When you’re a new wedding planner you’ll find that you’ll get calls from brides who seem very excited to have found you, flatter you about your website, blog, or Pinterest board, share a few details about their weddings, and want a proposal. Then they’ll tell you they don’t have time to meet and ask you to email the information to them.
It may seem tempting to do it, the brides may sound very much like they plan to use you, it’s just a matter of not having enough time meet right now.
But think hard before you agree.
A bride who says she doesn’t have the time to have an initial meeting with you doesn’t understand your value and/or isn’t serious about hiring you.
If you go ahead and do the proposal, you will be doing so with limited information about the bride and groom and what they want for their wedding . You also will be telling the bride that it is acceptable for her to take your time and energy without any commitment on her part. This is not something you want. If you do this, you’ll soon find yourself attracting other brides who are “shopping” to find a wedding planner or just want someone to help do pricing research.
Here are 5 steps to follow in this situation:
1) Find out how serious the bride is about hiring someone now
If she says she doesn’t know how much her budget is and/or is very vague about the details for her wedding, she probably isn’t ready to make a commitment and it would be wasting your time create a proposal.
2) Explain the importance of a face-to-face meeting
A big part of how well a wedding matches a bride’s vision is based on the relationship between the bride and her planner. Meeting in person will help both of you quickly determine if you are a good match and would work well together.
3) Ask for a meeting
You don’t have to be really pushy, just based on the value that a face-to-face meeting would give her, ask her to meet and tell her she has no obligation to hire you after your consultation.
4) If she agrees to meet. . .
Set a date, time, and place and get a good phone number to reach her, not just her email address. Make sure she brings anyone who needs to be included in making decisions about the wedding and the wedding budget.
And, confirm the meeting the day before your appointment.
5) If she says she isn’t ready. . .
Ask her when she might be ready and ask if you can keep in touch with her so you can meet at a later date when you can talk about her vision and she can learn how you can help her make that vision come true.
Don’t spend a lot of time researching and creating proposals for brides who don’t value your services or respect your time. If they don’t want to meet with you in person, chances are good they don’t plan to hire you in the near future.
