A number of readers have asked for more information on how to start a wedding planning business. Whilst it’s not a business I have much experience of (other than planning my own wedding) what follows are some thoughts on how I’d go about starting a wedding planning business.

Is there a local market (demand) and can you make a living from it?

With the average wedding costing claimed to be as high as £25,000 and the wedding industry estimated to be worth around £35 Billion wedding planning is clearly a potentially lucrative market to tap into. And with typical fees running from around £40 for venue searches to 20% of the wedding budget (a £5,000 fee in the case of the average wedding) for a full planning service you could make a very good living as a wedding planner. However how much of this market you can tap into will depend on where you live (how affluent is the area) and how many potential customers you have access to (how many people live within the distance that you are prepared to travel).

Skills

When it comes to wedding planning there are no qualifications that you need to have – anyone can set themselves up in business as a wedding planner. However I would only suggest pursuing the business idea if you’re an organised person as the customers will be relying on you to ensure their wedding day is special and entrusting you with thousands of pounds of their money to do so. You’ll need good people skills too.

You can however acquire some qualifications in wedding planning, but I’m not sure if these are formally recognised or just a way to make money from you – make sure you find out before you part with your money.

Marketing

Look for related businesses to partner with, in particular speak to local: venues, cake suppliers, caterers, wedding photographers, wedding dress/accessory shops, jewellers, chocolate fountain suppliers and anyone else who will come into contact with potential customers. Plus you’ll need to build a relationship with all of these suppliers in order to deliver the service. Make sure you are polite, friendly and professional with ALL of these suppliers your success will depend on maintaining a good relationship with them and if you upset it could lose you future business. Once you’ve established contact with them, stay in contact work hard to build a good relationship, ideally you want them to hand out your card, flyer or best of all personally recommend you.

Wedding Fayres are an obvious place to start, but rather than paying for a stand (no doubt relatively expensive) try to get hold of a list of who is exhibiting and start networking with them – then see if you can get their permission to feature your card/leaflet on their stand or in their give aways. Try to find something of value to them that you can offer in return. Get this right and most of the stands/exhibitors at the fayre could be marketing you. At very least attend the fayre and network with the exhibitors.

As I recall requests for marriage licenses are public documents, so it might be worth a visit the local registrars to get the list of marriage licenses currently requested. You can then market to those people – it’s far more cost effective to send out 100 highly targeted mailshots than thousands of untargeted ones.

Finally don’t forget to tell everyone you know that you’ve started this business! I’ve picked up business that’d I’d never have expected through friends and family.

Capital

The initial startup cost of a wedding planning business is fairly low. You’ll need a mobile phone and Internet access, but you probably already have those. You’ll also need to get some marketing materials (business cards, flyers and website) designed and printed/developed. You can probably get all of that for less than £200, however do remember that these create your professional image so you might like to spend more (but try to stay under £1000). Ideally look for good value but don’t compromise on quality.

Given the importance of the day (to the happy couple) I’d strongly recommend taking out whatever insurance is available, both for your business and for their wedding.

Your start-up capital requirement will then be in the region of £200 – £2,000 largely depending on whether you already have access to a computer and mobile telephone.

On a final note, many wedding planners sell themselves on their personal service (i.e. Janes Wedding Planning) yet don’t have a single picture of "Jane" on the website and contain very little information about who "Jane" is. Your customer is buying your service, so tell them who you are!

Some potentially useful books:

• Start Your Own Wedding Consultant Business
• Wedding Planning and Management: Consultancy for Diverse Clients
• How to Start a Home-Based Wedding Planning Business
• How to Open and Operate a Financially Successful Wedding Consultant and Planning Business
• How to Start a Wedding Planning Business

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