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A wedding planner designs a wedding, keeping in mind the client’s requirements and budget. The job entails planning all ceremonies, preparing budgets, helping the client select the venue and even the trousseau.
The lowdown
A wedding planner designs a wedding, keeping in mind the client’s requirements and budget. The job entails planning all ceremonies, preparing budgets, helping the client select the venue and even the trousseau. A good planner will work out a theme, design the event, menu, invitations and even the décor of the venue around it
Clock Work
10am: Reach office
10.30-11.30am: Attend meetings, brainstorm on themes and ideas during lean season, and during the wedding season discuss wedding preparations.
12pm: Meet clients, fashion designers, jewellery designers etc, to prepare for the big day,
3pm: Coordinate with different team members
5pm: Visit the site if wedding venue is being done up
6pm: Meet clients/ hold meetings
7pm: Dress up and go to the venue and stay till the main event takes place
12am: Brief staff at the venue to take care of guests and leave for home
The payoff
The team comprises designers, wedding coordinators, warehouse in-charge, fabrication in-charge, operations managers, skilled craftsmen, carpenters, painters, welders, artists, florists, sound and light technicians. The outfit may have three departments — design, client relations and production.
A coordinator can earn Rs7500 a month at the entry level. By the first year s/he can start earning Rs12,000 a month and at the end of the third year s/he can hope to get anything like Rs30,000 to Rs50,000 a month. An operations manager can earn Rs10,000 a month at the entry level and R1 lakh a month subsequently.
A planner can benefit enormously from his/her own set-up.
The sky is the limit where earnings are concerned then and they can earn lakhs or even crores during the wedding season
Skills/TRAITS
. A flair for organising events, an eye for colour and fashion sense
. Good communication skills, great negotiating skills, knowledge of customs and rituals
. Good with time and space management
. Major USP is multitasking abilities
Getting There
To begin with, you can work or intern with an established wedding planner to gain hands-on experience before venturing out on your own
Institutes
. National Institute of Event Management, Mumbai
www.niemindia.com/courses
. Event Management Development Institute, Mumbai
www.emdiworld.com/india/epr_new.htm
Pros and cons
. The job requires extensive travel
. You get to do a lot of creative work and meet exciting people
. The money is fantastic if you are known in the industry
. It involves long hours, constant plan changes and dealing with (at times) bizarre client requests
. Something as huge as a wedding involves dealing with all kinds of people
