Success as a wedding planner is only achieved with the support of other professionals in your local market. A strong network of wedding industry professionals gives you a constant stream of referrals and a network of trusted services you can recommend to your clients. Since networking is crucial to business success, let’s break down some best practices for effective and intentional networking strategies.  Make Intentional Connections There are so many wedding professionals in the market that you can connect with. While it can be fun to create friendships, it is smart to be very intention ..read more

Seeing as most of your ideal clients hang out on Pinterest – this platform is one to strongly consider adding to your marketing strategy. Being a visual search engine, Pinterest does operate very differently from other social media platforms, so before diving in, there are several factors to consider. Let’s discover seven ways to know if you are ready to start using Pinterest for marketing your wedding business! Is your ideal client using the platform?  The first step would be to identify who your target audience is, what their interests are, and if they are using Pinterest to discover ne ..read more

Have you ever heard the phrase, the riches are in the niches? What it means is that you can make more by serving a specific audience. It sounds counterintuitive to offer your services to a audience in an effort to book more weddings, but choosing a niche can increase your industry leadership, result in more profit, and make your business easily referable by other wedding professionals. Why Choose a Niche/Specialty? Many people in the wedding industry do not want to specialize because there is a concern that they will lose business. I get that! We all want to fill our calendars and it seems lik ..read more

I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with GiGi McDowell, Founder and CEO of Fêtefully. GiGi shares how Fêtefully came into existence, how it helps couples and how wedding planners can use Fêtefully in their business. You can watch our conversation below. If you prefer to read, scroll to the bottom and click the button for the transcript. Check out this demo from Fêtefully! Learn More About Fêtefully Join Fêtefully Transcript The truth about owning an event planning business is that there are a million things that you are responsible for in addition to planning and designing events. Fr ..read more

A wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime (hopefully) experience, both personal and intimate, that is also a celebration shared with family and friends. After you’ve put together a beautiful wedding for your couple, you want them to remember you. You want them to tell others about their experience with you and the wonderful wedding you provided.  You can make their experience even better with a wedding gift that helps them build a beautiful life together. Successful couples will remember you more fondly.  What gift would be the most meaningful, most memorable? What about a gift of a lo ..read more

The wedding industry can be ultra-competitive and overcrowded at times. As a wedding business owner, we want to focus on strategies that give our event planning business an edge and makes us stand out from the crowd.   Here are 5 strategies to establish yourself as a leader and help your business earn the trust of potential clients: 1) Gain Publicity Public relations is a great way to establish trust for your business. When your peers and potential clients see a third party validation of your work, it is perceived much differently than if they see a typical advertisement for your bus ..read more

2020 was a year we will not soon forget in the wedding and event industry. It was a year of challenges, frustration, gratitude, endurance, and flexibility. As we start working through 2021, there is still a lot of uncertainty in our industry. How do you market your services? What services should you be offering? How will the COVID-19 vaccines impact the return of large weddings?  There are still so many unknowns, but we can certainly outline possible business plan strategies based on the most likely scenarios. Let’s talk about the most important considerations when formulating your busine ..read more

I hate being in front of the camera. I don’t like to be in the spotlight, which is why I became a wedding planner. I work well behind the scenes. Ever since I started my business in 2017, I heard about the importance of doing a branding photoshoot, i.e. professional images that represent a business visually, but I avoided the idea completely as I’m extremely camera-shy. Over time though, I learned how powerful these images can be through my colleagues and research. This is not the same as a wedding styled shoot where you create a mock wedding set up with a guest table design, models in we ..read more

Pinterest might be one of the most underutilized marketing tools in the wedding industry. Most couples are using the platform to save inspiration and search for information to plan their wedding day, but the majority of wedding businesses are not taking advantage of the traffic and visibility that Pinterest can create.  Three ways that Pinterest marketing will help your wedding planning business: 1) Website Traffic The number one benefit of Pinterest is that it drives traffic (potential clients) to your wedding planning website. Couples go to Pinterest to be inspired and look for answers ..read more

Going above and beyond to show your clients how much you appreciate them will set you apart and make your clients absolutely love working with you and your team. By creating a memorable and thoughtful experience for your wedding couples, you will see long term benefits such as genuine testimonials, life-long referrals, and true connections with your clients. Here are 8 ways to show appreciation for your wedding couples: 1) Check in for no reason Clients like to talk about their wedding and there is no better audience than their planner. They’ll be happy you care, you’ll get to know each o ..read more