Hi! We just completed our first project as a company and I have a lot of things to add in terms of a perspective change. Let me put it this way, I was shattered as a wedding planner and have never been in such a bad state before. I would like to share the core points of my learning's on this wedding as a short post wedding analysis. But before that here's an overview of what the wedding was all about and my role in it.
So this wedding was contract-based where in I was appointed to head complete hospitality and Logistics for them as a project manger, and as you know Plug & Play takes up project based work, this was our first contract as a company. I had a team which I had to build from my contacts according to skill set and capability to work under stress and as soon as I signed the contract which only mentioned the dates, job roles and salary. And since everything else was verbally discussed this is where my first lesson starts. Verbal discussions are quite normal but cost me a fortune in terms of dignity and money. So this was the background of the wedding, Let's dive into the details.
It starts with setting boundaries in terms of your role. I learnt that some people might just not know what it means to hire a wedding planner. It almost seemed like since day one I was an errand boy who was asked to pick up on the unfinished things that the event managers before me left behind. After that came the family's contrasting expectation of what I was there for and to do. Again this had a lot to do with my commitment to learn and complete almost anything that was assigned to me instead of asking myself if it was relevant to my profile. Which sabotaged my self respect. So here I allowed them to speak in ways which was not acceptable not just as a wedding planner but also as a human. Don't we all come across people in this industry who absolutely have no clue of what ethical behavior is? So setting boundaries becomes so important as a wedding planner and standing your ground as a young entrepreneur.
Now, what are the dos and dont's of your role? Well that depends on what defines you as a wedding planner. The things that I would never stoop down to is bad behavior, Demeaning attitudes and unethical ways of conduct. Guess what I had to come down to? Yeah all of these because I was taken aback when I voiced my opinion on things. So when shit was going down for real I could easily walk away after working for a month but then There's an issue of commitment as well which itches me almost all the time. Not knowing when to walk away or saying no is the second major learning from this wedding. Wedding planners are treated as family members; its great to see that but when they use this term to enter your professional line of dignity it tends to breaks you as a person. So when you enter into a contract with your client make sure every single thing is either on papers or on mails.
Payments being the third major issue, even though payments were discussed and are a part of the contract, it has been almost 15 days since my vendors have received their pays, this is a major struggle because even though the advances are paid the trust of working with me again might get affected. Even when it comes to paying me, I have learnt that from the next wedding I should do a Bi-weekly payment thing where-in even if the last part of payment isn't done I wouldn't have much to lose. I could have gone legal but the fee for just sending a legal document is crazy. (I am planning on doing that if it doesn't happen within this week)
(Update: Yes I went legal and got my money after two weeks! Phew)
So even though I still have a lot to add to this particular podcast I would like to end on the note that being proactive about the wedding and getting out as much information from your client even when they don't involve you in a lot of segments,is really important. Pull out maximum information from the people around them to see if the client has the capacity to fill in the gap of what is expected vs the production capacity. Here the client owned factories so we were being told that everything will be manufactured and taken care of here itself The Gifts, Personalization, Printing Etc, but when it came down to it we had to personally sit at the factory and make the operational plan a success two days before the wedding due to a lot of communication gaps. Did we get our bit of appreciation? Nope.The client blocked us right after the wedding so make sure you have all these in mind as you will never expect such people in the business!
Thank you so much!