Weddings are happy occasions, but they are very tedious to organize. There are so many things to take care of: wedding invitations, venue, food, decorations, budgeting, and what not. So, many times, even the most brilliant wedding planners feel pressure.
Lately, there has been the emergence of many freelance wedding planners who come along with their own giveaways. These planners range from the most experienced to the newbies, but one cannot simply decide who to employ because the competition is tough.
In order to stand out from the crowd, you need to offer more than what every wedding planner ordinarily offers. You will have to work constantly on your skills and knowledge to improve your professional experience. In this article, we will enumerate 10 tips that can help you have an edge over other competitors.
1. A Website Can Draw Better Traffic
Having a website for the promotion of one’s business is very useful. You can have all the necessary details on the website so that people know who you are and what you can offer. So, if you are serious about making it big as a wedding planner, you should consider owning a website.
On the website, you should include all essential information such as your profile, your business-related achievements, contact details, a creatively organized portfolio of past projects, and other details. You can make your website interactive by regularly posting pictures and blogging your experiences.
2. Spread Your Wings All Over The Internet
The Internet provides a powerful platform to promote and expand your business interests. There are multiple social and professional networking websites which offer options to diversify online traffic. Thus, maintaining an active presence on major networking platforms is immensely beneficial.
Run ads on other websites which you think has good traffic and can give you what you need. You will have to shell out money, but the investment is worth it.
3. Draft A Good Portfolio
If you want to strengthen your credibility as a freelance wedding planner, you need to show people that you have the requisite skills and knowledge for undertaking event planning and management. That is where your portfolio will come.
A well-curated portfolio is organized. You should filter out irrelevant work experiences and only add the ones which are associated with wedding planning. Moreover, it will benefit you and the client if you categorize the portfolio—it could be chronological, location-wise, expenditure-wise, or any other category.
In case you are starting anew, you should add your training and internship experiences and adequately elaborate on them so that they reflect your skills for undertaking any project.
4. Be Ready For A Very Busy Life
Wedding planning is a herculean task, especially when you are doing it for someone else. You are entrusted with the task of making the wedding a success—and, undoubtedly, it is not an easy task.
You should mentally prepare yourself for tight schedules and exhausting circumstances which might turn all your plans upside-down. There may be moments when you will have to forsake your holidays and work out better plans.
5. Earn Educational Qualifications Of A Wedding Planning
Every country has different educational requirements for working as a wedding planner. So you will have to keep yourself updated with the necessary information in this respect.
There are many offline and online courses that can certify you. If you look up the Internet, you will find a plethora of these courses, and many of them are highly authoritative. You can consider a few of them mentioned here. These certificate courses can add more spark to your resume and attract more clients.
6. Be Good Listener
As noted earlier, you will be planning and managing someone else’ wedding and therefore, it becomes all the more necessary that you understand fully what your client wants.
When you meet the client, make sure you pay your fullest attention to the discussion. The client will, most probably, have a vision of how the wedding should be organized. You should give a materialistic form to that vision. Listen well, address issues, give suggestions, and try sticking to the vision as much as possible.
7. Strengthen Your Relationships
In the freelance community, work often comes through references. It, thus, becomes significant that you work towards building stronger relationships with your previous and present professional relationships.
Work on growing your professional network and offer exemplary services to ensure that people recommend taking up your services. Even when you encounter a rude client, you should try your best to behave politely and address concerns calmly.
Sometimes, you might even not need to personally approach people if you perform your job wonderfully. Everyone who attends the wedding will be able to see your work and may end up hiring your services in the future.
8. Keep Yourself Updated
Things change with time. People’s choices will keep changing with time and circumstances. So, you should ensure that you are well-updated with the latest trends in the wedding planning business.
The advantage of being updated is simple: you will be able to think of fresh ideas which could be implemented in your agenda. The better ideas you bring, the happier your customers will be.
9. Always Prepared To Tackle Emergencies
You fail as a wedding planner in the absence of necessary tools to handle any emergency which may arise. You may have the most brilliant plan for the wedding, but what can go wrong will go wrong.
Of all emergencies, you need to especially take care of the financial emergencies. There is no telling when the baker will mess up the cake or the band will cancel. Hence, you must have evaluated finances in such manner to handle any emergency effectively.
10. Tame Your Expectations
It is not easy being a freelancer. There is no guarantee that keeps the work coming so do not keep high expectations.
Whether you have just started or have already been working for quite some time, you must accept the uncertainty which is an indispensable part of the freelance community. Work hard, strengthen your network, and let the results speak.
Wedding planning sounds like a fun-filled job, but there is more to it than just fun. Ask a wedding planner about the pains it takes to get the job done. In this article, we tried to alleviate the concerns of our fellow freelance wedding planners by offering a few tips.
We hope that our efforts help you gain confidence and direction, but if you think we could have done better, you are most welcome to provide your valuable feedback. You may also consider sharing the article so that we get others on-board and kick-start a more inclusive discussion.
