This list is a great starting place for anyone considering hiring a wedding planner. It covers the key skills needed to be successful in this field. If you’re a couple seeking help with planning your wedding, this is what to look for in a good wedding planner:
They need to demonstrate passion for planning
If a wedding planner is passionate about planning, you’ll notice it.
The best wedding planners are always talking about the latest trends and creative ideas for weddings. If your potential planner can’t talk passionately about their work, it’s a sign that they’re not really interested in what they do. It would be like hiring an accountant who doesn’t want to do his or her job—you wouldn’t hire one because you’d know there was no passion there!
They need to be have good organisational skills with great attention to details
Good organisational skills are a must for all wedding planners. Being able to plan effectively, prioritise tasks and manage time is integral to the success of any business, but particularly when it comes to weddings.
Wedding planners need excellent attention to detail and organising skills in order to be able to deal with all the little details that go into planning a wedding day.
Wedding planners are responsible for ensuring every aspect of your big day runs smoothly from start to finish – from booking suppliers through to managing guests on the day and hiring accommodation for out-of-town guests.
Need to be creative
Creativity is a key skill in the wedding planning industry. Wedding planners are often called upon to provide unique solutions and ideas that don’t always fall within the bounds of traditional parameters. From coming up with alternative ideas for a reception venue, to finding ways to incorporate an outdoor ceremony into a barn wedding without incurring damage from inclement weather, you need to be able to think outside the box in order to best serve your couples’ needs.
A creative mind also helps when it comes time for budgeting and design decisions. With so many different factors involved (location, seasonality, food choices), it’s important that you’re able to come up with new solutions for each couple instead of simply copying what others have done before them—and all while maintaining their vision!
They need to be good communicators
One of the most important skills a wedding planner can have is excellent communication.
They need to be able to communicate with all sorts of people, including:
- The bride and groom
- Their team members
- Vendors (such as florists and decorators)
- Suppliers
They need to have great customer service skills
- They need to have great customer service skills.
- The ability to understand what the customer wants and deliver on it is essential in wedding planning.
- Your wedding planners need strong communication skills, both written and verbal, so they can communicate with their clients about their vision for the day.
- They also need empathy, which means being able to relate to others’ feelings and emotions. This will help them understand exactly how their brides feel about certain aspects of their weddings, such as whether they want a church ceremony or not.
Problem solving and can do attitude
You’re going to encounter problems and challenges. You will have unhappy clients, disgruntled suppliers, and other difficulties that you need to manage. The best wedding planners are able to think on their feet and come up with solutions as needed.
This means that you will also have a can do attitude, which is essential for every successful business owner. If you believe in yourself and your abilities, then you will be able to deal with any problem head on instead of letting it get under your skin or get in the way of your work.
Negotiation and budgeting
Negotiation and budgeting are two of the most important skills a wedding planner can have. A great negotiator knows how to get what they want without being obnoxious or pushy. They also know when it’s okay to compromise, and when they should stand their ground. When it comes to money, a good wedding planner knows how much things cost and how much they should cost—and more importantly, how much clients can afford!
A good budget also needs to be created with care if it’s going to work well for everyone involved in the project. From there, it needs to be managed carefully so that no one goes over their allotted funds during the course of production or execution. The best way for anyone planning a wedding (or anything else!) is by sticking closely within the wedding budget while still delivering quality results at all times!
They should know your local area well
Knowing your local area well is a major part of being a wedding planner. You have to know where all the best venues, suppliers and deals are. You also need to know all the different types of venues available so you can find one that suits your client’s budget and style requirements. If you don’t know where to look, it will be impossible for you to help your clients find their perfect wedding venue.
They must know how to delegate
Delegation is a key skill for any wedding planner, but it’s also one of the most difficult things to master.
When you’re a newly hired planner, you may need to be more hands-on than in later years. But at some point along the way—whether it’s out of necessity or because that’s how you prefer to work—you’ll need to learn how to delegate tasks effectively so that not only are you not doing everything yourself, but your team members can take on larger projects without needing your constant oversight.
As much as possible, this means trusting other people with responsibility and giving them enough time and resources for success. For example: If you have someone on staff who does excellent research (or has good taste), let them handle some initial inquiries from prospective clients; if another person in your office has strong follow-through skills, delegate certain tasks like collecting deposits; if someone has been working with vendors for several years longer than anyone else in your business, they probably know what they’re doing when it comes to vetting new suppliers or requesting quotes from potential partners.
They must be able to multitask
When planning a wedding, you need to be able to multitask. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the job of a wedding planner is one of the most demanding jobs out there. Aside from having to deal with clients and vendors, they also have to keep track of each task on their own end—which can be overwhelming if you’re not organized enough.
As a result, wedding planners must exercise good time management skills where they delegate tasks and prioritize them based on importance. This way, even if there are tons of things going on around them at any given time, they will still be able to stay focused on what needs to be done first before anything else gets done later on down in line (or vice versa).
Conclusion
Planning a wedding is not an easy job, but with the right skills and knowledge, it can be made it a lot easier. It’s important to know what they’re strengths are and put them to good use in order create an amazing experience for you and your guests.
