Starting out as a wedding planner and thinking about working without pay to get experience, testimonials and photographs for your portfolio? Totally understandable. I can see how planning weddings for f*r*e*e for a few relatives or friends at the start of your business might help you. However, I want you to be careful about doing a lot without pay. Here are my concerns about this:

• Something f*r*e*e isn’t always valued. People can be just as demanding, or even more so, when they believe they are doing you a favor.

• You might get used to giving services away. There is nothing wrong with being generous but remember you are running a business and your goal is to make a profit.

• When you start charging, you won’t realize how valuable your services are and not charge accordingly.

When I started, I gave away a great deal of my time and energy. And, whenever a person seemed uncomfortable with my rates, I threw in a lot of extras. I didn’t highly value my knowledge, expertise and hard work so my clients didn’t either.

Get some experience in planning weddings by working for other planners, florists, caterers, bakers or in catering and sales for hotels and wedding venues. When you go out on your own, it’s ok to do some work for relatives or friends without pay but start charging as soon as you have some experience, not the same rate as a seasoned professional, but get some compensation for what you do.

When you start your wedding planning business, most people will tell you to contact everyone you know to get some referrals. There is nothing wrong with doing that unless you plan to send out bulk emails, that is spamming and it won’t get you anything but irate friends and acquaintances.

Here is an example of what not to do. A few days ago I received an email that had a subject heading something like this: “To People Who Gave Me Their Business Card a Year Ago This Month”. I’m serious, it is what I received. She sent the email to all she gotten business cards from at a conference last year. What is worse, she wrote everyone’s email address in the “To” box so the addresses were visible. The email told what she had been doing in the last year and how she found something that is changing her life and could change mine too. I won’t be checking it out.

Let people know you have started a wedding planning business but do it by personal contact first, to family and friends. If you feel like you need to email people, do it one at a time to people who know you.

As a wedding planner you will get emails from brides asking you to quote your rates. Today a friend sent me a letter from an ezine in which the owner of an entertainment company asked what to do when brides call just to ask about rates. When they offer the information, they never hear back from them again. Jeffrey Gitomer, well-known author and expert on sales and customer service, told the business owner to ask the bride what type of entertainment she wanted, inexpensive or memorable, explain the differences and tell her that their entertainment is personalized.

You need to craft a message so you are prepared when you get a similar email. Many brides are just shopping around, looking for free planning tips and comparing prices, they are not serious about hiring you. Don’t spend a lot of time emailing them and don’t send proposals in hopes that they will see how good you are and hire you, because they won’t. A bride who is serious about hiring you will be more than happy to meet with you in person, share information about their wedding, get to know you and sign your contract.

When planning a wedding, there may be times your bride will need to match colors when selecting flowers, linens, the cake and dresses for the bridesmaids and mothers of the bride and groom. Suggest she take her fabric swatches and color samples and slide them into the pages of a purse-sized photo album. This will keep them clean and neatly organized in one place, instead of scattered at the bottom of a handbag. She can also use the photo album to keep business cards of the vendors you recommend she use for her wedding.

At a wedding reception, a place card is put at each place setting to tell the guest where at the table they are seated.  Yesterday I heard an interview with famous wedding and event planner Marcy Blum.  She talked about this idea that she got from a client who had a wedding for 150 guests:

Instead of just writing the name of the person on the place card, the bride and groom took the time to write a short note telling each of the guests why they were thankful for having them in their lives.  If they had a photo of themselves with the guest, they attached it to the note.  The guests then truly felt honored that they had a part in this very important day for the bride and groom.

Don’t think that expensive wedding favors are the only way for a couple to thank guests for attending their wedding.  Sometimes it is more important for the couple to tell them how much they appreciate them.  Talk to your bride, if she and her fiancée are interested in making their guests feel special, work with them in coming up with personalized ideas like this one.

Wedding planning isn’t the only service you can offer to brides. Many planners offer other services and products to give their clients a “one stop shop”. However, really think about the extras you are offering and make sure they don’t distract from your main business of planning weddings.

Here is the reason I’m writing about this. The other day I was doing some research on the Internet. I came across an article I thought was going to be about ideas wedding planners could use to increase revenue. It was basically an article about an herbal drink, sold through multi-level marketing, which the author thought wedding planners should sell to their clients as an alternative to alcoholic beverages. I went to her website, she says she is a wedding planner, and it again was a sales pitch for the drink. So is she a wedding planner or a salesperson for the drink who is targeting brides and wedding planners? It looks to me like she is a drink salesperson.

If you want to become a top wedding planner, then focus on planning weddings. Offer products and services that are related to it, such as invitations, favors, party rental, but keep your attention and your marketing message focused on your core business.

To become a top wedding planner, you need to learn from some of the top people in the fields of wedding and event planning, floral design, catering, and tabletop design. You can see and hear them at conferences like “The Special Event”, which I wrote about in my blog post on October 16, 2008, or you can read their books.

Books by celebrity professionals, such as Preston Bailey or Colin Cowie, can be found at amazon.com or your local Barnes and Noble or Borders bookstores. To find books written by professionals who are not celebrities but are highly respected in the industry, go online to C.H.I.P.S. Online Bookstore http://www.chipsbooks.com/listse.htm. C.H.I.P.S. stands for Culinary & Hospitality Industry Publications Services. They have books written especially for people in our industry that you may not be able to find anywhere else. You will be surprised at the number of books you can find that can give you the information and inspiration you need to be a top wedding planner.

Wedding planners need websites that are easy to use. I know I’ve spoken about this before But I feel like I need to bring it up again. I went to look at a wedding planner’s site today and got a blank screen. The message at the top said if I didn’t see the animation, I needed to download the latest “flash” player. Apparently I didn’t have the one I needed already loaded. So I downloaded the player because I really wanted to see the site. My concern is that not every bride going to this planner’s site will take the time to do it.

Please make your website easy to use and easy to read. If you don’t, brides won’t take the time to get to know all about you. You need them to stay on your site and learn about the great services you offer. Then they will contact and hire you.

For help with planning your website, get a copy of my special report, “”The 7 Mistakes New Wedding Planners Make on Their Websites … And How to Avoid Them” by filling out the box on the right.

Indian weddings are not being affected by the economy, according to an article in my local newspaper, The Contra Costa Times. Many in the affluent Indo-American community have been saving for their children’s weddings since they were babies. They consider a marriage a major milestone in life and believe in making the wedding a big celebration with many invited guests. You can read the article at http://tinyurl.com/6hz84e.

You don’t have to be of Indian heritage to be a planner for Indian weddings, research and study the culture and traditions, talk to recent brides and see if you have a passion in this area. Be willing to do what it takes to be an expert so you can really be of assistance to the bride and her family.

You’re planning for your bride’s wedding to be the best day of her life.  Is it possible that it could be ruined by thieves or rowdy guests?  I was just reading an article about a wedding guest who was arrested for stealing from other guests and the bridal party.  Apparently security guards figured out he had gone through the purses and personal belongings that people had put in the storage room and alerted the wedding planner.  (Tip - never, ever let the wedding party or their guests leave valuables unattended.  Just because a room can be locked does not mean it is secure.  Thieves target weddings for gifts and know they can easily blend into a crowd filled with strangers.)

Suggest the bride hire security if you think there might be a problem with theft or if there is concern about “wedding crashers”, an unwelcomed “ex” or a few guests who might get too rowdy at an open bar.  Don’t try to handle these situations yourself.  There are many licensed security companies who offer guards for weddings and other events.  They can be told to dress the same way as your guests so they don’t stand out.  You and your bride will be less stressed when you know there are professionals available to help should anything unusual occur.