Are you starting a wedding business with no experience?
In this article, I’m sharing my best tips on how you can start a wedding business in any wedding niche with little or no experience. I know because I did it myself back in 2009 when I started my wedding planning business.
To start a wedding business with no experience, you will want to follow a strategic plan that includes the following steps:
- Research your niche in your area
- Check to see if your chosen business name and domain are available
- Register your business name and start setting up your brand theme and voice
- Offer to do a wedding or two for free
- Help out at other weddings to get more experience
- Visit venues and set up coffee meetings with other vendors in your area
- Get reviews and testimonies from free weddings
- Be honest and authentic
- Don’t hide from or be afraid of your competition
- Be open for business
Research Your Wedding Business Niche Near You
To get started with your wedding business – whether you’re starting a wedding planning business, a wedding cake baking business, or a brand new wedding venue. You will want to do some thorough research on your wedding niche in your local area.
My advice is to check on other businesses in your niche but be careful not to get sidetracked by what they do and how they look. I remember starting my wedding planning business – I felt a bit overwhelmed by the other top wedding planners in my area. Self-doubt set in, and I put things off on many occasions.
I started researching other valuable information, including how to set up a bank account, how to set up a website, how to find bridal clients, and how to create my business logo.
When you’re ready and committed to moving forward with your wedding business – start to look at business name ideas.
Check if Your Chosen Name and Domain URL is Available
To check if your chosen wedding business name and domain URL is available, the best way is to research directly in Google first. For instance, type in your chosen wedding business name in the search bar.
You will obviously NOT want to choose a name that is already used by another wedding company in your niche – especially if they are in the same area and country.
If the name has already been taken – keep researching until you find a name that is perfect for you. If you plan to sell your business in the future – you will want to choose a name that is not tied to you personally. For example, use something like ABC Photography instead of Kim Jones Photography.
Once you have found a name that is free and not showing up on Google, you will want to ensure that your preferred domain URL is available. I use a couple of domain services for my clients and my own business domains. Here’s a list of my preferred domain registers.
- NameCheap
- Domains
- GoDaddy
- Hostgator
My advice is to get a .com domain if it is available, however, you can go for the domain for your country. Eg. .co.uk or .co.za
Tip: You will want to set up a website for your wedding business – to do this, you will need to set up hosting with your chosen hosting provider. A lot of the hosting companies offer free domains with their hosting packages, so you might want to look out for that before registering your domain.
I use Hostgator for all of my website hosting needs – check them out below.
Register Your Business Name and Start Creating Your Brand Theme and Voice
Depending on where you live, you will have certain steps to take to register your business name with your local authorities. You can research how to do that or ask other wedding professionals in your area for their advice. They might have some great tips to get it done quickly and simply.
Once you have all the name registration and domain URL registered in your name – you are now ready to start creating your brand theme and voice.
This is quite a big section, so I’m not going to go into a lot of detail today, but for basic knowledge, you will want to take some time to understand your target audience and how to attract them. These details will help you figure out your wedding business logo, fonts, colors, and brand voice.
I go into a lot of detail about this step in my 12 Steps Program which you can take a look at here. In this program, I provide a step-by-step plan to set up your branding so you can consistently attract your dream clients time and time again.
Offer to do a Wedding or Two for Free
When you’re just starting out, you won’t have any experience!
The best way to get experience is obviously to get out there and do some weddings, but that’s not as easy as it looks is it?
I remember being in the same position when I started my wedding planning company back in 2009. At the time, I was working for a finance company as a general PA. I had no experience of wedding planning – in fact – I hadn’t even been a quest a wedding for many many years.
The only reason I even looked at the idea of becoming a wedding planner was that it was in an entrepreneur magazine article about businesses you could start with no money. I’ve still got the magazine in my office drawer.
To get experience – I knew I had to do something to get out of my comfort zone. I’m a fully-fledged introvert, so standing up as a confident wedding planner with no experience was not an easy step to take.
So I took a big step and put an advert on a free classifieds website that was around at the time offering free wedding planning services to any bridal couples who need assistance.
From that advert, I got hired as a wedding planner and wedding decor stylist for a beautiful wedding couple that got married at one of the best wedding venues in my area.
I hit the jackpot because I was willing to get out there to get the experience without worrying about my time and money.
During the wedding planning phase, my confidence grew and I was able to start taking on other paying wedding planning clients.
Help out at Other Weddings to Gain More Experience
Another way to get experience in your wedding niche is to help out at other weddings. There are a few ways of doing this. You could pay another wedding pro to train or coach you eg. Wedding Photographers may offer apprenticeships.
You could also reach out to wedding venues, bakers, planners, and every other niche in the industry to ask to assist them with wedding set-ups, deliveries, VA services, etc.
Visit Venues and Set up Coffee Meetings with Other Wedding Vendors in Your Area
When you’re new to any industry, you will want to create and establish relationships with other vendors in your area as soon as you can. A great way to do this is to visit your local wedding venues, bridal boutiques, and other location-based wedding companies.
There’s also a great opportunity with other vendors when you invite them to have a quick coffee with them.
By introducing yourself in a one-to-one setting, you can share your story and get to know others in your local industry, and build relationships that could potentially lead to wedding bookings in the future.
Get Reviews and Testimonials From the Free Weddings
Once you have gained some experience from your free weddings, you will want to ask them to give you a review and testimonial that you could use on your website.
Even though this review will be from a free wedding – you’re future prospects will not know that and you will then have the necessary credibility and authority to move on with wedding bookings as your wedding business grows.
Be Honest and Authentic With Your Audience
The only way that this will work for you and your business is if you start honestly and authentically. Lying to potential clients about your experience, or creating fake reviews or testimonies will damage the future of your wedding business.
Be honest with them upfront – offer to do freebies, but explain that you have the best intentions and will make sure their wedding will be your number one priority.
They will have reservations about using your services at first, but if you explain why you are offering the freebie, then they should understand and allow you to be a part of their special day.
Don’t Hide From or be Afraid of Your Competition
One of my biggest mistakes back when I started my wedding business, was to be afraid of my competition, and by that, I mean, I felt bad and guilty. Here I was, the new girl on the block booking weddings that these other wedding pros would have had.
Not only that – I felt like a bit of a fake. I had no experience!
This negative thinking kept me hidden and away from other wedding pros in my area. It took me almost a year to come out of my shell and reach out to others in the industry. Now, I realize how silly and stupid that was.
My advice is to get out there, make friends with other wedding pros in your niche, join Facebook groups, go to coffee meetings, and own your business.
Be Open for Business
This article is longer than I thought it would be, and I could go on for a lot longer. However, I’ll end it off here with this last bit of advice.
When you’re starting your wedding business, you will be tempted to start marketing your wedding business across multiple platforms. This can be a good strategy, but if you haven’t set up the foundation levels for your business, then you will be creating a headache for yourself in the future.
The first step to take is to get your wedding business off the ground is to be open for business. To do this, you need to set four things up, including branding, pricing, social media, and your website. Click here for more details.
Conclusion
My biggest takeaway for anyone reading this article that may be thinking about starting a wedding business with no experience is just to do it. Take the right steps, be willing to go above and beyond (for free) and get out of your comfort zone quickly.
Here’s another article that you may enjoy reading:
How to Start a Wedding Business at Home
Until the next time,
