The Truth About Measuring Success in Weddings

The truth about measuring success by the number of weddings you book- is that it is a wildly inaccurate measure of success.

So often I hear planners talk about their goals - I want to plan X number of weddings each year. While that is a great goal, you want to ask yourself what are the goals for your business? How will you measure your success?

In my career of over 20 years, I have had years where I did almost 31 weddings, 22 weddings, 15 weddings, 10 weddings, 2 weddings. If I was to look back at each of those years and share with you whether they felt successful the answer would be YES.

Yes, each year of my career I’ve found success in different ways. One year was about getting the most experience, one year was successful when I created a better client experience, one year was more profitable, one year saw the most growth.

When I offered 60 Day Coordination, Custom and Full Planning, I found myself working on 15-20 weddings each year. The more I shifted to focus on planning and design only, the less weddings I had, but the easier it was to increase my prices. 

Truthfully, I made about the same amount doing 10 full planning weddings vs 20 weddings of the three different service levels. 

Some people may look at that and think what a success - more money and less weddings. Now the assumption is that less weddings = less work.  

The reality is full service planning and design is so much more work. After a year of full service planning only with 10 weddings, it was also evident to me that I had reached my limit. 

My limit in terms of my capacity as a business owner and a human. My limit to the level of stress and anxiety to provide the best possible experience to each and every one of my clients. How is this success?

So the next year I set the goal of 8 weddings and raised my prices accordingly. It was nearly perfect for me in the attempt of balance of work and pay. This felt successful in so many ways. Partially because I had clearly set goals for myself. Partially because my definition of success had changed.

At the end of each year, I reevaluate my profits, sales, projects booked and create a unique goal for the next year. Sometimes more focused on the number of events but ultimately always trying to ensure my financial goals or sometimes aimed at new venues or new markets.

Your career is YOURS and yours alone. You get to decide your goals, you get to decide your pricing for every client you take on and what you spend your money on in your business. Some years you might manage that better than others some years you may miss the mark. That’s okay.

I encourage you to define and re-define success every time you need to friend, and I’ll be here cheering you every step of the way.

Always cheering you on,

Heather