Wedding Planner Salary
What is the Average Wedding Planner Salary?
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