Wedding Planner Pro Files
CWP Society is proud to produce the "Wedding Planner Pro Files" podcast!
Laurie Hartwell & Krisy Thomas, award-winning Master Certified Wedding Planners and Industry Educators from the CWP Society, discuss the real lives of wedding planners and professionals, dispense business tips, and share ways you can elevate yourself and your career in the wedding industry.
Visit the CWP Society website for more information: www.cwpsociety.com
Wedding Planner Pro Files
Wedding Industry News - January 2024: Giving Back; Wedding Budgets; Friends/Family Officiating Weddings
In this episode, we interview the Executive Director of Wish Upon a Wedding, Lacey Wicksall, where we discuss the organization, and celebrate the industry's spirit of giving and highlight the incredible resilience found in the face of adversity. Our conversation is a tribute to the impact of community support, as we delve into the process of creating dream weddings and vow renewals for couples braving serious health challenges.
After that, we also navigate the treacherous waters of wedding budgeting. This podcast peels back the curtain on the misconceptions propagated by social media and underscores the value of a certified wedding planner. You'll gain insights into how couples need to prioritize their financial resources to amplify what truly resonates with them on their wedding day. Moreover, this episode offers pearls of wisdom for wedding professionals—to educate and tailor services to fit every couple's unique budgetary needs. It's about crafting a day that celebrates love, with guidance that's attainable for all, emphasizing that expert advice shouldn’t be a luxury, but a staple in planning the most heartfelt moments.
Finally, we discuss the pros and cons of having friends or family officiate a wedding.
If you would like to learn more about how you can donate your services, time, or money to Wish Upon A Wedding, visit their website: https://www.wishuponawedding.org/
www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety
Welcome to the Wedding Planner podcast brought to you by the Certified Wedding Planner Society.
Speaker 2:Happy New Year and welcome to the Wedding Industry News, where each episode covers something old, something new, something borrowed and some new. It's January 2024 and I'm your host, ayesha Garnett, owner of Sharia More Weddings and Event Planning Master, certified Wedding Planner and Certified Educator with the CWP Society an industry membership for planners, venues and pros. Let's jump right into our first segment. It's the beginning of a brand new year and, for wedding professionals, that could mean improving our business so that we are better prepared to take on those celebrations set for this year in full swing. This is also a great time of year to start thinking about those in-kind donations and how we can give back as wedding pros. I'd like to take a moment to share a little bit of background about my experience with this very subject.
Speaker 2:Back in 2020, just days after coming back from one of the best educational wedding conferences with the CWP Society, my father lost his battle to cancer, a disease that impacts the lives of so many families. In the spring of 2023, one of my closest aunts was diagnosed with cancer and again, my family was experiencing another uphill battle with this disease. It was during that time I stumbled upon a Facebook post from Wish Upon a Wedding that stated they were in need of a wedding planner in the Michigan area for a couple where the bride had stage 4 breast cancer. Being that one of my associate planners lives in Michigan, I saw this as a great opportunity to give back. Plus, it pulled at my heartstrings to know that I could possibly be helping someone with cancer, because I knew all too well how that illness heavily weighs on families. So I reached out to Wish Upon a Wedding and a few days later partnered with them as the wedding planner to help coordinate and plan the 10-year vow renewal for that deserving couple. After connecting with the couple via our first virtual meeting, I wasn't just meeting with the client, I was meeting with a survivor and I had four months to help grant their wedding wish.
Speaker 2:During the planning process, my family was impacted yet again. Only this time my aunt had lost her battle to cancer. In the midst of planning a vow renewal for a couple facing this disease, I was also preparing for the homegoing services for my aunt, which was just two days after the vow renewal. Although I was planning and coordinating a beautiful celebration, I was also bracing myself to celebrate the life of my aunt. In those days it was something about seeing the blessing and being able to help my couple, even though I felt like everything happening in my personal life was so unfair.
Speaker 2:During my partnership with Wish Upon a Wedding, I didn't just participate in granting a wedding wish, but I saw evidence of the great work they were doing and how they were changing lives in a major way. There was definitely a reward in seeing my couple celebrate 10 years of marriage, even when the odds were against them. I walked away from that experience recognizing a strength that I didn't know I had but desperately needed to see during one of the most difficult times in my life. For this I am forever grateful to this organization. And joining me to share more about an organization that has done more than make wedding wishes come true is special guest Lacey Wigsall, executive Director for Wish Upon a Wedding. Thank you so much for joining me, lacey.
Speaker 3:Oh, my pleasure. Great to see you again.
Speaker 2:Good to see you as well. Let's jump right into my first question. Can you share in detail what Wish Upon a Wedding is and the main goal and mission behind the nonprofit organization?
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely. We are a national nonprofit that grants weddings and vow renewals to couples who are facing terminal illnesses or what we would deem to be a life-altering health circumstance. It is our desire that our couples would show up to a day that is perfectly and beautifully created for them, that they didn't have to do any work for, so that they can focus on their health and their family and their treatment.
Speaker 2:And, as Executive Director, what does it mean to you to see so many lives impacted with the help of wedding professionals across the country?
Speaker 3:You know, I always like to say we're in the business of hope. We have worked with thousands and thousands of wedding professionals over the years. We just granted Wish Number 250 last week for our organization and, as much as I love meeting our couples, I love meeting these wish recipients and learning about them and really feeling their story and becoming a part of this beautiful love story that they have woven over all of these years. I love meeting our wish grantors. I love meeting people like you who don't even know our couple and you are willing to show up and give of your time and your talent and your resources and your energy so that someone else can have a beautiful day.
Speaker 2:I completely agree. When I started working with you all and just reaching out to all of the wedding pros and just everyone who were so on board and so excited to just help grant a wish for our family or grant a wish for a couple that they didn't know, like you said as well just to feel how excited they were to give back and for such a great cause, it was definitely rewarding.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:And what is the process for couples when they reach out to wish upon a wedding?
Speaker 3:So couples apply through our website. A lot of times they've heard about us, maybe from a doctor, a nurse or a cancer support group that they're a part of and if they match our initial criteria, we take them through an application process and we interview them and we verify their diagnosis and prognosis with their doctor and then, once they're approved, we reach out, we find a wedding planner and we get to work on assembling an incredible team.
Speaker 2:I love it and I saw, too when I started working with you guys. It was you made it so easy. You were so welcoming and just Everything was just perfect. And knowing that you had connections to you know some of the vendors that we needed to work with, such as like the linen company and your dress shop and things like that you made it so easy for us to be able to grant those wishes, and I just wanted to make sure that we brought you guys on the show so that every wedding professional who doesn't know about you needs to know about you, because you are truly doing great things for these families and for these individuals that are going through such hard times. So I wanted to know how can wedding professionals get involved with you all? Is there anything they need to do, or how can we just make sure we're raising awareness and get other wedding pros involved?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Couples can apply through our website. We have a spot on our website that you can sign up to be a wish grantor and you can kind of designate your area of expertise and then whenever we have a wish that pops up somewhere in the country, we always access that database and look for resources and look for wedding professionals there and then we can reach out and we can contact you.
Speaker 2:Love it. So you're creating a database. As you go through the couples and you know you're granting the wishes, do you find wedding professionals coming back to grant wishes in whatever locations that they were in originally?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. We've used repeats before. We always love to spread the love and we would love to work with as many people as possible. But, yes, we do have people that after the wish say, oh my goodness, I want to do another one, so please let me know if another wish pops up in our city. And I always love working with repeats. Of course I love it.
Speaker 2:And I also wanted to share that in working with these couples, as you mentioned earlier, you start out not knowing them, and the more you work with them, as you go on day to day, you build a relationship with them, and it's just so powerful. I still talk to Jenny and Patrick, we still text each other, we're Facebook friends. Like you create a not just a friendship, but they become a family in such a short time. So I truly love the work that you all are doing and how can wedding pros get in touch with you guys, with your website, with your social media handles, all that good stuff.
Speaker 3:You can find us at wishaponowettingorg. You can also send us an email at info at wishaponowettingorg. And yeah, we are. You know we have. We granted 38 wishes this year. We have a goal of granting many more in the coming years. We're working on building a great team doing a lot of fundraising, outreach, things of that nature. So absolutely, and I could not agree with you more I think I've been involved with I don't know 160 or so of our wishes and so many of those couples just have a really special place in my heart. I love keeping in touch and hearing from their families and and chatting about the real ways that we were able to provide a light in the middle of their darkness.
Speaker 2:I completely agree and even during my wish, it was great seeing you drive all the way up to Michigan.
Speaker 3:We had fun, that was a fun day, it was so gorgeous, it was beautiful.
Speaker 2:So thank you so much for just trusting me with the couple, with your organization, and again I just wanted to make sure I shed light on Wish Upon a Wedding and what you all are doing so that other wedding professionals can get involved and just spread the love and truly be a positive impact for our couples. So thank you.
Speaker 3:That's what it's all about. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:You're welcome, thank you for joining me and thank you for being a part of such an amazing organization. Now on to something borrowed. In this segment, we feature information about an alternate source that I feel you would be interested in. According to People Magazine, the average cost of weddings will reach $30,000 in 2024. Due to inflation, the rising costs for all things pertaining to wedding planning has increased, based on a recent report from Zola, as vendors, ranging from florists, photographers and even venues, just to name a few, hike up their prices, zola reports that in 2023, 80% of their vendors reported that the overall cost to run their businesses had increased, resulting in the increase in their service price.
Speaker 2:With those wedding costs on an incline, many couples are reviewing their wedding budget and are forced to make some tough decisions about some of their wants and desires for their big day. So to help those couples get through the ease, zola experts weigh in with a few savings tips, ranging from opting to do digital save the dates or selecting an off-peak date for their wedding, or maybe even doing a few decor items as a DIY project to save on costs. Other tips included making sure couples spoke to their significant other to have that hard conversation about what the wedding budget really entails. While these are all valuable tips, I can help but wonder if couples are truly being realistic about the cost in weddings or the cost in their lavish tastes when it comes to the options that they want for their wedding day. Here to weigh in a bit further and to discuss this report with me is Chrissy Thomas, vice President of CWP Society. Thank you so much for joining me, chrissy.
Speaker 1:Of course, thank you for having me Aisha.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Let's get right into this topic. When it comes to wedding costs, do you think couples are being realistic about the expenses and all that it takes to plan a wedding?
Speaker 1:No, I will be Straight to the point. No, and I think it's because we are in the day and age where information about everything and anything is literally right at your fingertips, and sometimes that is inaccurate information. So they're getting where they should budget for their wedding from just a broad website and it may not be directed towards their location, their guest count. As planners, we know the budget and the guest count don't hand in hand. That's something that a lot of couples don't understand and don't realize. There's also other factors that have to be considered when you are working on your wedding budget. So what's happening is a lot of couples are making those initial mistakes because they're getting inaccurate information or it's hard and it's not just from wedding websites and blogs, but it's also from social media and influencers and the information that they're sharing. So they're getting a lot of inaccurate information and they're coming into planning with the wrong tools and resources and because of that, the budget to them they're getting sticker shock. Or they're seeing these elaborate what they consider weddings on Pinterest and on Instagram and what they may not realize is that could also be a photo shoot, that could be a styled shoot that was created, or they're seeing these elaborate weddings and not realizing that this centerpiece costs $300. They're just walking into the situation when it comes to their wedding budget, either blind or misinformed. So I don't think couples have a true idea about the cost of weddings, and it's not their fault, it's not their fault at all.
Speaker 1:I think that is where, as a planner and as a wedding probe, that we should educate engaged couples on the first thing. First person that you should hire when you get married or get engaged excuse me is going to be a wedding planner, because we're going to be able to kind of really guide them the way that they need to go. They're making a lot of mistakes in the very beginning and sometimes, by the time a planner is hired or led to, they bring on just a wedding coordinator. We're seeing some budget things and I'm like, oh gosh, I could have saved you money here or we could have did this instead. We're that resource to really be able to help them determine what their budget should be based on their factors, such as their guest count, their location and what they're envisioning for their day. We can help with that, and that's where I think a lot of couples are making. That mistake is they're not relying on a planner to help guide them through the beginning process of creating their wedding budget.
Speaker 2:You're absolutely right, Chrissy. You're not just any planner. Hire a certified wedding planner.
Speaker 1:Yes exactly Because, as a certified wedding planner, we have that education behind us, because there is so much information that goes into creating and understanding a wedding budget, and there are a lot of people who claim to be wedding planners who woke up, decided that, hey, I planned my wedding a couple of years ago. I'm going to open up my own business and then not get that education behind it, and they're also contributing to that misinformation that's going out there when it comes to wedding costs and wedding budgets.
Speaker 2:I couldn't agree with you more, Chrissy. Now, because of the expenses with weddings, are you seeing more couples do away with the big weddings in hopes of saving on costs?
Speaker 1:I am. I'm kind of seeing it in two different ways. I'm seeing couples lower their guest count, yes, but I'm also seeing couples being a bit more intentional about what they're spending their money on. And that is when you mentioned sitting down and having that conversation with your spouse to determine what's important to us. How do we want this wedding to look and feel? Where do we want to spend and allocate our funds? And that may be.
Speaker 1:I have a couple who the food is so important to them. They are big foodies. That's what they do for date nights as they try all these new restaurants. So they want to focus on that, whereas with the centerpiece she's like I mean, I like candles. I don't really care for flowers. So that's where couples really need to kind of sit down and determine where do we want to put our money? What is the most important to us? And that's what I'm seeing. I'm seeing a lot of couples be very intentional in their choices of what they want their wedding day to look like and not just sticking with what's the norm, what's the tradition they're doing, what's going to make sense for them, based on their love story, who they are, but also their budget.
Speaker 2:If more couples really take the time to customize their wedding to fit them, then they won't be so distracted by all the stuff they're seeing on social media and just not having a realistic idea of what those things will cost. So what is some advice that you can lend to wedding pros to truly help them convey to their clients just how much their services will be, especially if they're providing a quality service for their clients?
Speaker 1:I think I'll answer this question in two ways With wedding pros. Something that I've seen quite often with wedding pros when it comes to couples budgets is they are judging them from the very beginning. They are immediately saying no to clients when clients are giving them a ballpark number of what they want their wedding to be and, like I mentioned earlier, couples do not know, they do not have a clue in reality how much weddings cost. And, as wedding pros, if we are just automatically shutting them down and not getting a chance to educate them all, that's snow balling into all of the uneducated engaged couples. So, as wedding pros, we should be able to sit down and have conversations and educate couples about in reality, based on these things. This is how much this service is gonna cost you and why.
Speaker 1:Another thing I think wedding pros should do is make sure that they have some flexible, different packages and offerings. I think, regardless of the couple of spending $3,000 on their wedding or $300,000 on their wedding, every couple deserves to have a team of professionals on their side. So creating certain packages where you can cater to all sorts of budgets is gonna be super helpful, even if it's let's just say I'll use a wedding clinic, for example, let's say they can afford your full planning services, or even maybe your month of coordination services. Maybe offer them a coaching package where you can sit down, give them your tips, give them your advice on how to make sure their wedding day runs as smooth as possible. These are those things that I think all wedding pros should look at, because, regardless of their budget, every couple deserves to have some type of professional on their team and on their side to make their wedding day a success.
Speaker 2:And you don't want couples out there feeling like their wedding day and their ideas it's not good enough, or you know.
Speaker 1:And I see that a lot on social media, where I see some wedding pros where they're making an effort, they're trying to educate engaged couples, but they're doing so in a really condescending, judgmental way about like, oh this is what you're spending on your wedding, that's not enough at all. Like it makes you feel icky. And if we're in the industry of love, we don't even have couples feel icky. I want us to be able to educate couples, but there's a certain way that you can educate couples when it comes to budgets without making them feel less than Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I agree with you. Thank you so much, Chrissy, for joining and sharing your insight on this very topic. Next up is our old and new segment. This is where I'll be discussing an old trend and what's replacing it, but in this case, not so much replacing but adding another option for our couples.
Speaker 2:Many couples are opting to have one of their closest friends or family members serve as the officiant for their wedding day, as opposed to having a traditional faith-based officiant. Nowadays, it's an easy process for those individuals to get their credentials to be an officiant on wedding day. There are many organizations online that offer non-denominational lifelong ordination to anyone, regardless of their beliefs. This also serves as another means for couples to include their loved one on their special day. When couples decide to go this route, it provides a more personalized experience and the officiant will have a more personal connection to the couple, maybe even sharing a few childhood memories or never before told stories of the couple. So, planners, you have to make sure you work with your couples to get a copy of those vows. You still want to follow the normal protocol when it comes to working with that officiant as well. I'd still recommend that you and your couples have a meeting with their chosen officiant to discuss some of the legal tasks that they will need to handle in terms of securing that marriage license and making sure it lands in the right place after the ceremony.
Speaker 2:Now, granted with this avenue, your couples won't be able to receive marriage counseling from the officiant unless they've chosen someone that is equipped and qualified to do marriage counseling, but nonetheless, there are ways to work around that as well.
Speaker 2:So if your couple decides to choose their sibling, best friend, favorite cousin or favorite aunt, make sure they are mindful of the legal components, because we want their marriage to be official.
Speaker 2:Encourage your couple to choose someone that is eligible to perform their marriage. This could mean selecting a religious, civil, ordained, licensed, minister, magistrate, justice of the peace or a licensed celebrant from their friends or family. In addition, I highly recommend that, as planners, you educate your couples on how imperative it is to check the legal requirements in your state jurisdiction or where the ceremony will take place, and confirm that online ordained officiants are indeed allowed in your state. After those steps are handled, remember it's your couple's big day and they should be able to include those personalized elements from someone they know, trust and love, Someone that will be able to deliver their wedding ceremony, tailored specifically to them. That wraps up our January 2024 wedding industry news. We appreciate you for joining us, whether you are listening via a streaming platform or tuned in on our YouTube channel. We look forward to you joining us here next month on the Wedding Planner podcast centuries-old.
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