I want to be a wedding planner. Im tired of dancing. Any advice?
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I want to be a wedding planner. Im tired of dancing. Any advice?
I did catering and events for a long time (6 years) in the Chicago area. Wedding planning is not exactly easy. You need to be prepared for anything and everything to go wrong. Not because it WILL, but because it CAN. You need to pay a lot of attn to the details, not matter how tiny they seem.
Do some research on the good caterers and wedding suppliers in your area. You can probably get a good idea at www.theknot.com. I haven't been on that site in forever, but it may point you in the right direction. www.catersource.com has a forum that is searchable....it is primarily a catering website, but there may be info about weddings in there that can help. Otherwise do a general google search (or yahoo or whoever) and you'll come up with listings.
Once you find a list of vendors and suppliers, get some business cards made up (on your own or profesionally) and go introduce yourself to these vendors. Tell them about yourself and what makes you qualified to plan weddings. That way, when a bride calls, there's a chance they can refer her to you. In that industry, networking is extremely important, as is word of mouth.
Oh - As far as vendors go, pick up any bridal magazine or bridal website with a DETAILED checklist and get 2-3 local vendors for each of those items. (Obviously, it could be the same vendor for many of the items, but you get my point). Compare prices and services, etc.
At my old company, we did not charge a flat or hourly fee for the wedding coordinator, we just did a markup on any subcontracted work. Usually 35%. (i.e. If the flowers cost $100, we'd charge $135....we'd work hard to find the best vendors that were the least expensive so that our prices were still competitve).
I hope I've been helpful. Let me know if you need anything else, I'd be more than happy to try and help.
P.S. Dealing with brides can be ridiculous. You also need to be prepared for DRAMA. I've had brides calling HYSTERICALLY b/c their mom wants a different color flower than the mother-in-law......you would have thought the wedding was called off with the way this bride was flipping out, but things like that happen more often than I want to acknowledge.