Become a Wedding Planner
There are approximately 10,000 wedding planners in the United States. These include both full-time professionals and part-timers who approach the job as more of a hobby. Whatever your reasons for wanting to become a wedding planner, there are some things you need to know about this business before you jump into it.
There are no national requirements or particular regulations for wedding planners. It is a business that can be operated by virtually anyone. The only stipulations are that you will need to acquire a business license for your county, city, and/or state, and you will need business cards. That doesn't mean, however, that you don't need to have any particular skills or abilities to be a success.
Wedding planners get the vast majority of their business through referrals. People they have done work for in the past recommend them to friends and family, and word of mouth increases their client base. The most difficult part of this formula, of course, is getting those initial clients.
When people are planning weddings they want to hire a wedding planner who is an experienced professional in the field. Very few of them are going to be willing to chance hiring a novice to plan the most important day of their lives. Because of this, the best way to start building a client base is by offering your services to your friends and family members. Once you have planned even one wedding successfully, you will then be able to use that couple as a reference in an effort to promote your business to others.
Before you apply for a business license or start having your business cards printed up, you should ask yourself why you want to be a wedding planner. If you have some glamorous idea of having fun going to parties every weekend, you might want to reconsider your career plans. While planning weddings may seem like a fun job, it actually involves a lot of hard work.
You have to be very good at organization, scheduling, and attending to fine details about every aspect of a wedding. You will also need to be very good at conducting research and learning about various requirements that will be involved concerning the wedding venue. In other words, you need to be focused on the tasks at hand and able to juggle multiple responsibilities at one time.
As a wedding planner, the handling of many microscopic details will be your responsibility and if anything about a wedding goes wrong, you will be the one to catch the blame. You have to be able to handle tremendous amounts of stress, be able to meet deadlines, and also have the ability to adapt to the changing needs of your clients.
One thing you can do to increase your marketability and knowledge base is to take a wedding planner certification course. These types of courses can be found through the Association of Certified Wedding Consultants, Weddings Beautiful, and the Association of Bridal Consultants. Of course, the costs of these programs will vary so you should take the time to gather information about each program to determine which one is best for you and your budget.
If you decide that you are serious about becoming a wedding planner, you will also want to design a website to promote your business. If you do not possess web design skills you will be much better off in the long run to hire someone to do this for you. In order to attract clients you will need a professional and visually appealing site, so make sure you hire someone who understands your needs and vision.
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