Elevating Your Wedding Planning Career: Professional Growth & Opportunities

Ready to unlock the secrets of becoming a top-tier wedding planner? In this episode of the Wedding Planner Pro Files Podcast, we had the pleasure of chatting with Crystal Dailey, the esteemed owner of A Crystal Event in Atlanta, Georgia. Crystal walks us through her inspiring journey in the wedding planning industry, revealing her extensive certifications and the profound impact of continuous education. Discover how Crystal's affiliation with the Certified Wedding Planner Society has elevated her career and learn from Krisy Thomas' personal experiences with the certification process.

Join us as we navigate the ever-changing landscape of wedding planning, highlighting the necessity of ongoing education to meet evolving client preferences and communication styles. Crystal shares invaluable insights on how the CWP Society's free weekly workshops and multiple levels of certification can significantly enhance a wedding planner's skill set, leading to professional growth and more bookings. Through personal anecdotes, we underscore the importance of these educational opportunities, showing how they benefit not only the planners but also their clients.

But that's not all. We delve into the ethical side of wedding planning, cautioning against misleading educational programs that promise quick riches and luxury services without substance. Crystal emphasizes the importance of vetting educators and maintaining integrity, focusing on true luxury service that comes from experience, humility, and dedication. Tune in and elevate your wedding planning prowess today!

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Transcript

Importance of Wedding Planner Education

Speaker 1 0:00

You're listening to the Wedding Planner Profiles Podcast brought to you by the CWP Society. Welcome to the Wedding Planner Profiles Podcast brought to you by the CWP Society, the world's leading wedding planner certification program and the largest network of wedding professionals. Your hosts for today's episode are Lori Hartwell, founder of the CWP Society, and Chrissy Thomas, the Society's Vice President.

Speaker 2 0:35

Hey, Chrissy, how the heck are you?

Speaker 3 0:37

Hello, lori, I am doing well, and hello to all of our wonderful listeners we are so excited about today because we actually have a special guest. I would like to introduce you guys to one of our amazing certified educators, ms Crystal Daly, and she's going to be joining us to talk about professional growth and opportunities, and there is not a single person I could think of who is more in tune and knows about this subject than you, crystal, so welcome.

Speaker 4 1:04

Thank you, that was such a great introduction. I appreciate that I feel so warm and fuzzy.

Speaker 2 1:09

Well, do you mind telling everybody about your business and a little bit more about you?

Speaker 4 1:15

Absolutely. I am Crystal Daly. I am the owner of A Crystal Event, I am located in Atlanta, georgia, and I offer wedding planning services from month of coordinator to full service planning.

Speaker 3 1:28

One reason why I mentioned why I think Crystal is perfect for this topic is because of how much you value education. You didn't mention it when you introduced yourself because I know you don't want to brag on yourself, but let me brag for you. Crystal is not only a certified wedding planner, she's also a master certified wedding planner. She's certified in design. She's also a master certified wedding planner. She's certified in design. She's also a style chief coordinator Basically, anything that Crystal could be certified in. She is, and that's because of how much you value education. So, crystal, I would love to kind of get some insight on why you think education is important for wedding planners and get more into you and how you found some education, why you think it is important for wedding planners and get more into you, and how you found some education, why you think it's important. Tell us a little bit more about that.

Speaker 4 2:10

Absolutely. And, of course, Christine, I'm going to be a little bit more humble there, so I did not lead with that, but I do love education and any certification that I qualify for and I'm able to take with the Surfer Wedding Planning Society. I am always going to go that route. As a wedding planner, I was seeking the foundation of wedding planning, those skills, the basics. How do I make myself the best version of me in terms of a wedding planner for my clients? And just working with other planners, I saw that, okay, there's a gap that I need to fill for myself. But it was really hard to find those details, to find that information that I trusted, and also to find someone that would be willing to give it to me, to train me, to educate me, to wrap their arms around me. So, as I searched for just educational opportunities whether it was a something to read online or another program to take I found the when it was the Bridal Society, now the Certified Wedding Planner Society I, as soon as I read the curriculum to me that's been very important to research what, what they offering, how did they come about?

Speaker 4 3:27

I even read how long you know that? How, how was, how was the society founded. I went into all of that research, did my due diligence and when I just read through what I would be learning, it was almost a no-brainer. It was. I'll never forget. I was on vacation, I was with my daughter, we were just on um spring hanging out and I was just searching and I read through and it was like click, click, click got it, I'm starting. And literally I was just listening to Chrissy and Lori going through the modules and I could not stop. I was listening to it on the way home. I drive home. It was very informative.

Speaker 2 4:04

That is so cool. I love I love hearing stories like that and I love that you did your due diligence on education, because the truth is and you now know too there's a lot of misinformation that's out there, and so doing your due diligence is so important. And Chrissy and I were talking the other day and I got such a giggle out of it, but she was like Lori I did when I got certified 11 years ago. I did some serious research on you Like she's, like I practically stalked you, like I really wanted to find out who you were.

Speaker 3 4:37

I did. When you're telling your story, crystal, I did the exact same thing Because in fact, like when I got started, my mom was the one who pushed me and she found what was the bridal society and she was like I'll pay for it If you get your certification. And at the time, that's when we were doing everything in person and I am terribly introverted and I was like I am not going to this thing by myself, I will pay for myself, but you come with me so that way I don't have to be alone. And but before we signed up for it, I spent hours on the website doing exactly what you did, crystal, because when you think about your education and to me, as affordable as the CJP society is, it's still an investment I still wanted to make sure that my hard-earned money was going towards something that I was going to get something from, whether it was a certification or just additional knowledge, things to help me become a success in wedding planning.

Speaker 3 5:29

I wanted to make sure that it was going to be good, because in doing that research, I found a lot of like $25, get your certification. And when you look at you scan over it and you're like is this, what is this. What are you? This is so small. I want more. You get what you pay for Exactly so I was just truly blown away by what everything you know that I was being taught when I gave my certification, and what's wild is to think how long ago that was, how much more we have now in our certification, now that it is online, because in person we're limited with how A, how long we can talk, b, how many hours we have, whereas online we have jam-pack packed that certification with even more knowledge and information, and it honestly blows me away.

Speaker 4 6:15

Yeah, and I think that was one of the things that sold me. It was a lifetime membership. It was nothing that I had to keep renewing, I didn't have to keep paying for. I'm also a certified project manager and guess what? I have to renew that every three years. So you know, on top of the other, I have to keep up my education with that as well, but you guys offer the education for free. So there's weekly workshops. We were just on one earlier today and I've never not gleaned some valuable information out of those, out of those workshops. Never not glean some valuable information out of those.

Speaker 4 6:52

Out of those workshops I have, I take notes out of every single one I can. If I'm at a computer, I will take notes. I'll listen on my drive home. I'll be at the hair salon or the nail salon with my AirPods listening to my workshop, because you just never know what information you're going to glean. So when I saw that you can have a lifetime membership, you don't have to. You don't have to pay another dollar after you pay for your certification if you don't want to. Everything else is just what you're investing in yourself, and I've never seen anything that you guys offer that is even paid afterwards Like, oh my gosh, that's too much. Everything has been worth that money if it was not undervalued. To be honest, you know I'm serious. I was looking through my notes. I'm like look at all these clinics I've been to and workshops and I've only paid what? $75 for a four-week clinic. Where does that happen?

Speaker 2 7:45

It's crazy and I get told that by a lot of people that I don't charge enough for all of the millions of programs that we have, and I think it's just because that's my personal mission. I remember what it felt like being kind of new to an industry and feeling like I didn't have any resources at my fingertips and I didn't want to join organizations that felt catty and I didn't want to get education from companies that just didn't really have my best interest at heart. You know you, though, love education, you love growing yourself and you see things. That's what I love. I think most about you outside of just your general pleasant attitude and personality, because I really just enjoy hanging out with you, but it's one of my favorite things about you is that you never feel like you know enough. It's like you're a sponge. Can you talk to what makes you tick?

Speaker 4 8:42

So just at the beginning you say, hey, introduce yourself. Well, I didn't even talk about my certifications because, although I know I worked hard and I value those, I'm always going to continuously learn it. I never think of myself as at the top. I have this and that's it. I even refer back to the certification programs, as we have in our dashboard. I'll go back and do refreshers.

Speaker 4 9:06

So for me, education is so important because, one, our industry is always evolving, so I don't think there's any person, even doctors, lawyers, that's going to learn something. Get to one level and stop, because then how do you grow? So I value growth and I feel like I'm able to educate my clients when I am continuously educating myself and improving, because I one thing I may do in the beginning, or what I thought was great and worked well at stage a, may I may be able to, I may be able to shift a bit, massage it and do a little better at stage b, and so on and so forth. So for I'm going to be modest enough to say I don't know enough, I need to know more. And then I told you I'm a leaky sponge, so I forget stuff. So I have to refresh. I love. Let me just go ahead and throw that out there. I'm not, definitely not perfect in that aspect. I have to keep refreshing because I'm going to forget.

Speaker 2 10:13

I love that, but what would you say to this? You know, because there are some planners out there, crystal, that say, listen, I've been doing this for 10 years, I don't need a certification. What would you say to those types of people?

Continuous Education for Wedding Planners

Speaker 4 10:25

I would ask them to rethink that, because there is there's things that's 10 years old, that are no longer valid or, like I was just saying, can be done better. That's one of the great things I love about the the society is. I have member friends that have been in the industry 30 years and then they got their certification, so there's nothing wrong with adding on to it or enhancing and and elevating where you are, there's I, it's not going to hurt anything. I don't think you're ever in a position where you, where you're not going to to grow and elevate your skills just because you were doing it. And just think about our weddings that we planned. The wedding that you planned, lori, you know, 100 years ago, were nothing like the weddings I plan now. So how you know, if you, if you stop educating yourself a hundred years ago, where would you be right now?

Speaker 2 11:20

How would you be able to help client right now. But that's that's I mean outside of the insult. That's a hundred percent correct, right, like. And you have to think like that, and I you know what. My favorite thing that you said earlier was about doctors and lawyers and these people that have to stay up on new technology, the new things that are going on. And you know what else is interesting, crystal, is our clients are changing and every five years they change, right, so we have to make sure that we're staying on top of how they are now communicating, what is working with, at least like the marketing purposes, and how how can we market differently to this group of people than we did just a few years ago.

Speaker 2 11:59

Everything changes, and so to be able to kind of plug into an organization like ours that gives the free weekly workshops, uh, that really talk to all of these things, it can really make a difference, because it does not just end with a certificate that you can hang on the wall. We're more than that, it's always more than that. So let's kind of move on. Let's say, someone gets certified and goes through our program and we have multiple levels of certification as well. You can get your regular wedding planner certification, we've got the wedding design consultant certification, we have the master certification and then there are some micro certifications like the style shoot certification, the floor plan certification and the wedding associate certification. There's a lot going on, but I want to always kind of speak to those free resources, and the free resources are those workshops and the leadership opportunities and all of the additional resources. Once someone's certified. What would you say to someone who goes through the certification, gets everything, they have this membership but they're not utilizing it. What do you say to them?

Speaker 4 13:01

I almost feel like when you've gone through the steps of becoming certified and joining the membership and you don't utilize it. It's almost like you're saying you know I'm going to go get this great invest in this great car, but I'm going to leave it in the driveway and never take it anywhere, never gain the value of what I've just purchased or put my, put my energy into. So I would say to those people it's even if you can't find time to join because it is every week that Wednesday comes around, so, so quickly, but they're also there's replays that you can take advantage of. I would definitely find some of the workshops just to poke your head in, even if it's 30 minutes, because there's valuable resources there. That's what I did today. I was not able to stay on the entire time, but I jumped in 30 minutes and I've updated Canva. I have an entirely new Canva template that I'm able to use and let me tell you, lori, what things that I've learned in your free workshop. I have gotten so many compliments off of my initial consultation and I meant to tell you that before the call the end, I want to say at least probably four or five of them have said oh my God, that presentation was awesome. You present well Since I changed over to your initial consultation that you guided us on.

Speaker 4 14:23

You walked us through how to do that and there was no charge. Where was the charge? I didn't get an invoice for that. So, and and it has it has gained I I have. I have now booked clients from that. So what I mean? Of course, it was from me as well, but that definitely helped along the way, like and that's something, because there's things that you're going to find in those workshops that you may have a weak area.

Speaker 4 14:48

I thought I was great at presentations. I'm not, you know. So when you help me because I use, I call it a pitch deck. I created something very similar like a pitch deck, and I thought it was great. And then here comes Lori, freaking, hot, well, blowing me out the water. Make it better, I'll take it, but it you know, there's all like, know there's always things that you can glean, there's always something that you can take from it that's going to elevate you. So if you, if you join and you leave it there, you never do anything with it. What I don't understand not everybody is a full time planner. They have, they have other competing priorities. I get that, but just take some of the time. Choose one workshop a month. You guys do a great job of sending out emails to say what the topic is going to be about. Take some of that time. There's so many things I've learned and other resources I've learned about just from joining those workshops. You're only going to elevate yourself.

Speaker 3 15:42

I love that you mentioned that, Crystal, because, when you think about it, at our core at the CQBP Society, our ultimate goal is to elevate not only the industry but also our members. We genuinely want our members to be the best version of themselves. We are constantly thinking about how can we improve this to where our members can get more bookings, how can we improve this to where our members can get their ideal clients. That's constantly at our forefront and, like you said, the fact that all of this is free education and all that's doing for our members is putting money into their pockets free education and I'm getting money because of the book clients and because of the knowledge and resources I'm getting from these free workshops. It's just so beneficial. It's just it's huge.

Speaker 2 16:25

And not to mention, if I may piggyback off of that, how your clients benefit just from you continuing to grow your mind and to grow personally and professionally. Your clients are going to feel it. They're going to know that you are an educated wedding planner because, unfortunately okay, let's talk about the sad facts Anybody can call themselves a wedding professional. Because, unfortunately okay, let's talk about the sad facts Anybody can call themselves a wedding professional, right. And because anybody can make a website nowadays. I mean, we've all seen the commercials where you can make a website within a day, right, We've seen that. We know that that's true.

Speaker 2 16:59

And so what then? How will a client know that you're different than those pop-up pros, those pop-up wedding pros? And the way that they will know that you're different than those pop-up pros, those pop-up winning pros, and the way that they will know that you're different is that you were willing to invest in yourself and to invest in education so that you can provide them with the very best possible experience. So I think what we need to do is care enough about our couples. And what can we do best for our couples? Have all of the resources and knowledge possible so that we can bring to them the very best experience. But if we think we just because we've got 10 years of experience or 15 years or five years, that we don't need education and we could just wing this, we're not wingers, we're planners. We're planners. Yeah, you, we should be planning out our strategy for learning more so that we can stay on top of things.

Speaker 4 17:52

And you know to speak further to that. Give another example Would you go to a hairstylist that stopped educating herself, him or herself, in the in the 80s? No, you, you want to. You, you want that our, our industry is no different because the the demand changes.

Speaker 4 18:12

There have been things, and this is where I know you guys are like all right, so don't overthink it, but I'm always trying to figure out okay, what do I do in this situation? I may not have had it happen to me yet, but I'll hear of other someone else having a situation or I may think of, oh, this could potentially happen. What do I do? We get to ask those questions of you and Chrissy what do I do in this situation? What would you do in these situations? Are you here of other situations that may not have happened to you but could?

Speaker 4 18:41

And now you have a little bit of insight. Now you have, oh, you know what So-and-so. She was on a call, she had crazy bride or crazy groom, and this xyz happened and this is how she solved it. Now you have something to pull from and when you're on the spot, now that everybody is a good on the spot thinker, so you can react and maybe solve the situation the same and and getting that information from a reputable source like Chrissy and myself, because we are trained educators, right, and so that's a very, very, very important thing.

Speaker 2 19:08

But sometimes, crystal, what I'm seeing is happening is these wedding planners are asking these questions on just random form, so they're asking just regular wedding planners. Hey, this happened. How do you guys think I should respond? And I'm watching, right, I'm reading some of these comments and I'm I'm thinking to myself, oh my gosh, they just gave some of the worst advice they could have possibly given. They just set this, this wedding planner, up to fail and it breaks me. It breaks me. There's a lot of misinformation out there and it's probably just. I don't think that they did it on purpose, by the way. I just think that they just they're not trained in how to train, how to educate they're not trained in how to train how to educate.

Speaker 4 19:52

Yeah, you, you have to. You have to bet your educators on how are they trained to educate. That that is absolutely important. I know some, I know people that have really good information. They don't know how to train other people.

Speaker 1 20:02

I, I would never be a a driving instructor, I know how to drive, but I almost pulled my hair out trying to teach my daughter how to drive Let somebody that know that's being educated on how to drive, teach her how to drive.

Speaker 2 20:16

Chrissy, we're going to use this one in the future. That was so. So that was the best. Crystal, I frigging love you. I have another question for you, and I know it's always on. Chrissy and I are always thinking about this because, since you mentioned it to us in a private call, you actually have experienced bad education out there. Can you speak to that? Not don't call anybody out, but just speak to it a little bit.

Ethical Education for Wedding Planners

Speaker 4 20:44

Yeah, I definitely have my share of experiences with educators and you know, there was a very popular class and I almost feel like we may have chosen the class based on the educators' popularity over their true credentials, to educate us in a, in a, in a holistic perspective for planning and everything that they were offering. So, as I, as I sat through, and because I am a certified educator, because I have the master certification I've, I've gone through this training with the, the certified wedding planner society, I had a little bit of, I guess, leg up or advantage, what the things that I was hearing and I was like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that. So it was a matter of and it was more so on the planning and how to price and some of those things that I, it almost felt unethical. And because I, you know, because I again I sat through other trainings, I knew I knew how to spot that in those red flags right away. And I don't think that when I look back and I'm going to be honest, I actually had reservations going in. Nothing happened that I was totally surprised about going in. Nothing happened that I was totally surprised about. I had reservations going in but because of another piece of the puzzle that I was planning to, I thought I would get from the class, but when I heard this other piece I was very disappointed and when I look back I don't think that I vetted that person enough on their education in that department.

Speaker 4 22:29

So I think that we really have to. We have to vet our educators, and why you're doing it, and I think you know is it too gimmicky. I'll tell you one thing. One thing I'm so sick of hearing is luxury. If I hear that one more time, there's no, you can't teach me how to be luxurious in a five-step program. It's not going to happen. You know, you can't spend one workshop with a person and become a luxurious planner Like you have to trust the process.

Speaker 4 22:59

It's something that is, you have to embody so many different elements that there's so many. So much more to that than just joining a class and saying, okay, now I can go charge someone tens of thousands of dollars. There is so much more to that.

Speaker 3 23:13

I mean because those to me you mentioned it to me when I see that as an education, that's a red flag when someone's like make six figures, become a luxury planner. And that's because our mindsets are every single one of my clients deserves a luxury experience, whether they're spending $5,000 or $5 million with a top-notch experience. To me, their overall budget has nothing to do with how I'm going to plan their wedding and the level of service I'm going to bring to the table. What we're seeing are these educators basically making other planners feel bad if their client's wedding budget isn't six figures.

Speaker 3 23:51

It's like we're not doing six-figure weddings. What kind of planner are you? My stomach hurts. That's what, what we're seeing. A lot of these educators are completely missing the step and thinking that the almighty dollar is the only thing that should be. You know, propelling you as a planner, and that, to me, is just that. Should not be where your mindset is when it comes to planning and how and how.

Speaker 4 24:13

how common is that going to be like? Out of all the weddings, is how many of them are going to actually be six figures? You know, how many celebrities are you really going to like you can?

Speaker 2 24:23

I don't think you can teach me to be a celebrity planner Like you know, I didn't have to take any special class and I planned plenty of celebrity weddings, and so here's the thing what it takes is confidence in yourself and being egoless.

Speaker 2 24:40

You cannot be a wedding planner with ego. Being a wedding planner is a humble place, and if you stay in that humble place and you see everyone equal to one another I mean no matter how much money you make, no matter how much they want to spend on a wedding I personally believe, like Chrissy said, every single person on the planet deserves a wedding planner, and if they get me, they're going to get a luxury wedding planner at my regular rates. Why? Because I think everybody deserves it and I also don't think so highly of myself that I need to charge a hundred thousand dollars to give someone a luxury experience. I don't need to do that. So I feel as though what we need to do is come back to reality. Okay, what's happening is these educators who are promoting those types of things. They know what people want to hear and they they know I'm going to, I can, I'm going to sell them on this, like you know, kind of like what is that?

Speaker 2 25:36

Like um, smoke and mirrors smoke and mirrors kind of thing, and I'm going to make them think that they got something super substantial and I'm going to tell them to pretty much price themselves right out of business and I don't care what happens to them afterwards. This is devastating, for for someone like me and someone like Christy to watch and to hear and to see happening in my industry, it kills us, and so we want to really make sure that we are combating that. And it's so hard, Crystal, it is so hard to combat and you know, kind of having listened to your story about you know you were so excited about this class. You were so excited to learn about kind of a different side in the wedding industry. You'd already gotten the planning aspect of it, but it was a different side to the industry that you really wanted to learn from and you got a couple of great pieces of information, but the overall vibe that you got it was about that person and it didn't seem to be about the people that were in the class. It didn't seem to be about the people that were in the class and to me it's not supposed to be about the educator.

Speaker 2 26:45

So, Chrissy and I, when we're teaching, when we're educating, we never make it about us. We make it about those who are honoring us with their presence and trusting us with our knowledge. Right, and that's huge. To me, that's an honor, but you've got to take the ego out of it. So I think one of the betting things Crystal you mentioned it that your educators better see how big their ego is. That, to me, is going to be a telltale sign of what type of education you're going to get.

Speaker 4 27:12

And then reviewing the curriculum. That was one of the things that I that. That gave me the red flag. I was like, oh Lord, what did I get myself into so?

Speaker 2 27:21

what I'm hearing you say is some people are paying thousands of dollars for these quick classes and you're not even given really a lot of the details about the class and what's going to be involved in some of the topics that are going to be discussed in in what detail? Right, it is hard. That's why I think it's important, too, that you need to find courses that are much more affordable and and tell you the general topics that are going to be covered. You got to look into it, you got to and you got to know who you're investing in. So ask other people, like a lot of people can find other certified wedding planners through the CWP society. You can find them. We don't hide, uh, they have their badges on their website. We also have in our footer, um, a tab called master planners. Click there and ask these people what it felt like to you know, is getting certified through the CWP society worth it?

Speaker 2 28:15

They're all going to tell you the same thing, because I have all five-star reviews. I don't own or have or have ever received one, four, three, two or one-star review ever in my entire history of this organization and that speaks to the heart that goes into this when I brought Chrissy on as vice president and co-instructor and brought on all of you educators, crystal, and all of your co and fellow certified educators. We always have that in the back of our mind is the heart. What's your heart? Who are you in this for? Because if this is all about you, I don't want you anywhere near my company. As educators, we have to make sure that it's all about the person who's looking for the education.

Speaker 4 28:57

And we feel that as members, 100%.

Speaker 3 29:00

I mean I just, crystal, thank you so much. I mean not only obviously I know, we know and love and adore you, but I'm excited for our listeners to get to know you better, also because you are so much fun. You are also so giving. You give so much of your time to other wedding planners who want more information. You will meet them for coffee dates and be like let me tell you about the CWP honey. So we appreciate you and we adore you and love you so much.

Elevating Skills and Gratitude

Speaker 3 29:26

So if any of you guys are out there listening and want to know a little bit more about the CWP Society, please make sure that you visit our website, and that's cwpsocietycom, where you can learn about exactly what's offered in our certification program, but also see the different levels of membership that we have. So we do have our free wedding pro membership, a premium membership and then obviously, our certified membership as well. So definitely check that out. And again, crystal, we appreciate you, we adore you. Thank you so much for speaking your truth and giving us a bit of insight about you because, like I said, this topic is right up your alley because of how much you value education, and I think that's something that a lot of people need to hear is whether you are five months in or 50 years in this industry, you can still have education needs, to be at the forefront of your business and you embody that. So we appreciate you for that.

Speaker 4 30:17

Well, you're welcome. I appreciate this time. I'm always looking to elevate.

Speaker 2 30:22

I love it. That's our favorite thing about you, outside of that beautiful personality of yours. Crystal, for everybody, have a really great day. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you.