How to Get Through Wedding Season in One Piece (From a Fellow Wedding Professional)
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For most of us in the wedding industry, there are many days our work duties hardly feel like work at all. I mean…getting to help two lovebirds celebrate the most beautiful day of their lives? What could be more exciting, right? While exhilarating, working back-to-back events during wedding season can be utterly and entirely exhausting!
But remember, wedding season is a marathon, not a sprint.
If you’re not thoughtful about how you manage your time, energy, and resources during (and around) wedding season, you’ll find yourself in survival mode, dragging your feet from one celebration to the next. This is a surefire way to get burnt out.
The stress of the event industry? It’s no joke. But maybe we can help. Our team of Colorado wedding professionals put together a list of 12 actionable strategies we use to keep a steady momentum and high spirits during wedding season.
Here’s what we’ve learned over the years:
- Keep your processes tight.
The key to efficiency and time management in practically every industry is defining and maintaining essential processes. Take client correspondence, for example.
- If your client is given multiple points of contact and told they can communicate with you via email, phone, or text, it’s going to be challenging to keep track of all communications with that client, and it will ultimately become a time suck.
- On the other hand, if your client is given ONE point of contact and asked to contact you via ONE primary method (whether that be text, email, or even a client portal), all parties will be better off. No wasted time or energy—just clear, straightforward communication.
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The same streamlined mentality needs to be applied to all other processes, including team communication, booking, contract management, and invoicing.
- Get your team on the same page.
Team meetings are an absolute must—if you rely solely on a virtual team chat or your scheduling app to manage your team, every event is going to feel like chaos.
- Before wedding season, schedule comprehensive meetings to align goals and expectations, delegate roles, and complete any necessary training.
- During wedding season, hold brief periodic meetings to check in with your team, discover how you can better support them, and proactively smooth out hiccups before they become larger problems.
- After wedding season, get together to discuss what went well and what you can do better next season.
- Take time to recharge.
You want to be a calm, supportive presence for your couples, right? Well, you can’t do that if you aren’t getting the reset time you need to be your best.
That means:
- Blocking out non-negotiable personal time in your calendar.
- Incorporating one or two go-to stress-relief activities into your weekly schedule.
- Always scheduling at least one “rest” day after major events.
- Prioritizing nutritious meals and consistent hydration.
- Taking short periodic breaks during or between events.
- Ensuring adequate sleep (as best you can).
- Know when to delegate (and how to do so effectively).
Don’t try to do everything yourself. Again, we repeat, DON’T TRY TO DO EVERYTHING YOURSELF. You simply can’t. Instead, lean on your teammates (or employees) to help with tasks you frankly don’t have time for.
That being said, delegate with great care to ensure you aren’t offloading TOO much. A good rule of thumb is to focus on your “core” responsibilities and delegate the rest.
When doing so, always try to respect others’ time and workload. Never assume a coworker can take on more without asking. And give them the option to say “no.”
- Be careful not to overload your team.
You’re not the only one who needs recharge time. If you’re responsible for creating the work schedule, do so thoughtfully, incorporating built-in breaks and rest days for all teammates (including yourself). Beyond time off, think of different ways to show support to your team, such as team retreats, one-to-one meetings, performance recognition, incentives, and bonuses.
- Err on the side of over-communication.
Something we take great pride in here at Spruce Mountain Ranch is our ability to facilitate seamless communication between couples, vendors, and staff. We’re able to do this because we don’t believe in “over-communication”— especially for weddings, which always seem to have hundreds of moving pieces.
- Anticipate potential issues.
A sudden rainstorm? Father-of-the-bride caught in traffic? Bridal party wardrobe malfunction? Last-minute itinerary change? So many things could go wrong—and often do—in the wedding scene. Do yourself a favor and learn to expect something to go awry. Solid contingency plans and flexibility go a long way in this industry.
- Don’t forget to strengthen wedding industry connections.
In the bustle of wedding season, it’s easy to forget to invest time and effort into developing bonds with fellow professionals. But networking with other vendors and venues (like Spruce Mountain Ranch) is the kind of thing that will bring you more opportunities down the road.
Here are a few ideas for wedding industry networking:
- Give other vendors/venues shoutouts on social media.
- Inquire about and take advantage of partnership opportunities where you can.
- Refer your clients to vendors you’ve worked with in the past (and ask them to mention you as their referral source).
- Never skip the team debrief.
After every event, take a moment to capture immediate feedback and lessons learned. Make this a part of your post-event wrap-up checklist before you send your crew home for the night. This shouldn’t be a long meeting by any means. If appropriate, schedule a more in-depth debrief for a later date.
- Be a stickler for boundaries.
Designated work hours and rest days don’t do any good unless you stick to them. Unfortunately, protecting these critical boundaries often requires the occasional “no” to a client request. But trust us—rarely is a client request so essential that it’s worth compromising on your carefully determined boundaries.
- Nail down your client follow-up strategy.
Referrals and reviews are EVERYTHING in the wedding industry. One of the biggest mistakes you could make as a wedding professional is dropping the ball on client follow-up. Try to establish a standard post-event process, including timely thank-you notes, review and referral requests, follow-up surveys, and image requests (so you can beef up your portfolio).
- Remember, it’s just a season.
The busy schedule will slow down in mid to late fall (most likely). Until then, try to enjoy the ride, lean on one another, take moments to appreciate the beauty of each event, and practice gratitude for your team, clients, and the opportunity to do what you love.
Plus, in the end, you’ll have earned a pretty penny for all your hard work!
Final Thoughts
There’s no denying it…wedding season can be brutal, whether you’re an event planner, a caterer, a DJ, or a photographer. When you’re in the thick of it, just take things one step at a time. You’ll make it out okay on the other end—we promise!
Working a wedding at Spruce Mountain Ranch for the first time? Fantastic—and welcome! Feel free to reach out any time to learn more about our venue and policies.
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