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Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a wedding planner. Feel free to use our wedding planner job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a wedding planner.

 

Who is a Wedding Planner?

A wedding planner is a specialist who helps a client plan, create, and organize their wedding. Weddings are important events in people’s lives, and as a result, many couples are ready to spend a significant sum of money to guarantee that their weddings are well-organized. Couples who work long hours and have little free time typically hire wedding planners to help them find and manage wedding venues and vendors. Wedding planners, often known as bridal or wedding consultants, help clients plan full weddings or specific wedding activities. They consult with clients on wedding logistics, negotiate vendor contracts, and oversee the efficient running of wedding-day events. Weddings are significant life events, and many couples have very particular plans in mind when it comes to organizing one. Wedding planning necessitates a great deal of planning. Wedding planning is an idealistic career option that provides genuine professional satisfaction by assisting in the creation of memories for people to cherish. In this article, we’ll go over how to become a wedding planner, as well as the abilities you’ll need.

 

Wedding planners assist couples in planning the events that will take place around their wedding. Weddings are more than just the wedding ceremony, and couples hire wedding planners to help them select and book venues, caterers, florists, officiants, photographers, and musicians, among other things. Wedding planners also assist in ensuring that the events of the day go according to schedule by creating a timeline and ensuring that all members of the wedding party adhere to it. Clients tell a wedding planner what type of wedding they want, and the wedding planner helps them set a budget and identify the correct locations and vendors to match their vision.

Wedding planners can take on more complex weddings with larger budgets as they gain expertise and earn greater compensation. Being a successful wedding planner also requires business abilities, as planners must sell themselves to grow their clientele. Wedding planners who work for a venue or an event planning business may be able to advance to the position of an event coordinator with adequate experience. A wedding planner’s responsibilities encompass everything from attire and flowers to ceremony and reception sites, food, drink, and entertainment, as well as providing accommodation, comforts, and facilities for wedding guests. Depending on how active the client couple wants to be in the planning, any wedding event endeavour might be enormous or little. You must be systematic and capable of handling difficult or stressful situations to be a great wedding planner. Finally, a top-tier wedding planner should stay up with the current wedding trends while also demonstrating great communication, organization, and customer service abilities. Wedding planners often provide four different levels of service. The most typical options are Full-Service Planning, Partial Planning, and Month-of, and Day-of wedding planning.

 

Types of Wedding Planners

1. Full-service wedding planner

Full-service planning is exactly what it says on the tin. From the moment they are hired until the wedding is over, the planner works with you. According to Elizabeth Restauri, proprietor of Total Imagination Events in Denver, “they are there offering the finest degree of assistance throughout.” “A full-service planner assembles a team of trusted wedding providers and manages all of the minutiae of planning while assisting you in weaving unique ideas into your wedding vision that bring your love story to life,” she explains. “Design services are occasionally included in this.” You should be aware, however, that some wedding planners charge extra for wedding design.”

2. Partial-service wedding planner

Partially planned events are generally scheduled on an hourly basis. Restauri notes, “A partial wedding planning service will keep account of the hours they put in pre-planning, vendor recommendations, contract administration, and general consultation.” “The day-of wedding management is nearly often included in the partial planning package, but you should double-check with any planner before hiring them.” A partial planner may be more convenient for a couple who likes to be more hands-on with their wedding planning.

3. Month-of wedding planner

A month-of wedding planner is the third sort of service. This usually entails the clients conducting their research and bookings for all of their vendors. Before the planner takes over, they usually finalize design and decor specifics with those providers. “A month-of planner will go over all of your vendor contracts and check what services they’ll be providing. According to Restauri, “[they] develop a timeline for the wedding day based on the providers you’ve secured and make suggestions to address any potential holes you may have overlooked.” “On the wedding day, the coordinator will manage the flow and execution of the wedding day timeline by communicating and confirming all of the final details to the proper providers.”

4. Day-of wedding planner/coordinator

A day-of wedding coordinator, sometimes known as a planner, is the final form of wedding planning service. This type of wedding planner works on the day of the wedding to carry out plans that have already been made. Pinto Jr. notes that they are great for a couple who wants to arrange the details of their wedding themselves but needs a professional to step in and effortlessly manage the day on their behalf.

 

Wedding Planner Job Description

Below are the wedding planner job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a wedding planner job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.

• Hold initial discussions with clients to discuss wedding packages, the type of wedding desired, and their wedding budget. Additional meetings are necessary during the pre-wedding planning period to provide feedback, discuss ideas, and confirm activities, as well as address any problems or changing requirements that may arise.
• Develop positive ties with the client pair so that you may understand their planning and vision.
• Consult with clients on wedding specifics, such as venue options, entertainment, food, and decoration preferences.
• Advice on etiquette, tradition, and customs.
• Organize client meetings to see potential wedding locations and meet with vendors such as flowers, photographers, caterers, bakers, and invitation designers.
• Work with wedding suppliers and service providers including venue employees, flowers, caterers, and photographers.
• Negotiate contracts and make payments to specific vendors as needed.
• Assure of the timely printing of wedding and rehearsal dinner invitations, as well as wedding programs and place cards.
• Organize the timely delivery of necessary wedding materials and equipment to the wedding location.
• Assist clients with packing and securing their wedding presents and personal belongings in a designated vehicle or storage facility.
• Maintain calendars and diaries that detail the timeline leading up to the big day, as well as ensure that scheduled actions, such as paying deposits to secure services, are completed.
• Keep an eye on everything to guarantee that everything runs smoothly on the wedding day.

 

Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree in hospitality management or a similar profession.
• The American Association of Certified Wedding Planners (AACWP) certification is preferred.
• Experience arranging a wedding or an event.
• Mastery of all Microsoft Office apps.
• A thorough understanding of many religions and religious rituals.
• Strong negotiation and networking abilities.
• Excellent organizational, problem-solving, and time-management abilities.
• Exceptional communication and customer service skills.
• Detail-oriented, systematic, and inventive.

 

Essential Skills

• Communication skills: Event planners must have great verbal and written communication skills, especially because they must meet with clients and suppliers in person and handle numerous phone calls and emails. To guarantee that all material is precise, you must be able to properly listen to customers and assist them in expressing their vision in a good short. You can simply avoid miscommunication and guarantee that all plans run smoothly if you have good communication skills.
• Creative skills: You’ll need a strong creative streak to be able to tap into the couple’s vision and bring it to life for them, even if they have their own very strong views about the type of day they want. For a couple who has no ideas, you can utilize your knowledge, experience, and artistic flair as a wedding planner to inspire them.
• Financial and negotiation skills: While some couples prefer to be active in every part of their finances, others prefer to just set a budget and have everything else handled for them. Being able to offer good financial and negotiation skills (even if the couple chooses to do it themselves) will give the couple confidence in their abilities as a planner and someone they can come to when the need arises.
• Budgeting Skills: On paper, sticking to a budget when organizing someone else’s wedding may appear to be a simple undertaking. However, balancing what they want to do with the money they have available might be difficult at times. Furthermore, budget scenarios might change at any time, even at the last minute. That implies you’ll have to make last-minute alterations to your original strategy. You can alleviate a lot of the problems that this may cause by acquiring excellent budgeting skills and being extremely resourceful. If you want to be a successful wedding planner, this is one of the most vital talents to master.
• Problem-solving and diplomacy: In a perfect world, everything should go according to plan, and no vendor should let you down. In reality, though, difficulties can develop at the last minute. Things can quickly spiral out of control if the wedding coordinator isn’t skilled at problem-solving. Through practice and education, wedding planners can hone crucial problem-solving abilities. Problem-solving is concerned with the countless possibilities of things going wrong right before the wedding. In most cases, couples hire a wedding planner to remove themselves from the stressful aspects of the planning process. As a result, any snags must be handled smoothly and professionally, ideally without the bride or groom even realizing there was a problem.
• Flexibility: Working with wedding customers is unique in that, due to their regular 9 – 5 schedules, evenings and weekends are frequently the only times they have available to organize the wedding. Although you’ll be doing a lot of the planning and legwork for them during your regular working hours, the role does require a lot of ‘out of hours’ contact and availability, which should be factored in, especially since the majority of UK weddings still take place on Saturdays and your presence on the day will be crucial.
• Stamina: Planning a wedding is time-consuming and tiring, which is why many couples hire a wedding planner in the first place. When you consider that a wedding planner may be dealing with multiple client couples at once, it’s easy to see why stamina is such an important component of the job. This is especially crucial because the job requires a lot of physical exertion, mental acuity, and emotional stamina.
• Listening skills: Listening skills are crucial when it comes to wedding preparation. Clients often have no notion what type of event they want and are content to leave the creative vision to the planner in general event planning. This is in sharp contrast to wedding preparation, where at least one-half of the couple will have spent years cultivating extremely specific notions about the type of day they want: their own very specific vision. It’s all part of the job to be able to listen to the couple’s needs and turn them into a reality as closely as possible, even if that means planning a wedding that isn’t to your liking.
• Patience: Weddings entail a plethora of options, from dates to drinks, colours to cards, flowers to furnishings, some of which will take time to express to consumers and then wait for their reaction. Managing the timeframe for the organization and preparation of the wedding requires combining patience with the urge to get things done, so patience is not only a skill but one that may impact effective planning as well.
• Excellent communication and people skills: Weddings are all about relationships, and planning an event where everyone from the couple to their families, as well as all of the wedding vendors, has an opinion on how things should go can be extremely daunting – just working with two couple clients and their wedding vendors could mean communicating with around 50 different people in a week. Only strong communication and people skills can allow you to form positive interactions with those concerned. To be successful in this, you must maintain a professional demeanour throughout a variety of communication channels, including face-to-face, email, phone, and messaging – and this includes unscheduled, after-hours contact from worried clients.

 

How to Become a Wedding Planner

1. Obtain higher education or training

Think about getting higher education or training. Though it is not essential, an Associate’s or Bachelor’s Degree in Event Planning may be very useful in your position as a wedding planner. A business or communications degree could also be beneficial. Coursework for an event planning degree can involve event advertising, hospitality marketing tactics, organizational behaviour, and food preparation for various events and ceremonies, all of which would be relevant to your employment as a wedding planner.

2. Acquire experience

Putting any knowledge you’ve received to use in this profession is a terrific method to develop your abilities. Consider doing an internship at an agency or offering to assist friends and family with wedding planning. This can help you figure out where you need to improve and what roadblocks to avoid in the future when it comes to wedding preparation.

3. Become a member of a professional wedding planner organization.

Networking is an excellent way to grow your career, meet new people, and gain inspiration in any field. It also helps you network with potential vendors for future events.

4. Obtain certifications

Another option to broaden your understanding of the wedding planning profession is to become certified. It demonstrates to potential clients that you are up to the challenge and capable of planning a great event. Various associations or trade groups frequently offer certifications.

5. Consider where you’d like to work.

You should think about not only where you want to live and the demand for wedding planners in that area, but also whether you want to work for yourself or an agency. Consider self-employment if you are self-motivated, independent, and knowledgeable about the business side of this field. You might always work for an agency to get expertise before starting your own company later in your career. However, if you’ve recently graduated from college, working for an event planning agency is a terrific opportunity to gain valuable experience early in your career.

6. Keep your education going.

Continuing your education is a great way to remain up to date on the current wedding planning trends. This can be accomplished by attending numerous seminars or enrolling in industry-specific classes. This, like networking, has the potential to expand your circle and contacts. It’s also a terrific method to hone your abilities and ensure that you’re doing everything you can to give your clients the finest events possible.

 

Where to Work as a Wedding Planner

Some wedding planners work for event planning organizations, which may prefer to hire planners with experience, training, and certification. If you’ve completed a wedding planner certification program, your school might be able to help you find work. You might begin your career as an assistant or intern for a wedding planning firm. You might also look for work in a location that specializes in weddings. Many couples who do not hire their wedding planner use the help of a wedding planner employed by the venue where their ceremony or reception will take place. You may not be able to get a position as an event organizer straight away if you don’t have any prior experience, but you can start as an assistant. All you need to get started working for yourself is a client. Wedding planning success might result in referrals and new consumers. You’ll be able to offer potential clients examples of your previous work as you gain expertise.

 

Wedding Planner Salary Scale

In the United States, the average pay for a Wedding Planner is $42, 675. A wedding planner in Nigeria earns roughly 432,000 NGN per month on average. Salaries vary between 225,000 and 662,000 NGN. This is the monthly average pay, which includes housing, transportation, and other amenities. Salaries for wedding planners vary greatly depending on experience, talents, gender, and region.

 

 

Consulting and Strategy

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