Description

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.

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
• 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

Outline

This comprehensive program has been streamlined into online videos to enhance the learning experience and help you move through the program more quickly.

1. Introduction: Video Library
   1. Wedding Industry Overview
   2. Wedding History
   3. Engagement Purpose
   4. Current Statistics
   5. Engagement Process as It Leads to the Wedding Day
2. Your Role as a Wedding Planner
   1. Setting Expectations for All Involved
   2. Budget Management
   3. Wedding Etiquette
   4. Planning, Coordinating, and Directing
3. Business Structure
   1. Fee for Services, Pricing, Packages, Proposals, Project Plan Budgeting
   2. Market Place Evaluation
   3. Small Business Start-up Cost
   4. Business Location Set-up
   5. Home Office
   6. SOHO Solutions
   7. Office Set-up
4. Documentation
   1. Training Materials
   2. Design Boards
   3. Fabric Boards
   4. Manuals
   5. Design Project
5. Templates
   1. Pricing Packages, Contracts
   2. Client Hand-outs
   3. Ceremony Structure, Customs, Traditions
   4. Many, Many More
6. Vendor Selection
   1. Vendor Interviews
   2. Vendor Contracts
   3. Vendor Partnerships and Negotiation
   4. Vendor Marketing
   5. Vendor Booking
7. Contracts
   1. Contract Law
   2. Creating Your Contracts
   3. Contract Templates
   4. Bridal Client Contracts
   5. Vendor Partnership
   6. Traditional Wedding Planner Packages
8. How to Work With a Prospective Bride
   1. Profiling
   2. Training
   3. Role Playing
   4. Making the Sale
   5. Educating the Bridal Client
      1. Bridal Registry
      2. Setting Expectations
      3. Wedding Day Vision vs. Reality
   6. Traditional vs. Non-traditional Wedding Ceremonies
   7. Wedding Party Delegation
9. More than 15 Different Ethnic Wedding Customs and Traditions Worldwide
10. The Wedding Gown
    1. Gown Styles
    2. Veil Styles
    3. Body Types Do's and Don'ts
    4. Top 50 Wedding Dress Designers
11. Destination Weddings
12. Music
    1. Popular Wedding Ceremony Music Selections
       1. Processional
       2. Recessional
13. Signature Weddings
    1. Rehearsal Procedures
    2. D4 Analysis: Wedding Design
    3. A6 Production: Event Experience
    4. Event Project Management
14. Business Marketing Practices, Industry Associations, Networking
15. Bridal Shows
    1. Research
    2. Checklist
    3. Booking the Bride
    4. How to Work a Booth
    5. Post-show Activities
16. Online Marketing Strategies
    1. Designing Your Web site
    2. Marketing Your Web site
17. Industry Terms
    1. Traditional
    2. Trendy
18. Public Relations
    1. Becoming an Expert in Your Field in Your Local Market
    2. Writing a Press Release
    3. Writing Your Bio
    4. Negotiating Promotions
19. Organization
    1. CRM (Client Relations Management)
    2. Industry Software
    3. Expanding Your Business Offerings and Adding Additional Revenue Streams
20. Certification: What Does It Mean and How It Sets You Apart
21. How Relationship Education Can Be Incorporated Into Your Business
22. Philanthropy
23. Final Exam

Demo

Additional Info

Languages

English

Course Length

300.00 hours

Duration of Access

All of our programs are self-paced and open-enrollment. You can start and finish the program at your own pace. When you register for our Certified Wedding Planner program, you’re given an initial six months to complete it. If you need more time, you may request a three-month extension free of charge. The cost for any additional three-month extension is $99.

Instructor

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.

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.

Requirements/Materials Included

This course is compatible with the Windows Vista operating system.

Students will need access to a computer with Internet access and e-mailing capabilities.

The required textbook, Professional Wedding Planning, by Cho Phillips, will be provided upon registration.