You’ve filed for your LLC, created a website, launched your Instagram, and (*cues champagne*) opened up your wedding business. Congratulations! A lot of hard work has brought you to this point, and the time has come for us to put all that hard work to use. You’re finally ready to book your first set of clients! But… now you’re wondering… how do I get wedding clients when I’m just starting out? My friend, that’s an excellent question–and one I am going to answer for you today. In this article, I’m sharing how to get wedding clients when you’re just starting out.
With a little elbow grease, some patience, and a smidge of tenacity, you can put these three quick tips to work and call in your ideal client in no time. Ready to learn these three quick and easy secrets to getting wedding clients when you’re just starting out?
Here’s how to get your first wedding clients when you’re just starting out…
Step One: Network With Vendors
The quickest way to get to where YOU want to go (you know, having a successful business that makes money and lets you do what you love every. single. day!) is to align yourself with wedding industry creatives who are ALREADY in front of your ideal clients.
Start researching wedding vendors in your area and look for wedding pros who are booking the kinds of couples you want to work with.
Research all you can about their business, explore their portfolios, and go and follow them on Instagram. Begin to compile a list of incredible partners you should align your business.
Here’s a short list of vendors to look out for (and reach out to):
- Wedding Planners
- Wedding Photographers
- Stationery Professionals
- Caterers
- Rental Companies
- Videographers
- Bridal Stores
- Wedding Hair & Makeup Artists
- Entertainment Companies
- DJs & Bands
- Wedding Floral Designers
All these vendors have the power to refer to you–and my friend–there is no better way to get your first wedding client than to have a fellow pro vouch for your creativity and professionalism.
The wedding industry is a relationship business. And the more relationships you build inside the industry, the easier it becomes to book clients with ease.
Once you’ve found all your dreamy partners, reach out to them and introduce yourself. But here’s where I want you to really listen to me: the key to networking is NOT what they can do for you. The key to networking is what YOU can do for them. When you approach your dream partners, do so by showing what you can do to serve and help them.
I promise that the approach of “what can I do for you” will get you building relationships and establishing referrals in NO time. If you’re new to networking, check out my best tips for building relationships in the industry.
If you’re not 100% sure who you want to work with yet, grab The Client Cocktail. It’s my quick mini-training that will have you booking out your biz with your ideal clients in no time (and magazine-worthy weddings to boot!).
Step Two: Reach Out To Wedding Venues
The first decision a couple has to make for their wedding is… where are we going to get married? That’s why I want you to research venues in your area where YOUR ideal client is getting married and start to create connections with them.
Where a couple decides to get married says A LOT about their style, budget, and priorities–so aligning yourself with the *right* venues will supercharge your efforts in landing your first client.
Make a list of venues that you are DYING to work at–and start making connections with their owners/sales team. Remember my networking tip from above. It’s not what they can do for you–it’s what you can do for them.
Pretty soon, you’ll have a flurry of inquiries at your dream venues. You’ll be booking weddings at them in no time! And that worry about how to get wedding clients when you’re just starting out? Oh yeah. That’s a thing of the past.
Step Three: Market your business where your customers hang out
Listen. If you’re not going to talk about your business, who will? When you’re just starting out in business and need to get wedding clients, you’ve got to get out there and TALK about your business. But I want to share a little secret with you…
Focus your energy in the *right* places.
Instead of shouting everywhere, I want you to be strategic about where you market your business. This is going to save you a lot of time and heartbreak. Your goal is to market your business where your ideal clients are hanging out. Where do they congregate, get together, and look for an amazing creative vendor like you?
Are they…
- Reading magazines?
- Searching Instagram hashtags?
- Looking at vendors tagged in posts?
- Hanging out on Pinterest?
- Searching on Google?
- Talking to other vendors?
- Posting in Facebook Groups?
- Browsing online directories?
Once you can confirm where YOUR ideal clients are hanging out, I want you to show up in those places and market your business.
Marketing is simply spreading your message so that it reaches the right people. Once you understand where the right people are, all you have to do is spread your message.
And spread it again.
Oh yeah, and again and again!
(If you’re looking for my thoughts on marketing your wedding planning business, check out all the wedding planner marketing tips I’ve rounded up)
Excited to book your first client?! I know you can do this—and with the right support, you can do it faster. If you’re feeling fired up and ready to start booking clients (even if you don’t have a portfolio, a certification, or a clue where to begin), I’ve got something for you…Sign up for my Wedding Planner Masterclass — a step-by-step class where I’ll walk you through exactly how to start your business and book your first five clients.
OK, let’s do a quick recap. Here’s how to get wedding clients when you’re just starting out:
- Network with wedding vendors.
The quickest way to get to where YOU want to go (you know, having a successful business that makes money and lets you do what you love every. single. day!) is to align yourself with wedding industry creatives who are ALREADY in front of your ideal clients.
- Reach out to wedding venues.
Make a list of venues that you are DYING to work at–and start making connections with their owners/sales team.
- Market your business where your customers hang out.
Instead of shouting everywhere, I want you to be strategic about where you market your business. Show up where your customers are hanging out.
Want more? Check out this video on my YouTube channel ↓
Explore More Wedding Industry Resources
- How To Become A Wedding Planner With No Experience
- How to Start a Wedding Planning Business
- What To Include In A New Client Welcome Packet
- Wedding Planner Pricing: How Much Should You Charge As A Wedding Planner? Learn How To Figure Out Your Price
- How To Prepare For Your First Wedding As A Wedding Planner
- Top Networking Tips for Wedding Planners
- How To Book Your FIRST Client As A Wedding Planner
- 8 Free Ways To Market Your Wedding Planning BizHow To Prepare For Your First Wedding As A Wedding Planner
- How To Find Your Niche In The Wedding Industry: 5 Steps For Niching Down
- Wedding Industry Marketing Trends in 2024: A Marketing Trend Report For Wedding Pros
- Enji Marketing Software: A 2024 Review
- The Best Wedding Planner Podcasts To Grow Your Business
- 6 Things You Need to Include In Your Wedding Planner Pricing Guide
- The Best Wedding Floor Plan Software for Wedding Planners
For More Wedding Industry Business Secrets, Follow Me on Instagram
You might see the highlight reel and think ending up here was always my plan all along but you’d be wrong.
Like any good career, there have been lots of pivots and hiccups, and lessons that had to be learned the hard way.
Not seen here? The time…
- I forgot to add chairs to a rental order and ended up footing the $2,000 bill
- A client sat across from me crying that I ruined her wedding because her parents table had a low centerpiece
- I had to borrow $4,000 from Grandma Vera to make payroll, because I didn’t pay attention to my numbers
- About a hundred “dream clients” hired a different planner than me and I felt like an absolute failure
- I cried in my car before a wedding because I was completely and totally overwhelmed with the amount of responsibility on my shoulders (OK, maybe I did this more than once)
- My seasonal launch of The Planner’s Playbook completely bombed and I felt like my entire business was falling apart
…and roughly 700 other moments I’ve chosen to leave off the highlight reel.
So if you’re at the messy, nothing’s-working stage right now? Just know that if you have been to one wedding in your life, you are starting with more experience than I had.
I’m getting ready to embark on an exciting new chapter that I cannot wait to share with you… it’s big, and scary, and I’m sure in another few years I’ll have a lot more lore to share… but in the meantime…
Cheers to all the ups and downs I’ve experienced over the last 19 years!
And a special thanks to the photographers who made a lot of this lore possible: @c10ike @allanzepedaphoto @stevedepino @withincreative @robertandkathleen @thebrandedbosslady 💜🫶🏼😘
I’ve come to realize that many of us want to have a village, but we don’t recognize that we have to be a villager first.
My friend carla @c10ike is one of those rare exceptions and I want to introduce you to her!
When I started my planning business, I had no contacts and no real idea what I was doing. I was so green it makes me laugh to look back on it now!
And somehow, I got lucky enough to be taken under the wing of this incredible woman who showed up for me then when I was a little baby business owner, and has kept showing up ever since in more ways than I could possibly count.
She’s taught me so much over the years, and I don’t mean in the traditional sense of teaching someone something. She simply lived her life, and I paid attention.
She modeled what it means to be a friend.
A sister.
A daughter.
A wife.
A mother.
A business owner.
A boss.
I learned generosity by watching her be generous.
Compassion, connection, leadership… none of it came from advice. All of it came from the way she carries herself and the way she treats the people around her.
She has taught me more than she will ever know by the sheer act of living loudly and joyfully in every corner of her life.
I am so lucky to call her my friend. So lucky to be one of the many, many people she has been a villager for.
Carla thank you for letting me grow up right beside you. I love you. 🤍
DAY ONE // WPI Spring Retreat 💜
This was our first real day together! The theme of this whole retreat was refinement, so we wasted no time getting into it on Day 1!
The women shuttled up to my home, walked through the gate to mimosas and the biggest hugs, and got their welcome totes filled with goodies I curated from female owned businesses that were mostly local!
Then we settled in, did some tapping to manifest all the answers we needed for the week, courtesy of our very own @ashley.peraino (who couldn’t join us this year, but was SO THOUGHTFUL to record a video for us!)
I opened with a talk on complexity, discernment, and self-trust (today’s podcast episode, BTW) simplifying your business and actually trusting yourself to lead what’s left.
From there the room took over. We had three incredible member gives: @c10ike on trusting your creative instincts, @ininkweddings on refining your creative POV, and @welldressedevents on generating real revenue through Google Ads (it’s giving… LEADS 😉).
In between we had small group discussions, hot conversations about where instinct and POV are out of sync, a homemade Caribbean lunch, and an afternoon of poolside snacks and conversation.
This is what the WPI room looks like. A talented group of women who came with one big business question and spent day one getting closer to the answer while having fun and getting their brains stretched!
All these gorgeous moments captured by our retreat photographer + my business bestie @c10ike 💜💜💜
Do it or delete it.
I said this recently to a coaching client, and now it’s sort of become our mantra inside WPI, because almost every business owner I know has a to-do list with 47 things on it (the same 47 things that were on last week’s list, and the week before that).
They don’t get done. They just travel from week to week collecting guilt, and that guilt somehow makes it even harder to get anything done at all.
After years of coaching women through this, you start to realize that most of those tasks don’t actually have dire consequences if they never happen. They just feel important because they’ve been living on your list rent-free for six months.
I want you to look at your to-do list right now and choose.
You do it… meaning you do it right now or at the very least put it on the calendar with a real deadline.
You delegate it… but only if it’s actually worth someone else’s time, not because you’ve been avoiding it and want to make it someone else’s problem.
Or you delete it… and I mean actually delete it, not shuffle it to a “someday” list where it will haunt you until 2027.
The guilt you feel about your undone tasks won’t go away if you magically “get more productive.” Instead I want you to see it for what it is: a list-curation problem.
What’s one thing you’re deleting today?
PS: I can confidently say these @aritzia sweatpants are 10/10
The Latest Wedding Planner Business Advice On YouTube
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