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For self-made people, event or wedding planning should match their type. Indeed, for self-motivated people, extroverts who enjoy social life and taking part in decoration and planning for parties, wedding planning is a great job for them.

It is a job for serious minded people who give attention to details and have some flair for design and communication. It also calls for people who have a knack for networking as well as being smart negotiators and good at sealing deals. It helps if you are romantic extrovert since you will do a great job when people are happy with you and want to do things together with you. If these descriptions ring a bell to you, you might be the right person for a wedding planning business. This may be the perfect business for you and probably the ideal time for you to go into the wedding planning business and with the right motivation, make waves.

In this article, you are going to read all about starting your own wedding planning business, together with the easy way to plan a wedding. Soon after that, you’ll be in a position to plan your first wedding and be able to make a sweet couple’s wedding daydreams become a reality.

Learn Through The Ropes

Before you dabble into the wedding planning business, take stock of yourself. Salespeople, they say are born, not made; there are some elements of truth in this saying, but I can say here and now that salespeople are born and made. To be successful in the wedding planning business, you’ll need to undergo some kind of training as well as acquire some experience in the field. Your natural flair is fine but you need to add some real-life experience.

The wedding planning industry is unregulated, and you don’t need to undergo any kind of course and write a certificated examination or even acquire an experience to set up a wedding planning business. So those online courses claiming to offer certificated courses aren’t officially recognised; be cautious of any providers making such claims.

However, if you are going into wedding planning business with no experience at all it will be advisable to undergo some training, even on the job training to instil in you the confidence you need to do your work. There are various online training institutions you can enrol to brush up only if you don’t have prior experience.

One of the reasons for training and having experience is for you to have an idea of where to draw the line concerning your job to avoid duplication of duties. For example, no matter what your role in planning for the wedding might be, the way the ceremony itself is conducted is the couple’s territory and not yours as a planner since they have to decide on what they want. If they want highlife music only on the wedding day, that is exactly what you are going to provide unless you don’t want to get paid for your services.

You don’t need to go for a degree course in event planning course or seek for a professional certificate in wedding planning but a kind of on the job training to boot you up before you start handling planning jobs. If you have an academic degree already or other certificates, it is a plus and you should improve on it.

How To Start A Wedding Planning Business

• Research the market
• What skills are required in the wedding planning business?
• Create a business plan
• Adopt a legal/business structure
• Register with tax authorities
• Open a bank account
• Set up a web website
• What Start up costs you need?
• Create some Concepts on wedding
• Market your wedding planning business
• The downside of becoming a wedding planner
• Conclusion:

Read Also: How to Become a Social Media Consultant

1. Research The Market

To set up your wedding planning business, you have to plan extensively, carry out market research and come up with information that will enable you to do a good job. If need be, you will need to do a feasibility study to establish the viability of this project before you go into it. All the same, market research on areas of competitive activities; their number, strengths and weaknesses, their performance and profit levels have to be known. Who are the big and small players in the industry and what makes the successful ones thick?

Research may have to be carried out on the area of the potential market (number of couples planning a wedding in the next one year) or so, market characteristics (age groups, living together but not wedded, same-sex) etc. You must also find out about the pricing policies and strategies adopted by players, including the tools they use to promote their business.

2. What skills are required in the wedding planning business?

Skills required might include the following:

• Organizer skill
• Troubleshooter skill
• Designer skill
• Sensitivity skill
• Administrative skill
• Contingency plan skill
• Human relations skill
• Relationship management skill

A wedding planner should be versatile, indeed “jack of all trade”. The planner should have an idea of everything but specifically, they should be an organizer, public relation manager, troubleshooter, an administrator and much more. The wedding planner’s actual duty is difficult to spell out, but traditionally it is within the purview of organizing the wedding day of wedding couples’ mind eye.

Firstly, a wedding planner needs to be organized because sometimes you may have two weddings lined up within days of each other and if care is not taken may have things muddled up. Being a good organizer is crucial, but sometimes having experience in an office environment can be very useful. Experienced secretaries and personal assistants (PA) who plan for their bosses over the years, certainly make good wedding planners.

A wedding planner doesn’t have to place all their hope on the original plan because it is possible things can go wrong logistically. For example, close to the opening ceremony of a well-celebrated wedding, the chairperson for the occasion is still far away from the venue because of fog on the highway, poor weather, or even an accident occurring on a major road, would you keep the guests waiting because of these unjustifiable reasons?  The answer to this is having the ability to consider having alternative plans at all times – plan B

Having organizational and administrative skills may be vital to the successful execution of an event, but being humane and connecting well with people is a great advantage. Wedding is trying times for couples who inevitably would feel exhausted weeks to their wedding day, and having the ability to make them feel at ease and lets them put their trust in you is an important talent.

Another important skill needed by a wedding planner is the ability to apply tact in carrying out their planning tasks. Sometimes, it is important to be sensitive to the problems of the couple, say the parents of the bride have devoiced or the groom mother doesn’t give her blessings to the marriage.

In some instances, you need the ability to keep your numerous suppliers in good relationship with you as they have to meet up with their supplies if the wedding couples will have a successful outing. These suppliers include venue owners, photographers, video recorders and florists. Without a sound relationship with these suppliers, you may get disappointed at the 11th hour, and what a disaster.

3. Create a business plan

When you develop a detailed business plan it will guide you all the way to follow but it will take a lot of hard work to perfect a plan. The plan will touch every aspect of your business and all the problem areas highlighted. Specifically:

• It will assist you to crystallize and direct your business ideas
• It will also help you set goals and objectives, strategies and control measures.
• It can act as a means of attracting all forms of funding for the business.

If you are contemplating seeking external finance, it is the plan that will sell your business idea to potential financiers including banks. It all means that your business plan has to be presented in such a way as not only guide management to follow an approved route to achieve organisation goals but also will convince potential financiers or investors to stake in the wedding planning business.

The areas your business plan will cover include the following:

• Business structure and ownership information – this section presents the people that are going to have a stake in the business, their resume, percentage of shares to be held, position to be held in the business etc.
• The market segments to be served:  – This deals with potential couples expected to wed in the next one yea, number of competitors, and other environmental factors in the industry
• The wedding planning process – This section highlights how the wedding planning will be made including associated technology to be used, processes, purchases, expenses etc.
• Manpower requirements – This section is concerned with the human resources requirements, now and in the immediate future and the associated costs.
• Estimated capital Expenditure – This is the section that deals with the types of fixed assets (office equipment, furniture and fittings, smart phone, computer, printer, POS and accounting software, others are invoicing,  email marketing and other accessories and their relevant costs.
• Estimated working capital – This section states the amount of working capital, (cash at hand and in the bank) to be provided for daily operations.
• Profitability analysis and evaluation of the project  –  This is the aspect  of decision making on the whether to engage in the wedding planning business or not.  There are certain guidelines to be worked that will help in taking this important decisions such as break-even analysis and payback period.
• Cash budget – This section deals with the expected cash receipts and payments including information whether there will be cash surplus or deficit within the period.
• Market research, including target market demographics
• Financial structure – This section deals with the estimated start-up costs, projected income and expenditure and profit and loss account for the period.
• Detailed list of services – The list of services to be provided should include recommendation of the wedding attire, arranging for officiating vicar and decoration and booking of hall, seats arrangement and other ancillary services to be agreed with the wedding couple.
• Research – data and information for a wedding planning business may be collected through the usual business research methods of survey, observations, and social and business networks.
• Branding – what your brand represents and what keeps it apart from competitors.
• Marketing strategy – this call for a comprehensive action in which you intend to use to accomplish your goals.

Read Also: How to Start an Event Planning Business

4. Adopt A Legal/Business Structure

The business structure you decide on adopt determines your taxes and the protection of your personal assets. The sole proprietorship type has your name registered but doesn’t protect your personal assets. In the US, small businesses such a wedding planning business are encouraged to register as a limited liability company (LLC) as this gives you protection against personal assets should your company face litigation.

Once a structure is decided upon, register it with the state and local governments. Since you probably will be engaging employees, you will have to apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN). With the registration completed, you will be able to file for taxes, hire employees and open a business bank account. Don’t forget business insurance too, to cover your business against disaster risk, accidents. or any other unforeseeable risks. You should look at your client contracts to ensure you observe the terms for services, payments for work executed, cancellation, and termination of contract, among others. If there are licenses and  other levies to be paid, get them ready before commencing business  to prevent being on the other side of the legal system.

5. Register With Tax Authority

It is important that you register your business with relevant tax authorities both at state and federal levels. As an entity, there are certain taxes your business should pay. Also, if you hire staff working for you, you need to deduct tax from their salary which you are expected to remit to the state tax authority. Doing otherwise will be seen as tax evasion. Of course, this has its own legal implications. It is necessary to obtain the permits required to open a shoe store in your desired location. These permits vary depending on the location and the authorities in charge. Some of the permits include a sales tax license and business permit,  etc.

For instance, when trying to buy merchandise from certain shoe wholesalers or dealers, you will need to provide proof of a sales tax license, resale permit, and other business documents to make orders for your shoes.

It is imperative to legalize your shoe store to prevent disturbance from local and federal authorities.

Read Also: Best Business Ideas in a Recession

6. Open a Bank Account

It is important that you have a bank account for your business. Even though you have a personal bank account, you still need to open a separate account for your business where you can lodge all the wedding planning revenues. Also, you should make all the expenses relating to the business from the company. This makes you more accountable. At the same time, it will be easier for you to source loans from the bank when needed. Furthermore, having a bank account makes it easy for your accountant to prepare the financial statements of the wedding planning business. 

7. Set up a web website

An attractive and functioning website is paramount if you want to be successful in your wedding planning business. The reason is obvious; you need to regularly drag traffic to your site. In this info-tech age, couples who are planning for wedding and seek for some information naturally go online to seek for whatever information. Your website should be useful in making bookings, answering questions from potential customers and accepting online payments. It is also important that you maintain business account on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Yekp, and be active in all. It is also going to be a good idea to advertise online

You can design an attractive interactive website by yourself using website builder software and need only a graphic designer and a copywriter to make logo and write your site copy, respectively. In the end, you only need a website builder template to put everything together, and you have a perfect website

If this poses a problem, you can hire a web designer to craft a professional website for you. .

Remember to include the following in your site since as a wedding planner; it is through your online presence people are going to learn about you.

1. A dignified photo shoots of a real wedding which you have assisted in planning or a mock wedding, to be included on the site are: reception table, decorations and the wedding cake. This is an opportunity to showcase your practical knowledge of wedding planning as well as what is trending in the wedding world.
2. Samples of weddings you have successfully taken part in planning.
3. List of academic/and or professional certificates you possess.
4. Referrals from family members and friends for events you have taken part in planning.

8. What Start up costs you need?

The wedding planning business doesn’t cost so much at start up though it requires much of your time. You don’t need to begin by renting an office space, but as an independent consultant, can start at your dining table or at most use local coffee shop. But no matter the way the start up goes, there is some basic initial expenditure that must be incurred before you take off properly.

One of such expenses is getting a legal practitioner to begin drawing a contract between you and your potential clients before you begin working for them. You might also begin to work on protecting your personal assets from liability should you enter into a legal battle with your clients in the future. This is part of the initial cost you should pay when you engage an attorney.

You should also budget for marketing if you want to achieve an early success in this business by printing flyers, call cards, placing adverts on the social media such as Facebook, Instagram etc. Even if you use your dining table to do your first job, you should budget to buy office furniture, lease an office space, and buy a computer and smart phone. Others will include:

• Web design expenses
• A printer/scanner
• A business telephone line
• Professional indemnity insurance

Read Also: Cost Control Measures for Small Business

 9. Create Some Concepts on wedding

As a newbie, you can’t boast of having sufficient content for your portfolio. You can get around this issue by generating some mock-up wedding plans to use to boost up your marketing.

What you need to do to create some mock-up content is to undergo a kind of internet research on wedding trends; find out what is in vogue with regard to trendy themes and decorations. If you are going to specialize in civil ceremonies wedding, Roman Catholic Weddings, Jewish or Islamic weddings, browse for such decorations and extract information and from the information gathered, form many wedding concepts.

The next thing you do is to invite vendors and find out if they are willing to partner with you in generating some concepts. Definitely, you will need the following vendors as the case may be: flowers, decoration, lighting and photography. To capture the entire set=up, you will need to engage a photographer/and or a video recorder vendor.

You can create nice mock-up designs by getting inspired from Pinterest or sites like it, try it at home and you will be glad you made a fine design. You can even make as many as possible mock wedding timelines for different types of weddings as this will register in the minds of potential client what their wedding day will look like and may contact you for preliminary discussion.

10. Market your wedding planning business

To attract potential customers to your new business, you must promote your services in most possible channels, such as word of mouth with family and friends, website and the social media.

So begin right away to inform your family members and friends. Send them text messages and email about your newbie, also promote your business any available gathering or hangout.

If you find out that some of them are engaged and will soon get married, offer to give a helping hand in planning their wedding at reasonable discount. It is an opportunity to promote you newbie also.

You must also not forget the information age we are in; sign up for business accounts on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. These sites are invaluable in exposing your business to the right audience. Also create quality and engaging content on the social media that will drag your readers to your website.

11. The downside of becoming a wedding planner

Before going into the business of a wedding planner, consider the following risks associated with the wedding planning business.

Most weddings take place at the weekends; you are likely to miss some free time, so think about taking some days of the week off to prevent breaking down.

Moreover, you can’t form a long term relationship with your clients in this business since your clients can’t wed the second time though it is possible they can recommended you to their friends if they are happy with your services.

Finally you need to invest more on marketing during the off season by designing a plan that will encourage people to wed during this time. You may offer attractive discount to woo potential clients. If you don’t make these extra efforts, there is the risk of losing revenue.

Conclusion:

Going into a wedding planning business cannot guarantee you riches; the first few years will be an uphill task, and since they are typically a lone squad business, you are most times restricted in the work you can take on.

The real benefit attributed to this business however, is in its flex-time and as such you have the opportunity to be closely involved in what is believed the best moment of most peoples’ lives. Since weddings mean so much to people, as a planner you will cherish the sense of being in the picture of what is regarded as a special day for wedding couples.

Consulting, Services

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