How to Start an Event Planning Business in Georgia
How to Start an Event Planning Business in Georgia
Georgia is one of the top wedding and event destinations in the country. Savannah hosts thousands of weddings a year — it consistently ranks among the most popular destination wedding cities in the US. Atlanta’s corporate events market generates steady demand for professional planners year-round. And unlike many licensed professions in Georgia, event planning has no state certification or license requirement.
That last point is where most “how to start an event planning business” guides stop. Here’s what they don’t tell you: the business setup is the easy part. The real complexity is what happens after — every venue has its own insurance requirements, every county has its own permit process, and if alcohol is involved, you’re dealing with Georgia’s notoriously strict liquor licensing system. This guide separates the one-time business setup from the per-event compliance you’ll face on every job.
Why Event Planning Works in Georgia
Start with the market. Georgia’s event industry is genuinely strong, and not just in one segment.
Savannah’s combination of historic architecture, mild weather, and tourism infrastructure makes it a destination wedding magnet. Couples fly in from across the country specifically for the aesthetic — and they hire local planners to execute. Atlanta is a different beast entirely: Fortune 500 headquarters, major conventions, and a growing tech sector mean consistent corporate event spending that doesn’t slow down when wedding season ends.
Startup costs for a home-based event planning operation run $2,000–$5,000 — that covers your business registration, insurance, a basic website, and event management software. If you’re opening an office and investing in real marketing from day one, budget $15,000–$25,000. Most planners start home-based and grow into office space once client volume justifies it.
Step 1: Choose Your Business Structure (and Do It Right)
For event planning specifically, a sole proprietorship is a bad idea. Events involve crowds, alcohol, vendors with their own liability exposures, and venues that will require you to sign contracts. If something goes wrong — a vendor no-shows, a guest is injured, a tent collapses — you want personal liability protection. That means an LLC.
File online at ecorp.sos.ga.gov. The filing fee is $100. Processing typically takes 5–12 business days standard; pay an extra $100 for 2-day expedited, or $250 for same-day if you’re in a hurry. After you’re registered, you’ll pay a $60/year Annual Registration fee (due January 1–April 1 each year, with a $25 late penalty after April 1).
One LLC caveat worth knowing: your LLC name must be distinguishable from existing registered businesses in Georgia. Check availability through the Secretary of State’s name search before you file. If you find a name you want and aren’t ready to file immediately, you can reserve it for $25 — though reservation isn’t required.
Get your EIN from the IRS after your LLC is approved. Free at irs.gov/ein. You’ll need it to open a business bank account and register for state taxes.
Step 2: Get Your Local Business License
Georgia has no statewide business license. All business licensing runs through your city or county — specifically, an Occupation Tax Certificate (sometimes called a business license, but Georgia law technically calls it an occupation tax).
Where you get it depends on where you operate:
- Inside city limits: apply with your city
- In unincorporated areas: apply with your county
Two affidavits are mandatory for every Georgia business license application, and there are no exceptions:
E-Verify Affidavit: If your business has 11 or more employees, you must register with E-Verify and provide your user number. Fewer than 11 employees? You file an exemption affidavit instead. This is required under O.C.G.A. § 36-60-6.
SAVE Affidavit: You must verify lawful presence in the US using a Secure and Verifiable Document — a driver’s license, passport, or similar. Requires notarization. This requirement comes from O.C.G.A. § 50-36-1. Don’t show up to the licensing office without a notarized affidavit and your ID.
The good news for home-based event planners: Georgia residential zoning generally permits home-based businesses when the work happens elsewhere. Event planning is a natural fit — you plan from home, execute at venues. You’re not hosting client events in a residential neighborhood. Most municipalities allow this, though it’s worth confirming with your specific city or county before filing.
Step 3: Insurance — Venues Will Turn You Away Without It
This is the section that determines whether you actually get hired. Event planning insurance isn’t optional in practice, even if it’s not legally mandated at the state level. Venues enforce it contractually. Miss this, and you can’t work.
General Liability Insurance
The standard minimum required by most Georgia venues and counties for special events is $1,000,000 combined single limit (CSL) per occurrence. This covers bodily injury and property damage that happens at events you plan or manage.
Here’s the part that trips up new planners: most venues require the venue to be listed as an additional insured on your policy. Not just a certificate holder — additional insured. There’s a meaningful legal difference. When you’re negotiating vendor contracts, get venue insurance requirements in writing early. Some venues want $2M aggregate limits. Some require specific endorsements. Read every contract before assuming your base policy covers it.
General liability for event planners in Georgia typically runs $800–$2,000/year depending on revenue, event types, and coverage limits.
Professional Liability (Errors & Omissions)
General liability covers physical damage. Professional liability — also called E&O — covers the other kind of problem: claims that your planning errors cost a client money. Vendor mismanagement, scheduling mistakes, miscommunication about event scope. If a client sues because you booked the wrong date or the florist you recommended didn’t show up, E&O is what protects you.
Budget $500–$1,500/year for professional liability coverage.
Event Cancellation Insurance
Optional, but worth mentioning to high-budget clients. This covers losses from events that get canceled or postponed due to circumstances outside anyone’s control — severe weather, venue fires, vendor bankruptcies. You probably won’t carry this yourself, but clients planning $50,000+ weddings should know it exists.
Workers’ Compensation
If you hire three or more employees — including seasonal event staff — workers’ comp is mandatory in Georgia under the State Board of Workers’ Compensation. This catches a lot of planners off guard because they staff up for busy seasons without thinking through the legal threshold. Three people. That’s it. Georgia’s rates run approximately 10% below the national median, which is mildly good news.
Step 4: Per-Event Permits (the Real Workload)
This is where event planning gets operationally complex in a way that’s fundamentally different from most businesses. You don’t just set up once and operate. Every event, in every jurisdiction, may trigger a different set of permit requirements. You need a system for tracking this.
Special Event Permits
Many Georgia cities and counties require a special event permit for events above certain attendance thresholds — 50 people, 100 people, 250 people, depending on the municipality. Requirements aren’t standardized. A permitted outdoor wedding in Chatham County looks nothing like the same event in Fulton County. Some counties want 60-day advance notice. Others have 2-week windows.
As you build your business, you’ll develop relationships with permit offices in the jurisdictions where you work most often. That local knowledge is a genuine competitive advantage — experienced planners know the deadlines, the forms, and the contacts. New planners get caught flat-footed.
Alcohol Licensing
If your events involve alcohol — and most private events do — someone needs the right Georgia alcohol license.
Here’s how it typically works in practice: most event planners work with licensed caterers who hold their own catering licenses rather than obtaining a liquor license themselves. Georgia’s catering licenses (managed through the Georgia Department of Revenue and the relevant local licensing authority) allow licensed caterers to serve alcohol at off-premises events. When you hire a caterer for a wedding reception, you’re largely outsourcing this compliance piece to them.
But you need to understand what you’re working with. Confirm that any caterer you contract holds a valid catering license that covers the specific type of event and venue. If a client wants an open bar at a rooftop venue that doesn’t have its own liquor license, you need a caterer who can service that legally — not just one who has a license for their kitchen.
Some high-volume wedding planners eventually explore holding their own alcohol-related license for specific scenarios. If your business grows in that direction, engage a Georgia attorney familiar with DORA (Department of Revenue alcohol licensing) before you apply. Georgia’s alcohol licensing rules are strict and locality-specific.
Tent, Noise, and Road Closure Permits
These are venue-and-municipality-dependent and can’t be generalized. A few things worth knowing:
Tents above a certain size — typically 200 square feet in most Georgia jurisdictions — require a permit from the local building or fire marshal office. This applies even for private events on private property.
Noise ordinances vary dramatically by municipality. Outdoor evening events in residential-adjacent areas are a common friction point. Check local ordinances before booking a venue for a late-night event.
Road closures for events (outdoor festivals, charity runs, street parties) require coordination with local traffic engineering or police departments. Give yourself 60–90 days minimum for anything involving road access.
Fire Marshal Approval
For events in non-standard venues — warehouses, historic buildings, outdoor spaces, rooftops — fire marshal approval may be required before the event can legally proceed. This is especially common in Savannah, where historic preservation rules and fire codes intersect in complicated ways. Build this into your timeline on any non-traditional venue booking.
Step 5: Tax Registration
Event planning services in Georgia occupy an interesting middle ground for sales tax purposes.
Pure service — planning, coordination, consulting — is generally not subject to Georgia’s sales tax. But when your service is bundled with tangible goods — decorations you purchase and resell, rental items you provide, physical products that are part of your package — that’s where it gets complicated. The goods component may be taxable even if the service component isn’t.
Georgia’s base sales tax rate is 4%, with local additions that bring the total to roughly 7–9% depending on county.
Register through the Georgia Tax Center at gtc.dor.ga.gov. If you’re hiring employees or seasonal event staff, register for employer withholding at the same time.
Georgia’s individual income tax rate for 2025 is a flat 5.19% (dropping to 5.09% in 2026 under HB 111). There’s no local income tax anywhere in Georgia, which keeps the accounting simpler than many states.
If your revenue structure includes any product sales or rentals, talk to a Georgia CPA before you set your pricing. Getting this wrong creates retroactive tax liability that’s painful to unwind.
Costs at a Glance
Here’s what to budget for your first year:
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| LLC filing (one-time) | $100 |
| Annual Registration | $60/year |
| Local Occupation Tax Certificate | $50–$200/year |
| General liability insurance ($1M CSL) | $800–$2,000/year |
| Professional liability (E&O) | $500–$1,500/year |
| Marketing and website | $1,000–$5,000 initial |
| Event management software | $30–$200/month |
| Total first-year (home-based) | ~$3,000–$8,000 |
That’s a reasonable range for a home-based launch. The spread is real — a $500 Squarespace site and a basic insurance policy gets you to the low end. A custom website, solid marketing investment, and premium software subscriptions push you toward the top.
What to Do First
The business setup itself takes a week or two. File your LLC at ecorp.sos.ga.gov, get your EIN, apply for your local Occupation Tax Certificate with your notarized affidavits ready, and get insurance quotes before you accept your first client.
The permit landscape takes longer to learn — and you learn it job by job. Start building a checklist for every event type you do: what permits does this jurisdiction require, what does this venue’s insurance addendum say, who’s handling the alcohol service and what’s their license number. That documentation habit will protect you when something goes sideways.
Your first big job should terrify you a little. That’s normal. The planners who build real businesses are the ones who figure out the compliance piece early, before a venue rejects their certificate of insurance or a permit officer shuts down an event.
Get the paperwork right. Then go build something.