Tap to Read ➤

Wedding Planner Job Description

Aastha Dogra
Contemplating becoming a wedding planner? If yes, you will find the following information, which offers the job description, skills and salary of a wedding planner, immensely useful. Read on...
A wedding planner is someone who makes life easier for the couple getting married, by making sure that each and every element of the wedding, be it decoration, dresses, photography, food or flower arrangements.
These are co-ordinated and conducted in such a way that the wedding day indeed becomes memorable for all the attendees! A few decades back, it was the friends and family of the couple who took on this responsibility of organizing the wedding for the couple.
However, nowadays, as everyone wants a perfect, out of this world dream wedding, people prefer to hire the services of a professional to do the job.
From far away, it may seem that a wedding planner is an ultra-glam professional, whose only job is to give orders to the decorators, caterers and all other vendors, to do their work properly.
However, once you know about the job description, you will realize the amount of hard work and skills that are required to be a success in this profession.

Job Duties

A wedding planner performs a number of duties, before the marriage, on the marriage day and even after that. To start with, when a wedding planner is hired, she meets up with the couple (sometimes close family members may be present) and tries to assess the kind of wedding they are looking forward to.
The budget, number of invitees, any specific wedding theme they have in mind, some compulsory wedding traditions - all such basics are discussed. Accordingly, she starts planning for the wedding.
A wedding planner, not only plans the wedding according to the couple's wishes, but also makes some of her own suggestions with regards to the theme, décor, food, etc. For this, she usually carries a mini-profile, complete with photographs, of her previous assignments.
She shows it to the clients and if they like some things in it, they are included in the wedding as well. Sometimes, couples may entirely let the wedding planner choose the various elements of their wedding. However, mostly, both the wedding planner as well as the couple's inputs are taken into consideration , when choosing the wedding elements.
Here is a list of some of the important duties of a wedding planner:
  • Deciding on the wedding venue. Showing the couple various venues, before zeroing in on any one.
  • Once the theme and wedding colors are decided, the wedding planner starts hiring vendors such as caterers, photographers, decorators, florists, musicians and car rental providers.
  • Arranging for lodging of out of town guests is a part of the job description as well.
  • Sending the invitations and taking into account the number of invitees expected to attend the wedding.
  • Taking the bride and the groom for dress trials as well as finalizing the dresses to be worn by the bridesmaid, groomsmen, maid of honor as well as the best man.
  • Some wedding planners may even be asked to make arrangements for the couple's honeymoon, including travel tickets, hotel stays and sight seeing.
  • On the wedding day, a wedding planner overlooks each and every detail of the wedding and ensures that everything goes on smoothly and as planned.
  • At the end of the wedding, cleaning up and ensuring that each vendor gets paid, also comes under a wedding planner's job description.

Salary and Qualifications

The wedding planner's salary depends on the scale of the wedding. Typically, a professional in this field can charge anywhere between ten to fifteen percent of the cost of the wedding. If you are keen on this career, after a college degree, you can opt for a diploma in wedding planning.
Although, this educational qualification is not a pre-requisite. Working under an established wedding planner and learning on the job is what will help you to learn more about this profession.
To be successful though, you would need various skills, such as the ability to stay calm in pressure situations, good organizational and planning capabilities, interpersonal and networking skills, communication and listening skills as well as ability to think creatively.
So that the wedding can be planned in the most aesthetic and appealing manner. The more people's person you are, the more chances of success you have in this field.
A wedding planner has no fixed timings. As a wedding planner, you would need to work long hours and mostly on weekends as people prefer these for their wedding day.
On a positive note, if you start your own wedding planning business, you have the flexibility to take as many projects as you want, when you want and can work from home too! So, if you enjoy this kind of freedom and are ready for multitasking, networking and being creative at the same time, this is the right profession for you!