3 Ways to Survive Wedding Season 2018 (that don't involve wine)

It’s lurking on the horizon…peak wedding season 2018. And whilst we can’t really complain about being busy, we also are. 

Fortunately we’ve rustled up three essential survival tips to help you face wedding season 2018 head on. We’re ready for you…

Savvy wedding suppliers know that the best time to build their business is during the quieter months, and that the most surefire way to guarantee optimum efficiency during the peak wedding season is to plan well ahead of time.

Well wave goodbye to spring and brace yourselves folks; the wedding season is upon us!

Whether you’re ready and raring to get started or are a little apprehensive about how well prepared you are for the marital mayhem that lies ahead, we’ve got three essential survival tips to help you make sure that wedding season 2018 is your best yet.

1.Get your house in order 

Don’t panic! There’s still time to take stock and make sure you’re organised and prepared for peak wedding season. 

Tick these 5 quick wins off your to-do list…

1. Address those niggly admin tasks that you’re always tempted to leave until the last minute. Stop putting them off…
2. Renew or sign up for relevant, professional wedding licences, memberships and certifications, like The UK Alliance of Wedding Planners or the National Association of Wedding Professionals.
3. Wedding venues may need to renew music licences and check insurance premiums.
4. Dust off your equipment and check that all of your wedding supplies are still suitable and in good condition.
5. Conduct a quick stock count to make sure you’ve enough of everything to easily meet demand (with contingency built in too of course).

Is your website up to date? 

It’s easy to let things slip in quieter periods but actually maintaining your online presence all year round is essential, as although most weddings may take place between now and October, the wedding supplier ‘window shopping period’ for couples happens all year round.

And if you’ve been a little quiet on social media, it’s time to start a conversation and get your followers excited for wedding season 2018/2019.

Did you know that leaving your website stagnant and not updating it with new awards and wedding portfolio pictures can seriously affect your rankings in search results?

Google rates your site based on relevance and freshness, and an easy way to keep things fresh is to start a blog on your website and / or regularly update your portfolio with photographs and editorial coverage of weddings you’ve catered for. Try not to save all your updates and bulk upload them to your website. Drip feeding fresh content onto your site is always best.

Do you have an online presence elsewhere?

It’s also essential that you keep your online profile consistent across all platforms.

Is your Bridebook business profile complete, relevant and up to date?

Your professional image could suffer if you’re telling a different story about your product or services in different corners of the web.

2. Check your resources

As you’re gearing up for the get go, conduct a quick SWOT analysis of your team and identify where any strengths and weaknesses lie in your team’s skill sets. If necessary, provide training. Otherwise, make sure every member of your team understands the valuable role they play in delivering the best possible service and ensuring this year’s wedding season is one to remember.

Your people are your best brand assets and advocates so ensuring that they are confident, organised and fully informed of their duties will reflect well on your brand when they’re working at your events.

Try and coach your team to a level of efficiency and mastery that enables you to delegate some of the ‘doing’ to them, therefore freeing up more of your time during the busy wedding season. You can then dedicate your efforts on building your business, winning bookings, being present at events and developing your brand.

You could consider outsourcing certain tasks and responsibilities without adding the pressure of a full time overhead. Look into using virtual assistants or freelance / part time receptionists, bookkeepers and marketers. If you think your time is better spent on managing and developing your craft, enlist the help of administrative support to help you keep on top of the day to day necessities. A freelance junior marketer or admin assistant could keep your website, social media channels and online profiles up to date.

3. Prepare a plan

Use your bookings calendar to work backwards from each wedding you’re booked for and ensure you’ve plenty of time to complete all the tasks you need before each of your client’s big days. You should go into the wedding season with a clear idea of what is needed and by when to avoid any last minute panicking.

Don’t allow your schedule to get out of hand and make sure you build in some time to actually run your business and complete necessary tasks like emails, calls and website and social media updates. You should also schedule in weekly or monthly business performance recaps if possible to ensure everything is on track and that your wedding business is running as smoothly as possible.

And lastly but by no means least. be sure to book in some ‘me time’ to help you recharge your batteries. If you don’t give yourself the down time you deserve, you won’t perform to the best of your abilities and you could risk burning out.

You’re ready to take the wedding season 2018 by storm

Peak wedding season is a really exciting time to be a wedding supplier and you deserve to enjoy it too.

The key to sailing through the season and having your best year yet lies in the preparations you make today. Remember, those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

We plan to sail.