If you are new to wedding planning and just starting to work with brides, there are things that celebrity and other experienced wedding planners know about brides that you may not. In his column in the July/August 2013 issue of Bridal Guide magazine, celebrity wedding planner David Tutera shared some things he has learned about brides over the past 25 years. His insights may help you.

Here are 3 things you need to know about brides:

1) They sometimes don’t accurately tell you the style of the wedding they want

David’s example is a bride telling him she wanted a modern wedding then showing photographs of very traditional and classic styles.

Different people can interpret words like “classic,” “traditional,” “modern,” “rustic,” “vintage,” and “boho-chic” very differently. In order to really understand a bride’s style, ask to see photos she has collected from magazines or get a link to her Pinterest board. Also ask questions about her choices in fashion and interior design and find out what the couple does for fun. The answers will help you and their other wedding vendors personalize a wedding.

2) They have no idea what wedding vendors need to do to give them what they want

Often times brides look at what professional wedding vendors charge for items such as wedding cake design, large floral centerpieces, and planning a wedding, and think prices are high because they don’t know about all of the work that needs to go on to give them what they want.

You don’t want to give every detail of what you do, but share with your brides some of what you do “behind-the-scenes” to help them understand your value.

3) They say they want something unique but often end up with something traditional

David will really encourage a bride to step outside-the-box, not to to something outrageous, but to add elements to her wedding that put a personal touch on her big day so it is unlike any other bride’s.

You also need to make sure that all of the weddings you plan are unique and express your couple’s personalities.

Check out the article in the magazine to get more insights about working with brides from David Tutera.

Share this article

As a wedding planner, it seems like other wedding vendors would flock to you because you could be a great source of business for them. However this isn’t was always the case. I talk about this today in my Q&A.

Question
I’m pretty new to wedding planning, but I have planned some weddings. I have a few vendor contacts but some whom I meet don’t seem to want to work with new planners. They don’t take me seriously. What do I do?

Answer
Unfortunately, seasoned wedding vendors have encountered too many new planners who are doing it as a hobby and don’t take their work seriously, don’t do high-quality work, expect deep discounts for their brides, and expect them, as established vendors, to just hand over referrals. So don’t be surprised if some of them don’t jump at the chance to work with you when you first introduce yourself to them. You need to earn trust and respect from vendors as much as you do your brides.

Here are 4 ways you can do that:

1)    Educate yourself about the wedding and event industry

Be able to hold conversations about planning weddings and current wedding trends and learn enough about the work other wedding professionals do to be able to ask intelligent questions. You want to be able to show that you have taken the time to become the expert you need to be to have a successful business.

2)    Present yourself and your business in a professional manner

When you meet with other vendors, dress in business attire, be on time, greet them with a handshake, make eye contact, and be a good listener.

Bring business cards and marketing materials to share with them that have been professionally produced. Nothing should look it came off your ink jet printer right before you ran out the door.

3)    Be honest about your experience and skills

Don’t exaggerate what you have done or know how to do. Some new planners do this because they think it helps them get referrals, but people in the business can tell whether or not you know that you are doing.

4)    Give them time to get to know you

They probably won’t feel motivated to offer you referrals and discounts when you first meet them, so don’t even ask. Exchange contact information and offer to meet again to review each other’s portfolios and learn how you can do business together.

Experienced wedding planners know that other wedding vendors contribute to the success of their business. These planners treat them with respect so they are treated the same way in return.

Share this article

Wedding season is starting and some of the top pros in the wedding business recently told Special Events magazine what they see as today’s trends.

Here are their 7 picks along with tips to help you carry them out:

1) Larger weddings

Most brides used to have guest lists of 100 to 150 people but now wedding planners are working with brides who have guest lists of 250 to 300.

Make sure venues that can accommodate large events are in your vendor network.

2) Larger wedding parties

The number of bridesmaids and groomsmen have gone up. Some brides are also including junior bridesmaids and multiple ring bearers and flower girls.

Be prepared to take charge. You will really need to exercise your leadership skills during rehearsal and on the wedding day when organizing large wedding parties.

3) Smaller wedding cakes or no cake at all

Brides are choosing to have small cakes for the cake-cutting photo then having a variety of dessert stations – gelato, pie, cupcake, ice cream, and macaroons – and fun snack stations – pizza, mini hot dogs, gourmet chocolates, cotton candy and flavored popcorn.

This may cut the cost of having a large, multi-tiered cake but be careful your bride doesn’t order too many different desserts or she could be spending more.

4) Lower regret rate

At one time brides could plan for 25% to 30% of invited guests to turn down their invitations. Today, top wedding pros are seeing more guests accept invitations.

Don’t let your bride invite people because she thinks they won’t attend, especially if you are using a small venue, they may surprise her and accept.

5) Restaurant receptions

Couples with small weddings are selecting to hold their receptions in restaurants.

Restaurants are usually cost effective since they don’t charge extra for linens, tableware and waitstaff. However, some do charge for use of a private room if the guest count is not met so make sure your brides read their contracts carefully.

6) No receiving lines

Couples are going from table to table greeting their guests. The receiving line took too much time and often involved too many people.

If your couple goes from table to table, help them manage their time so they make sure they get around to everyone by the end of the night.

7) No guest books

Guest books often got put away, never to be seen after a wedding. Now many couples are supplying cards for guests to write well wishes or they have a photo with a large mat the guests can sign.

There are many other creative options, help your bride find one that will work with her style and the style of her wedding.

What wedding trends have you been seeing this year?

Share this article

As a wedding planner, are you developing sales pitches or developing relationships? If you develop relationships, you’re more likely to make the sale. Today’s Q&A explains why.

Question

I’m a student at a wedding planning school and I’m supposed to submit a script for a sales pitch that will make a bride want to hire me. What should I say?

Answer

I removed the school’s name and the course you are taking to keep the information private. I’m not familiar with your school, so I’m not really sure what they want.

Personally, I don’t believe in having a scripted sales pitch. Wedding planning isn’t a business in which this type of selling is appropriate. As a wedding planner you are helping brides realize their dream weddings, something they may have imagined since they were very young. In order to help them plan their weddings, you have to ask questions, listen to what they want, and understand their challenges.

Then you need to help them understand that you care about them, that they can trust you, and that you have the expertise to help them have the weddings they have always wanted.

This means when you are at the point of asking a bride if she wants to hire you, what you say to her will be based upon what she told you she wanted and needed. A scripted sales pitch at this point would show the bride you didn’t listen and don’t have an interest in her, only in making a sale.

I suggest you ask your school for clarification. Perhaps they want you to put together information about the benefits of your skills and the value of the services you offer, these are certainly good things to think about before meeting with brides. However, an old-fashioned sales pitch is not going to work with today’s sophisticated brides.

Share this article

Do you know what your brides are worried about when they lie in bed at night?

Success magazine suggests we need to envision ourselves lying in bed with our potential clients to understand the challenges they are facing. Knowing and understanding their challenges will help us market effectively to them and teach us what services to offer to help them.

The article lists questions to ask ourselves that would help us uncover a potential client’s needs. I have customized these questions to help you, as wedding planners, understand your brides.

So, imagine being able to hear the thoughts of your brides when they lie in bed at night, then answer these 5 questions:

1) What are their biggest worries about their wedding day?

For example: Are they worried about divorced parents who are feuding? Is it that they won’t get everything done in time? Or, are they worried their grooms wont’ like the decisions they are making about their wedding?

2) Where do they think they need the most help?

For example: The wedding budget? Trimming the guest list? Finding the right photographer they can work with? Getting the wedding party focused on the big day?

3) What don’t they want to face?

For example: Are their wedding dreams too big for their budget? Have they not yet done the planning they needed to do up to this point in time?

4) Who do they want to impress?

For example: Is it important that their wedding be better then their sister’s? Do they need to prove to their parents that they can have a tasteful wedding, even if it isn’t traditional?

5) What do they hope to feel at they end of their wedding day?

Besides, of course, feeling happy that they are married, do they want to look back and be glad they threw a great party? Do they want to be proud that had the most elegant wedding anyone had ever seen? Or are they very close to family and friends and are happy because the most important people in their lives were present to help them celebrate.

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll find yourself thinking about what your brides want instead of what you want to offer to them. Then you’ll create the services that fulfill those desires and you will be able to be more effective in expressing the value of your services to your potential clients.

Share this article

With all the other things you have to pay for in your wedding planning business, is it worth the time and money to join an association for  wedding planners? Today’s Q&A gives you some benefits to consider.

Question

Should I join a wedding and event planner association?

Answer

It’s difficult to to give a definite “Yes’ or “No” without knowing specific information about you and your wedding planning business but here are 6 things joining an association can provide for you when you are new:

1) Credibility

Brides know that only professional wedding planners who are serious about their businesses would invest the money and time needed to participate in an association.

2) Opportunities to network with experienced wedding planners

I love going to conferences and being able to talk to others around the world about this business. When you are new you’ll find that many are very willing to share advice and tips at annual conferences because they feel less competitive when you don’t do business in their area.

3) Opportunities to network with other wedding vendors

Vendors who want to have mutually beneficial business relationships and exchange referrals with wedding planners join these associations, so you will be meeting only vendors who are eager to do business with you.

 4) Education from top wedding professionals

Associations usually have annual conferences in which guest speakers are celebrity wedding planners and other professionals from around the world who generously share their knowledge.

5) Access to professional discounts

Many associations have partners who offer discounts on things such as professional wedding planner software, web design, health insurance, and professional fees from accountants and attorneys who specialize in working with those in the wedding and event business.

6) Leads

There are brides and others who seek out members of associations to hire to plan and design their events so you may get referrals just from being a member of the association – although this should not be a primary reason for joining.

Do your homework before joining any organization and make sure it offers you the benefits you want. However, unless you are willing to put in the time and money to attend meetings, conferences, and educational sessions, you won’t reap the benefits of being a member so think carefully before you join.

Share this article

As a wedding planner, you’ll find that some brides seem hesitant to tell you how much their wedding budgets are. Sometimes this is due to fear, that if they tell you will charge more, but more often it’s because they don’t know how much what they want might cost and how to allocate their money.

In the an article in Special Events magazine, top wedding planners were asked how they uncover a bride’s budget.

Here are 3 tips that you can take from their answers:

1) Start with a budget proposal

One top planner gives a proposal based on the bride’s vision so she knows from the very start how much it could cost. From there the planner offers different levels of service based on the budget.

2) Pose a question with a hypothetical budget amount

For example, ask a bride if she would consider it acceptable if the catering for her wedding was $xx,xxx. If the bride is shocked and considers it too high, ask what would be acceptable for her budget. Be able to give examples of the costs of venues, food, flowers, event rentals, and other items, so you can help a bride understand if her numbers are realistic, and let her know what you might able to do within her budget.

3) Instill trust

One top planner works first to build trust so a bride knows she is not interested in knowing the budget to get all of her money. She talks to the bride and if she feels the bride is a good fit for her services, she is willing to help her get as much as possible for her money. (Brides are usually more trusting when they have been referred to you by a friend or former happy client.)

For insights into the wedding planning business, read my previous post “6 Ways Top Wedding Planners Prove They Are Worth What They Charge.”

Share this article

Having a wedding planning business is not just about organizing and planning weddings, it’s also about constantly marketing yourself so you have a steady stream of clients and a network of high-quality wedding professionals to help you execute the weddings you plan.

It’s crucial that you develop the people skills you need to meet and attract the brides and vendors who will help you be a success. This might seem difficult for those of you who are shy like the wedding planner whose question I answer today.

Question

I’m typically a shy person, I really don’t feel comfortable participating in bridal shows or networking events. Am I missing out?

Answer

Yes!

You can’t expect to meet the brides and the professionals you need in order to have a successful wedding planning business just by running ads on wedding websites, posting to a Facebook Page, and pinning to boards on Pinterest. You need to go out and make contacts and let people get to know you.

You don’t need to be super-extroverted and run around trying to meet everyone at an event. But you do need to, as one popular book title put it, “feel the fear and do it anyway.”

Here are 5 tips to help you get out and get over your shyness:

1) Choose your events carefully

Start with a small event so you give yourself an opportunity to succeed.

If you want to exhibit at a bridal show, start with a small a local one and set a goal for the number of brides you will talk to in your booth.

To network, get in touch with a local chapter of a wedding planner association or a find a business or social group that has interests similar to you, and the brides you want to target, so you automatically have something in common to discuss.

2) Prepare yourself in advance

Don’t exhibit at a bridal show without having a plan in place for meeting and marketing to brides and gathering leads.

Before you attend a networking event, think of questions you could ask other people to get to know them better.

And, so you’re not at a loss for words when someone asks you about yourself or your business, think about what you might want to say. Go beyond, “I’m a wedding planner,” and think of some examples of creative ways that you have helped brides that would make people want to ask you for more information.

Also, make sure you can talk about topics other than weddings by keeping up with current events. Even brides sometimes want to have conversations about other things.

3) Be prompt

Of course, if you are an exhibitor at a bridal show, you need to be on time or fellow vendors and brides will be afraid you won’t make it on time to a wedding.

When you’re attending a networking event, you have a better chance of meeting people when you get there on time. Once an event is in full swing, people may already have broken up into small groups and it will be harder to join in on a conversation.

4) Focus on others

Spend the bulk of your time letting the people you meet do the talking, it takes the pressure off of you to say and do the right things and it actually makes you more attractive to others.

For example, if you make having a conversation with a bride all about making a sale, you won’t know what she wants or how you can help her. And, she won’t perceive your benefits and won’t be interested in getting to know you well enough to hire you.

5) Follow up

The purpose of doing bridal shows and attending networking events isn’t meeting people once and moving on, it’s about setting up relationships.

Get contact information and permission to email brides you meet at a show so you can continue to market to them. Within 24 – 48 hours, call or email any bride who expressed interest your services.

When you meet someone at a networking event who you would like to do business with, contact them, again within 24 – 48 hours, and ask them to meet you for coffee.

Each time you get out to events you’ll open yourself up to meeting potential clients and other wedding vendors who will help your business grow.

Share this article

As a new wedding planner, are you struggling with figuring out how to prove your worth?

Special Events magazine recently printed an article of interviews with top wedding planners and asked them how they showed potential clients they are worth what they charge. While you may not yet have the expertise and experience to charge top dollar like they do, their answers will tell you what you need to do to position yourself to make the money you want in the future.

Here are 6 ways top planners show clients they are worth what they charge:

1) Their social media sites have images that reflect the type of events they plan. For example, they only pin images of high-end events on Pinterest, they don’t feature any DIY photos because they don’t want DIY brides.

2) When speaking with potential clients, they discuss the value of their services in terms of peace-of-mind to stressed couples and in terms of value for dollars spent if couples are practical and more focused on getting the most for their money.

3) Their websites list their qualifications, feature their portfolios, and show testimonials from happy clients.

4) They have excellent recommendations and referrals from vendors and former clients.

5) They are able to share the number of hours each task they do takes, for example, X number of hours running errands, X number of hours running the rehearsal, X number of hours on-site. (This means keeping track of the hours you and your team work.)

6) They exhibit a high level of confidence. Potential clients can tell from their personalities and attitudes that they are worth what they charge.

You can learn more about how these wedding planners run their businesses in an excerpt of the article on the Special Events website.

Share this article

There has been a bridal show or wedding fair every weekend so far this month in my area. If you have recently participated in a fair, hopefully you are busy following up on your leads. If so, you’ll appreciate today’s Q&A, where I answer a question from a new wedding planner who needs help following up because she is on a tight budget.

Question

I recently had a booth at a bridal show and received the names and addresses of all of the brides who attended. I was planning to send all of them a postcard but I didn’t realize until now how much printing and postage would cost. I thought I would start at the top of the list and mail as many as I could and do the rest at other time.

Is this a good idea? Do you have any suggestions?

Answer

The first leads you want to handle are the ones you collected yourself in your booth. Call or email any brides who showed an interest in setting up a consultation and book them for appointments as soon as possible.

Next, contact brides who came into your booth, spoke with you, and gave you their contact information.

Take the list of your personal contacts, compare it to the list you received from the show, and eliminate duplicates.

Review the list from the show. Does it have information about when the bride is getting married? What her budget might be? Where she might be getting married? If so, and her information does not match your profile of your ideal client, don’t mail to these brides.

If you don’t have much more than names and addresses, mail postcards to the brides whose zip codes are in your target area and the ones on your own list.

Plan to send out a series of postcards, not just one. It will take several mailings to catch a bride’s attention. And don’t just pitch your services and a show discount, offer valuable tips or a checklist so a bride keeps your postcard around and knows who to call when she is ready for a wedding planner.

If you received email addresses and permission to contact people via email, market to all brides with a weekly e-newsletter for a fairly low cost using an email marketing service such as Emma, Mail Chimp, or Constant Contact. Do not mail directly from your email account or your Internet Service Provider will ban you for sending too many emails. Again, send tips and valuable information, and ask them to contact you for a consultation, don’t just make a sales pitch.

One thing to remember is that the list you receive from a bridal show is really a list of people who have attended the show or bought a ticket to attend, they are not necessarily good leads. People attend shows for a variety of reasons, some truly are brides looking for vendors, some are just looking for ideas and wedding inspiration, some hope to be brides soon, and some people just like to attend wedding fairs.

And if you have a pressing question about starting or running your wedding planning business that you want answered here, you can send me an email at questions@sharonhill.com.

If you are on a computer with a microphone, laptop, iPhone, or iPad, you can leave me a voice message using the “Send Me a Message” widget on the left side of this screen. To use the widget, just click on it, make sure your microphone is turned on, and follow the directions on the screen. (You’ll have to get the SpeakPipe App on an iPhone or iPad.) Be sure to speak up! Your name and email address are optional and I will not use them if I post your question.

Share this article