How To Set The Vibe At A Wedding | Wedding Planning Q&A

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.

The biggest thing I'm struggling with right now is scaling an SEO. I'm trying to take on less than 10 events per year and curate them to 75k to 200k weddings. Currently my average is 50 to 75 and my largest contract is 12k. Do you think this is a realistic long term goal? I mean, I think you can. Yeah, absolutely. I think rubbing elbows with those that are in that price point would be a really smart idea. So for you, I think, what is that? There's a networking week or weekend? No, it's definitely a week. Obviously it's all wedding vendors. That happens like last year, I think it was like in some exotic island. Was it Puerto Rico? What is it? Engagement? The Engage Summit? That's where the bougie vendors go. So if you want to really ratchet up what you're making, I would recommend going to something like that because then you're, you know, rubbing shoulders. I said rubbing elbows earlier. That's not a thing. Rubbing shoulders, that's the term. Good. Good job nailing that idiom, Jamie. You can probably get connected with photographers that are working that caliber wedding. You probably get connected with hair and makeup artists, with videographers, with florists. If they're spending, you know, eight grand to attend something like this, that means they're probably making that good, good. You know what I mean? So is it realistic? Possibly. Can you afford to throw money at this? I could see you probably getting to the 10 events per year with those numbers in a couple of years. So again, I like to have realistic goals and if you surpass them, fantastic. I love that for you. So long term? Yeah, it just depends because I don't see a time Frame here. I don't know what you mean by realistic long term. I mean, obviously you can get, you can do that in 10 years. If you want to do it in two, you're gonna have to hustle and throw some money at it.

I'm only mildly embarrassed to admit that 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.

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 a 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/forward/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 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 legal legally set to check them out. Use code union for 20 off your contracts.

Is There anything I should make sure to keep in mind while building my website that will effectively attract my ideal clients? Yeah. So there's, gosh, it might have been Rebecca, you and me working at this wedding where this guy was like mansplaining how you're supposed to put the copy on your website, like the wording on your website. And he was telling us, and he had no idea that I'm like, I, like, I have a really, really active and great social media presence. We get our dream clients all the time. Our website's great. We don't need you. Thank you. But he did say something really good that stuck with me and that is that use the language of the client that you want to attract.

Right.

So fun loving, charismatic couples who love color and just want to have a good time. Right. As opposed to detail oriented, elevated style for luxurious events. Now we're talking about a different avatar, right? So there is a gal named Holly Gray and her event company is called Anything But Gray. And she, she does all colorful events. So her, her page is super colorful. What she wears is super colorful. Everything she emotes is just like rainbow, but maybe not all the colors at once, but just a lot. And that is not my vibe. And that's great for her. And her branding is iconic. Like she, you know when it's one of her events or you know that it's her website or you know that's her based on what she's wearing. So when you're trying to figure out how to put together this website, think about the couples you want to have. I think our byline for a long time is we are fans of, we want cool people with like, we're not scared of budgets for a beautiful event. So I want you to know that the end result, how it looks, is important to me. So that's the language that we use. I think we used to have it in our Instagram bio. We might still have it. But if you're looking for clean, luxury, elevated, you want those photos to be on your website, even if it's a styled shoot, you want to be putting out what you like to receive.

Right.

And then you use that language. So maybe poke around, look at a couple different wedding planners websites or even wedding vendors in general and see what language they use and see if that resonates with you. Of course, we're not copying word for word. That's not the intent of what we're doing here. But you can see when we look at like a bougie planner versus, like, you know, us being More like the DIY route through master plan or things like that. We're going to use different language to attract different clients. So I think, yeah, definitely the language. Oh, and the photos. Like, if you want to do goth weddings, have a bunch of goth weddings on, which is, like, super white. Right. All of you want to do goth weddings, have them on your feet, like your front page. If you want to do pink and sage and eucalyptus and hydrangeas, make sure those flowers are on your front page. Right. That's the vibe that we want to attract. What do you think are the most important aesthetic details at a wedding or reception? Lighting. Lighting.

Lighting.

Lighting. So important. Mood lighting is so important. You will see a less packed dance floor if it's really well lit. Like, people will not groove as hard if you've got a bunch of fluorescent lights on them. So if there's anything that you can do to infuse some warm, more ambient light into the space, do it. Sometimes that means having string lights hung, which can get spendy. We've actually found that this was a couple years ago, but we bought string lights and then hired the rental company to install them for us. So we paid for, like, the big old barrels with the pipes coming out of them, and then they just hung our string lights. So that made it a lot more cost affordable than it would have been to even rent them. It was cheaper to buy them than it was to rent, which, in fact, I have some of those lights in my backyard right now. So lighting is really important. Candles on the tabletops, very important, very demure, very mindful. We're not letting that go. I'm going to keep using that for the next five years and annoy the heck out of people with that. Yeah. Candles on tables. Yeah, that's huge. Other important aesthetic details, things that clients are not clients, things that guests can touch. I know a lot of people are huge fans of trying to incorporate faux florals. Love that journey for them. You guys probably already know that I.

Love the real stuff.

Just. Just. You can't pull me away from it. I think there's only one faux bouquet ever that I was like, that's stunning. And we kept it. It's actually in my daughter's room right now. You tell. I just keep things from weddings and just, like, hoard them. In fact, I'm pretty sure we use that plant stand at a wedding.

This is.

This is. I remember earlier when I was like, yeah, run things for the business on your business card. I may or may not have purchased decor for weddings. That also fit my aesthetic. That's not confirmation in case my personally assigned IRS agent is listening to this call. In fact, I think we use that light at Heidi's wedding.

Right?

Didn't we, Beck? Oh, my gosh. Okay, so when it comes to the centerpieces, I definitely don't prefer using faux florals there. I think they're really great. And, like, arbor. Sorry, I was trying to look for our tagline. Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. No, you're fine. I said. I said, I'm pretty sure we use that lamp at Heidi's wedding in Central California. Oh, yes. Remember that, like, lounge setup that we did? Yeah, I. I loved that whole setup. It was so. Such a vibe. Such a vibe. I also like. Oh, there we go. I also like texture on the tabletop. I love texture. So if the nap can be slightly different, if there's, like, a name card or not that they have to have these things. In fact, some of them can be pretty minimal. Even if it's a sprig of rosemary with disposable fork and knife on a napkin, like, with a little bit of twine. That little bit of extra visual interest, I think really makes for killer photos and makes for great guest experience. Are they necessary? No, but they can be pretty cool.

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 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 gonna reassure that one.

I hope you guys enjoy this week's episode, and we'll see you in the next one.