Planner’s Lounge is a resource site, blog and community for wedding planners, wedding coordinators, event planners and event designers. If you are looking for tools and advice on how to become a wedding planner or find out how to start working in the events industry, you are at the right place. We share practical information and business tips written by professionals in the industry. Planner’s Lounge also features news about upcoming wedding industry events, conferences and speakers. If this is your first time here, welcome! You can check out the New? Start Here page to read our most popular posts and content. You will also want to bookmark our Tools+Resources page for recommendations on wedding and event planner business and career resources
5 Tasks To Complete After Every Event
1. Thank your vendors. This is especially important if a vendor went above and beyond your expectations or if the client was difficult. A simple email is fine but you can also send a hand written thank you note for a job well done. You can also thank them on their Facebook business page for their fans (and future clients) to see. If a vendor did not do a good job, you may want to give the vendor feedback on how they could have done better. This can be a tricky situation and you will have to use your best judgment with each situation.
2. Clean out client planning binders and archive online folders. If you use a planning binder for each of your clients, save any contracts or important notes to file in a filing cabinet or other folder then clean out the binder to use for future clients. Create an “archive clients” email folder and “archive clients” folder on your computer to put all past events and past client information. You never know when you will need to look back on notes from a previous wedding or event. I encourage you to save them for at least one year.
3. Follow up with clients to ask about their experience. It’s always helpful to follow up with a survey or email to get your client’s feedback on the event. Sometimes your perspective on the event may be different from the client’s perspective. This is also a good time to thank your clients for choosing you as their planner.
4. Ask for a testimonial or review. If you know the client was happy with your planning services, ask for a testimonial or send a link to review your services online on the Knot.com, Yelp.com, Google.com or WeddingWire.com.
5. Ask for professional photos from the photographer. Follow up with the event photographer a few months after the event to obtain professional photos for your portfolio, website and blog. Most photographers will give you digital images to use as long as you credit their work when you use the photos. This helps promote their business as well and encourages you to recommend the photographer to future clients. If the event was especially note worthy, talk with the photographer about submitting the photos for publication to a magazine or blog.
What other tasks do you do after an event? Please share in the comments!
Day in the Life | Saundra Hadley
Welcome to our “Day in the Life” series! We feature wedding and event planners from across the country with many different levels of experience. If you would like to featured, just download our questionnaire here and email your responses and photo to info@plannerslounge.com. We are excited to feature the fabulous Saundra Hadley today!
Name: Saundra Hadley
Business Name & Location: planning…forever events in Evansville, Indiana
Number of Years Working in the Event Industry: over 11 years
Number of Years Owning Your Event Planning Business: 9 years
Website: www.planningforever.com
Blog: www.planningforever.com/blog
Business Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/planningforeverevents
Twitter: @planningforever
What is your typical day like?
Tales from the Wedding Planner Trenches | Random Stories
Most experienced wedding planners could write a book about the crazy stories they have experienced as a planner. The drunken guests, bridezillas, groomzillas, weather mishaps and bizarre events that we have seen are enough to test anyone’s patience and professionalism.
This week, we are sharing anonymous stories from event planners all over the world. Here are some of our favorite random stories:
- I had a wedding on a lake a few years ago for which I was doing day-of coordination only. The ceremony was on the other side of the lake and the most efficient way to reach the ceremony site was via boat. Driving was an option but a good
Tales from the Wedding Planner Trenches | Brides & Grooms
Most experienced wedding planners could write a book about the crazy stories they have experienced as a planner. The drunken guests, bridezillas, groomzillas, weather mishaps and bizarre events that we have seen are enough to test anyone’s patience and professionalism.
This week, we are sharing anonymous stories from event planners all over the world. Here are some of our favorites about bridezillas and groomzillas:
- The groom left the reception for about two hours. We finally found him smoking weed with the groomsmen outside in the woods. He didn’t want to go back to the reception so they never cut their cake or did a first dance.
- I had a bride who called
Tales from the Wedding Planner Trenches | Bridal Party & Guests
Most experienced wedding planners could write a book about the crazy stories they have experienced as a planner. The drunken guests, bridezillas, groomzillas, weather mishaps and bizarre events that we have seen are enough to test anyone’s patience and professionalism.
This week, we are sharing anonymous stories from event planners all over the world. Here are some of our favorites about the bridal party and wedding guests:
- At a particular venue in my town, there is a large deck that overlooks the swimming pool one floor below. After a few too many cocktails, the groom and 3 groomsmen decided to disrobe down to ties and boxes and jump from the railing into the pool. There
Wedding Planner Salary
“How much money do wedding planners make?” – This is one of the most popular questions about getting starting in the wedding and event planning industry. What is the typical salary of an event planner who is self employed? Wedding planner salaries vary greatly from a few hundred dollars per event to many thousands of dollars. There are event planners who earn more than $100K a year easily and those who barely make $15K. The difference in a wedding consultant’s salary depends on the following:
The number of years in business – For most event planning businesses, it takes 2-4 years to become profitable. Many planners start out by planning events part-time while maintaining another job or career until their business grows… continue reading
Free Shipping on Pantone Color Decks
The Dessy Group is offering free shipping for Pantone swatches and color decks through the month of February. The wedding fan color guide is a must-have tool for all wedding and event planners. The color deck easily fits in your purse or bag and can be used to match exact colors for all of your client’s event details. Click on the image above or the link below to take advantage of this great offer.
Free Shipping on all Dessy Swatch & Pantone orders more than $15 with code DGSWATCH through 2/29.
5 Ideas for Using Pinterest in Your Business
Pinterest is a free website and application that allows you to bookmark images you find on the web and put them in your “pin boards”. You can follow other users, comment on their pins and repin their images to your boards. Like any social network, Pinterest does require an investment in time. When I first joined Pinterest, I wanted to look for and share wedding inspiration with my clients. I am still surprised at how much it has helped with other things in my life such as fashion boards (which have inspired more than a few new outfits), simple cooking techniques, home décor ideas, exercise tips, craft ideas and entertaining inspiration for the holidays.
Here… continue reading
Transitioning from your Day Job to your Wedding Business
It took me quite a bit of transition time (years, in fact) from having “day jobs” that helped me fund my event planning business, to being a full-time wedding and event planner. I slowly transitioned from working a full-time corporate job and working on my business in the evening, to a part-time contract job where I could work on my business 2-3 days during the work week, to finally making the leap into doing my business full-time. I remember sitting in my home office in the evenings dreaming of the day when I could finally quit my contract gig and just plan events. At the time, it seemed like I would never get to that point but I kept plugging away doing one small task each day that helped me… continue reading
Top 7 Mistakes Made by New Event Planners
When starting out as an event planner, everyone makes mistakes. It’s how we learn. Here are the top seven mistakes made by event planners and how to avoid them.
1. Overselling what you provide. It’s essential to be good at marketing your services but when you over-sell what you can provide to clients, you lose their trust. Not only will they be disappointed when they learn you can’t deliver on your promises, you may find them questioning everything you do since they aren’t confidant in your skills and knowledge. Once the trust is broken, it’s nearly impossible to earn it back before the event.
2. Lying about your experience. If you don’t have experience with a particular type of event or venue, it’s important to be truthful. Let… continue reading
4 Ways to Get Experience When You Have None
1. Help plan parties and events for friends and family such as birthday parties, anniversaries, reunions and weddings. You can also volunteer to plan events at your current place of work or at your church such as picnics, lunches, dinners, holiday parties, meetings and conferences. For an event that involves decorations or a theme, make an inspiration board. For events where timing is important, practice your skills by creating an event time line. Any kind of event, meeting or party planning experience will expand your skills in organization, event timing, event design, logistics and working with clients.
2. Work as banquet or catering staff for a local catering company, hotel or venue. This is one of the best ways to get quick experience with events. It involves hard work… continue reading
