Event and Wedding Planning as a Career
Before you think of getting started as an event planner, determine if this is really what you want to do. Event planning is incredibly stressful, with long hours, demanding clients, and unreasonable requests. Whether you're planning a wedding, a corporate retreat, or a social fundraiser, the event is extremely important to your client, and while in reality, the success of the event not a life-or-death matter, it will be to the bride, the company or the charity. That means it all falls on you to make sure everything is perfect, and of course, it never will be.
If you work well under pressure, and I mean extreme grace under heavy artillery fire, you are very detail oriented (and not just because you put that on your resume and say it in interviews), you work well with people and know how to schmooze and coerce people to get them to do exactly what you want, you are creative, inventive, and have a bit of a MacGyver side to you, you might be a good event planner. The perks of the job are numerous, it sounds glamorous, when you tell people what you do, they will ooh and ahh and be impressed. You'll attend fabulous events, parties, and galas on a regular basis. Of course, you'll be working, but you can usually slip in a few cocktails and hors d'oeuvres during the course of the event, which is rare in a 9-5 type job. And the people you work with are awesome. While you'll encounter the occasional crazy bridezilla, or unreasonable marketing director, if you're good at your job, you'll have grateful clients who will recommend you to others. You'll also be amazed at how nice the support staff you work with can be. People in the hospitality industry tend to be, well, hospitable by nature. The catering and banquet staff at most hotels and convention centers are awesome people-pleasing types, it's practically a requirement of the job. And because you are the event planner, everyone wants to get on your good side so that you'll want to work with them and recommend them for future jobs.
The best way to get started as a planner is to work in a hotel or another venue that hosts events on a regular basis, like a banquet hall or convention center. This will help you learn the ropes from the inside out, get familiar with the planning process, the lingo (for example, do you know what a BEO is? A highboy? Chevron style seating? You will!) and help you make the industry contacts you'll need when you go out on your own. Working in a hotel or for an event venue will help you learn different options for setting up a space, what fits, what doesn't, the standard sizes of tables, and how many people fit at each size. You'll become well versed in the different types of service, the way food is ordered, how much food and beverages are needed to serve different numbers of people and different types of parties. You'll attend events and see first-hand what goes on behind the scenes, what goes wrong and why, and what each different person does to make an event happen.
When you start out on your own, make sure to network. Keep up those relationships you made and follow what everyone is doing. Attend industry events and join networking groups likeISESorNACE. Start out with people you know, coordinate your friend's wedding for free, and ask her to recommend you to others she knows getting married. Above all, be organized, be prepared for anything, and realize that each event is a learning experience that will help prepare you for the next big adventure.
