Wedding planning business

Wedding planning business is one of the most dynamic and fast-growing industries. New styles and entertainment options appear each year on the wedding market. The trends are changing rapidly. In the past five years, there was a shift from organizing huge wedding celebrations to having smaller, intimate weddings. Unusual wedding venues gained popularity, among them are rooftops, lofts, farms or even public places, such as museums and parks.

In contrast to previous years, lots of couples currently emphasize the day after the wedding, focusing on the after-party activities. Another growing trend is destination weddings that take place in another state or country. Talking about the floral design, darker colours are gaining momentum. These trends can be observed everywhere – from ceremony design to wedding favours or wedding invitations for the guests. In the past years, the majority of weddings took place in spring and summer. Now there is a new trend of planning winter weddings, for example, in the snowy mountains. This will make the wedding planning businesses function all year round.

Becoming a wedding planner is one of the most promising careers where you can earn money while having lots of fun and making people happy. If you love events, if you are good at communicating with people, if you are organized and able to handle stress and pay attention to details, wedding planning business is the perfect choice for you. 

The amount of wedding planning business revenues depend on your experience and skills, the niche and location. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average wedding planning business in the US makes $44,260 per year. This amount can be higher depending on how long wedding planning businesses stay in the industry, how effective they are in marketing and selling their services.

In the United Kingdom, for example, a wedding planning business makes £22,000-£25,000 per year (ca. $26,500-$33,000). In Australia, the wedding planning business revenue amounts 52,441 Australian dollars, which is ca. $38,000 per year. In Europe, the incomes are even higher: the average pay for a wedding planning business in Germany is €36,156 annually, which is ca. $42,300. The average wedding planning business income in Italy is €41,511 or an equivalent hourly rate of €20 ($23,5).

Wedding planning businesses usually charge either a flat rate or a percentage of the overall budget of the wedding. Some wedding planning businesses may also charge by the hour or receive a percentage from the vendors involved in the wedding.

Wedding planner career does not require specific education. You can earn a degree in hospitality management, PR, design or international business. Alternatively, you can take online classes on wedding planner businesses and get first experience by starting to plan and manage real events. As a wedding planner, you need to have basic skills and knowledge in the styling of a wedding, floral design, and décor. You will need to have advanced communication skills to negotiate the conditions of a wedding with venues, vendors and suppliers.

You can focus on planning, organizing and managing destination weddings. You will be responsible for finding the perfect venue at the destination and managing all the logistics of vendors, entertainers, and guests. Or you can focus on wedding coordination, where your job will be the management of all the organizational processes during the wedding day.

Wedding planners business is quite particular as it involves different tasks and responsibilities. Wedding planners create detailed plans for every detail of the wedding.  As a wedding planner, you will need to regularly meet with the clients, take them for venue scouting and offer the perfect venues for the wedding ceremony and reception. Wedding planners help the clients to manage their budget; they help to design wedding decorations by suggesting different colors and themes, make suggestions on wedding favors, gifts, and stationery. Sometimes they take care of the engagement party and other parties for the clients.

They recommend vendors – DJs, florists, caterers, photographers and videographers, masters of ceremonies, musicians, bands and entertainers. Sometimes wedding planners help to compose the proper wedding menu based on the dietary requirements of all the guests. Wedding planners pay attention to every detail on the wedding day – from chair covers and table centerpieces to place cards and table numbers.

Wedding planners and their assistants are responsible for the logistics of all the vendors, helping them to find the venue, arrange all the setup of equipment and facilities in time. Post-wedding activities carried out by the wedding planners, may include the assistance in the final organization of the honeymoon and accommodation and travel arrangements for the guests.

People often start their wedding planning businesses from planning small weddings as acoordinator, which often leads to a self-employed wedding planning business in the future. From the beginning, wedding planners aim to gain experience, develop their business skills, create networks of partners and vendors, expand their customer base and promote themselves in the wedding planning market.

If you decided to become a wedding planner, you could register for one of wedding planning online courses. Taking the courses, you will learn the main elements of effective wedding planning and organization. You will discover the types of services and add-on services offered by wedding planners. You will find out how to create a vision of a wedding based on the requirements and expectations of your clients. You will learn about the importance of suggesting your own ideas to the client and offer the best selection of wedding ceremony and reception venues. The courses will teach you how to offer the perfect entertainment at the wedding day based on the number of guests and their age ranges and expectations.

Wedding planner businesses require knowledge in the creation of planning documentation. Wedding planner always has a huge list of contacts and is available day and night. You will need to create and work with numerous timelines, schedules, and to-do lists.

During the online courses, you will learn the details of the wedding planning process, starting from receiving a request to post-wedding activities. You will learn the details about the following wedding planning steps: 

1. Request.
   As soon as you receive a wedding request from the client, make sure to answer it immediately. Preferably, you should schedule a phone call or request a meeting to discuss the details of the wedding.
   
   
2. Meeting and the initial consultation.
   During the first meeting with your client, you need to get all the necessary information about the preferences for the wedding, location, number of guests and budget. The main task is to understand the clients’ desires and their vision to make the proper proposal.
   
   
3. Wedding proposal.
   After the meeting, you will get a first idea of what you can offer this particular client. You can combine your own ideas with what you heard from the client, offer the vendors you think are the best match for this specific wedding, share your rates and conditions, and describe the work and all the services which you are ready to offer as a wedding planner.
   
   
4. Contract.
   As soon as the client agrees to work with you, you should ask to sign a wedding planning contract which includes all the conditions of your work with the client. In majority of cases, you should ask your client to make an advance payment to your fee in order to confirm your booking.
   
   
5. Wedding day.
   As a wedding planner, you will need to create the day-of wedding timelines, confirm logistics with all the vendors, provide all the important information to them. For example, directions, arrival and setup timing, parking information, venue rules are crucial for your team to perform correctly. Wedding coordination is one of the steps of the wedding planning process that should be mentioned in the wedding planning contract.
   
   
6. Post-wedding activities. You will take part in the post-wedding activities, such as sending out thank you notes, writing a post-wedding report, reviewing the actual budget and evaluating overall wedding activities.

Online courses tech you how to plan, organize and manage small and big weddings, how to position your services and to gain a competitive advantage over your competition. They also focus on how to accomplish wedding planning tasks during the preparation stage and during the day of the wedding. The course will guide you how to work with timelines, schedules, and to-do lists and keep every smallest detail of planning under control. 

As soon as you gain first experience in wedding planners business and have established a network of clients, vendors, and suppliers, you can start marketing your wedding planning business. Create a website introducing the services you offer, add a gallery of professional photos of previous weddings, testimonials, and reviews from the vendors and the clients. Your website should highlight your uniqueness as a wedding planner. You can also consider adding a promotional video featuring your work. Styled photo shoots of you and your team are also a great addition to your website. You can also market your services through participation in wedding expos, b2b meetings, and various networking activities. Different marketing tools will help you to increase the number of leads for your wedding planners business.

Register for online courses and start developing and growing your wedding planning business!