Personal Series: Why I Started a Wedding Planning Business from Scratch

One needs to be a special brand of crazy to move across the country, looking for a "change" and "relaxation", and then immediately start an event-planning business (which, according to Forbes, is the fifth most stressful industry to work in), but I am. To jump, feet-first into business ownership when you've barely- kinda- mostly? graduated (more on this in future posts) university, where you studied a completely different field is another beast altogether.

Having been in school seemingly since I was born, it was overwhelmingly simple to start a business. Like absurdly so. When you spend every moment of every day obtaining eight million certifications for every step of your career advancement process, it feels like your skipping a step- or 80- when you can walk into a room claiming, "I am a wedding planner".

Still, this is what I had to do. If I was going to have any chance in this sink-or-swim world, I'd need to convince everybody, especially myself, that I am a real-world professional. It was so hard to reach out to industry professionals, sending emails, and putting announcements on Facebook. The funny part is, I really always was a wedding planner. Like many little girls, my childhood was spent filling up notebooks of my future wedding to that future prince. Then, one day, I stopped wedding planning altogether. Why? Because when I grew up, I decided, I would be a teacher. And I cannot possibly spend all this time planning my wedding now or I won't get to later. That was it. That was why I refused to plan my wedding, or even think about it, for years. I was so terrified that I would spoil my own fun by sucking out every perfect drop of event planning work, something you only get to do once. When I got engaged I was terrified to plan my wedding. Calvin and I have a tentative date set for 2027, and the last thing I wanted was to ruin our experience by doing too much of the work all at once. Calvin found it strange how I was so excited to be engaged but absolutely refused for months to do anything wedding-related, and risk not having those challenges when I need them later.

Then I found out not everyone loves the work involved with planning a wedding.

I learned that the average wedding takes anywhere between 200 and 500 hours to plan, which works out to 3.125 months of full-time labour! This was a light bulb moment for me. I used to think that wedding planners were a waste of money- because they would do the only thing that I ever wanted to spend my time on. Why would anybody want to hire somebody to do the job I love?

Because it is not easy. That's why.

Wedding planning involves:

• Venue Selection

• Vendor Selection

• Vendor Communication and Management

• Invitation Creation

• Financial Planning, Management, and Budgeting

• Navigating Family, Friend, and Work Obligations

• Creating a Contingency Plan- FOR EVERYTHING AND THE CONTINGENCY PLAN!!!

• Set-up and take-down

• Liquor and Event Licensing

• Catering Selection

• Notifying Accommodation Establishments

• Wedding Hosting and Guest Management

And more! And somehow, during all of this, one is expected to work 40 hours weekly and get enough sleep!

So... yeah. All this time, there has been a market for Wedding and Event Planning and Design, and I've just been too stuck in the "standard script" of "go to school, then college, then get a job" to ever see it.

How did I come to the realization that this is what I needed to do?

Hardly wading into the Halifax job market, I was scrolling through Indeed, applying to about a million retail jobs that I'm overqualified for. I'm in that sticky middling zone where I'm neither employable enough to be hired into management or senior positions but most entry-level jobs are scared that they'll lose me. It didn't help, that I am one online course away from graduation, which is not easy for Halifax employers to grasp when your University is on the other side of the country. I felt that I needed to spend time enhancing the skills that I have, and building the ones that I need. I waffled the possibilities, always coming back to "wedding planner" but felt it was "too silly" to be a sound career decision. Calvin, always the idealist insisted that being so young "now is the time" and that I am "the freest [I'll] ever be". When I suggested that I mostly go into interior decorating with the occasional wedding on the side, he gave me that look, which suggested I ought to pick a lane and stay with it. He said something that will stick with me forever:

"Why do something you don't want to do when you could do what you want instead?"

This is the approach I am taking to life now. Of course, I need to be smart, and I'm still looking for work, but I've learned more in just over a month with my business than I did in any class. I'm also blessed, having been a university student my whole life, that I never learned what making money's like. It isn't easy. But that's part of the fun. At the end of the day, challenge moves me. I welcome all of the obstacles this new opportunity brings.