How we work
Nobody in our industry writes this page down, which is most of the reason we do. Here is exactly how DMC pricing works, including the parts that usually stay quiet, and how we price against them.
What a DMC's price is made of
Direct costs
The venues, caterers, transportation, entertainment, and rentals, the things your money actually buys.
Service fee
Our compensation for sourcing, contracting, carrying payment risk, and standing accountable for every vendor on the list.
Management fee
One stated fee for planning and running the program itself, scoped in hours and deliverables you can read.
None of these is a problem. Every legitimate business has margin. The problem is undisclosed margin, the low quoted fee that hides commissions inside the rentals. The proposal looks cheap; the reconciliation doesn't.
How we price, stated plainly
Every sourced item shows its direct cost and the service fee applied to it, and the fee is tiered by the work involved. Flat pricing that charges the same to book a bus and to build a one-of-one evening isn't honesty, it's laziness, so ours doesn't.
On top of that sits one production management fee. No undisclosed vendor commissions. Budget conversations up front, not at reconciliation. We charge for our work, not for what you can't see, because it was all built to hold up to an audit.
For procurement
A partner answers these in writing without flinching. A broker sends you a paragraph about their passion for excellence.
Send us your RFP, we'll answer the pricing questions before you ask them.
Start the conversationPrefer the long version? Read How DMC Pricing Works in the journal.