As the weather warms up, so do our busy weekends! As wedding planners and coordinators, our busy seasons mean back-to-back wedding weekends and long hours creating and tweaking timelines and client details. To prepare for your first wave of weddings, let’s start with some good old-fashioned spring cleaning and wedding season prep!
The start of a new season is an opportunity to review any past mistakes and refine your processes that you focused on during the off-season. As a fellow wedding coordinator, I have a tried and true six-step system for prepping my business for the wedding season. From your gift giving to your inbox, let’s get your business prepped!
01. Refresh your emergency kits
Over a busy wedding season, we start to run out of certain items in our emergency kit. So before each season kicks off, we make sure to refresh our kit and add anything new we made note of throughout the year. This includes making sure we have plenty of safety pins, bobby pins, and hair ties. We also have a list inside each kit, so when we run out of items, we can make notes and buy more.
A few things we use at almost every wedding and are sure to always have stocked in our kit?
- Lighters
- Scissors
- Glass Cleaner Wipes
- Dolly Cart
Looking to see what I have in my kit? Snag my Free Emergency Kit Checklist!
02. Purchase Client Gifts in Bulk
While giving gifts is my love language, it’s easy to forget to order them right before each wedding! That is why we bulk-order our client gifts before each season. This way, they are ready to go, and all we need to do is customize the card and mail it out! We also bulk purchase thank you cards every year, so when have them on hand for any occasion that comes up. From a client thank you to a vendor thank you!
We also love services like Box Fox, which curates the most beautiful boxes perfect for all occasions. You can pick a pre-made box or customize your own. Get $10 off your first order, and try out Box Fox!
03. Schedule Blogs + Social Media
During a busy wedding season, the last things you remember to do are often social media and blogging. You get home from a wedding, crash on the couch, and weeks go by before you remember that you need to post! So we make sure to schedule out everything in advance, especially our blogs. We batch write blogs so we can schedule them in advance. Not sure what to even write this wedding season? Check out my list of 72 Free Blog Post Ideas for Wedding Planners!
Once you have your blogs scheduled, don’t forget social media! You can use a scheduler tool like Planoly to schedule weeks of content. These tools not only visually show you what’s in your queue, but they allow you to schedule as much or as little as you’d like at one time. You can schedule filler content and set reminders to post weddings as soon as you have the pictures.
Another great tool for scheduling is Tailwind! If you are on Pinterest, you need to get Tailwind. This tool will let you schedule weeks of pins in just a few minutes. This way, you can schedule out your blogs, create a graphic pin in Canva, and schedule the pins to go in Tailwind when the blog goes up.
04. Update Your Workflows
Just like you should update your workflows during the off-season, you need to do a quick refresh before the season kicks off. Make sure automations are turned off, email templates have been updated, and that any new team members you have hired are trained on the workflows. In my business, we use Honeybook, which makes this workflow process quick and easy! Everyone on my team can access each client’s portal and make updates on their own.
Don’t forget your client-facing documents. This includes things like your services guide, welcome guide, and all of your document templates. Double check that they are all up-to-date and ready to be sent out. A lot of my coaching clients update pricing at the beginning of each year, and if you do this as well, make sure all documents reflect the new pricing.
05. Clear The Clutter
I don’t just mean the physical clutter on your desk. Rid your desktop of past client files, and backup any important information on an external hard drive. This way, you can access it later, but it’s not taking up space on your main computer or laptop. Also, make sure you prep your document templates for any upcoming clients, and delete older versions you no longer use in your business. Not only will this clear up space, but it will make sure you don’t send any old and out-of-date documents to a client!
And don’t forget your inbox! A clean inbox = an organized business.
06. Set Up Your Templates
Time is money. And one of the biggest time sucks in your business is email! Email is often the main communication with couples and vendors. But it also means you are re-writing the same emails over and over (and over!) again. So take the time to make sure all of your email templates are up to date and uploaded into your CRM and Email.
In our CRM, Honeybook, we double-check all of our templates before each season and update any that need to be refreshed. And the same goes for Gmail. We use Gmail’s canned response feature to have dozens of templates ready to go at the drop of a hat.
One of the most common questions with my 1-1 coaching clients is how to streamline communication – and I always have them start with creating email templates! It really is so important.
Looking for templates and easy-to-use swipe files? Grab my 43 Email Templates Bundle for Day of Wedding Coordinators!
Prepping Your Business For Wedding Season
By taking the time to wrap up some spring cleaning and organization, you are setting yourself up for success! Prepping your business for wedding season takes some time and might seem like a chore. But, I promise, it is so important to do this before you get busy. You will thank me later!
Xo,
Jess
Related resources
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