Can I Be An Event Planner Without A Degree
To become an event planner, you will typically need a Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Communications, Public Relations, Marketing or Hospitality Management. Individuals without a degree may qualify for an entry-level position, but they should have at least one to two years of experience in the field.
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Wedding Planner Duties & Responsibilities
Successful wedding planning requires you to be a jack of all trades. According to Pittsburgh-based A Piece of Cake Wedding Design, the job entails: “…the role of the wedding consultant is that of a facilitator, mediator, money manager, artisan, and constructor of dreams.”
If you’ve ever been a bride or groom, or even a bridesmaid, you also know the kind of stress that planning a wedding can bring about. A wedding planner often also ends up also being a therapist, sounding board, and even punching bag, figuratively of course, when frazzled nerves come into play.
Although the job can involve a wide variety of tasks, certain typical duties and responsibilities are involved in the day-to-day life of a wedding planner, such as the following:
Wedding Planner Job Description Template
We are looking to hire an energetic and detail-oriented wedding planner to assist clients in coordinating and executing successful weddings. The wedding planners responsibilities include obtaining quotes from vendors, ensuring that budget changes are incorporated into clients wedding plans accordingly, and collecting payments from clients for the services provided. You should also be able to create a time-line of all wedding-day activities for each client to ensure that everything remains on schedule.
To be successful as a wedding planner, you should be methodical and adept at handling difficult or stressful situations. Ultimately, a top-notch wedding planner should keep abreast of the latest wedding trends as well as demonstrate exceptional communication, organization, and customer service skills.
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Getting Skills And Experience
Essential Skills And Qualities
It takes a special kind of person to become a successful wedding planner. You need to be a juggler, effortlessly moving from one task to another, anticipating problems before they occur and arranging all the fine details that most people would overlook.
The main skills and qualities youll need to have are outlined below.
- Patience and stamina: When youre dealing with bridezillas, you need to have a calm nature to be able to handle them and allow them to ramble on without taking anything personally. Youll also need a great deal of stamina to keep going, as youll be working long hours, sometimes through to the evening.
- Budgeting and negotiating skills: You might be good at haggling the local market stool seller into giving you a lower price, but can you negotiate lower contracts with vendors each time?
- Organisation and planning skills: It goes without say that you should have great organisation skills and be able to stick to a tight schedule when youre planning a number of weddings.
- Time management skills: As a wedding planner, you won’t only be managing your own schedule, but youll also be planning the most important day of a couples life while ensuring everything runs smoothly and according to plan.
- Networking skills: A wedding planner should be able to work any room effectively. Theyll be laughing with the father of the bride, consoling a drunk bridesmaid and ensuring their number one client is enjoying every minute of the day.
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Help Make Dreams Come True
Becoming a wedding planning can be a highly fulfilling career, especially if you dream of a career where you can be creative and strive for excellence in a respected position. To get started on your career as a wedding planner, enroll in the International Career Institutes Wedding Planner Program today.
Find The Tools You Need To Be A Successful Wedding Planner
For this section, lets take a look at a hypothetical scenario. Imagine that two people order the same dresser from an online furniture company. It arrives at their houses in three boxes, and there are about a dozen bags of screws, nuts, and bolts. Person A has a toolbox with a hammer, screwdriver, drill, and much more. Person B has nothing but their hands and some super glue. Which person is going to be more efficient in putting together the dresser?
When it comes to growing a business, it isnt much different. Thats where Social Tables comes in. Our software can help grow your business in a variety of ways, and its used by professional wedding planners and DIY brides alike all across the world. Get started by checking out our free 3D wedding design software.
We researched several companies that offer similar services, and ultimately found Social Tables to be the best fit for us, wrote Kate Turner of Kate & Company. At any given time we could be working on over 100 different layouts. Social Tables offerings and customer service are second to none and thats why they are the best fit for Kate & Company and our family of businesses.
Additional useful wedding planning tools and software include Wedding Spot, Joy, WeddingWire, Carats & Cake, and Zola.
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How Much Does A Small Wedding Cost
The average cost of a small wedding is $8,550. This is based on a guest list of 50 people* and cutting costs usually associated with a larger wedding. Prices will vary depending on where the wedding is held and which elements are included, which can be determined in the cost breakdown below.Jan 27, 2020
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Job Outlook & Advancement Opportunities
As reported by MarketResearch.com, the United States wedding industry registered $72 billion of revenue in 2016. This suggests healthy opportunities for those seeking careers in wedding planning. However, there are several challenges that wedding planners face. Barely over half of U.S. adults got married in 2012. This is down from the 72 percent marriage rate among those age 18 or over in 1960.
The Internet and social media have made caterers, florists, bakers and wedding dress shops and their quality and prices more readily available to couples. According to Wedding Wire, seven out ten couples report planning weddings through social media at work. While approximately 34 percent of couples found a vendor through social media. Printer software and online invitation templates allow couples to select and print or order their own invitations, thank-you stationary and place cards for tables. Therefore, these digital and technological tools enhance the ability of couples to plan their own weddings and forego the services of a wedding planner.
Additionally, wedding planners may be less likely to thrive in areas with smaller average incomes or in rural or other less-populated areas. In these places, weddings tend to have fewer guests and participants than in cities or urban locales. The size of the wedding often determines whether the services of a wedding planner will prove economical.
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How Do I Get A Job As A Wedding Planner
Most wedding planners are self-employed meaning it is up to you to go out there are find your first job. Whether that be through connections or helping a close friend plan their wedding, there are many ways you can get a start in the wedding planning world. There are also sometimes adverts on wedding websites for wedding planners so that you can get your foot in the ladder and begin to build a client base.
Day To Day Work Of A Wedding Planner
Wedding planners are recognised as being one of the most organised professionals and are trusted to multitask like an expert. Their day can involve a multitude of duties and it is essential that their organisational skills allow them to complete all tasks within strict deadlines. Some of the possible day to day tasks of a wedding planner could include:
- Meeting new couples to discuss their plans, desires, your services and fees.
- Liaising with other professionals and service providers to get quotes, secure discounts and make bookings.
- Viewing and evaluating different venues and service providers to add to your portfolio.
- Helping your couple choose the best additions such as invitations, place settings, flowers and favours.
- Making recommendations to your couple on alternative ideas if original plans change.
- Helping your couple overcome nerves and other emotions.
- Drawing up timetables and lists for yourself, your team and your couple to ensure that all deadlines are met.
- Being present on the wedding day to ensure that all plans run smoothly and any unforeseen issues are addressed quickly and out of sight of the couple.
- Giving advice on wedding traditions, etiquette and customs.
- Following up with all suppliers to help maintain professional contacts and providing reviews and feedback when required.
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Two: Intern With Some Wedding Planning Companies Or Wedding Venues
As you’re taking an online course or after you’ve finishedgo and intern with a wedding planning company or wedding venue.
It’s important that you get a taste of what it’s like to really be a wedding planner . By interning , you’ll get a feel for the job. And you’ll be able to tell quickly if you really LOVE IT or if it’s not for you.
And trust me when I tell you, you need to *LOVE* it .
So, why a wedding planning company OR a wedding venue? Let me explain
Already In The Profession Or Industry
This course and qualification is a great way of consolidating existing knowledge via Recognition of Prior Learning , updating your industry skills and contributing towards your professional development. It is also one of the most practical steps you can take towards working towards gaining a promotion or better paid position.
Course fees can be claimed as a tax deduction as long as the course is sufficiently connected to your work activities.
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What Qualifications Do You Need To Become A Wedding Planner
Before you start a career as a wedding planner, its important to understand the necessary skills and training youll need in order to truly thrive. And admittedly, this is where things get a little tricky
You see, technically, a proper education and certification are not required to work as a professional wedding planner. This is why some aspiring planners choose to jump right into the industry without any prior experience. They have a natural knack for putting together memorable parties. As a result, they mistakenly assume thatll be enough for them to be successful in the world of weddings.
But this is where theyre wrong!
In reality, theres a LOT more to professional wedding planning than what meets the eye. You also need to thoroughly understand:
- How to provide exceptional customer service
- Dealing with client conflict
- The different types of clients and wedding celebrations youll be working with
- Researching and securing various vendors and suppliers
- How to develop timelines
- Working within each clients allotted budget, as well as trimming down must-haves and/or securing more funds, if necessary
- The different types of wedding ceremonies, and their religious and/or cultural significances
- Why its critical to bring the entire theme of the wedding together through the use of color, decor, florals, etc.
- How to write airtight client and vendor contracts
- And SO much more!
What Qualifications Do I Need To Be A Wedding Planner
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Essential Skills For Being A Wedding Planner
Wedding planners are required to have a huge variety of skills and multitasking and drawing on these skills will be essential for the smooth delivery of all plans. Whether it be keeping a cool head when a problem arises, managing a drunk wedding guest, making urgent alterations to suppliers if one lets you down or offering advice on the best invitations. A wedding planner will have a multitude of things to think about but must deal with them all and present an enthusiastic and calm appearance at all times.
Some of the most important skills that a wedding planner should possess include:
Three: Decide If You Want To Own A Business Or Work For A Business
After you’ve gotten experience through an online course and internship, you’ll need to decide if you want to own a wedding planning business or work for someone else.
Our exercise thus far should have proven to you that being a wedding planner is what you were MEANT to do . So, now we’ve gotten decide if we should open a business?
I’m going to be honest in MOST cases, you’ll make more money and have more opportunities if you start your own wedding planning business.
Why?
Most wedding planners in your area are small businesses and even soloentrepreneurs. While they have a steady stream of clients, it’s likely not enough to have a full-time employee so you’re left with fewer opportunities to work for someone. I’ve seen this hundreds of times, and while my business had a team and employees, most wedding planning companies don’t.
This of course depends on your area. If you live in a large city, there is a stronger chance you can work for an event company in your area. But if you live in a smaller town or city, those chances get slimmer and slimmer.
But here’s the good news: you’ve gotten a ton of experience up until this point and you’re totally capable of starting your own business. Remember my story? I had even LESS experience than you and I went on to do some pretty cool stuff!
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