Being a wedding planner sounds like a fun and exciting job, but it isn’t for everyone. You need to be a real people person with a good eye for detail and the willingness to follow through and make things as perfect as they can be, no matter what happens.
For most brides, their wedding day is a day they’ve looked forward to their entire lives. To be the person who helps make their dreams come true can be incredibly rewarding. If you have a romantic side and enjoy planning events, then becoming a wedding planner may be the straight road to career and business success.
There are several key steps involved in setting up as a wedding planner.
1-Study the subject.
If you’re new to the industry, you’ll want to consider investing in a bit of education. There are online courses you can take to give you an edge and to learn the ins and outs of event planning. Many professional wedding and even planning associations offer certifications, courses, and workshops in the field.
2-Make friends and network.
Being an event planner requires connections. You’ll need to be able to plan and execute your bride’s plans and desires and connections in the industry, with caterers, florists, banquet halls and so on. While you may not have these connections in the early stages of your business, growing them as you grow will most definitely help your success.
3-Lay the foundation for a solid business right from the start.
Take care of the business side of opening a business. This means registering your business, writing a business plan, creating a website, creating a budget, creating your payment policies and procedures, outlining your marketing strategy and of course setting up your office. You may decide at first to have a home office; however, because you’ll be bringing clients to your office for consultations and meetings and because you may need room to store samples, books and other items you may choose to lease an outside office.
4-Market your business
Once you start your business, you need to get clients. Online marketing will draw attention to your business and tools like articles, reports on how to have your dream wedding, and tips for brides-to-be will position you as an expert and attract clients. That being said, offline marketing will be invaluable too. For example, you can contact local caterers and partner to promote each other. You promote their catering services to your clients and they can promote your wedding planning services to theirs. Word of mouth is a great marketing tool.
5-Consider becoming an expert in a particular type of wedding.
This will differentiate yourself in the market. Establishing yourself as an expert in a niche can make it easier to market your services. For example, if you like extreme sports, you could market yourself as the adventure wedding planner and plan unique weddings like sky diving weddings, mountain climbing weddings and so on. Or what about a Caribbean wedding planner, a mountain wedding planner, a Vegas wedding planner and so on. There’s a lot of opportunity to specialize. One of the most popular these days is green wedding planning, trying to be environmentally sound and still have a great time. This can extend to all forms of parties, so you could be a green live event and party planner. Read books, take courses, and you will be amazed at the possibilities.
Being a wedding planner requires a great ability to plan and execute. You must be organized, efficient and of course a good salesperson. It also pays to be patient because some brides can be difficult and being able to work with them and forge a mutually beneficial relationship takes a little extra skill. Learn all you can about wedding favors, wedding flowers and so on. Plan wedding games and activities all the guests will love. You should be able to work well with any client. even Bridezilla.
FURTHER READING
Great Wedding Activities and Games
