Monday, March 8, 2010

The Wedding Planning ‘Bug’

I’ve had a great time establishing my career on Capitol Hill over the past few years, but it’s no secret that my dream job would be writing for a magazine or website that specializes in a topic I’m passionate about, especially weddings or health/fitness.

But over time, I’ve also considered another amazing job. You know what I’m talking about, ladies. Wedding planning.

When I first came to Capitol Hill as an intern, my supervisors loved to joke with me, asking whether I’d caught the “bug” yet. Considering that this was over four years ago, and that I’m still working there today, I think I definitely was guilty of catching it!


And now, planning my own wedding has revamped my interest in coordinating weddings for others, as well, although I know many established planners frown upon “wannabes” who think what they do is all fun and games, or that planning someone else’s wedding will be just like planning your own.

But I know that planning someone else’s wedding, being fully responsible for all of the details and the ultimate outcome of the day, is an extremely high-stress role. For those who can handle it and even thrive off of it, I feel planning allows them to put their organizational skills and detail-oriented focus to good use, while also feeding a creative side – a combo that is rare in many of the other professions I’ve explored.

One serious book I’ve enjoyed on the topic so far is Wedding Planning and Management: Consultancy for Diverse Clients by Maggie Daniels and Carrie Loveless, who initially created it as a textbook for students studying to enter the field. It’s comprehensive and fantastically detailed.


What about you? Have you ever considered a career planning weddings or events, or do you already work in the field? If so, what are you doing or have you done to get started?

When it comes to planning your own wedding, has the experience been enjoyable and fun, or mostly stressful?

(Photo Credits: Google Images)

11 comments:

  1. Stressful! There is no way I'd ever want to do this for a living. I love coming up with ideas... but implementing them?! I will be so happy when I'm on the honeymoon and the DIYing is behind me!
    Plus, I know I'm an easy going bride so I wouldn't want to come anywhere near a crazy one!

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  2. I am loving the planning so far, and wouldn't mind doing a little event planning on the side (maybe just for friends and family), but would never consider a career-change. I love my job and invested too much time/effort/money in schooling to turn my back on my law career. However, I believe that everyone should LOVE their job, so if this is something that you want, you should definitely go for it!

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  3. I blogged about this topic last month...and why it's not my thing as a career. Though I have (mostly) enjoyed planning my own wedding as well as friends and family in the past, as a career, I don't see it being something I'd want to take on 24/7 365 days a year. It takes a special breed for sure and I am sure is one of the most rewarding jobs ever - and as you mentioned, allows for creativity and organizational/management skills to be put to use. But for me, it's just a personal thing :)

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  4. Definitely stressful. There are so many things that I wish I had done differently. I think wedding planning is a great career, its just really hard to plan my own wedding. lol.

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  5. I've enjoyed planning our wedding and would love to help a friend or two out if they needed it, but I don't think it would be as fun to take on strangers weddings. I think it would be too stressful.

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  6. I've thought a lot about this and prior to getting engaged thought I wanted to go into this field. I think it would be less stressful in that it wouldn't be MY money being spent however I would worry about being stuck with bridezillas and also don't want to give up all my weekends and evenings.

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  7. I think you would be a wonderful planner, you have great ideas and a passionate heart!

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  8. So far it's been a lot of fun (but ask me again once we start getting closer to the wedding)! As much as I love planning my own, I'm not sure I'd want all of the added pressure of planning a stranger's wedding.

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  9. Planning a wedding I think is really stressful but it's fun at the same time! But I guess planning a birthday party is less stressful than planning a Wedding so I don't know how it's like.

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  10. Wedding planning was pretty stressful at times. I am glad it's over now. But hindsight sucks - and there are so many things I would do differently, or not do at all. It would be nice to have a wedding planner - they would probably know all of those things.

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  11. The fiance keeps telling me I should go into wedding planning (being anal enough to keep a 100-cell spreadsheet on potential venues, you know).

    I'm feeling a lot of pressure personally, but there are still a lot of fun things about wedding planning. I would love to help brides, but I also think that many brides would be very hard to deal with, so...definitely not taking that plunge yet, but keeping it in mind for the future!

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