“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” –Albert Einstein
Name: Isabel Smith
Age: 24
What exactly do you do for a living?
I am a freelance wedding planner of Isabel Smith Wedding Design, offering a personal and completely bespoke service to couples looking to plan their dream wedding.
What state do you represent?
I am actually based in the United Kingdom.
Did you go to college? Where?
I went to The School of Oriental and African Studies which is a very small college (2,000 or so students) that specialises in subject study relating to/from the perspective of Asia and Africa. It is a small but very prestigious school – akin to an Ivy league school in its field.
What did you study there?
I studied Japanese and Business Management, but actually didn’t finish my degree. As soon as I got to the university, I began to suffer from depression. I was either too stubborn, or simply not self aware enough (or both!) to accept that the path I had taken just wasn’t right for me.
Why on earth did you choose this career path and how did you get involved in it?
I fell into wedding planning by accident. Having helped a boyfriend’s parents plan their silver wedding celebration and absolutely adored the rush when it all came together, I wrote to some hotels looking for some work experience when I left the university. I started a two-week marketing role to find that the wedding planner there wanted to move into marketing and since I wanted weddings, we switched. Within a month, I knew I wanted to set up my own business but wanted to spend a few years gaining the experience and contacts to make me really stand out.
What are your future plans for your career?
My wedding planning business is only 18 months old, but is growing at nice and steady pace, which is great as it gives me time to face the various challenges of self-employment.
I am, however, going to be launching a second business this September offering training to wedding venues that are struggling to keep up with the whirlwind changes within the industry during the recession. I will guide them on the impact of social media and blogging on the industry before leading into how they can update their marketing and business practices to get, and convert, more enquiries.
Beyond that, I don’t know really. Having had a solid life plan that didn’t work out, and triggered a depression that took me five years of really hard work to combat, I try hard not to look too far forward as you never know what turns there are ahead.
What are in love with about this profession? What are you not so in love with?
Beyond the general buzz of being your own boss, I love almost everything about the wedding industry. I am a very visual person, so I love how all the tiny details come together to create a look. I am also very task oriented and project–led so I love the thrill of seeing a well laid plan in action. Most of all, I love all the people I get to meet, the places I get to go, and having the privilege of sometimes having a slight ‘relationship counsellor’ role.
Less lovely things are of course the down sides of self-employment like not having a regular income, never being able to switch off from it all and juggling all the marketing/accounting tasks alongside actually planning weddings!
I suppose there are some really negative people in the industry too, which I find a challenge – but no worse than there would be in an office situation – and I have luxury of being able to just cut any negative people out of my work life whenever I choose.
Give us an example of a day in the life of you doing what you do?
A lot of people think that being a wedding planner is really glamorous. Don’t get me wrong, it has its moments – I have been very lucky in some of the events I have been able to attend and some of the places I have been, but generally, my days are like everyone else’s: Sitting at my desk, responding to e-mails, making calls, checking contracts etc. or heading out to meetings with clients and suppliers. I do a lot of networking too though which is fun.
What steps do you recommend to someone who is planning to pursue this career?
I think that anyone wanting to be a freelance planner would be very brave to set up on their own without some events experience, be it in weddings/personal events or in the corporate sector. As I mentioned, I started out planning weddings in hotels as their in-house co-ordinator, working my way up the star ratings so I learnt a great deal about actually planning and executing events before I had to face the ‘running a business’ challenges too. Hotels however aren’t necessarily for everyone (thankless, long hours for very little pay, in often quite unpleasant atmospheres), but corporate events, working for a larger events company or even shadowing for free at the weekends are all a great way of building up that vital knowledge!
What is the single-most important piece of advice you can offer a person pursuing this career?
Have a support system in place. You will spend long hours working alone from home, and there will be many a time when you will wonder what the hell you’ve done! Without people to encourage you to keep going, it can be all too easy to throw in the towel. Personally, I find that being a member of the UK Alliance of Wedding Planners helps me the most as I know that I can, at any time, pick up the phone to someone who is going through exactly the same thing as me.
What is the best piece of advice you have received?
Don’t listen to the hype! When you’re having a down day, things like Twitter (which generally serve my business so well), can be fatal as all you see is how busy and successful everyone is. It is really important that everyone is always putting their best face forward on social media and all may not be what it seems: Two posts per week from your competitor saying ‘I saw a lovely client today’ doesn’t mean that they are awash with the clients you want. For all you know, those two visits were to see the same client – possible their ONLY client.
What can we look forward to seeing from you next?
As I say, I have the new business launching in September. I will also be involved in The UK Alliance of Wedding Planner’s ‘Wedding Sanctuary’ again next year – which is a unique, advice-led wedding event designed to break the mould of the traditional wedding fair.
What professional or community volunteer organizations are you currently a member of?
Well, I have already mentioned the UKAWP twice, so I won’t bang on about that too much! I am also pretty active on the local networking circuit.
I was volunteering a day a week with the fundraising team in my district for Marie Curie (an amazing UK cancer charity that offers free respite nursing for end-stage cancer patients and their families) until last year too, but a combination of them closing my local office, and me getting super busy meant I had to stop which was a real shame as I really enjoyed watching those donation figures rising up each week!
What’s a funny or significant memory from your college or high school days you are legally allowed to share?
Erm….pass. I think I got all my wild craziness out of my system at a fairly young age so it is probably best that it all remains firmly in the past under the ‘well that was cool at the time but I don’t think I’ll be doing it again’ category.
What book are you reading right now?
I am actually working my way through a reading list that a business coach recommended. The current one is ‘Instant rapport’ by Michael Brooks which presents a branch of Neuro-Linguistic Programming for making successful relationships. So far, the solutions it presents are a little simplistic, but there are definitely applicable practices described.
What’s playing in your MP3 player right now?
Owl City – Fireflies
Where can we stalk you online?
Oh everywhere I hope:
Facebook Fanpage
Twitter
LinkedIn
Website
Other
Comments on this entry are closed.