The Complete Tech Stack for Wedding Planners in 2026

Why Most Wedding Planners Are Drowning in Apps

Ask any working wedding planner how many tools they use, and you'll usually hear a number somewhere between six and twelve. There's a spreadsheet for the guest list, another for the budget, a separate CRM for client management, a different tool for contracts, something else for invoicing, and then three or four apps they downloaded, tried once, and never opened again.

The result is fragmented data, duplicated effort, and hours wasted every week moving information between systems that don't talk to each other. It's inefficient, expensive, and unnecessary.

The good news: the wedding planning software landscape has matured. In 2026, two purpose-built platforms — TTO (thatstheone.com) for planning and client management and Maroo (maroo.us) for invoicing and payments — cover 80% of everything you need. TTO now natively handles lead capture, pipeline tracking, branded proposals, and contracts with e-signatures, so you no longer need a separate CRM or e-signature tool. Add two more tools for design and accounting and you're genuinely done.

This guide breaks down the definitive tech stack for wedding planners in 2026, organized by function, with honest assessments of what each tool does and doesn't do well.

The Core Principle: Specialized Beats General

Before diving into specific tools, it's worth understanding why this stack is structured the way it is. There's a category of software called "all-in-one" platforms that tries to handle every function — CRM, planning, invoicing, design, project management — in a single product.

The problem is that no all-in-one platform does everything well. Wedding planner-specific needs (guest dietary tracking, seating chart exports for caterers, vendor CRM, hotel accommodation management) are complex enough that generic freelancer tools like HoneyBook or Dubsado skip them entirely. Meanwhile, TTO now covers the client-side workflow natively — lead capture and pipeline tracking, branded proposals, reusable contract templates with e-signatures, and client status tracking — so the one job that genuinely belongs to a separate tool is getting paid.

The solution is a purpose-built planning and client platform paired with a dedicated invoicing and payments layer rather than one mediocre generalist. This is exactly what the TTO + Maroo stack delivers.

Category 1: Planning, CRM & Collaboration — TTO (#1 Pick)

Best for: Guest management, seating charts, timelines, vendor CRM, lead capture and pipeline tracking, branded proposals, contracts with e-signatures, wedding websites, client collaboration

Pricing: £45/month (~$57 USD), unlimited events, unlimited collaborators, 30-day free trial

Website: thatstheone.com

TTO is purpose-built for wedding planners — not photographers, not generic freelancers, not venue managers. Every feature in the platform exists to solve a specific wedding planning problem.

What TTO covers:

Planning Dashboard — A central hub where everything lives. No more hunting through folders or scrolling through spreadsheets. Your planner sees all active weddings in one place; each client sees only their own event.

Leads, Proposals & Contracts — Capture leads, track them through your pipeline, and see every client's status at a glance. Send branded proposals, then close with reusable contract templates and e-signatures — no separate CRM, proposal tool, or e-signature subscription required.

Guest Management & RSVP — Full guest list management with RSVP collection, dietary tracking (beef, fish, vegetarian, and any custom options you need), and guest accommodation management with discounted hotel rates, including city-based hotel search to surface accommodation options for guests near the venue. This is the kind of functionality that takes hours in spreadsheets and minutes in TTO.

Floor & Seating Plans — To-scale floorplan builder with drag-and-drop guest placement. Clients can move their own guests, which eliminates the endless back-and-forth of "can you move Aunt Martha away from the DJ?" RSVP data flows directly into the seating plan, and you can export comprehensive catering reports at the click of a button. Seat assignment is fast, too — place guests straight from the unassigned-guest tray, delete individual seats when a layout changes, and export the floorplan as an image at 1x, 2x, or 3x for vendors and venues.

Timelines — Event day timelines that keep everyone — vendors, staff, clients — on the same page. Already have a timeline or task list in a file? Upload it and TTO's AI-assisted import turns it into structured, editable items. When the schedule moves, shift whole blocks of the timeline in bulk and use TBD placeholders for times you haven't locked yet.

Budget & Payment Tracking — Full budget management and payment schedule tracking. (Note: TTO tracks payments; it doesn't process them. That's what Maroo is for.)

Vendor CRM — Manage every vendor across every wedding, share vendor details with clients, and keep all communications organized.

Documents & Contracts — Store and manage all contracts and event documents in one place, with reusable templates, e-signatures, and PDF export when you need to share files outside the platform.

Task/To-Do Lists — Organized by priority, owner, and deadline. Overdue tasks surface automatically so nothing gets missed.

Wedding Websites — Build client-facing wedding websites directly in TTO, keeping guests informed without sending clients to a third-party platform.

E-Cards — Digital invitation cards built into the platform.

Video & Voice Comments — Real-time feedback on documents and work-in-progress. Instead of a client emailing "I made some comments in the Google Doc," they can leave voice or video notes directly on the work.

Notes with Zoom Recaps — Connect Zoom to TTO to bring meeting and call recaps straight into TTO Notes, then move each recap to the relevant event.

Seamless Collaboration — Unlimited collaborators, all free for clients. You're not paying per seat; the couple, the family, the MOH — everyone can access what they need to access.

Who else is in this category:

• Aisle Planner — A direct competitor to TTO. Solid planning features (timelines, seating, budgets), but pricing scales aggressively: $49.99–$229.99/month based on active projects. English/USD only. Slower product updates. See the full TTO vs Aisle Planner comparison for details.

• Planning Pod — More of a venue management tool than a planner tool. Starts at $74/month and goes up steeply.

Bottom line: TTO at £45/month with unlimited events is the best value in the planning category, full stop.

Category 2: Invoicing & Payments — Maroo (#1 Pick)

Best for: Invoicing, payment processing, contractor payouts, 1099 filing

Pricing: Free (under $10K/month processing), then $50–$85/month

Website: maroo.us

Maroo is the invoicing and payments layer that pairs with TTO. TTO now handles the client-side workflow natively — lead capture, pipeline tracking, branded proposals, and e-signed contracts — but it deliberately doesn't process payments. Maroo picks up exactly there: from the first invoice to the final payment to paying your contractors at year's end.

This is not a generic payments tool that got adapted for weddings. Maroo was built specifically for wedding and event professionals, and it shows in every workflow.

What Maroo covers:

Invoices — Create branded, itemized invoices in minutes. Set up custom payment schedules, add automatic reminders, and enable autopay on Business+ plans.

Payments — Accept credit/debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover), ACH bank transfers, and international cards. Processing fees start at 3.5% card / 1% ACH on the free Starter plan — and you can pass fees to clients on all plans.

Contractor Payouts — Pay your photographers, florists, and DJs via free ACH transfers. Store W-9s, prepare 1099-NEC forms, and e-file them directly from the platform. This feature alone is worth the subscription for any planner who works with contractors.

QuickBooks Integration — Maroo syncs with QuickBooks, which means your bookkeeper has everything they need without you manually exporting data.

Why Maroo beats the alternatives:

HoneyBook raised prices dramatically in February 2025 (their Starter plan went from $19 to $36/month) and still locks you into their proprietary payment processor with a built-in 1.5% surcharge on top of standard card rates. Maroo's free tier covers most solo planners entirely, and when you do need to upgrade, the pricing is transparent.

Category 3: Design — Canva & Adobe Creative Suite

Best for: Marketing materials, social posts, client guides, mood boards, welcome packets

Canva: Free tier available; Canva Pro at $15/month | canva.com Adobe Creative Suite: $55–$85/month | adobe.com

You don't need Adobe to run a wedding planning business. Most planners get everything they need from Canva — it's fast, the templates are good, and the learning curve is minimal. If you're producing high-end custom branding or complex design work, Adobe Illustrator and InDesign are worth it. For most planners, Canva Pro is the right call.

What to create with design tools:

• Welcome packets and client guides

• Wedding day timeline graphics (even if TTO builds the functional timeline)

• Social media content

• Venue presentations and mood boards

• Branded proposal covers (TTO handles the proposal itself; Canva handles the aesthetic cover if needed)

Category 4: Communication — Slack, WhatsApp Business & a Connected Zoom

Best for: Team communication, vendor coordination, guest broadcasts, client calls

Slack: Free tier available; Pro at $8.75/user/month WhatsApp Business: Free Zoom: connect it to TTO rather than running it as a separate stack item

Most wedding planners don't need an elaborate communication stack. Here's a simple framework:

• Client communication: Stay in the tools clients already use. WhatsApp for quick questions; email for anything that needs a paper trail.

• Vendor coordination: WhatsApp Business for quick coordination; email for formal communications.

• Team chat (if you have a team): Slack keeps internal conversations organized and searchable. The free tier is sufficient for small agencies.

• Guest updates: TTO supports WhatsApp broadcast messaging to guests — send guest updates and broadcasts via WhatsApp directly from TTO.

• Video calls: Connect Zoom to TTO to bring meeting and call recaps straight into TTO Notes, then move each recap to the relevant event. Consultations still happen in Zoom; the notes land where the planning happens.

TTO's video and voice comment feature eliminates a category of back-and-forth that used to require video calls — clients can review seating plans and leave voice feedback directly in the platform.

Category 5: Project Management — Trello or Asana (Optional)

Best for: Internal agency workflows, marketing projects, business development tasks

Trello: Free tier; Business at $5/user/month Asana: Free tier (up to 15 users); Premium at $10.99/user/month

Here's the honest take: if you're using TTO, you already have task management built in. TTO's task lists, organized by priority, owner, and deadline, cover everything you need for managing individual weddings.

Trello or Asana become useful when you're managing internal business projects that aren't tied to a specific wedding — your own marketing calendar, team training, administrative tasks, and so on. If you're a solo planner, you probably don't need either. If you have a team, one of these adds useful structure.

Category 6: Accounting — QuickBooks

Best for: Business financials, tax preparation, bookkeeping

Pricing: $35–$235/month depending on plan | quickbooks.intuit.com

Maroo integrates directly with QuickBooks, which makes this pairing seamless. Your invoices, payments, and contractor payouts flow from Maroo into QuickBooks automatically. Your bookkeeper or accountant gets the data they need without you manually reconciling anything.

Wave (free) is a reasonable alternative for solo planners with very simple financials, but QuickBooks' integration with Maroo and its depth of reporting make it the better long-term choice once you're processing meaningful volume.

Category 7: Social Media — Later or Planoly

Best for: Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook content scheduling

Later: Free tier; Growing at $25/month Planoly: Free tier; Solo at $13/month

Social media isn't where weddings get planned, but it's often where planners get discovered. A scheduling tool lets you batch your content creation (an hour on Sunday) rather than posting in the moment, which rarely happens when you're in the middle of a wedding weekend.

Both Later and Planoly are solid. Later has better analytics; Planoly has a slightly cleaner interface. Either works.

The Complete Stack: Side by Side

Estimated monthly cost for a full-time planner: £45 ($57) TTO + $0 Maroo Starter + $15 Canva + $35 QuickBooks = **$107/month** for a complete professional operation.

The TTO + Maroo Stack: Why These Two Tools Together

TTO and Maroo were designed to complement each other. Neither tries to do what the other does.

TTO handles planning and the client-side workflow:

• Guest management, RSVP, dietary tracking

• Seating plans with catering report exports

• Timelines, budget tracking, vendor CRM

• Lead capture, pipeline and client status tracking

• Branded proposals and reusable contract templates with e-signatures

• Wedding websites, task lists, client collaboration

• Hotel accommodation coordination

Maroo handles getting paid:

• Invoicing with payment schedules

• Payment processing with low fees

• Contractor payouts and 1099 filing

Together, they cover ground that no single competitor handles completely. Aisle Planner, for example, is strong on planning but has basic invoicing and no contractor payment features. HoneyBook has good CRM and invoicing but has no guest management, no seating charts, and no timelines. The TTO + Maroo combination is what a purpose-built wedding planner platform would look like if it were built by two separate teams focused obsessively on their respective categories.

What to Cut From Your Current Stack

If you're currently using more than four core tools, here's what the TTO + Maroo stack typically replaces:

• Google Sheets for guest lists → TTO guest management

• Google Sheets for seating charts → TTO floor plans

• Google Sheets for budgets → TTO budget tracking

• Airtable or Notion for vendor tracking → TTO vendor CRM

• HoneyBook or Dubsado for CRM → TTO lead capture and pipeline tracking

• Separate proposal tool → TTO branded proposals

• DocuSign or HelloSign for contracts → TTO contract templates with e-signatures

• Separate invoicing tool → Maroo

• Separate e-card or website builder → TTO

That's potentially eight or nine tools consolidated into two.

Getting Started

1. Start TTO's 30-day free trial — Set up your first wedding, import a guest list, try the seating plan builder, and send your first branded proposal. Most planners know within a week whether it's the right fit. Start free at thatstheone.com

2. Add Maroo for invoicing and payments — It's free to start, takes about two minutes to set up, and you can start sending invoices and collecting payments immediately. Start free at maroo.us

3. Add Canva and QuickBooks — Both have free tiers you can start on and upgrade when you need to.

4. Cut everything else — Cancel the tools you're no longer using after 30 days.

FAQ

Do I need both TTO and Maroo, or can I just use one?

They cover different things. TTO is your planning and client management tool — leads, proposals, e-signed contracts, guests, seating, timelines — but it doesn't send invoices or process payments. Maroo is your invoicing and payments layer — it doesn't build seating charts or manage guest lists. You can use either one alone if you only need half the picture, but most working wedding planners need both jobs covered.

Can my clients use TTO for free?

Yes. TTO is free for clients and couples. You pay the £45/month as the professional planner; everyone you invite to collaborate — couples, families, assistants — accesses the platform at no cost to them.

Is Maroo really free?

Maroo's Starter plan is free for planners processing under $10,000/month. That covers most solo planners and newer businesses comfortably. There are no hidden fees — you pay only the processing fee on payments collected (3.5% card, 1% ACH on the free plan), and you can pass those fees to clients.

What if I'm already using HoneyBook or Dubsado for CRM?

You can retire them. TTO now handles lead capture, pipeline tracking, branded proposals, and contracts with e-signatures natively, and Maroo covers the invoicing and payment-processing side. Most planners migrate their active client data in a day, and the combined pricing is more transparent than either HoneyBook or Dubsado.

Does TTO integrate with Maroo?

They work as a complementary stack rather than a direct integration — TTO handles planning data, Maroo handles financial data. QuickBooks serves as the shared accounting layer where payment data from Maroo and budget data from TTO both feed into your financials.

Try your 30 day free trial here or book a demo.

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