Career Journey with w+w’ Ellie
Wedding planning is a job that has always been glamourised by Hollywood and popular culture – who could forget J Lo’s iconic emergency kit fixed to her garter? While it may seem like the most dreamy job for those who can’t help but swoon over all things weddings, we recently sat down with our talented planner Ellie to chat about her career journey and ask her to answer some of the most popular questions she is asked.
To nobody’s surprise, Ellie said that she truly does love her position and is over the moon to work with couples to help bring their vision to life on the biggest day of their lives.
We asked her – What inspired her to become to a wedding planner?
Having started in a corporate career, after many years across varying roles Ellie felt like she wasn’t completely satisfied in the corporate world and she endeavoured to find an outlet to creatively pursue her passions and interests. She returned to university to study a Master of Business majoring in Integrated Marketing Communications, in which she touched on event studies, which sparked an interest in the industry. Discovering there was a profession that incorporated areas that she was organically interested in and stimulated by was exciting and it was clear to Ellie that wedding planning was an avenue that she was passionate to pursue.
Ellie said the most common questions she is asked is – How did she break into the industry and become a wedding planner?
She said that she started out by researching Brisbane based wedding planners. Having been at the top of the list of companies she would love to work for, Ellie knew it was too good an opportunity to pass up when she came across White + White’s ‘Planning + Styling’ workshop, which she attended. The workshop gave her a comprehensive overview of the different aspects of working as a planner as well as a hands-on guide to wedding styling. Having felt quite lost in terms of how to approach getting a start in the industry, Ellie found the workshop extremely valuable and jumped at the opportunity to volunteer her time assisting White + White with on-the-day set up of weddings.
Ellie was offered an internship with White + White where she took annual leave one day a week from her corporate role to get a behind the scenes look at the many aspects of working as a wedding planner. She says that interning is the best way to really determine if this career is what you are looking for and to find out what it’s really like to be a planner. From there, she was offered an assisting role and worked her way to a full planning position.
We asked Ellie – What aspect of being a wedding planner surprised her the most when she started out?
Ellie said that she was most surprised by just how many different ‘pieces’ come together to create a wedding. The number of different suppliers and the level of detail involved are on a far greater scale than she could have imagined, not to mention the amount of time and effort involved in the planning process to successfully execute the couple’s vision and ensure the wedding day goes off without a hitch.
We finally asked Ellie – What is her top advice for aspiring wedding planners?
Ellie confirmed that the best way to gauge whether the industry is right for you and to break into planning is to get practical experience under your belt by volunteering to assist on wedding days. She also believes interning is extremely beneficial to not only learn about what is involved in working as a planner day-to-day, but also to gain valuable experience relating to both the planning process and on the day coordination. This will arm you with skills and proven experience (and hopefully a great reference) to be better positioned to score a job in the industry. She highly recommends White + White’s planning workshops for those who are interested in pursuing a wedding planning career.
For work experince opportunities please email us at planning@whitewhite.com.au
