Short answer
Check the licence first — event planners are not licensed in Australia, so check qualifications and public liability insurance instead. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 667 Australian event planners in this directory, only 26.5% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 1.8% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Event Planners handle weddings, corporate events and parties: venues, suppliers, styling, hire, running sheets and the day itself. This is what to check before you put a day that matters in someone's hands, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
There is no event planner licence — so check something else
Event planning is unlicensed. The exposure is financial and contractual: deposits paid through the planner to suppliers you never contract with directly, cancellation terms you did not see, and public liability for an event held in your name. A planner's own insurance and the clarity of who is paying whom are the things to establish first.
No register. The insurance certificate and the contract are the checks. For hire items such as marquees and jumping castles, the operator's safety compliance is a separate question worth asking.
What 667 Australian event planners actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For event planners:
| What we checked | Event Planners | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 26.5% | 21.5% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 52.8% | 59.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 1.8% | 7.7% |
| Website responded when we checked | 78.2% | 81% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 76.4% | 81.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 36 | 39 |
What goes wrong with event planners
- Supplier deposits paid to the planner and never passed on
- No public liability cover for the event, so a guest's injury is your problem
- Cancellation terms that leave you paying for an event that did not happen
What to ask before the work starts
- Do I contract with suppliers directly, or through you, and who holds the deposits?
- What public liability insurance covers this event?
- What are the cancellation and postponement terms, in writing?
A event planner who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median event planner in this directory has 36 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where the event planners are
Sydney (97), Melbourne (66), Brisbane (27), Perth (25), Gold Coast (16). A shortlist for your own area is more useful than a national ranking — the best event planner in the country is no help if they are four states away.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do event planners need a licence in Australia?
- No. Event planning is unlicensed. The exposure is financial and contractual: deposits paid through the planner to suppliers you never contract with directly, cancellation terms you did not see, and public liability for an event held in your name. A planner's own insurance and the clarity of who is paying whom are the things to establish first.
- How do I check an event planner's licence?
- No register. The insurance certificate and the contract are the checks. For hire items such as marquees and jumping castles, the operator's safety compliance is a separate question worth asking.
- What percentage of Australian event planners have a verifiable ABN?
- 26.5% of the 667 event planners in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.5% across all trades.
- How many reviews should an event planner have?
- The median event planner here has 36. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Compare event planners near you
667 event planners, ranked on the evidence described above rather than on advertising.
Read next
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