Like any professional, the amount of knowledge that you gain over the years is vast – and, not to mention, incredibly useful. And, as a wedding planning professional, your job is all in the details. With each client you book, it is your responsibility to be able to share your expertise. Over and over. Time and time again. Without missing a beat.
And, organizing all of those details can be one of those tasks that you just keep putting off. Maybe because you feel like it requires sitting down and writing a bunch of email templates, questionnaires, or information docs. But it doesn’t!
So today, we wanted to dive deeper into our wedding planning checklist and give you some ideas on how you can use the details in it to keep all of your expertise organize, accessible, and in front of your couples!
“Based on My Experience”
Are there questions that each and every one of your couples ask? You know, the ones where they are basically turning to you to make the decision for them? If you have “standard” responses or advice that you give to your couples based on your expertise, considering adding it to the relevant checklist items to save yourself the extra email!
What are some examples?
Checklist item: Get your marriage license.
Detail: Information on getting a marriage license in your area and what they need to do to prepare for it, how do they get it, and what do they do with it afterwards.
Checklist item: Talk about wedding insurance and determine whether or not you’d like to purchase.
Detail: General information on what wedding insurance is, why your couple should consider it, what the general cost is, and a link to a few websites where they can purchase wedding insurance.
Show Off Your Expertise
Your couples hire you because you are an expert! So, show off your expertise everywhere you can! And, you can easily add details to your Checklist that help your couples complete tasks without breaking a sweat.
Need some ideas?
Include links to articles from experts under the appropriate checklist item (ex. advice about how to address your wedding invitations from your favorite calligrapher )
Post links to helpful articles, blog posts, video tutorials or information videos that you’ve written or created. Include an intro to your post and include a link!
Build in mini questionnaires to guide your couples along. For example, “Finalize Bridal Party Members and complete the bridal party questionnaire.” Ask them to add a comment if they have questions about it or ask them to mark it off as complete as soon as they’ve completed it, so you’ll get a notification! From there, you can copy and paste the information over to a note for easy future reference!
Pro-tip: Make the details work for you and build them in at the template level, so you don’t have to retype them in for each event – not only save time but shape and personalize your client experience based on your knowledge and expertise.
Personalize Your Planning Process
The details of wedding planning vary from region to region so, each of you have unique and valuable perspectives to share with your clients. By customizing your Checklists with details that personalize your planning process and client experience, you further prove to your couples that hiring you was money well spent!
By adding details like vendor recommendations, gratuity guides, links to your favorite registries, where to go get their marriage license, thank you etiquette (you get the idea!) that are all based on your experience and local expertise, you are sure to not only save time but make the planning experience that much smoother for your clients.