Wedding Planner Jobs – What the Job Entails & How to Get There

As the number of couples getting married increases, the number of wedding planner jobs & careers also goes up.  The need for wedding planners is on the rise because many couples are dealing with busier schedules and don’t have time to plan their wedding alone.  This is a great career to pursue if you love working with people, have a positive attitude, love event planning, and enjoy working in a loving atmosphere!  However, if you want to get into the field of wedding planning you have to keep in mind that it is not all fun and games.  You have to be able to handle stress and deadlines as well as know how to be super organized and on top of things on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis.

As a wedding planner, you have many options as far as your planning involvement is concerned.  Many people choose to start their own wedding planning business, which can be done with minimal start-up costs!  You can choose to only provide certain services to your clients or the entire planning package from beginning to end; it’s all up to you.

You must first look at all the elements a wedding planner handles to see if this career choice may be right for you. This should help cover any questions you have about wedding planner jobs.

WEDDING PLANNER JOBS OUTLINE

• Arrange venues
• Deal with florists and caters
• Deal with seating companies
• Deal with photographers and videographers
• Arrange lodging and transportation
• Book tickets for travel
• Deal with baker/cake maker and decorator
• Deal with decorators
• Help organize the honeymoon details – travel, accommodations, activities
• Maintain the guest list
• Help with the gift registry
• Help with the wedding attire – for the bride, groom and wedding party
• Make phone calls, return messages, handle emails – in high volume at times
• Be the go-between for bride, groom, family members, and guests

Keep in mind that you may not be hired to do all of the above, but you may also be hired to do all of the above and more!  Your involvement is all up to you and your client.  If you are currently in a career field that has nothing to do with event planning, catering, decorating, photography, videography, or any other aspect of a wedding, don’t worry!  As long as you have the right attitude and personality traits, pursuing wedding planner jobs can be one of the best decisions of your life.

TRAITS AND SKILLS

• Personable
• Great multi-tasking ability
• Superb organizational skills
• Strong follow-up skills
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Professional and well-groomed image
• Strong knowledge of hospitality
• Excellent understanding of budgets and money
• Great problem solving skills
• Ability to work well under pressure and handle high stress levels
• Meet deadlines and keep appointments
• Business management skills – if you own your own business

With a basic understanding of the elements involved and skills needed to enjoy a lucrative career as a wedding planner, you can begin to take the necessary steps to begin a great career.  A wedding planner’s salary varies depending on the range of services they provide and what types of clientele they work with.  Obviously a wedding planner who caters to elite celebrities and socialites will make considerably more because their clients can afford to pay their high rates.  However, there is a reason why those types of planners can charge exorbitant rates – they are the best in their field and they’ve worked very hard to get there.  But you can too!

WEDDING PLANNER SALARIES

The range in salary is quite large.  As an average wedding planner you can make anywhere from $26,000 to $64,000.  Again, this depends on the level of involvement and the services you provide as a wedding planner.  If you want to make six-figures as a wedding planner, offer more services and aim your services or business towards celebrities, wealthy socialites and successful businesspeople living in expensive cities.  The key to building a successful wedding planning business is to market your business and yourself as much as possible.  You will have to build yourself and your business from the ground up so make sure you do the best job you can and make each and every client/couple more than happy with your services.

EDUCATION AND JOB SEARCH

If you are serious about a wedding planner job there are a few education routes you can take to break into this field or advance your established career.  These programs and degree courses teach you how to work in the hospitality field, work under pressure, deal with stress, handle correspondence properly, business management skills, be organized, work with budgets, and make your clients wishes a reality.

• Online Programs and Organizations:  You can take courses online from wedding planning organizations.  The courses usually take anywhere from several weeks to several months to complete.  Upon completion, you receive a certification.  You can also take courses through online universities to get a certification as well.
• Community College:  You can contact your local community colleges and see if any of them offer special associates degrees in wedding planning, event planning or hospitality.  These programs take 2 years to complete, but may be taken over a longer period of time if you can only go part-time.
• 4-Year College or University:  Many universities and 4-year colleges offer a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Management and Hospitality.  This would be a great degree to have if you plan on going into the event planning field.

If you plan on starting your own business from the ground up, you will need to advertise and market yourself and your business a lot!  In order to build a client base from the beginning, you might want to take on small weddings at first so that you can get a feel for how the process works.  This will also make it easier to transition into this field and allow you to make your clients happy!  You don’t want to start out with a huge project that you can’t handle and get negative feedback and ruin someone’s wedding!  After you build up a great reputation, bigger and better clients will come to you.  If you do not want to start your own business, but still want to be in the wedding planning career field you can search online for wedding planning or wedding coordinator jobs.  Try searching in your town, city or state at first.  You can also check job websites such as Monster.com, Indeed.com or CareerBuilder.com.  You can also do a quick Google search for your area.

If you are unsure if pursuing a wedding planner job is right for you, check out some wedding planning blogs and read articles at online wedding planning websites.  This will give you lots of knowledgeable information that will help you decide if this is the right career path for you!

For more information on wedding planner jobs, check out these articles:

Free Online Wedding Planner Tips

Wedding Budget Planning Tips & Tricks

Wedding Dress Online – How to Choose the Perfect One

Thanks for reading!