The Secret Cut-Throat Life of Wedding Planners

Wedding planners seem sweet, don’t they? They’re just a bunch of benevolent people who are passionate about love and who want to see your wedding be as magical as you’ve envisioned.

They’re busy socialites who know everyone and will use their ties to help you out… right?

This is the rosy portrait we all see, but not all wedding planners are created equal. In fact, some are downright DIRTY!

Here’s what I mean:

• There are wedding planners who feel they need to monopolize venues. They pay venue owners big bucks for exclusive rights to their location to keep other wedding planners out. Also, you may encounter a wedding planner who is receiving kickbacks from venues and will refer you to whoever is paying the most money – even if it’s not in your best interest.

• There are wedding planners who catch wind that a bride has interviewed other consultants and proceed to trash-talk the consultants to tarnish their competitions’ reputations unjustly.

• There are wedding planners who are very purse-lipped about the industry when asked and do not wish to lend any advice to aspiring or existing wedding planners because they fear it may hurt their business.

• There are wedding planners who use blackhat SEO to gain better search engine rankings – paying for link farms and social media friends, paying people to click on their competition’s PPC ads (to drive up costs for them), and using web design for keyword trickery.

Even though we’re recovering from a recession, there is still a massive market for wedding planners due to favorable portrayal in the media. Word-of-mouth has been positive about the benefits of having a helping hand for the big day. According to the Association of Bridal Consultants, there are approximately 10,000 bridal consultants – which means for every wedding planner, there is 220 potential couples. Of these couples, about 19 percent will actively seek a wedding planner, so – at that rate – each wedding planner should still see 42 prospects per year. Because there is so much work, wedding consultants should embrace a sense of cooperation, rather than competition, says Maggie Daniels and Carrie Loveless in their book Wedding Planning & Management: Consultancy For Diverse Clients (2007).

Truth be told, the best way for wedding planners to get ahead is to network with other consultants and share knowledge. Networking with other planners can open up your world and expose you to service providers you never knew existed. Many wedding planners differentiate their business to a specific niche that is different than yours. So, for example, if you have a bride who tells you she wants a very traditional Jewish wedding — and you deal in mainly outdoor weddings with a justice of the peace – you can forward this referral to another planner you know who does traditional Jewish weddings. Then, when the other planner gets someone who wants an outdoor wedding, you’ll get a referral right back.

Also, it would behoove you to partner with caterers, florists, places of worship and venues to offer joint packages where you assemble all the paperwork for the couples to sign and you are responsible for collecting the payments and paying vendors. This sort of arrangement would be beneficial for everyone involved. As long as you are not monopolizing a vendor or exchanging financial kickbacks, it’s a totally legit way of doing business.

The average bride interviews 3-4 wedding planners to find the right personality, specialization, level of service and arrangement. Do not take it personally! The right bride will work with the right wedding planner and you cannot expect to be everything to everyone, no matter how good your service is. Let the right brides breeze in and remember that your obligation is to your client – whether it’s finding the right florist, caterer, musician, venue, or other wedding planner!

Just my $.02 

What do you think?  Let me know by commenting below or connect with me on my Facebook wall HERE.

Thanks!