Certified Wedding Planner
300 hoursCourse Overview/Description
Become a successful wedding planner and coordinator. This comprehensive online training program covers everything you need to know to get started in the business, whether you plan on working part-time, planning only a few weddings a year, or you want a full-time career with your own wedding planning business. This online certificate program is offered in partnership with major colleges, universities, and other accredited education providers.
Internships are offered to graduates of this program to help you connect your education to the real world. Go to http://www.weddingplanninginstitute.com/internships.html to learn more about internships.
A certified wedding planner is trained in all aspects of the wedding and social event industry. From conception, contracts, and ceremony details to industry formulas for wedding design and delivery, a Certified Professional Wedding Planner can make a couple's dream wedding come true. The Certified Wedding Planning Online Training Program covers everything an aspiring wedding planner needs to know to get started in the business. The program assignments are geared toward starting a business in the industry, so when you develop items such as contracts, business packages, and profiling templates for new clients, you'll be able to put them to use in your new career as a
wedding planner. And you'll have help—your textbooks include templates and examples, and there are also over 50 documents in the online library that you can download and use for your bridal clients.
As a wedding planner, you'll play an integral role in the planning of a couple's most important day. To be effective, you'll need to know about planning, budgets, vendors, contracts, revenue channels, and more, not to mention keeping up with the latest trends in bridal fashion, color choices, and wedding design. To address these demands, this
program includes experiential learning, such as role-playing and vignettes, that will give you the opportunity to practice what you're learning.
You'll be able to e-mail your instructors as often as you need to during the program and schedule phone meetings to discuss assignments if needed. You'll also have access to online message boards where you can find additional resources, support, and networking opportunities with your fellow students.
Internship Opportunity
The Certified Wedding Planner program also allows students to participate in an internship through the Wedding Planning Institute (WPI). This internship is an opportunity for you to get hands-on experience in wedding and event planning. An internship enables you to connect the knowledge and skills you've gained from your training and apply them in a work setting while making important professional connections.
An internship can be one of the most rewarding experiences of your career. WPI provides a breadth of opportunities, from working with a variety of vendors, to learning the details behind each profession within the wedding industry, to working directly with new bridal clients. Internships last six months. After completing your internship, you'll be assigned to a position, or you can elect to extend your internship.
Course Objectives
Upon successful completion of the Certified Wedding Planner program, you’ll:
• Create business contracts, pricing, packages and presentation tools
• Identify methods to set up a wedding planning business and operations
• Be proficient in skills such as budget planning, vendor selection, and wedding design
• Have knowledge of what to look for in vendor contracts
• Be familiar with wedding design elements, fabrics, and styles, and traditional and non-traditional etiquette
• Understand how to use marketing and public relations to increase your business
• Be familiar with different wedding traditions and cultures and how to incorporate a couple’s ethnic background into the celebration
• Have knowledge of traditional and non-traditional etiquette.
• Be able to use the event planning process to design and deliver a successful wedding or social event.
• Understand the six stages of an event experience and ways to implement them Course Outline
This comprehensive program has been streamlined into online videos to enhance the learning experience and help you move through the program more quickly.
I. Introduction - Video Library i. Wedding Industry Overview ii. Wedding History
iii. Engagement Purpose iv. Current Statistics
v. Engagement Process as It leads to the Wedding Day II. Your Role as a Wedding Planner
i. Setting Expectations for All Involved ii. Budget Management
iii. Wedding Etiquette
iv. Planning, Coordinating and Directing III. Business Structure
i. Fee for Services, Pricing, Packages, Proposals, Project Plan Budgeting ii. Market Place Evaluation
iii. Small Business Start-up Cost iv. Business Location Set-up v. Home Office
vi. SOHO Solutions vii. Office Set-up IV. Documentation
i. Training Materials ii. Design Boards iii. Fabric Boards iv. Manuals v. Design Project V. Templates
i. Pricing Packages, Contracts ii. Client hHnd-outs
iii. Ceremony Structure, Customs, Traditions iv. Many, Many More
VI. Vendor Selection i. Vendor Interviews ii. Vendor Contracts
iii. Vendor Partnerships and Negotiation iv. Vendor Marketing
VII. Contracts
i. Contract Law
ii. Creating Your Contracts iii. Contract Templates iv. Bridal Client Contracts v. Vendor Partnership
vi. Traditional Wedding Planner Packages VIII. How to Work With a Prospective Bride
i. Profiling ii. Training iii. Role Playing iv. Making the Sale
v. Educating the Bridal Client 1. Bridal Registry
2. Setting Expectations
3. Wedding Day Vision vs. Reality
vi. Traditional vs. Non-traditional Wedding Ceremonies vii. Wedding Party Delegation
IX. More than 15 Different Ethnic Wedding Customs and Traditions Worldwide X. The Wedding Gown
i. Gown Styles ii. Veil Dtyles
iii. Body Types Do's & Don'ts iv. Top 50 Wedding Dress Designers XI. Destination Weddings
XII. Music
i. Popular Wedding Ceremony Music Selections 1. Processional
2. Recessional XIII. Signature Weddings
i. Rehearsal Procedures
ii. D4 Analysis: Wedding Design iii. A6 Production: Event Experience iv. Event Project Management
XV. Bridal Shows i. Research ii. Checklist
iii. Booking the Bride iv. How to Work a Booth v. Post-show Activities XVI. Online Marketing strategies
i. Designing Your Website ii. Marketing Your Website XVII. Industry Terms
i. Traditional ii. Trendy XVIII. Public Relations
i. Becoming an Expert in Your Field in Your Local Market ii. Writing a Press Release
iii. Writing Your Bio iv. Negotiating Promotions XIX. Organization
i. CRM (Client Relations Management) ii. Industry Software
iii. Expanding your Business Offerings and Adding Additional Revenue Streams XX. Certification - What Does It Mean and How It Sets You Apart
XXI. How Relationship Education Can Be Incorporated Into Your Business XXII. Philanthropy
XXIII. Final Exam Prerequisites/Audience
There are no prerequisites for this program.
This program is for you if you’re interested in becoming a full- or part-time wedding planner.
PC Requirements/Materials Included
This course is compatible with the Windows Vista operating system.
You will need access to a computer with Internet access and e-mailing capabilities. The required textbook, Professional Wedding Planner, by Cho Phillips, will be provided upon registration.
Instructor Bio
Cho Phillips is the founder and CEO of Lovegevity, Inc. and author of Professional Wedding
and Event Planning, How to Start a Wedding and Event Planning Business textbook. Through
her company Lovegevity, Cho has helped thousands of brides around the country plan for their special day, and is a consultant and trainer to numerous corporations servicing the bridal market. Mrs. Phillips is frequently featured in the media as an expert on wedding industry trends,
professional certification, and wedding planning. She has been featured in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, Las Vegas Sun and a guest on NBC, UPN, WB and many other local television and radio stations across the country. Ms. Phillips is also the creator of The Wedding Planning Board Game and founder of The Wedding Planning Institute.
The Wedding Planning Institute was founded with the sole purpose of providing aspiring wedding planners with the best possible education. The Institute is dedicated to the highest standards, offering wedding planning certification, business fundamentals, continuing education classes and seminars.
Because the wedding planner plays such an integral role in the planning of a couple's most important day, there is much to learn in the way of planning, budgets, working with vendors, contracts, revenue channels, not to mention keeping up with the latest trends in bridal fashion, color choices and wedding design.
To address the demands of the industry our programs are created for real-world application including experiential learning. This includes role-playing, vignettes and other ways to practice for actual business objectives or work settings in the day-to-day of wedding planning.
All curriculum is developed utilizing a dynamic, interactive teaching method, focused on clearly expressed concepts and principals derived from research-based theories of adult learning.
Our instructors and career counselors work closely with all students to understand their needs and to design educational career paths that provide the experience, engagement and competency needed to achieve the student's objectives. Our core instructors hold a Masters Degree in
Education and have combined experience of over 150 years in the wedding industry from various specialties and backgrounds.
The Wedding Planning Institute is available to students who are interested in receiving the industry's premier education in the business of planning weddings and social events. This Certification program has been accepted by Colleges and Universities around the United States as the standard curriculum and business training for wedding professionals.
Graduates of The Wedding Planning Institute are the top performers in the industry and we wouldn't have it any other way.
