Wedding Planning

UNDERSTAND THE ESSENTIALS OF BEING A WEDDING PLANNER

Do you want to help couples to plan their weddings? Are your organised, friendly and someone who enjoys working with people? 

Then look no further than our Wedding Planner course! 

Some key aspects of being a wedding planner include:

• Meeting different contractors and suppliers
• Reviewing options for ceremonies and wedding breakfasts
• Helping couples to make decisions about colour schemes, menus, entertainment, and many other aspects
• Providing guidance and support to couples and members of their wedding party

So, if you are someone who:

• Is a good communicator
• Enjoys working with others
• Is patient 
• Loves being organised
• Isn't phased by a challenge

Then being a wedding planner could be the job for you. There is lots of information within our course to help you understand the industry more, and the skills required to support couples with one of the happiest days of their lives!

Lesson Structure

There are 9 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction
   • Nature and scope of Wedding Planning
   • Skills a Wedding Photographer needs
   • Getting Started in the Industry
   • Types of Ceremonies
   • Traditional Christian Weddings; parts of a service, participants and their roles
   • Muslim Ceremony; Nikah
   • Jewish Wedding
   • Buddhist Weddings
   • Pagan Weddings
   • Legalities in different countries; including Australia, UK and USA
   • Inter Country Weddings
2. Planning
   • Setting the date
   • Suggested Plans
   • Themed Weddings
   • Renewal of Vows
   • Inviting Children
3. Managing People
   • Wedding Planners Role
   • Managing the Mother of the Groom
   • Managing the Mother of the Bride
   • Chief Bridesmaid or Maid of Honour
   • Best Man
   • Conflict situations associated with Weddings
   • Dealing with Advice from too many people
   • How to deal with a Bridezilla
   • Psychological stress on the Bride
   • Cancellations
   • Conflict Handling Techniques
   • Anger
   • Expressing Anger
   • Strategies for Anger Management
4. Managing Locations
   • Factors to consider with choosing a Venue
   • Locations on a Budget
   • Table Plans
   • Developing a Check list for Wedding Photos
   • The Photo Shoot
5. Managing the Programme
   • Transport Arrangements
   • At the Reception
   • The Receiving Line
   • The Reception
   • After the Meal
   • Cutting the Cake
   • The Party
   • Leaving the Reception
   • Customs
6. Other Issues
   • Coordinating service providers and sub contractors: Photography, Video, Flowers, Clothing, The Beautician, Printers, etc.
   • The Wedding Cake
   • Stationary; Save the date announcements, Wedding Invitations
   • Buying the Wedding Dress
   • Flowers
   • Wedding Photography
   • Videos
   • Gift Registry
   • Thank You Notes
   • Beautician and Hairdressers
7. Managing the Client
   • Interviewing a Client
   • Establishing a Contract
   • Cancelations
   • Setting a Budget
   • Managing a Budget
8. Managing the Wedding Day
   • Guidelines
   • Planning for Contingencies.
   • Calling off a Wedding
9. Operating a Wedding Business
   • Marketing and Publicity
   • Networking
   • Developing and promoting a web site
   • Advertising
   • What Fee to Charge
   • Bookkeeping and Financial Management
   • Planning

Aims

• Describe the nature and scope of wedding planning and the wedding industry.
• Present a client with options and facilitate key decision making for a wedding.
• Explain how to handle different personalities and the roles of different members of the bridal party.
• Select and manage the use of appropriate locations for and associated with a wedding
• Develop a programme or schedule of activities and events associated with a wedding.
• Manage events within the time constraints of the established schedule.
• Effectively control events on the day of a wedding.
• Improve your ability to communicate with, and assist the people who have employed you to manage a wedding; to achieve a desired outcome.
• Prepare to manage a wedding day, planning for all foreseeable and significant contingencies.
• Establish and run a viable wedding planning service

WHAT SKILLS DOES A WEDDING PLANNER NEED?

To be successful at wedding planning, you need to consider the following questions:

• Do you enjoy working with people?
• Do you enjoy planning big parties?
• Are you a good negotiator?
• Are you good at networking?
• Are you a good facilitator?
• Are you good at money management?
• Are you a good listener?
• Are you friendly and outgoing?
• Can you calm frazzled nerves?
• Do you know about flowers, colours, cutlery? (or can you find out about them?).
• Are you flexible?
• Are you able to work at weekends and evenings?
• Are you disciplined enough to work in your own home and organise yourself?
• Can you do more than one thing at once?
• Do you know about wedding traditions?
• Can you keep ahead of wedding trends – keeping up to date with bridal magazines etc?
• Are you well organised?
• Do you have good fashion sense?
• Can you help create that dream wedding?

The wedding planner will have a range of tasks from hiring the band, talking to the photographer, finding a caterer, getting low prices for things and above all be VERY well organised.

The wedding planner needs to be able to stay calm when everyone around is not. 

HOW TO MANAGE THE WEDDING DAY

It is important to plan a timetable for the day, which can be customised for each individual situation.  The following guidelines can be used to prepare this plan:

• Three to four hours before the ceremony – the mother, bride and attendants begin their make up, hair, and dressing.
• Two hours prior to the ceremony – the florist should arrive with bouquets and corsages. The groom, attendants and his parents will arrive at the ceremony location. Photographs will be taken during this time as guests also start to arrive.
• One hour prior to ceremony – more wedding photos. The bride and bridesmaids will freshen up make up etc.
• Forty five minutes prior to the ceremony - The usher will begin to be certain of seating arrangements. The minister will be paid etc.
• Thirty minutes before the ceremony – The organist will begin the prelude message. The ushers will begin to escort guests to their seat.
• Ten minutes before the ceremony – the final “once over” for the ceremony.
• Five minutes prior to the ceremony - the usher or groom will take the groom’s mother to her seat. The groom’s father follows. Then there will be the seating of the bride’s mother, and then father.
• Ceremony – as the bride enters the church or location, music will usually start playing.
• The actual progress of the ceremony will depend on the type of wedding – Church, Jewish, traditional Christian ceremony etc.
  
  

Wedding Planner’s Survival Kit

What’s that old saying?  (Murphy’s law)  What can go wrong, will go wrong. When organising a wedding, you need to be prepared for anything.

When going to the wedding, ensure that you have all the information you need, phone numbers, contact details, arrival times and so on of everyone involved in arranging this marriage – florists, priests, imams etc. This might seem a bit extreme, but what would you do if an hour before the wedding the florist hasn’t turned up.  It may be something simple, her van has broken down and she’s nearly there, it could be worse. But if you know the situation, you can come up with a solution or plan of action.
Also carry with you some essentials in a kit, just in case:

• Small mirror
• Make up kit
• Deodorant
• Nail glue
• Hair spray
• Tampons or sanitary towels
• Toothpaste
• Pain killers
• Extra tights
• Hair pins
• Curling tongs or straighteners
• Clear nail polish
• Tissues
• Scissors
• Safety pins
• Polish remover
• Needle and thread
• Velcro for coming down hems
• Breath mints
• Scotch tape or Sellotape
• Floral wire
• Band-Aids

WHY STUDY WITH ACS?

There are many reasons why you should choose this course:

• Being a wedding planner requires a wide range of skills and knowledge, this course will provide you with that and get you off the starting block
• Throughout the course there are lots of different activities for you to apply your new knowledge, and start building your business idea
• Developing your knowledge will also help in building your confidence, making that first meeting much easier to navigate
• You will have a subject specialist as a tutor, someone who will be happy to share their knowledge to support you in building yours
• The course is flexible, meaning you can continue working alongside your studies

TAKE THE NEXT STEP, AND ENROL NOW!

You can enrol on the course now, but if you have any questions about the content of the course, or studying with ACS, then please get in touch with us today - use our FREE COURSE COUNSELLING SERVICE to get in touch with our expert tutors.They will be pleased to help you!