 3 days and saw us blending Hindu and Jewish wedding customs to create something magical

More planning trips!

One of our 2026 couples is getting married in Tuscany, so we flew out there for a planning trip with them…
…Followed immediately by a flight directly to Sicily. Back to back planning trips have become more of the norm as we are now so busy with destination weddings, and it’s an absolute pleasure to be so!

Highlight of the year!

The absolute high point of the year came at the end of April when I attended the RSVP Symposium in Vienna – I had the privilege of firstly speaking at the event, presenting to my peers, and then winning Favourite Destination Wedding Planner at the Awards Gala – all while in fancy dress, as you’ll see below!

July-December

The latter half of 2025 consisted of yet more beautiful weddings, more new clients, more exciting plans for 2026…

In August I headed off on more venue search trips for our 2026 couples, touring around Tuscany, Florence and Portugal. This couple came to me knowing they wanted a destination wedding, but not quite sure which country to choose – I narrowed it down in line with their brief, and we viewed lots of venues until we found their perfect fit…
…Which just so happened to be in Athens! When you work with Team Elegante on planning your wedding, we are meticulous in our search to find the right venue and suppliers for you – not the box we’d like you to fit into, or limited to what we’ve done before. It may take several countries and dozens of venues to find it, but find it we will. Where there’s Elegante, there’s a way.
The end of August saw us at the iconic Kew Gardens for Annabel and Oli’s wedding, taking place within the famous glasshouses – we still love working on celebrations closer to home in London, and are always up for the logistical challenge of a wedding in a public space.
September and October were for planning trips – Florence, Rome, Sicily and Athens, all on our 2026 weddings schedule and all of which we’re very much looking forward to

Did you know we now have an in-house travel concierge? Your destination wedding is in safe hands, with a dedicated team member to handle hotel room blocks for your guests, support you and your loved ones with their travel plans, and even help plan your honeymoon – they are also present at your wedding to make sure everything runs smoothly.

We also attended more industry events; RSVP Tuscany symposium, a FAM trip in Puglia to visit new venues and expand our repertoire, and an Italian wedding conference in Florence
We crescendo in December with our final wedding of the year in Essex!

Looking back, it’s hard to believe we got quite so much done at Team Elegante – but I thrive on the work I do with my couples and the relationships I build with them, and love the time I spend with my colleagues, friends and new connections in the industry. I’m always looking for ways to continue growing, learning and providing our signature Elegante Excellence to our couples.

All weddings, features and highlights mentioned here are linked below if you’d like to explore more of any of them:

FAQ: What does a wedding planner do all year?

What is the most popular time of year for weddings?

Traditionally the summer months remain popular for weddings, but more and more couples are favouring the shoulder seasons or winter celebrations for various reasons. For destination weddings it can be wise to avoid the peak of summer, since the weather can be extremely hot and prices are often higher – there is also a period of time in Italy when the locals leave the cities to escape the oppressive heat, which can make finding suppliers trickier.

Many of our weddings are for Jewish couples, and every year there is a 3 week period which falls within the summer months when weddings are not allowed. For this reason, lots of our weddings take place in the months either side of the summer as well.

Take a look at our 2026 Jewish wedding calendar to see when the 3 weeks falls next year.

How long does it take to plan a wedding?

You’ll have noticed we are constantly busy with planning weddings throughout the year, even during our busiest months when we are also delivering weddings in various places around Europe. This is because our couples’ lead times vary – anything from 6 weeks to 18 months – and the timeline we work on adjusts accordingly.

Read our blog ‘how to plan a wedding in 6 weeks’ for everything you need to know about shorter turnaround times.

How many weddings does Elegante by Michelle J plan each year?

The exact number of weddings Elegante by Michelle J plans per year varies, but we are most definitely not a ‘wedding factory’. The number is usually on the lower side because we work with more generous budgets, complex plans, and often over multiple days and in various locations. We truly want every couple to feel as though they are our only priority, and the level of service we deliver simply can’t be replicated on a larger scale. Our motto is that working with us feels like ‘a hug, not a handshake’ – it’s warm and personal as well as being professional and experienced, so we keep our circle of couples small and sweet.

We often take on both full-service planning clients and Elegante Piccolo clients each year – find out the difference in this blog.

What does a wedding planner do when not at a wedding?

Aside from the planning and delivering of weddings and the networking and connection opportunities, I am also a business owner. This means marketing, website updates, resource creation, collaboration outreach…complacency and being ‘too comfortable’ has never moved my business forward in the same way that constantly striving to evolve and do things that feel new and slightly scary has. This is something I have frequently shared at speaking opportunities on stages and podcasts over the years – there is always room to learn and grow, even with such a fabulous year as 2025 just gone and an exciting 2026 ahead.

CONTACT MICHELLE FOR WEDDING PLANNING SERVICES