Many couples attempt to plan their own wedding in an attempt to save money. While doing so can work out fairly well if you are planning a small simple wedding, when putting together a large extravagant wedding, it often doesn’t go so smoothly. Couples tend to find the stress that comes with planning a big wedding to be overwhelming. In addition to the stress, the end product usually does not live up to the expectation.
In order to avoid the stress and actually enjoy their wedding day, many couples turn to the professionals. A professional wedding planning company can help to take away all the worries that a couple may have about their big day and ensure that everything goes perfectly. Party planning companies range from small businesses to large corporations, and it is important to find one that feels like a good fit for you.
Running a Wedding Planning Company
One of the most important skills for a CEO of a wedding planning company is being able to build relationships. The importance of this skill is appropriate since weddings are all about the celebration of relationships. There are three main pillars of success for a wedding planning company.
The first pillar is being able to put together an event that your clients will love. To grow your business, you have to be able to deliver an experience that your clients will love. You don’t simply want to create an event that meets your client’s minimum requirements. Instead, you want to go above and beyond and provide them with an experience that exceeds their wildest expectations.
The second pillar is customer service. It is important for your clients to not only appreciate the finished product but also enjoy the process of getting there. The same principle that applies to restaurants applies to wedding planning. Restaurants can have amazing food but still fail if the wait staff treats the customers poorly.
By getting your clients to love your staff, as well as the results of your work, they are sure to recommend you to their friends, family, and colleagues looking for a good wedding planning service.
The third pillar is building partnerships with venues and vendors. One of the reasons that the ability to build partnerships is so important is that it can help you to assure the highest quality for your clients. When a wedding planning company and a venue have a strong relationship, they can work out an agreement where the company is alerted if someone is interested in booking on a certain date, and they can get priority booking if they so desire.
Wedding planning companies can also get referrals from venues and vendors when people are looking for a wedding planner. Large wedding planning corporations will often make their partnerships with some vendors official. If the company has steady enough business, a caterer might become exclusively attached to a wedding planning company. If the relationship between the two businesses is a positive one, the assurance of consistent work can be quite alluring.
The other benefit of building a partnership is the potential to save money.
Weddings Are Expensive
Everyone knows that the costs of a wedding can quickly pile up. However, couples are still often shocked by the final price tag when all is said and done. For a select few, the costs of a wedding aren’t going to be tough to cover.
For the majority of couples, though, every penny they can shave off the final price of their wedding will come as a welcome relief. Rather than skipping purchasing wedding insurance, it is great if you can offer them another means of savings. Read more about this and make sure that you are covered.
This is where relationships with vendors and venues can come in handy. By building partnerships, you can often negotiate discounted rates in exchange for your loyalty and drumming up extra business. When you are able to pass those savings on to your client, not only will they recommend you for your skills at wedding planning and great customer service, but also for your affordability.
Getting Through the Pandemic
The pandemic was devastating to the wedding planning industry. Many weddings were postponed indefinitely, while others were severely scaled-down, with guests attending a small ceremony via video call. Many wedding planning companies were forced to close their doors for good. Fortunately, weddings should be back in force soon, with so many people eagerly waiting to reschedule their postponed nuptials.
For the wedding planning companies that did make it through the pandemic, the future is bright as long as they can hold out a little bit longer. The heads of wedding planning companies should be getting in contact with all their clients who postponed to make sure they still want to have a big wedding once things open back up. They should also contact all of their partners to make sure they are still in business and shore up their relationships.
With so many wedding planning companies going out of business due to the pandemic, there will be a lot of people in desperate need of wedding planning services. Many people who had to postpone their wedding will find that the company they previously hired no longer exists.
Others who got engaged during the pandemic may have trouble finding a company that is still functioning. When they do, there is a good chance that they will find the company to be fully booked up already.
In order to ensure that your schedule is full following the pandemic, make sure that potential clients know you are still in business. Put a banner at the top of your website and social media accounts stating that you are still operating. This will help potential clients from having to search around to try to figure out if you are an option or not.
You should also include an easily accessible and up-to-date calendar that shows your available dates. It will save time for both you and anyone looking to hire you to plan their special day.
