If you’re new and not yet confident about your role with brides, you might think that you need to do anything and everything they ask you to do. While you do want to offer excellent customer service, there are some things you don’t want to take on.
Huff Post Weddings posted an article earlier this week by celebrity wedding and event planner Danielle Rothweiler entitled, “10 Things a Wedding Planner Is Not.” It’s written to give brides and grooms a realistic view of a wedding planner’s job but it will also help you know where to draw the line as you get requests from your clients.
I took 3 ideas from the article that I think are really important for you to know, especially if you’re new, and added my spin to them to help you become a top wedding planner:
1) You don’t need act like the wedding party’s servant
You’re an expert at planning weddings and making sure the wedding day runs smoothly, you don’t have time to wait on people. They need to respect you and the work you were hired to do.
I’ll never forget the time my team and I were asked to clean a venue’s bathrooms before an event! I let the bride know I would be turning that over to the venue staff to handle. If the couple felt the site wasn’t clean enough for them, they shouldn’t have booked it (they hired me after choosing the venue).
2) You don’t need to be a miracle worker
As a wedding planner you will be called upon to help stretch budgets and negotiate with vendors to help couples have the weddings they want. But, requests need to be within reason.
You don’t need to be able to give a bride a $500,000 wedding like she saw in a high-end bridal magazine on her $5,000 budget. You can take inspiration from big budget weddings and incorporate ideas into your brides’ weddings. However, be clear with them on what they might be able to get with the money they have.
3) You don’t need to be a best friend
Although a friendship may form after you work as her wedding planner, you don’t need to act like a bride’s best friend. You don’t need to be available to listen to problems 24/7. Nor do you need to be the go-between when there are major problems between the bride and groom, members of the wedding party or relatives. Be sympathetic but don’t offer advice you’re not trained to give.
You can read the original article on the Huff Post Weddings website.
And if you want help to become a top wedding planner, sign in to get my ezine “Wedding Planner Tips.”
