Wedding Hive Podcast
Giving you the tea and ALL the buzz in the wedding world! New episodes every Wednesday!
Wedding Hive Podcast
So You Think You Can Plan Weddings?
Our hosts answer listener questions about breaking into the wedding planning industry, revealing it's not the sparkly, carefree career most people imagine but requires exceptional organization and people skills.
• Wedding planning requires patience, organization, and attention to detail
• Shadow an established planner before committing to this career path
• Industry experience through internships helps determine if it's the right fit
• Educational courses aren't required but help with understanding diverse wedding traditions
• Building relationships with vendors creates a reliable network for referrals
• Navigating family dynamics is a crucial skill for wedding planners
• The behind-the-scenes work includes mediating difficult conversations
• People skills are vital for handling emotions and personalities on wedding days
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Hey queens, welcome back to another episode of the Daily Buzz. Today we are answering your questions that you sent in on Instagram. So, kelsey, best ways to get into wedding planning as a career or a part-time gig, what do we think? You've been in the wedding industry for quite a few years now. How can we help this listener?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is a wonderful question, so gonna play devil's advocate for a second. Everybody is under the impression that the wedding planning world is so fun and blissful and joyous and just full of laughter and bubbles and sparkles, and that is a lie. There is a lot that goes into planning large events or people's the most important day of people's lives their wedding days. So first off, I would say, make sure that you are somebody that has lots of patience and are very well organized. The details are insane and I am. I I have become a very organized person since going into this career field because it is not for the faint of heart. So suggestions I would encourage you to either find a planner or somebody who is in the industry and reach out and see if you can shadow them. I love having people shadow me, even if it's unpaid. Just come in and be a helping hand, serve the couple on wedding day, work alongside the planner, see what that looks like from the timeline to set up a vendor communication, communication with bridal party. Really start to get your hands into the industry with somebody. I know that I have done internships in the past for people who have come in and some of them have become phenomenal planners and coordinators, and some of them ended their internship and said, yeah, this isn't for me and that's okay. You would much rather go into the industry, kind of under like a trial period before you put all your eggs in the basket. So I would start with finding somebody in the industry to link arms with and and shadow from there in this industry, as of right now, there are not requirements for any type of extended education or in educational courses, but they, they have really helped me in the in the planning process, especially with learning different cultures, um, religious styles, um, different views of weddings. So if you want to do a course, there are a few hundred dollars and you can go through a course, um, and then after that, if that's something that you're really wanting to pursue, like I said either, getting in with a planner starting a wedding planning business is so, so hard.
Speaker 2:The industry is phenomenal, but I like to compare it to real estate. There is kind of like a dog eat dog world to it. Planners who have been in the industry and have been in for a long time sometimes aren't as gracious with newcomers, but I would love to change the stigma in that experience. There is plenty of weddings to go around. Everybody can be successful and we can build one another up.
Speaker 2:So the other thing is, I would say, is if you have found your planner that you're able to kind of internship under and grow under also reach out and find those vendors, because vendor relationships are huge. Having good relationships with lots of vendors in the wedding industry, you give them referrals, they give you referrals. You kind of have that backbone of a team. I have my dream team that I have worked with many, many times and I would go to bat for these individuals because they just are so special in my heart and on wedding day. I know that things are going to be executed the way they need to be executed because of who they are in their work ethic and their values. So grace that is.
Speaker 1:That is my yeah, no, I love what you said about one doing internship, because I think sometimes from the outside world it can look like it's all glitzing glamor and it's fun. Um, just recently, getting into you know, the wedding industry and doing content creation, I could never be a wedding coordinator or planner. It really, like you said, is not for the faint of heart. I think you have to have a love, a passion for it, otherwise I don't think it'll be a good fit. And it's actually funny the fact that you brought up real estate.
Speaker 1:I used to do real estate and I would always say you need to have a trusted expert and someone who's actually passionate about it Because, just like weddings, a house purchase is probably one of the biggest purchases most people will ever make in their life. So you need to have someone who's there and trusted, that you can count on. Same for your wedding day you want to have. This is, you know pretty much everyone. Most people say your wedding day is the best, biggest, greatest day of your life. So you want someone that is going to be there for you, that you know is happy to be there and is passionate about it and wants to make sure your day is absolutely perfect. So that's, I think you said everything perfectly.
Speaker 1:Aw well, thank you, you're so good. Kazi's just the best Everyone hire her.
Speaker 2:You reminded me my other. So I mentioned at the very beginning like patience is important, but we kind of joke about it a little bit on the podcast and we kind of hem-haw around it. But family dynamics are so important to understand and to be able to walk through.
Speaker 2:Prior to being in the wedding industry, I was in gosh how do I? I was in pastoral care and I worked in ministry and I sat down with a lot of families and that really has helped me in the wedding industry because the amount of family dynamics that you have to learn to navigate and sit in really tough conversations and deal with very big emotions and big personalities. So people skills are so vital in this industry to be able to on wedding day. You don't see it and you don't see it in photos and videos because everybody's like smiling and joyous, but what you don't see is the round table conversations where there were tears and there were words and there were private conversations. So being a very trusted person, having the personality and the people skills to be able to navigate people's big day, is also very important. And I will close it out with that. That is your daily buzz.