The Right Way and the Wrong Way to Become a Wedding Consultant

A wedding is often considered the ultimate event. Absolute organization, attention to detail and the emotional element involved set weddings apart from other events. In recent years, more event professionals are making the transition to wedding planning.

Wedding planners come from various backgrounds including catering, party planning, hotel event departments and destination management. "Wedding planning is similar to other event planning in some aspects such as contract review and vendor relations," said Kim Horn, president of Bridal Source, a Phoenix-based bridal consulting company that publishes the Bridal Source Guide and sponsors the Bridal Fashion Debut show. "The main difference is that when you're planning a wedding as opposed to a corporate event, you're dealing with the emotions of family members. Everything must be perfect."

"One way to become a wedding consultant is to work in one facet of event planning such as catering or facility management and grow into wedding consulting," said Ewa

Ojarovska, director of sales and catering at Westchester Country Club in New York.

Having an event background is helpful, but not necessary to break into the field of wedding consulting. Having knowledge of the event industry and experience is an advantage as similar skills are used in wedding consulting and event planning. A strong network of vendors and other connections developed as an event professional can be extremely helpful to new wedding consultants.

"There isn't one way to become a wedding consultant," said Peggy Hirschberg, owner of Parties to Perfection in New York. "Event professionals can break into wedding planning by working for a corporation as an event planner or doing events such as bar mitzvah parties. Another way to get into the field is by working for a wedding consultant. Apprenticeship will teach a new wedding planner how to do the job correctly because if you don't plan somebody's wedding correctly, you've ruined one of the most important days of their life. It's important to pay your dues."

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