A typical day of an event planner/designer
A few weeks ago when I was on a scouting trip with my clients, the groom asked me: “Do you do food/cake tastings often?” Luckily, my answer was: “No.” Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely enjoy going on scouting trips with my clients, tasting all the yummy food (I LOVE to eat) and meeting all the talented vendors. People always think that planners do tastings every week. Maybe some do, but for me it only happens every couple of months. If I have tastings every week, I will definitely need to hire a personal trainer and work out for a few hours everyday to keep in shape! :)
Honestly, our job is not as glamorous as everybody thinks. Here is what a typical workday is like for me:
IMAGE SOURCE HERE
After I get up, I’d go downstairs to the kitchen to grab a glass of fruit smoothie in the fridge. That is enough to tie me over until lunch time. Then I will head back upstairs to my home office and turn on my laptop. My day officially starts then, and usually, I would have at least 50 emails waiting for me. I quickly scan through them and then start responding to each one. Most of them are clients asking questions about their wedding, or decisions that they have made so I can complete their planning. And based on those emails, I will either have to email or call the vendors to confirm the booking of their services.
Occasionally, I will also get a few phone calls in between from clients or vendors, but I normally schedule all of my phone conversations with my clients in advance. I find that more productive than if they just pick up the phone and call and I am not available.
Emails usually take up a few hours of my day, especially if the clients or the vendors are also online at the same time, and we would be exchanging emails back and forth within minutes. So in addition to the original 50 or so emails I first received in the morning, I would be getting more and more as the day goes by. Typically by the end of the day, I would have gotten over 100 emails. Everyday, I would also get emails from potential clients inquiring about my services, or potential vendors who’d like to introduce their products and services to me or partner up with me…etc.
And while I am answering my clients emails, I am also looking through my wedding magazines/books and online blogs for inspirations, especially when we are working on the decor design portion like colors, flowers, linens and lighting. That’s one of my favorite parts of my job.
A lot of times, I am so involved with what I am working on at the moment that I forget to eat until my tummy starts growling. :) I would look at my computer and the clock says 2:30 pm! I quickly run to the kitchen and heat up the lunch box that my hubby packed for me the night before. Yes, I know… I am a very lucky gal! Thanks, honey! Without wasting much time, I usually eat my lunch at my desk. Some days, I might have vendor meetings (or as I call them - “brainstorming sessions”) in the afternoon, and we would meet at a coffee shop or go to lunch and talk about business and ideas for our upcoming weddings together.
The rest of the afternoon will be dedicated to my clients’ wedding files. I will look through each one to see if there are any pressing items that we need to work on right away, or if there are certain things that I need my clients to start thinking about. And when I have some free time, I will work on the accounting and bookkeeping part of the business as well.
My hubby gets home at around 6-ish, and while he is making dinner (yes, he is the official chef in our household), I will bring my laptop downstairs with me to the family room and check my social media accounts - Facebook, Twitter… to see what my other colleagues are up to in their parts of the world. That’s also the time when I can catch up with my hubby to see how both of our days went.
Then I spend the next 2 to 3 hours having dinner and watching some TV with hubby, while leaving my computer on the “sleep” mode. Technically, that’s our down time…, but I will sneak in perhaps a few emails here and there during the commercial break. That’s the problem with working from home - I can never leave work completely, but that’s OK because I truly love what I do and most of the time it doesn’t even feel like work!
At around 10 pm after saying “goodnight” to hubby, it’s time to get back to work again. I will spend another hour or so on my clients’ files and then it’s all about blogging. There are so many wonderful wedding blogs out there that sometimes I don’t even have enough time in a day to read them all, not to mention finding inspirations and writing my own blog.
By 2 am, that’s when I usually call it a night. I quickly hop in the shower and as my head hits the pillow, I am already thinking about what I need to do for the next day. :)
Tags: Event Designer, Event Planner
August 5th, 2009 at 6:21 am
Wow! Thank goodness you’re so organized. That’s what makes you so great at what you do. :)
August 6th, 2009 at 9:52 am
It is great to be organized especially as an event/wedding planner for many people the wedding is one of the most important dates in a persons life and they would love to have it go on without a hitch. Sometimes this is difficult, but having a plan AND a contingency plan is a great way to keep an important event on track.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Thanks for sharing your daily routine with us. It’s great to see a break down of hour by hour details!