So You Want to be a Wedding Planner Vol. 1 {Gaining Experience}

So You Want to be a Wedding Planner?

 

I hear this A LOT....
~I want to be a Wedding Planner
~Your job must be so fun and glamorous
~Did you have to go to school for it?
~Do you have any special certifications?
~How do I become one?

Since I'm asked this so frequently I thought it would make a nice blog series...so here we go.....

Gaining Experience:

This is by far the most important piece of the puzzle.  I've seen planners fail several times and the reason being.....they didn't have enough experience.  More times than not, a girl will plan her own wedding....love doing it, and afterwards think she's capable of planning other people's weddings....and that's just not realistic. 

Now, please allow me to preface this by saying...some days I still feel new...and there are several planners who have even more experience than me, but I can tell you that I'm at a point in my life where I feel 100% confident in planning a wedding, and here's why....

Gaining Experience:

I graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Communication.  Do you have to have a college degree to be a Wedding Planner?  Not necessarily, but I do believe that having a degree definitely gives you more career confidence.  Plus allows you many more opportunities to initially gain experience and allows you more diversity should you want to change your career one day.

Following college graduation, I experienced some set back.  I was waitressing at the Olive Garden, and regretfully had a bad attitude about it {probably mainly because the uniform was so damn unflattering}... I remember getting sent home one time because I was missing a button on my collar...I was furious.  I wish I could back now and tell my 22 year old self to "calm down....you won't be serving salad and bread sticks forever".

After a long job hunt I finally landed a job at a private event venue....I was elated!  I had no experience...other than planning events in high school and college {which by the way, professionals don't take seriously on a resume}.  And, after about a week, I was fired.  That's right FIRED.  I was beyond devastated. More on this later...

A few months later {still waiting tables at this point}  I was hired again, this time at a brand new gorgeous Private Golf & Country Club, there I spent five years of my life.... five years, four promotions and tons of incredible experience!

Job titles over this time included; Membership Concierge,  Member Events Coordinator, Catering Sales Manager, Private Event Director

After leaving, I then went on to work for a private photography company handling their sales and marketing... only to again return to another private wedding venue...then on to another Golf Club.

Job titles over this time included;  Sales & Marketing Director and Director of Sales.

Collectively spending nine years before I launched my own company and felt comfortable and confident enough to call myself a Wedding Planner!

During that time, if I had to guess I had involvement 500 plus weddings. 

And that is why I can proudly say I'm experienced...I'm seasoned, I've been in several amazing and terrifying situations...each one teaching me something different.

So that's where I suggest starting.... There are several different pathways, mine is only one example... but you must start by getting lots of exposure in the wedding and event world...and learn, grow, allow yourself to be naïve and vulnerable. It will be a very humbling but very rewarding experience.