Wedding Planning: It All Depends on YOU!

You must get certified and then learn the trade through experience. You must also learn business basics, because first and foremost, wedding planning is a business!

Day-of Wedding Planning is key to learning the wedding-planning business, and I teach my AAWP members how to apprentice with a proper day-of wedding planning protocol. It will also make them money!

Full-service wedding planning will come about, once you feel comfortable with the rigors of planning a wedding. And day-of wedding planning is the way to get your feet wet!

NOTE: As I tell my members, choosing wedding planning as a profession virtually carries no risk, since it’s a great, part-time profession. You basically work weekends and most appointments with clients are held in the evenings.

Where Do YOU Live? When It Comes To Wedding Planning It Makes a Difference

If you live in New York City or Boca Raton, Florida, you're going to be able to charge more for planning weddings than if you lived on the Missouri plains. That's because it all depends on the cost of living. In other words, people who live in expensive places like New York or Boca pay more for all life's expenses, including weddings. And that applies to those who are just getting started in the wedding-planning profession, too.

Either way, it usually takes about two to four years to become profitable. This doesn't mean you'll be broke during this period, it just means you're going to be working hard to sustain yourself and pay the bills!

* Top business marketers like Adam Riemer suggest subsidizing your wedding-planning income with Affiliate Marketing. And I agree! It’s important that you do so since it’s an easy way to make money. See our AAWP Affiliate Marketing Program, Wed-Wiz and get started.

How Much Wedding-Planning Training Do You Need?

In order to read you must know your ABCs and wedding planning is no different. You must know the basics, and the basics when it comes to wedding planning/consulting can be pretty comprehensive.

I planned weddings for over five years before I decided I could teach others the trade. And I was always amazed by brides-to-be who would come into my bridal salon with the idea of a career in wedding planning because planning their own wedding had been so amazing!

Moral of the Story: Planning your own wedding does not qualify you to be a skilled wedding planner and that's why if you're thinking of a wedding-planning career you need to be certified.
After all, if a bride-to-be has the choice of hiring a planner who is certified, or one who isn't, which do you think she'll choose?

*Note: I wrote AAWP’s pro-wedding-planning course to be the most comprehensive on the market today. All my expertise and knowledge is in this course. But just as important, I accessed some of the greatest wedding minds today for information on subjects that are not my expertise (like Denis Reggie, photographer of John F. Kennedy Jr.’s marriage to Carolyn Bessette). He literally is the photographer to the stars—and who better for you to learn the art of wedding photography than from Denis?

So How Much Money Do Wedding Planners Make?

According to payscale.com wedding planners will make an average $14,795-$73,047 if they've been in business one to four years. Those in business five to nine years see a definite jump in pay scale. And if you work for a wedding-planning company, you can also earn perks like paid vacation, sick days and health care, besides a salary and/or commission.

But whatever you do, GET CERTIFIED... and then learn the wedding-planning profession by first starting with day-of wedding planning!

Let me teach you how! I am here to work with you every step of the way and I’m as close as a phone call or email away!

Happy Wedding Planning!

Deborah McCoy
President
American Academy of Wedding Professionals