So, you want to be a wedding planner?
I get lots of inquiries on open positions with Hatched Events and/or questions on how to get started in the event planning business. I hope this page will give you some honest answers to the questions I am most often asked:
How did you get started?
Short Answer: I planned my own wedding.
Long Answer: I planned my own wedding, along with family birthday parties and celebrations, then friends started asking me for help with their projects. I began to realize that a lot of my hobbies and past work experience were geared towards planning: I was a training and operations coordinator in high school, I was an administrative assistant during Capital Campaigns and loved scrapbooking ideas from start to finish. I saw planning as fun and not work even though it is a lot of both. I began to look into starting my own event planning business and realized I had no idea what I was doing.
I had a passion but no direction. Knowing that if I moved forward with passion only I could potentially overspend and under prepare. So I took a certificate course at the local college and met people that were liked minded. Once I had completed some education and made some local vendor contacts, I started spreading the word to friends and family that Hatched Events was almost open for business. I had a website launch and began taking inquiries.
How do I become a wedding planner?
Short Answer: Please get some education!
Long answer: Please get some education – in my opinion, all wedding planners should get some education through a credible professional organization. ABC, ACPWC and June Wedding all offer training programs. You wouldn’t try to cater or photograph a wedding without some training or a good deal of hands on experience, same thing goes for planning and coordinating a wedding! This type of education covers more than just who stands where in a processional and what flowers are in season, it will also explain how to start and run a wedding business and all that goes with it. Also, don’t limit yourself to just wedding consulting – you must to have a basic working knowledge of everything that goes into a wedding: flowers, cakes, photography, music, food and wine. Seek out classes in those areas as well.
You have my dream job – I would love to be a wedding planner!
Short Response: I am very lucky – I LOVE what I do. I have the best job in the world and can’t imagine doing anything else.
Long answer: I am very lucky – I LOVE what I do. I have the best job in the world and can’t imagine doing anything else. That having been said, the reality of what I do is quite far from what J-Lo did in the Wedding Planner movie. Rarely glamorous, it certainly isn’t always pretty. You must be able to handle stress and never let it show – I honestly think the phrase “never let them see you sweat” was coined by a wedding planner! You must be willing to do anyway and everything to make the bride and groom’s day as close to perfect as possible – NOTHING should be considered beneath you. If anything is beneath you, you can bet it won’t be beneath another planner.
Linnyette Richardson-Hall, said it best: “While television and the media may have glamorized our industry, the real truth is – this is hard work!! This job is not for the faint of heart nor the easily offended. If you get your feelings hurt easily, look at another profession. If you aren’t able to move at the speed of light and multi-task at the same time, consider another job. To be a wedding planner you need the patience of a saint, the skin of an alligator and the soul of an artist.”
Adopted from Emillie Duncan