Being a wedding planner can be a super draining career, especially once you start becoming booked to the max! Planning for a team is inevitable (and a little tip of the day: we recommend doing so when you’ve reached 30% client capacity). One-half of The Abundance Group, Ashley, is the founder of her own wedding planning company, The Simply Elegant Group.

Ashley has tons of experience starting, growing, and leading a team for her wedding planning business (thanks to Dale’s help). There are three key roles that you should look to fill in your wedding planning business. In this blog post, we’ll be covering what those are!

Wedding Planner Team Members: Lead Planner

Your lead planner will be one of the first points of contact with new leads. They’ll hop on discovery calls or meet in-person with new couples, usually managing their own calendar and scheduling availability with their own scheduling link. They’ve been trained to know how to have an amazing sales conversation with new leads to hopefully get them to book!

LEAD PLANNER DUTIES

They’ll have all meetings with paying clients and assist them in planning their entire wedding activities and details. They’ll discuss wedding logistics, negotiate vendor contracts, handle most conflict that arises (unless it’s an issue that needs to be handed off to you), make sure all vendors are set up and that the bridal party and guests are in place the day-of, and overall be the first to help bring the couple’s vision to life. They may also even assist in training new planners and answering their questions.

Basically, the lead planner is someone you can 100% fully trust to be the main line of communication with couples and vendors to ensure that everything is running smoothly and efficiently. If need be, you would even feel comfortable enough to not have a hand at all in their work. After all, this needs to be someone who you trust to represent the mission and vision of your business without leaving a bad taste in the couple’s mouths.

Wedding Planner Team Members: Second Assistant Planner

Second Assistant planners have less 1-on-1 face time with clients and mostly work to assist you or your lead planner on the day-of, though they could also help throughout the entire planning process. Having those extra hands on the day-of is extremely helpful because it can be super chaotic!

SECOND ASSISTANT DUTIES

The second assistant will help with setting up the event space, checking off inventory, and directing vendors on the day-of. They’ll also help line up the bridal party, break down the event and put everything away at the end of the day, etc. If needed, they can also help with simple communication between the client and lead planner, perform small tasks like research or contacting vendors, and things of that nature.

Wedding Planner Team Members: Social Media Manager

Social media, specifically Instagram and Pinterest, play a HUGE role in the marketing strategy of wedding planners and other wedding professionals. As a planner especially, visuals are everything. Since Instagram and Pinterest are all-visual platforms focusing on image and now video, it’s so crucial that you’re active on these spaces, too.

However, being a wedding planner is a taxing and busy job. We don’t always have the extra time allotted to really focus on our social media marketing strategy, which is where adding a Social Media Manager to the team is such a smart move that pays off in the long run.

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER DUTIES

Social Media Managers have a broad range of skills and tasks they can perform, including:

• Creating an entire social media marketing strategy with content pillars for your feed, Stories, Reels, etc.
• Writing captions for posts and planning Stories
• Creating simple graphics for posts and Stories
• Building your Stories Highlights on your profile
• Optimizing your Instagram bio
• Helping to create a Linktr.ee or other version of a landing page for your bio link
• Engaging with your audience in the comments and DMs
• Batch scheduling posts using a scheduling app like Later, Planoly, etc.

It’s so helpful to have the weight of keeping up with social media lifted off your shoulders. You can also experience increased lead generation by having an expert come in to help you with social media.

Keep in mind, though, that you don’t necessarily have to hire a Social Media Manager who is a Strategist. You could simply hire someone to take over your everyday social media duties, just for the simple goal of getting those tasks off your plate.

Ready to Hire Your Wedding Planner Team Members?

If you need assistance hiring your wedding planner team members, we encourage you to apply for the Building Your Team Intensive! This 12-week program will walk you through everything you need to grow a powerful wedding planner team.

HERE’S A BREAKDOWN OF WHAT WE’LL COVER EACH WEEK:

1: Mindset – Beyond Solopreneur

2: Independent Contractors vs. Employees

3: Structuring Your Team

4: Standard Operating Procedures & Training

5: Implementation Week

6: Finding & Interviewing Talent

7: Onboarding & Expectation Setting

8: Payroll, Taxes & Finances

9: Implementation Week

10-11: Leading & Managing Your Team

12: Final Q&A

We all-but-literally hold your hand throughout this process. You’ll have support in the inbox and Instagram DMs to make sure you get the most out of the program. The Intensive is application-only, so we can hop on a call with you to make sure that you’re 100% ready to start building a team before you even invest a dime!

Just head right here to apply so we can chat, or DM us on Instagram @theabundancegroup if you have any questions!