Working As A Wedding Planner
How much does a wedding planner earn?
A wedding planner's earnings vary according to what the wedding planner does and where they work. In London, you will be expecting to pay a bit more for a wedding planner simply because the cost of living down here is so much higher, whereas if you are up in the Lake District you can charge less as a wedding planner and it will be in proportion with how much it costs to live up there. However, it also depends on what the wedding planner does. Some wedding planners do everything from start to finish, and they will actually personally vet their suppliers and that will cost them more time which means that they will charge more, whereas other wedding planners work on more of a commission basis where they just call someone up to see if they are available and pass the client on to them. So it really varies from wedding planner to wedding planner as to how they run their business to what they charge and then the earnings come from that.
Is being a wedding planner hard work?
Being a wedding planner is probably the toughest job I have ever had, and I have worked in investment banking. Wedding planning is very difficult because you have one day and one chance to deliver the dreams of a couple and their wedding day is something they will never forget. If anything goes wrong, it's the kind of thing that will ruin what should be an incredibly important and special memory for them. Delivering perfection is very difficult because you spend lots of time communicating with your clients, handling any issues that might arise and managing your suppliers and venue and wedding planning can be very difficult but extremely rewarding.
Is wedding planning seasonal?
Wedding planning is still very seasonal. The busiest times of the year tend to be between May and October and then December. We do get weddings out of season, but they are few and far-between.
What do you do off-season to earn money?
We spend the periods when we're not actually delivering the weddings, between May and October and in December, pitching for the business. So while we are frantically beavering away between May and October at the weddings, making sure it all comes off, September, October, November, we will be pitching for business that will be taking place the following year. And January, February, and March tends to be very busy, because that's the time of year people tend to realize they want to get married this year and they haven't done anything yet, so they call us in a mad panic, hoping we'll be able to help them.
Do you have to be there during the wedding?
Some wedding planners are there during the day, some wedding planners aren't; we personally prefer to be there on the day as we have spent so much time and effort organizing the wedding to make sure it's all perfect, and if we're not there actually on the day to make sure it happens as it's supposed to, we'll just spend the day at home worrying anyway, so we'd rather be there on the day.
What are your hours?
Our working hours are Monday to Friday nine till five-thirty. However, as wedding planners we do consultations in the evenings, deliver weddings on the weekends, and we also do benny searches on the weekends when our clients are available to go and look at their needs.
How many weddings do you plan at a time?
Our maximum capacity is about twelve to fifteen weddings at one time. On average we tend to be working on ten or eleven weddings at a time.
Does everyone need a wedding planner these days?
Not everyone needs a wedding planner. It really depends on what you're trying to achieve with your wedding and how much money you want to spend. There are occasions where we simply don't add any value because your budget is tight and your numbers are quite high. And if you hire a wedding planner it might be to the detriment of your wedding. However we do help for people who are extremely busy and time short and spend a lot of time on their careers or their other commitments and don't have the time to dedicate to their wedding. Therefore those tend to be people who have budgets of about £20-25,000 or more to spend on their wedding with guests of about 100.
What details of a wedding are you responsible for?
Wedding planners are responsible for pretty much everything to do with the wedding except for the attire. As wedding planners, we will help organise the venue, we liaise with the venue and we help clients choose their catering and the beverages. We will help them source their invitations and, sometimes, they hire us to actually manage the invitation process and the RSVPs. We'll find them their photographers, their videographers and every other supplier throughout the wedding. Finally, of course, wedding planners actually there on the day of the wedding to make sure everything runs smoothly.
