The wedding industry is one of the most lucrative businesses around and being a wedding planner can give you a very comfortable lifestyle. Planning a wedding is something far more involved than most brides have ever had to do so they often hire someone experienced in wedding planning to help plan their own special day. To be a successful wedding planner you need to be very organized and have the ability to remain calm in some very stressful situations. It is also very important that you are able to communicate well with others to explain the hows, whys and wherefores of everything. If you have all these features then you may have the makings of a great wedding planner. The wedding planner must be able to take charge of every aspect of the wedding and act as the middleman between client and other professionals involved in the wedding day. You will speak with caterers, DJs, florists and photographers and ensure they know what your client, the bride, requires. The wedding planner salary can range between a the fairly ordinary salary through to the equivelent of a top manager or even more. Once you have built your reputation for planning brilliant weddings the sky is the limit on salaries.

When you are starting up a wedding planning business you will require some startup capital and must obtain the proper licenses. If you get in touch with the Small Business Administration you can find out more information on obtaining the funds you need to start your business and they should be able to advise on various resources that can help you plan and launch your business. Your salary as a wedding planner can range dramatically but when you first start out you just need some customers to get going. Where you are located will make a difference as wealthy areas with lots of weddings lead to more consultations and clients. The number of clients you are able to maintain will also decide how much you charge your clients because the laws of supply and demand apply to wedding planning as much as anything else. If you have a lot of local competition that may limit what you can charge and remember you will also have expenses coming out of your fees.

As a guide to wedding planner salaries it has been reported that a typical median salary for a typical wedding planner or consultant might be in the region of $51,000. This is just a guide and you will find that salaries will vary a lot depending on how many weddings you are able to manage and on the size and cost of the weddings you plan. To give you an example, you might expect your commission to be $1000 for a small wedding but anything up to $10,000 for a big event. There are so many variables involved in running a business like wedding planning you have to price your fee to be appropriate to the specific wedding. Your pricing scale must be set to match your reputation and demand in your area. Many planners will charge a percentage of the wedding costs and ten to twenty percent is a reasonable commission for the average planner.

The salary you can earn as a wedding planner is well worth the time and effort you spend building and running your business. Being your own boss through self employment can be rewarding and can be very profitable. Your business will be starting out small but hopefully word of your ability will spread and the business will get bigger as the years go by and it may be that your children will join you in the business in years to come. Business ownership can bring a lot of benefits and while it can be a lot of work, planning weddings is a booming business and people will always want to get married. If you have an eye for details and can make sure weddings go off well you will become a good wedding planner providing reasonably priced, top-quality services and for you the sky’s the limit when it comes to salary and job satisfaction.

Tina Gold

Years ago wedding planning would be a simple affair. A few friends and relatives would gather and celebrate the happy couple making their start on life together.They were small and intimate affairs where mothers and blushing brides spent a year planning and dreaming about the special day. Most of their jobs consisted of calling the local florist who made very traditional arrangements and flowers for the wedding party, talking to the local minister, and choosing and writing invitations. Of course, they also had the thrill of finding a wedding dress and the dresses for the bridesmaids. There were other small details but nothing a determined mother-of-the-bride couldn’t handle. The reception was literally a piece of cake. The local bakery provided the cake and the church ladies added punch. Don’t faint but most brides used paper products so there would be no mess to clean up. The wedding and reception lasted around two hours and then it was off to the honeymoon. That was then but this is now and a lot more is expected of a wedding day.

The times are very different and planning a wedding today is not for the fainthearted or those who are not up for a challenge. When weddings developed into larger affairs and became extravaganzas, brides and their mothers began looking for help. They began to hire people to help them organize the big day and they invented the role of the wedding planner. The wedding planner becomes an indispensable part of the family for the duration of the engagement period.  Just to keep things simple we will refer here to wedding planners as female even though there are many men who are great wedding planners. It is important that the wedding planner can be a person who will be all things to all people. The tasks involved in planning a wedding mean she wears so many hats that she would have to have ten heads to park them all.

The start of the procedure is that the wedding planner needs to meet with the bride and her mother and the fiancé if he is interested, and is best if he is involved. Sometimes and bride and her fiancé plan the wedding alone especially if the couple is older. This first meeting is very important because the bride and her wedding planner must be a good fit. The first meeting is almost like a courting ritual because the wedding planner must exemplify faith and friendship to the bride as she will be helping to plan the most important day in the bride’s life. If the ‘date’ works out for all parties, then a contract will be signed. The wedding planner should make a list all of wedding planner duties and, of course, they must agree on a commission for the planner.  To discus the finance it might be best if Dad, or whoever is paying, should also be present for the first meeting. Generally, a deposit is expected after all aspects of the wedding are decided upon.

When you have agreed a deal with your wedding planner the actual planning can begin. Most brides have already done a bit of wedding planning ahead of time. Some brides already have a wish book to show her wedding planner. Together they need to decide on a theme. Yes, you have to have a theme to have a wedding. All of the planning revolves around the theme and, even more importantly, the budget. They also must come up with a color scheme, table decorations, reception arrangements, a wedding hall, church decorations, outfits for the wedding party, caterers, and a thousand other details. The list goes on and on.

The main task for the wedding planner is to take care of all those little details of the wedding both large and small. She keeps the bride from being stressed and makes every wedding perfect. She is the fairy godmother for every princess bride. Even though the job of wedding planner can be stressful the benefits are huge. One wedding planner I heard about said that she gets to spend her whole life helping people enjoy the happiest day of a their life by removing all the pressure of running the wedding planning. There may not be many jobs as good as that.

This site was set up in the hope we could help all those treading the path to marriage by giving some tips and suggestions on what you need to do when planning for on your wedding day.

You will find information on all sorts of things related to weddings and marriage. We hope it helps you both have a wonderful wedding and a great married life.

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