Certified Wedding Planner Course, Gatlin Education Services

Certified Wedding Planner Course
Gatlin Education Services

This nationally recognized certified wedding planner-coordinator course teaches the student how to become a successful wedding planner and coordinator. This comprehensive program covers everything an aspiring wedding planner needs to know to get started in the business. Whether you plan on working part-time, planning only a few weddings a year, or a full-time career, this program will provide all the tools necessary to work as a professional wedding planner or start your wedding planning business. This online certificate program is only offered in partnership with major accredited colleges and universities.

GES 204 -- 300 hours

Course Overview/Description
Course Overview
The Certified Wedding Planning Program is perfect for the individual looking to get started as a professional wedding planner right away. This comprehensive program covers everything an aspiring wedding planner needs to know to get started in the business, from contracts to etiquette, flowers, music, day of services, marketing, business practices, trade secrets and industry specific applications. Whether you plan on working part-time, planning only a few weddings a year, or a full-time career, this program will provide all the tools necessary to work as a professional wedding planner or start your wedding planning business.

The assignments are geared towards starting a business in the industry. Therefore, most assignments are tools that will be utilized in your business such as contracts, business packages, profiling templates for new clients and tools for designing a signature wedding such as fabric boards, design displays and presentation tools. Textbooks include templates and many examples for you to utilize in order to develop your own, such as contracts and service packages. There are also over 50 documents in the on-line library you can download as templates for your bridal clients.

This program covers many areas, such as Budgeting, Project Management, Vendors & Contracts, Wedding Etiquette, Wedding Customs and Traditions from over 15 different cultures worldwide, Wedding Gown Styles & Veils including the seasons top designers and videos of the most recent Truck (Fashion) Shows, Wedding Event Planning, Writing your Business Plan, Signature Wedding Design, Invitations, Public Relations, Wedding Music Selections, Sales & Marketing, Pre and Post Wedding Parties, How to expand your business, Relationship Education as well as Production and Operations Management.

To address the demands of the industry this program is 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.

Certified Wedding Planner students can email instructors as often as they need to during the course and schedule phone meetings to discuss assignments if needed. Online students also have access to other students in the course through the course online message boards. Here, students find additional resources, support and networking with others in their area and throughout the WORLD. Many online students utilize this network even after graduation.

Career Overview
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 any wedding budget seem endless.

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.

Some typical tasks for a Certified Wedding Planner (CWP) include:

1. Receiving, making and documenting telephone calls to clients and vendors.
2. Scheduling appointments with vendors for clients.
3. Helping a client to unveil her personal style or wedding day vision.
4. Designing inspiration boards for new client meetings.
5. Assist a client with her wedding gown/attire selection.
6. Budget Tracking and project planning.
7. Site visits with clients for venue selection.
8. Troubleshooting and solution solving.
9. Managing and delegating task as well as tracking progress.
10. Collecting payments and performing collection activities.

Wedding planners are in demand as more and more sophisticated brides discover they can not be the bride and the wedding planner on the day of their wedding. With popular shows like Whose Wedding is it Anyway?, Race to the Alter, Married Away, Big Day and Bridezilla, the profession is growing at an increased rate year after year. Many professional planners run their own company while many others work for wedding businesses offering wedding planning services.

Please visit the website for more information.