Association of Bridal Consultants (ABC) Certified Wedding Planner Program

60 Hours / Access Length: 12 Months / Delivery: Online, Self-Paced

Course Overview:

This course will help you prepare for your new career as a wedding planner. The Certified Wedding Planner Program is designed to give people new to the industry a solid education in the art and science of Wedding Planning and Wedding Business. The complete program will take you through Etiquette for Wedding Professionals, Wedding Business Basics, Wedding Etiquette, Planning and Consulting, Service Providers, and Rehearsal to Reception.

Students will:

• Identify the skills needed to successfully manage the demands of being a bridal consultant and apply these skills to the tasks needed during the planning process.
• Determine how to coordinate every detail of events, from beginning to end.
• Identify how to organize and conduct wedding ceremonies and receptions to ensure they meet the client's requirements.
• Recognize the various types of wedding ceremonies and etiquette to share with a client.
• Determine how to develop agendas, budgets, and services according to customer requirements.
• Recognize how to charge clients and collect payments; set up bookkeeping and files, inventory and billing control.
• Determine how to monitor event activities to ensure compliance with applicable regulations and laws, satisfaction of participants, and resolution of any problems that arise.
• Recognize how to promote bridal show services through meetings with professional and trade associations.
• Explain how to produce brochures and other publications to publicize events and promote the business.

Course Outline:

Unit 1: Planner's Toolbox

Personal traits, grooming, knowledge, and habits will make you the best planner that you can be. Each planner winds up with a niche market where they get repeated calls for their services. This unit will help you learn what you need in your own toolbox.

Unit 2: Etiquette for Wedding Professionals

Etiquette is alive and well, and can make a tremendous difference in our careers. Grounding in business etiquette provides the confidence we need to face every situation in the best manner we know. Once you become comfortable and confident with finely polished skills, business etiquette will be second nature. Mastery of social and professional skills will allow you to enjoy being a wedding planner and business professional in a much greater way.

Unit 3: Wedding Business Basics

A wedding business is part of a service oriented industry. What does this mean? It means that we succeed when we serve well. You may be a planner and all you are offering is your expertise, experience, and your ability to think clearly. You may be a photographer who is offering a product – photographs – but you will also be offering the service of expertise, experience and clear thinking. You will be sensitive to the emotions of the wedding, the incredible amount of time that the wedding takes to be planned correctly, and the expectations of the bride and groom and families for your particular service. If you are able to do all of that, and turn a profit, your wedding business, no matter what it is, should succeed.

Unit 4: Wedding Etiquette

Part of the wedding planning process involves understanding and following wedding etiquette. The wedding planner is responsible for knowing standard wedding etiquette and making sure the wedding participants follow it. A good wedding planner will stay abreast of changes in etiquette and make sure clients have the information they need.

Unit 5: Planning and Consulting

Getting a wedding business up and running is a step by step process. Missing a step can mean missing opportunities to close a sale. In this lesson you'll learn how to coordinate and conduct all of the different meetings you will have to manage as a wedding planner.

Unit 6: Wedding Services

You will need to work with a variety of vendors in planning a wedding, so getting to know and work with reputable wedding professionals is an important part of your business. A good place to meet other vendors is at ABC meetings. As you develop professional relationships with others that you like to work with, they will likely refer clients to you, as well.

Unit 7: Rehearsal to Reception

When you have booked your first clients, in the months leading up to the wedding, you will always be preparing for the big weekend. Some planners do only weekend orchestration and some work with their clients in planning every detail. No matter which way you work, you will be preparing for a meaningful ceremony and a fun reception.

All necessary course materials are included.

Certification(s):

Once all seven section exams, final exam and project have been passed under ABC’s grading standards, the student will earn the designation of Certified Wedding Planner and 25 education points that will be placed toward their Education and Professional Development requirements to earn more advanced and distinguished designations.

• Cable and DSL internet connections are recommended for the best experience.

• CPU: 1 GHz or higher
• RAM: 2 GB or higher
• Resolution: 1280 x 720 or higher
• Speakers / Headphones
• Microphone (Webinar / Live Online sessions)

• Microsoft Windows 7 or 10 (Home, Pro)
• Mac OSX 10 or higher.
• Latest Chrome OS
• Latest Linux Distributions

NOTE: While we understand that our courses can be viewed on Android and iPhone devices, we do not recommend the use of these devices for our courses. The size of these devices do not provide a good learning environment for students taking online or live online based courses.

• Latest Google Chrome is recommended for the best experience.
• Latest Mozilla FireFox
• Latest Microsoft Edge
• Latest Apple Safari

• Office suite software (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, or LibreOffice)
• PDF reader program (Adobe Reader, FoxIt)
• Courses may require other software that is denoted in the above course outline.