Setting Foot in the Shaadi Business? Here are Seven Tips and Practices to Swear by! Planning a wedding is an exciting and exhausting experience and when it comes to Indian weddings, the thrill skyrockets the experience to an altogether different level!
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The Indian wedding market is ever-flourishing and statistics corroborate the same, with the industry presently valued at an estimated amount of USD 50 billion, standing as the second-largest in the world. The best part about this industry is that it is recession-proof—around 30,000 weddings take place in India per day on an average, with the estimated cost of a wedding ranging anywhere between INR 5 lakhs to INR 5 crores, and beyond. Therefore, this presents a tremendous potential for any good player in the Indian wedding planning business to survive and thrive.
As an average Indian spends more than one-fifth of their lifetime's earnings on a wedding, there is one primary goal to achieve—creating a wonderful experience for them to look back to for all their lives. Therefore, if you have the passion and the skills required to capture the essence and the beauty of weddings, the following tips and practices will help ensure that your venture blossoms into a successful wedding planning business:
Develop Your Own Style
Planning a wedding is all about style. The client is going to trust you and your ideas to make their wedding beautiful. Therefore, you need to develop a business that will reflect your unique and original style. There are hordes of businesses that have emerged in this segment upon copying the offerings of the industry leaders and have met with a sad end. Therefore, you need to develop and demonstrate a distinctive style in your profile that would make you stand apart from your contemporaries, thereby garnering the attention of prospective clients towards your offerings.
Have a Knack for Planning and Organizing
The wedding planning profile is very inclusive, involving numerous traditions and subsequent protocols. As a planner, you will have to perform all the essential tasks from creating the event timelines and setting the budget for each, to managing all the vendors and ensuring a smooth implementation throughout. You will need to coordinate all the processes and the people while keeping a keen eye for the details and thinking on your toes to prepare yourself in case any unpredictable situation arises. Therefore, coming with some prior experience or having a knack for planning and organizing will definitely come handy in this business.
Manage People and Their Expectations
Weddings in India are a once-in-a-lifetime occasion for the couple and their families, friends, and rishtedaars to unite and celebrate. Therefore, your people and expectation management skills need to be top-notch for your business to truly thrive in the domain. One of the key ways of achieving the same is to adapt yourself in a manner that would suit your client's requirements. By introducing elements that live up to the client's version while reflecting your unique style, you can definitely win the hearts and the merits!
Stay Updated With the Trends
The wedding scenario is highly dynamic in nature, with newer trends influencing the space every so often. For instance, one of the most prominent trends in the landscape of the Indian wedding at present is the fusion of "modernized' elements with the evergreen traditions. Moreover, new-age couples are gradually shifting from hosting the popular "Big Fat Indian Wedding' to a more intimate affair amidst a close-knit guest list of family and friends. Therefore as a wedding planner, it is very important to stay updated with all the trends in order to present a strong and impressive case before the clients.
Become a Part of the Family
One of the best ways to ensure that you put up a great show is to truly feel and become a part of the client's family. Treat each event like your own, and immerse yourself fully into planning the same. Do not just be a spectator, become an active participant in all the activities and the shenanigans! This will help you approach the planning and implementation in a more personalized and endearing manner.
Build Relationships
As a wedding planner, you need to actively invest your time and energy into developing relationships with vendors as well as other professionals in the domain. You will realize that the industry is pretty close-knit in nature, with everyone eager to build and expand their networks. Building relationships will not only give you a better understanding of the business but will also help create referral sources and direct contacts which will help in developing the business substantially.
Love What You do!
The most important thing is to truly love the business, and plan each wedding like it's your own! As a wedding planner, your role will not just be limited to the planning and organizing aspect of it. You will be a visionary, a researcher, an artist, a juggler of tasks, an entertainer, a referee, or even a shoulder for the bride to cry on. As long as you are passionate about what you do and dedicate yourself to it, the business will remain rewarding for years to come, motivating you to do your best and ultimately become the best in the industry!
