Wedding Coordinator/Planner - Career Advice - Retail and Hospitality

A Wedding Coordinator either assists the bride and groom to plan every detail of a wedding or simply helps with isolated tasks as directed by the couple. Future Growth Strong

ANZSCO ID: 1493

Alternative names: Wedding Consultant, Wedding Planner

Knowledge, Skills and Attributes

A wedding consultant must be assertive while maintaining the diplomacy of a good negotiator. He or she must be organized, creative, able to handle high amounts of stress, and knowledgeable about a variety of religious and cultural customs.

Excellent communication skills are also necessary for the successful wedding consultant - not only to communicate with clients, but for networking with other vendors in the wedding industry.

Wedding Planners must be extremely detail-oriented and organized individuals with a real passion for assisting others. Excellent communication skills and the ability to remain calm amid chaos are paramount to success in the profession.

Wedding Coordinators are responsbile for organizing and overseeing the various aspects of wedding planning.

Their work may include: discussing requirements and budget, making suggestions, coming up with new ideas, negotiating prices with suppliers, and dealing with paperwork.

The most successful resume samples showcase strong organizational skills, multitasking, time management, creativity, communication abilities, budgeting skills and attention to details.

Creating and working within budgets
Negotiating with vendors
Understanding contracts
Being able to sell products and services
Having up-to-date knowledge of wedding trends

Checking table
(Source: Your Career)

Duties & Tasks

Planning a wedding - once the sole responsibility of a bride, her mother and perhaps her best friend - has become a burgeoning industry for creative, organized, trend-conscious entrepreneurs.

A wedding consultant assists the bride and groom with everything from a timeline and budget to the choice of flowers, wedding location, musicians, caterers, even the cut of the groom's tuxedo.

The wedding consultant is not only responsible for making sure all the details of the big day play out smoothly, but also for absorbing the stress of planning so that the bride and groom may more fully enjoy the experience of getting married.

Wedding Coordinator
(Source: was at Port Douglas Bride)

Tools and technologies

Wedding Coordinators need to be organised so use of programs like Excel to keep track of things is important. They will also benefit from using MYOB - a budget program.

Education and Training

There is no educational requirement to start a career in wedding consulting; however, many training courses, especially distance and online courses, are available for those who are inexperienced with event planning.

Whether they've received their training formally or on-the-job, wedding consultants should understand the basics of business management, know how to create and stick to a budget and continually educate themselves on the latest fashions and trends in wedding planning.

Career and Economic Outlook

According to various statistics, the average age of a first-time bride and groom continues to rise, which assumes those who are marrying have more money and less free time for wedding planning.

This trend might suggest favorable job growth for wedding consultants.

While many wedding consultants are self-employed, others prefer to work for established companies, such as wedding venues, bridal gown shops or florists.

Did You Know?

'ASIC's (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) numbers from 2014 were more like $35,000 [average spend on an Australian wedding]

The biggest costs for a wedding are food, alcohol and venue, the wedding clothes and accessories and then photography.

And despite the decrease in weddings, the bridal industry is growing.

IBISWorld estimates Australia's bridal industry is worth $300 million this year, and has grown by 2 per cent per annum over the past five years.
(Source: ABC: The Money)