Also check out the Brides to Be website.

Description :  Wedding planners are in demand as more and more sophisticated brides discover they cannot be the bride and the wedding planner on the day of their wedding. The Wedding Planning Certificate Program is perfect for the individual who wants to immediately start making money as a wedding planner. Whether you plan on working part-time, planning only a few weddings a year, or a full-time career, this program will provide all the tools necessary to work as a professional wedding planner or start your wedding planning business. To address the demands of the industry this program is created for real-world application including experiential learning. This includes role-playing, vignettes and other ways to practice for actual business objectives or work settings in the day-to-day of wedding planning.

 With popular shows like Whose Wedding is it Anyway?, Race to the Alter, Married Away, Big Day and Bridezilla, the profession is growing at an increased rate year after year. Many professional planners run their own company while many others work for wedding businesses offering wedding planning services.

Available for immediate enrolment.

Course Overview

This comprehensive program covers everything an aspiring wedding planner needs to know to get started in the business, from contracts to etiquette, flowers, music, day of services, marketing, business practices, trade secrets and industry specific applications. Whether you plan on working part-time, planning only a few weddings a year, or a full-time career, this program will provide all the tools necessary to work as a professional wedding planner or start your wedding planning business.

The assignments are geared towards starting a business in the industry. Therefore, most assignments are tools that will be utilized in your business such as contracts, business packages, profiling templates for new clients and tools for designing a signature wedding such as fabric boards, design displays and presentation tools. Textbooks include templates and many examples for you to utilize in order to develop your own, such as contracts and service packages. There are also over 50 documents in the on-line library you can download as templates for your bridal clients.

This program covers many areas, such as Budgeting, Project Management, Vendors & Contracts, Wedding Etiquette, Wedding Customs and Traditions from over 15 different cultures worldwide, Wedding Gown Styles & Veils including the seasons top designers and videos of the most recent Truck (Fashion) Shows, Wedding Event Planning, Writing your Business Plan, Signature Wedding Design, Invitations, Public Relations, Wedding Music Selections, Sales & Marketing, Pre and Post Wedding Parties, How to expand your business, Relationship Education as well as Production and Operations Management.

Certified Wedding Planner students can email instructors as often as they need to during the course and schedule phone meetings to discuss assignments if needed. Online students also have access to other students in the course through the course online message boards. Here, students find additional resources, support and networking with others in their area and throughout the WORLD. Many online students utilize this network even after graduation.
 

Career Overview
A certified wedding planner is trained in all aspects of the wedding and social event industry. From conception, contracts and ceremony details to industry formulas for wedding design and delivery, a Certified Professional Wedding Planner can make any wedding budget seem endless.

Because the wedding planner plays such an integral role in the planning of a couple's most important day, there is much to learn in the way of planning, budgets, working with vendors, contracts, revenue channels, not to mention keeping up with the latest trends in bridal fashion, color choices and wedding design.

Some typical tasks for a Certified Wedding Planner (CWP) include:

1. Receiving, making and documenting telephone calls to clients and vendors.
2. Scheduling appointments with vendors for clients.
3. Helping a client to unveil her personal style or wedding day vision.
4. Designing inspiration boards for new client meetings.
5. Assist a client with her wedding gown/attire selection.
6. Budget Tracking and project planning.
7. Site visits with clients for venue selection.
8. Troubleshooting and solution solving.
9. Managing and delegating task as well as tracking progress.
10. Collecting payments and performing collection activities.
 

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of the Certified Wedding Planner program, students will:
• Understand the role of a professional wedding planner.
• Gain a basic understanding of the wedding industry.
• Create business contracts, pricing, packages and presentation tools.
• Identify the formula/method to structure and set-up a wedding planning business and operations.
• Be proficient in skills such as budget planning, vendor selection and wedding design.
• Be familiar with industry specific terminology, communication, telephone techniques, organization and      project management.
• Have knowledge of vendor contracts and what to look for.
• Be familiar with wedding design elements, fabrics and styles.
• Understand how to market as an expert in the industry to gain PR attention.
• Understand online marketing and how it applies to a wedding planners business.
• Have knowledge of different wedding traditions and cultures and how to implement a couple’s ethnic background into the celebration.
• Have knowledge of traditional and non-traditional etiquette.
• Understand the Event Planning Process necessary to design and deliver a successful wedding/social event.
• Understand the Six Stages of Event Experience and ways to implement them.
• Be fully prepared to take on his/her first bridal client

 Course Outline

This comprehensive course has been streamlined into online and classroom videos to enhance the learning experience, and help our students to move through the course more quickly.

I. Introduction - Video Library
i. Wedding Industry Overview
ii. Wedding history
iii. Engagement purpose
iv. Current statistics
v. Engagement Process as it leads to the wedding day

II. Your role as a wedding planner
i. Setting expectations for all involved
ii. Budget Management
iii. Wedding Etiquette
iv. Planning, Coordinating and Directing

III. Business Structure
i. Fee for services, Pricing, Packages, Proposals, Project Plan Budgeting
ii. Market place evaluation
iii. Small business start-up cost
iv. Business Location set-up
v. Home Office
vi. SOHO Solutions
vii. Office Set-up

IV. Documentation
i. Training materials
ii. Design boards
iii. Fabric boards
iv. Manuals
v. Design Project

V. Templates - over 40 editable documents for your business
i. Pricing Packages, Contracts
ii. Client hand-outs
iii. Ceremony Structure, Customs, Traditions
iv. Many, many more

VI. Vendor Selection
i. Vendor Interviews
ii. Vendor contracts
iii. Vendor partnerships and negotiation
iv. Vendor marketing
v. Vendor booking

VII. Contracts
i. Contract Law
ii. Creating Your Contracts
iii. Contract Templates
iv. Bridal Client Contracts
v. Vendor partnership
vi. Traditional Wedding Planner packages

VIII. How to work with a prospective bride
i. Profiling
ii. Training
iii. Role playing
iv. Making the sale
v. Educating the bridal client
1. bridal registry
2. setting expectations
3. wedding day vision vs. reality
vi. Traditional vs. non-traditional wedding ceremonies
vii. Wedding party delegation

IX. Over 15 different Ethnic Wedding Customs & Traditions Worldwide

X. The Wedding Gown
i. Gown styles
ii. Veil styles
iii. Body Types do's & don'ts
iv. Top 50 wedding dress designers

XI. Destination Weddings

XII. Music - How to write a musical score
i. Popular Wedding Ceremony Music Selections
1. Processional
2. Recessional

XIII. Signature Weddings - How to create a signature wedding each and every time
i. Rehearsal Procedures
ii. D4 Analysis - Wedding Design
iii. A6 Production - Event Experience
iv. Event Project Management

XIV. Business marketing practices, industry associations, networking

XV. Bridal Shows
i. Research
ii. Checklist
iii. Booking the bride
iv. How to work a booth
v. Post show activities

XVI. Online Marketing strategies
i. Designing Your Website
ii. Marketing Your Website

XVII. Industry terms
i. Traditional
ii. Trendy

XVIII. Public Relations
i. Becoming an expert in your field in your local market
ii. Writing a Press Release
iii. Writing Your Bio
iv. Negotiating promotions

XIX. Organization
i. CRM (Client Relations Management)
ii. Industry Software
iii. Expanding your business offerings and adding additional revenue streams

XX. Certification - what does it mean and how it sets you apart.

XXI. How relationship education can be incorporated into your business

XXII. Philanthropy

XXIII. Final Exam

 

 Pre-requisites/Audience

There are no pre-requisites for this course.

The intended audience is anybody who is interested in becoming a full- or part-time wedding planner.

 

PC Requirements/Materials Included

 

Instructor Bio

The Wedding Planning Institute was founded with the sole purpose of providing aspiring wedding planners with the best possible education. For over 10 years, the Institute has been dedicated to the highest standards, offering wedding planning certification, business fundamentals, continuing education classes and seminars.

WPI's career counselors work closely with students to understand their needs, and to design educational career paths that provide the experience, engagement and competency needed to achieve the student's objectives. Our core online instructors hold a Masters Degree in Education and have combined experience of over 150 years in the wedding industry from various specialties and backgrounds.

The Wedding Planning Institute is available to students who are interested in receiving the industry's premier education in the business of planning weddings and social events. WPI's program has been accepted by many Colleges and Universities around the United States as the appropriate curriculum and business training for wedding professionals.

Graduates of The Wedding Planning Institute are the top performers in the industry, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Also check out the Brides to Be website.

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