In this Union Podcast episode, wedding planner and business coach Jamie Wolfer hosts a live Q&A from a mastermind call, sharing practical advice for wedding planners and solopreneurs. The conversation covers the three most important skills for success—calm, on‑the‑fly problem solving, attention to detail, and the ability to read the room and manage event pacing. Jamie recounts his early reliance on paper binders and explains how switching to Honeybook transformed his organization, enabling digital contracts, client communication, and workflow automation. He then promotes Legally Set, an affordable, attorney‑drafted contract service tailored to the wedding industry, positioning it as a solution to the high cost of custom legal work. The discussion shifts to a listener’s dilemma about a one‑month trial assistant role, with advice to become indispensable through initiative, self‑starting, and proactive problem solving. Jamie also outlines his client qualification criteria: a confirmed wedding date and location, a signed contract, a deposit, and demonstrable “skin in the game” from the couple. He emphasizes the importance of working with engaged, respectful clients who value his services, rather than chasing ghosting prospects. The episode concludes with a call to share the podcast on social media.
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Hi and welcome to Union Podcast. My name is Jamie Wolfer and I'm a wedding planner who absolutely loves to share how I got started and scale my business to above six figures in this amazing and occasionally extremely competitive industry. In this podcast, I share the tech, tactics, mindset and mistakes that got me to where I am today. No gatekeeping, no cloak and dagger, just full disclosure and a little humor along the way. So whether you're a planner or a solopreneur, my goal is for you to be a better business person than I ever could have been and support you on this journey. I let's dive into this week's episode. Today's episode is one of my favorite things in the entire world. And that is a live Q and A from one of our union mastermind calls.
I know you're going to love it.
Take a listen.
What are the three most important skills needed to succeed in this industry? Who asked this? That's hard. I could give the resume answer. Detail oriented or attention to detail? Let's see. Does well in stressful environments and doesn't hate people. Those are probably pretty, pretty helpful. But realistically, honestly, I think someone who is can react calmly on their feet because what we end up doing is we will see like the weirdest. Gosh, Becca, what's one of the weirdest things that we've seen? A drunk dj, like, what do you do in a situation like that? There's no class for that. A ceremony that starts so late because the bride is being drawn on a horse drawn carriage or like brought in a horse drawn carriage that was being pulled by a really, really old horse. So the processional took him 45 minutes.
I.
And I wish I was joking. Let's see what else is. There's just so many wild things that you cannot prepare for. A really drunk, efficient. Yeah, yeah, it's. We tend to see some pretty unique situations. So for us it's how do you handle it gracefully and how do you handle it quickly? So yeah, I mean, details are important, but that's all the stuff that you kind of learn leading up to the big day or the day of. Like, I'm not the type that's going to go around and nudge each and every single piece of silverware. So yes, I'm detail oriented, sure. But I'm more so concerned about the overall flow and balance of the event. And the more I do weddings, the less I'm concerned about specific timing of things and the more I'm concerned about the pacing of things. So reading the room, feeling the vibes. Like, if you could tell the crowd is antsy, they've ran out of cocktails, or they've ran out of appetizers where it's really hot outside. Being able to read the room is very important. What else am I missing? Anything. Handle things gracefully, as gracefully as you can. Don't say, I don't know, say, let me find out and then read the room. I think reading the room is probably one of the most important things we developed over time. It's not something that I went into being like, ah, this is a great ability that I have. Something that we kind of learned and then implemented as we went.
I'm only mildly embarrassed to admit that it in the beginning, I printed out every single piece of paper, every single contract. I took handwritten notes and created a binder for every single one of my wedding planning clients. Now, in theory, that sounds really cool.
And I thought I would look really.
Cool showing up to these meetings with these binders that are full of all of these contracts with handwritten notes. But let me tell you, the chaos that ensued when I tried to stay organized on my own and got over five events at a time in it was a nightmare. Enter Honeybook. I am telling you guys, Honeybook was literally exactly how my brain was processing wedding planning, but just in digital form. It's so easy to go in there and make any sort of customizations that you want, from adjusting your contracts to adjusting your packages, maintaining conversations back and forth that not only pop up in the app on the website, but also in your inbox as well. It's a great way to stay organized. So get out of the paper and get onto the Digital. Head to wolferenco.com HB and use code Union at checkout to get the best deal. We interrupt this podcast because there is something extremely special that I want to share with you guys. I don't know about you, but for the last who knows how many years I have been using a Frankensteined, Googled, copied and pasted contract. And while that is extremely embarrassing to admit to all of our listeners, I know that there are people out there who feel the same as I do. And there were a couple things that kept me from actually getting an attorney drafted contract. Actually, no. There was one thing.
It was.
It was so expensive and it seemed so out of reach. That's when I learned about Legally Set. You see, Coon Bee with Legally Set has created industry specific contracts for people like you and me working in the wedding industry. They're easy to customize, they're drafted by an actual attorney and not googled. Can you imagine that? And last but not least, they are so extremely affordable. So if you were like me and maybe using a less than appropriate and or legal contract, it's time to step up your game. You have no more excuses. Head over to theunionpodcast.com legally set to check them out. Use code union for 20% off your contracts.
Okay.
I'm being hired as a planner in a company.
I have one month to prove I can make it for them to officially hire me. So I'm in a trial period and I really want to secure my job and do my best to make the couple's dreams come true. But I'm looking everywhere for info because I don't want to mess up. Do you have any suggestion for securing this job? This is intense. Like, what sort of rigorous obstacles are they putting you through? Okay, one month to prove I can make it for them to officially hire me. What are they having you do? Because we kind of just talked about important skills that you need to have. Right. I would be really good at taking notes. I would be really intentional. I would use active listening when talking with couples. Here's what I hear you saying, but.
I really don't know how to answer this question.
Do you have any suggestion for securing this job? Make yourself invaluable. Make yourself invaluable. Don't ask a bajillion questions. If you are really unsure, ask. But if you see something, try to take care of it. See if you could be a self starter. I know for me. I know for me, the really meek and really on the back foot assistants are very hard to train. I love it when someone just like jumps in and says, hey, I'm gonna go handle that. Are you okay with that? Like, yes, that's exactly what I want. I don't need a wallflower. I need someone who takes initiative. Because on the day of, everything's just go, go, go, go, go. And so sometimes I don't really have the opportunity to explain all the details. So I will share a little bit before, but most time I'll say afterwards, here's what went well. Here's what we could do differently next time. Not that I'm unavailable to instruct on the go. It's just a lot harder when it's in real time. That's why I love this, this mastermind, because we can have these conversations when it's not a high tension moment. So I would. Make yourself invaluable. What that looks like. I don't Know if you're assisting someone. So if it's one of you that's here and you have more follow up information, let me know. If not, I hope that helped. What do you require from a client in order to book with you? Ooh, okay. That's actually a very good question. The.
I feel like a really good example.
Is kind of happened recently where I was like, I'm not booking this client. It's not going to happen. A girlfriend of mine who she's very near and dear to my heart. Her. Who is it? Her friends, whatever. Someone she knows got engaged and she's like, hey, you should contact Jamie. The guy's like, I will, I will. Yeah, no, I will, I will. Hey, you should contact Jamie. I will, I will. Hey, you should probably really follow up with her. She said she'll have a free meeting with you. Okay, yeah, I'll do it. Set up this free meeting, go to chat with her. And I'd already kind of noticed that there was a really lack of excited response from this person. Set up the appointment. She totally ghosted me. And I was like, okay, well I'm not going to do this anymore. This. I. We've tried to engage a couple times. You kind of keep not interacting with me via texting. And then I set up a meeting. You don't show up. She picked up a shift at work, Things happen. But I could kind of get this overall feeling of they're not. She's just not that into me. Does that make sense? So for me, I need to see a client have skin in the game. I need to see them pursuing me. I. And not like a. I guess it might kind of be like dating, you know, I want to know that they're just as interested in me as I am in them. So that's why when clients like don't respond, a lot of people get worked up about being ghosted. For me, I don't care. I really, I really, really, really don't. Even if we get up to the point where like I send them a contract and then they don't follow up, I'll send a follow up email and be like, hey, just want to make sure you got the contract. That's probably the only time I really do any sort of follow ups if someone stops responding. But anything before then, I'm like, if they're interested, they'll book. And I think that perspective really helped me to kind of get away from that initial panic feeling of like, oh my goodness, if you don't book me, I will not be Successful in business. So I have to say yes to everybody.
When I started seeing clients that actually.
Had skin in the game, that actually wanted to pay me what I was worth, that weren't nickeling, diming me, that weren't asking for discounts, that weren't. Yeah, going through my proposal saying, can we get rid of this and this and this and this to save money, it that for me, that shift really helped. So I need to see, hey, I'm interested in you. I also need to see respect for what I'm saying because I mean, and I got a lot of this at more like expos and stuff. Things like, well, what could you do for us? Kind of attitude. And I'd just be like, nothing, just kidding. I wouldn't say that out loud, but I would think it. I'd be like, no, this is not going to be a good fit because I'm not. This isn't like a dancing bear type situation where, where I just like dance for you. Here's, here's the services that we offer and I can kind of like custom tailor something for you that really fits you, your needs. But just asking blankly what we offer wedding planning services, which of course I'm being overly exaggerated for the sake of kind of communicating what this kind of client can be. Of course I would tell them, here's how many meetings we have, etc. But attitude, I think matters. They have to be interested, they have to have a receptive attitude and. Or yeah, I guess receptive is a good way of putting that because I don't need someone who thinks they know what they're doing because then they don't need me. Right? Like if. If you don't know what you're doing, you probably need me. If you think you know what you're doing, you maybe only need month of coordination or you don't need me at all. I would rather serve someone who has a need and a want for the services that I offer. This might be a logical question though, and not just an emotional one. What do you require from a client in order to book with you wedding date? I can't book a client without a wedding date and general location because I need to know if I'm traveling for it or not. See, I require that the contract is signed and a deposit. Hopefully that handles all of like the practicality questions.
That's all we have for this week's episode, guys. If you enjoyed it, do me a favor, screenshot that episode and share it on socials. Tag, tag me in it. I would love to see Wolfer and Co. On Instagram. Let me know if you're enjoying it. You can also let me know if you didn't enjoy it, but I'm probably.
Not going to reassure that one.
I hope you guys enjoyed this week's episode and we'll see you in the next one.
