How to Begin Your Career in Wedding Planning

A wedding is an unforgettable experience in a person’s life, and to be the one to bring that big day together for others can be incredibly rewarding. If you have excellent organisational skills, enjoy event planning and are creatively minded, then a career as a wedding planner could be the ideal career path for you. 

Whether you loved planning your own wedding and want to pass that joy onto others or are keen to start your own business and enjoy the creativity of wedding planning, you can discover how to become a successful wedding planner in Ireland today.

A career in wedding planning requires a diverse range of skills, from financial management to communication skills. You will need to be able to manage a wedding day which means overseeing the catering, florists, seating arrangements, wedding venues, cake and all other vital aspects of a wedding whilst staying within budget. 

Alongside the practical skills, you will need to be able to remain calm under pressure when taking on last-minute challenges, communicate clearly with your clients and team and ensure that you can create a wedding which fits the couples’ specifications. Having an understanding of marketing can also be beneficial for a wedding planner, and excellent leadership skills are a must. 

Creating the perfect wedding can be very stressful for the bride, groom and family members, which is why the planning process is often outsourced to a certified wedding planner. Therefore you will need to make sure you can take on the long hours of work and often challenging planning process to make the couples wedding day as stress-free and smoothly running as possible.

Whether you have some of the skills needed or are just starting off on your career as a wedding planner, you can develop the skills and knowledge you need by studying for a wedding planning course. Short courses that can be completed in 18 months like the Event Management & Wedding Planning to Business Pathway course can give you the skills you need to  whilst event planning and management courses can also help you develop the key skills associated with wedding planning, such as financial management, leadership and organisational skills. 

Logistics is concerned with planning and implementing an operation, such as orchestrating a wedding, and how you can go about organising each element of an event so that it comes together. Learning about logistics means that you will develop the skills and tools to be able to organise all of the separate elements of an event which will go on to form an incredible day for everyone. 

Project logistics covers details such as how to coordinate the right people at the right time on the big day, such as hair and makeup, transportation, wedding vendors, the ceremony, cake delivery and cutting, dancing and much more. Each element has to work together at specific times in order for the day itself to go as desired, and therefore knowledge of project logistics is helpful.

Every wedding will have a budget, and knowing how to manage your finances as a professional wedding planner is key. You will need to be able to find the best prices for each wedding element without reducing the quality and know how much you have budgeted for everything. 

Having a template of how much the average cost of wedding essentials will be very useful in the financial management aspect of your wedding planning business. Some couples might also have unrealistic expectations when it comes to what they want and their budget, so being able to discuss finance with your clients is also necessary.

For couples who go all out for their wedding, the average wedding cost in Ireland is €36,000. However, the minimum amount one has to spend is just €200 to cover notification fees, so your clients’ budgets could vary widely. There are so many different types of weddings, from destination weddings to small ceremonies, and knowing how to budget is essential. Whether you are given a large budget or a little budget, you will need to have expert knowledge of how to spread the cost to make that big day the best that it can be.

Alongside the practical skills needed to organise a wedding, you will also need to be able to get your name out there as a wedding planner in Ireland and market yourself to new clients. 

Knowing about key marketing strategies, including digital marketing, word-of-mouth, and social media marketing, will help you develop your career as a wedding planner. 

This includes knowing how to market events and demonstrate to potential clients your skills and abilities through previous projects. Most event planners and wedding planners have their own websites and upload high-quality photographs of projects they have worked on. This helps potential clients to see what they are capable of and also adds a degree of professionalism so that clients feel that they can put their trust in you to arrange their big day.

Event management, in particular, is an area which often crosses over with wedding planning, as both involve managing large events from start to finish. If you have experience putting on events of any size, then you can add this to your event planning portfolio and use the project to market yourself in other areas, such as wedding planning. Event Management courses are a great way to get into event planning as you can learn how to organise an entire event and develop some of the vital skills needed in event and wedding planning. 

Courses in Marketing can also help you to market yourself as an events planner and utilise your previous experience to garner new clients as a successful wedding planner. Studying an online course in marketing can also help you if you want to get into wedding planning as well as other event planning, as you can market your own events and network with guests or clients to build up your client base. Marketing is also a great way to network with other wedding industries and can help with negotiating prices when putting on events. 

If you want to become self-employed and start your own wedding planner business, then a course in marketing and business can help you in creating a business plan and establish your business in the wedding planning industry.

Other skills areas which are important for a wedding planning career include: