Becoming a wedding planner

Nikki2012

Hello

Im not to sure if i have put this is the right place but ive been thinking about becoming a wedding planner for sometimes now after planning my wedding i just realised it was the perfect job for me. I understand its unsocialable hours, and a lot of work but the rewards you get seem so worth it.

Ive planned my wedding and ive dabbled with helping a few friends, but other than my own not fully planned a wedding and i do have a lack of knowlege when it comes to church weddings as mine was a civil ceremony as were my friends and ive never even been to a church wedding. Other than that ive researched suppliers within my area and been looking at all things wedding.

Its just knowing how to start? Are there any wedding planners that can give any advise on where i should go from here. This really is something i want to achieve and just need to get my feet off the ground.

Would really apprichate any help anyone can give!

Nikki

Savvy_Sue

I believe there are events planning courses you can go on, although whether they're worth it I'm not sure.

However, I have to ask myself if you really believe there's a future career in this? I know there's an events planner around, they've had to find other work because the jobs just aren't coming in.

dizzyrascal

Sorry to be blunt but isn't this what everyone thinks when they have done or planned something themselves.
If you do a great job of decorating your house people often say "oh you should be a designer".
The main problem with this is that when you are doing something for yourself it is much easier because you are the client and you know what you want.
Working for other people on their vision is not so easy.
You can't pick and choose your clients. If you want to do events management you will have to adapt to different audiences. How would you cope with gathering materials for a Hells Angel inspired wedding, do you know where to resource materials and people for a Charity Farmers Market/Fair could you organise a Jobs fair or a posh charity-do for city bankers?
Events management is a huge area and you might be able to specialise in London but outside, in the provinces, I think you would have to cover all types of events.
As you will have realised, most people organise their own weddings with a few who employ wedding planners. These will come from personal recommendation. There are a lot of people qualified through courses or experience to be events organisers and lots of venues will include this as part of the package anyway. They will already know who the good photographers/wedding car hire/marquee companies etc. are.

If you really want to do this, find out if there is a professional organisation or publication for events managers or visit your local hotels and see what they do.

Chopsie&Chelvis

I used to work in events and occasion planning, and would get a lot of people telling me that they wanted to become a wedding planner because they'd enjoyed planning their own wedding.

Planning your own wedding isn't much like planning for someone else. Part of the fun of your own wedding is expressing your taste and design opinions - they don't matter when you have a client. You DON'T get to be creative like you were with your own wedding, because the bride has their own ideas and you are just the person who is doing the dogsbody work really. A large part of the job is negotiating finances and dealing with suppliers, so you need a good background in dealing with logistics and business finances. It is not hugely creative, it's exhausting, it involves dealing with finnicky small details and often inflexible difficult people (both brides and suppliers). You often don't get to enjoy or even SEE the event going on properly because you are busy doing difficult or menial tasks, such as arranging emergency staff to cover sickness, unblocking marquee portaloos or trying to calm down venue owners when guests break the venue use agreement.

It's also very hard to get into and there are very few jobs out there now, partially because of the recession, but mostly because most people don't want one - why take away the fun of planning your own wedding? Most people I know who are in the sector work for venues, so it's more of a venue manager and planner role. The freelance wedding planners who make a living from it (and there are very few!) are hugely experienced people who start out working for a venue and put an enormous amount of effort, often free as interns, into building a reputation.

I know that what I've written seems incredibly negative, but I've known too many women decide to do this and it comes to nothing because it's an enormous amount of work, they don't have the right skill set and it's not the job they thought it would be anyway. I've known a lot of brides and I would say more than 50% come out with some statement about becoming wedding planners after their wedding; none of them are now! I would advise just to enjoy planning your own parties, because you'll probably find that is what you've enjoyed, rather than the reality of becoming a professional events planner.

Topcat1982

Hi i think this is only a job in the movies.

I know someone who gave it a very good go after their own wedding. Set up a website (hubby was a website designer) advertised, got a stall at wedding fayres. Well guess what? not one enquiry.

I guess its not a service anyone would pay for as brides like planning their own wedding

Savvy_Sue

Topcat1982 wrote: »

Hi i think this is only a job in the movies.

I know someone who gave it a very good go after their own wedding. Set up a website (hubby was a website designer) advertised, got a stall at wedding fayres. Well guess what? not one enquiry.

I guess its not a service anyone would pay for as brides like planning their own wedding

No, I think it is a 'real' job. However, I don't think it's an idea you'd easily make money on (and could easily LOSE money on) these days.

If you're cash rich and time poor, you might want to get someone else getting estimates for catering and venues and flowers and cars and photographers, especially if you want something a bit unusual. But not if you're a control freak. And not unless you have more money than sense. IMO.

gibson123

Wedding Planning is just a specialist niche of Event Planning. With all specialist jobs you first off all need to become expert in the field.

If you are serious and want to do have a career in event planning you could do a lot worse than starting to work in hospitality at a well rated, 4 or 5 star hotel and conference venue, or at a major sports stadium. You will require Hospitality Qualifications and generally an honours degree and will have to do food and beverage training as well as sales training.

Have a word with your local popular wedding venue (perhaps where you had your own wedding) to find out how to get into the sector.

Good luck, it really is a fun thing to do and very rewarding. although hard-work and stressful.

ILW

90% of this sort of thing is selling your wares. Doing the job is simple compared to getting the work in.

paddyrg

Beware - tensions run VERY high at weddings, expectations are usually unreasonable, and you'll get the brunt of everything that goes wrong, even if you have hedged against it.

Bridezillas and their parents - there is no fee big enough.

directdebiter

paddyrg wrote: »

Beware - tensions run VERY high at weddings, expectations are usually unreasonable, and you'll get the brunt of everything that goes wrong, even if you have hedged against it.

Bridezillas and their parents - there is no fee big enough.

Ha Ha very true.

If you have your own events company you can make a very nice living. HOWEVER for every successful great events company there are multiple failures. One route would be to focus on a niche area. Its all about experience and selling your credentials (online and face to face ) to potential clients.

honeypop

I have known a (very successful) wedding planner, and known a few people to have used a wedding planner. They all said pretty much the same thing, a wedding planner is only as useful as the money they can save you.
Due to their contacts and buying power, if they are not saving you more than their fee, then there is no point in using them unless you seriously don't have the time (or assistance) to plan it yourself. And I guess the only way to make those contacts is to have been working in events for some time.

The planner I knew, had a huge storeroom of different colours and styles of things like chair covers, table linen, sashes, bows, decorations (of all sorts, room decor, plants/miniature trees, anything you could possibly need for a wedding), round tables, rectangle tables, centrepieces, etc so she would never have to pay the price to hire these things and could offer them more cheaply to the happy couple. She was trained in (or educated in the basics of) floristry, hair, make-up, master of ceremony, photography and all sorts of things so she would always be able to step in if something went wrong on the day, or in the run up to it.

IMO if you can't offer something that the bride couldn't source herself, or at a significantly better price, then what's the point of them hiring you? It's not all about design and ideas.