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By Nsim Team
To become a wedding planner, you typically need to have completed a certificate or diploma program in wedding or event planning, or have work experience in an area that has allowed you to develop transferrable skills. Ideally, you have both.
If you want to become a wedding planner, you first need to determine if this career path is a good fit for your skills, interests and personality traits. Does the following describe you?
• Interest in weddings, décor, business, planning and organizing events
• Exceptional organizational and time management skills
• Ability to see projects through from conception to completion
• Ability to take and delegate tasks
• Ability to remain composed and be a source of comfort for others in high-stress situations
• Client-centered approach to work activities
• Interest in a career path that offers self-employment
WHO IS WEDDING PLANNER?
Wedding planners are responsible for helping couples plan their weddings. When a couple hires a wedding planner, they may do so to have the planner organize and coordinate the entire wedding, and every aspect thereof from start to finish, or they may simply hire them to sort out certain aspects of the day, such as décor, transportation, and other aspects.
Services typically offered by wedding planners include:
• General advisory and consulting
• Décor planning and coordination
• Venue planning and coordination
• Food and beverage planning and coordination
• On-site coordination and supervision (day of wedding)
• Complete planning and coordination
Wedding planners may plan a variety of different types of weddings, or may specialize in one type of wedding, such as:
• Religious weddings
• Non-religious weddings
• Destination weddings
• Outdoor weddings
The job duties of a wedding planner can vary from one professional to the next, and from one job to the next. For example, some wedding planners may only be responsible for providing design consulting services to help their clients determine the look of their wedding, whereas other wedding planners may oversee the entire wedding from start to finish.
WHAT IS THE ELIGIBILITY OF WEDDING PLANNER?
Although it is not a formal industry requirement, many employers and clients prefer to hire wedding planners with relevant education.
In addition to demonstrating a certain level of competence to those who will be hiring you, pursuing a wedding planning education will allow you to gain skills, knowledge and competencies in areas you will need to succeed as a wedding planner, such as:
• Design and décor fundamentals
• Planning and coordinating material goods
• Managing vendor contracts
• Marketing, advertising, merchandising and bookkeeping for your business
Educational programs for wedding planners may be offered in the classrooms of local universities and colleges, and well as online. Wedding planner educational programs typically range widely in cost, and range in duration from one weekend to two years.
Completion of a continuing education or certification course in wedding or event planning may be sufficient to gain the necessary skills (especially if many of them come to you naturally), although a diploma program that is two years in duration will likely offer a more comprehensive education.
Although not directly related to wedding planning, a diploma or a degree in a field such as business administration, human ecology, communication or public relations, offers a knowledge base and skill set that are highly transferrable to a career as a wedding planner.
In fact, a degree or diploma in one of these fields becomes quite an asset for aspiring wedding planners when it is supplemented with on-the-job training in wedding or event management, or a short certification course in wedding planning.
SKILLS NEEDED TO BECOME WEDDING PLANNER
If you want to become a wedding planner, you need a variety of skills in business, communications, design, event management, and project planning.
Business Skills: Since most wedding planners are self-employed, they need to possess skills in business in addition to the skills they posses in planning weddings. Knowing how to market you services, sell your services to your clients, manage your finances, and manage multiple projects are key if you want to grow your business.
Communication Skills: Wedding planners must be able to listen to the needs and wants of their clients, and must be able to keep them informed regarding important details regarding the planning of their wedding. Good wedding planners must also be able to take and give orders, and must always have tact, such as when gracefully declining prospective clients that won’t be a good fit for them.
Design Skills: Having knowledge of design fundamentals is key if you want to become a wedding planner. For example, wedding planners should have knowledge of which colour schemes go best within certain lighting conditions, and during which seasons. Even if clients want to design their own wedding, a good wedding planner can provide design consultation and prevent clients from creating an aesthetically unappealing wedding.
Project Planning Skills: Wedding planners need to be able to effectively plan the biggest day of people’s lives. This means they cannot overlook any detail with regards to sourcing vendors, working within a budget, and most importantly juggling the needs and wants of two people and their families. In order to maintain their reputation, wedding planners must also be able to keep planning mistakes to an absolute minimum.
Event Management Skills: Wedding planners need to see their projects through to completion by ensuring the big day they planned for goes off without a hitch. They must be able to supervise the work of vendors and venue staff (which involves being able to delegate), as well as using time-management and organizational skills to ensure that everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing, when they are supposed to do it.
WHO HIRES WEDDING PLANNERS?
Most wedding planners are self-employed as freelance contractors, although there are opportunities for wedding planners to work as in-house employees of an organization.
Whether as an employee or as a freelance contractor, a wedding planner may be hired on a temporary, contractual or permanent basis by the following types of organizations:
• Convention and conference centres
• Event and wedding planning companies
• Interior design consulting firms
• Hotels and resorts
• Individuals
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