How do you get a wedding planning work experience opportunity?
Work experience is a tricky one and often it’s about putting a lot of feelers out there to hopefully get a bite.
Try drawing up a hit list of at least 15 potentials that you think would be beneficial to you. Places where you believe you could really learn something.
A trick I’ve always used is to know and work out what you can offer them before approaching them directly.
What I mean by that is you need to turn yourself into someone who its impossible to pass up. Make them want to give you the work experience.
Don’t approach them without a plan because the chances are you’re just one of a number. If you specialise in something in particular let them know. Do you have a talent that could be useful to them as part of your work experience? In other words, find something that’s unique about you that’ll make them want to give you that chance.
How to approach wedding planners for work experience
I still believe there is a fair amount of formality around work experience. Approach each company separately by email don’t do the DM on Instagram.
Whatever you do make sure you do your due diligence and personalise your email. Find out the name of the person you need to approach.
Know something about the company so you can reference that in your email. If they do destination weddings you might want to say – I know you specialise in destination weddings and this is an area I’m hoping to get into myself.
It never hurts to get yourself involved with networking groups either. There are countless Facebook Groups you can join for wedding pros. In these groups you’ll often find people posting about opportunities. Use the search facility on Facebook to find groups for your area.
Top tips to secure a wedding planning work experience opportunity:
- Before undertaking any type of work experience you must first consider what time you have available for it.
- Consider how far you’ll travel for work experience. Think about cost of travel & using public transport late at night if you don’t have access to a car of your own.
- Be honest with yourself about how many hours you would be prepared to devote. Not many work experience opps are paid ones. Out of pocket expenses such as travel are usually paid along with food but that is all.
- Don’t wait for opportunities to come your way. Update your CV highlighting transferable skills & experiences and get to work. Put yourself out there on social media and anywhere else you can think of. You never know who might be watching and be able to help.
- Write yourself a ‘killer’ Cover Letter that demonstrates your passion and motivation to learn. There’s nothing worse than receiving a generic letter that has clearly been sent to a hundred companies before yours.
- Contact the types of businesses you’d like to learn from. Don’t just blanket mail. Be very targeted in your approach so you get the most out of any experience you have. Many assume that only big companies take people for work experience. It’s worth trying the small wedding planning companies. They’re more likely to be looking for a spare pair of hands in the busy periods. That’s your opportunity to learn.
- Employers are impressed by initiative but be prepared to be knocked back too. You have to be persistent and where you can, ask for feedback from anyone who gives you a ‘no’. Learn from the experience of applying and adjust your approach as necessary.
Work experience can also be found amongst your existing networks. Many businesses hold events, but they won’t come to you. You need to do the groundwork and put in the hard yards.
Consider approaching your employer if you’re currently working and share your interest in events with them. They might surprise you and let you organise the work Xmas party, or something similar.
Don’t forget friends & family. Helping a friend with her wedding offers great styling & planning opportunities. Helping your local church or club with a fundraiser offers valid opportunities to gain practical event planning experience too.
Events are happening everyday all around us. The key is to be proactive and to think outside the square.
Students at the Wedding Academy get regular opportunities not only from the Mentors, who are all working wedding planners and stylists, but also from our extensive network of wedding pros around the world.
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