Busy Wedding Season: Readiness Checklist

Here come the brides (and grooms), wedding season is here. If your business is gearing up for peak wedding season, you know what that means: A calendar full of bookings. And the added pressure of making one of the most special days in your client’s life super-extra special.

A busy wedding season can be exciting and scary, but fear not – one way to push that pressure aside is through proper planning and preparation. Maybe that’s why you’re here to begin with. If it is, you’ve come to the right place.

In this article, we’ll give you 6 tips on how to get your business ready for the busy wedding season. Let’s walk down the aisle together.

6 Ways to Prepare for the Busy Wedding Season

From staffing up and stocking up on inventory to doubling down on tasks that are easily forgotten, here are some important things to think about as you get your business ready for the wedding season.

1. Staffing up early for wedding season.

Scrambling is gambling, so don’t wait too long. Waiting until the last minute to hire for wedding season, your busiest time of year, probably isn’t your best bet. Especially when you factor in the post-COVID-19 wedding boom.

According to Zippia, weddings in the U.S. were up 62.5% since 2020, and there are expected to be 2.24 million in 2023. That bodes well for wedding businesses. But it also means that your competition is probably aware of this stat, too, and might be looking to hire staff before you do.

When it comes to hiring, assess your needs early, and get a jump on landing the best possible candidates before someone else does. It also gives you time to properly train them.

2. Build rapport with new hires.

Besides training purposes, another reason to give yourself ample time to staff up is so you can learn how to build a good relationship with new employees and give them a chance to gradually ramp up and work together with everyone else on your team.

Motivation is important. Make them feel like co-owners of your dream. Tap into their individual skills. Set clear expectations about the tasks that need to be done. Most importantly, be clear about how you expect client interactions to go.

Take it from me regarding how important the client experience is — from the client side. I still remember the stress of my wedding-planning days all too well. I think I had one task toward the end — to make sure all the many different flowers got delivered to all the right places.

Of course, I botched the logistics like any dependable groom would. Re-enter the florist’s assistant, who swooped in to comfort and assure my soon-to-be wife that everything would be OK.

I’ll never forget her smile (the florist’s assistant, not the bride’s). It had a calming effect that went a long way toward saving more than just the day.

Moral of the story: Prepare your staff for grooms like me and brides to be. Teach the art of patience, understanding, and kindness. A simple smile goes a long, long way.

3. Stock up on supplies.

This is an obvious one but worth mentioning. Depending on your wedding services, you may want to be sure you have a well-stocked inventory before the wedding season gets into full swing. Cross-check what you have in stock against your list of needs. Then plan your ordering schedule.

It might even make sense to order extra items just in case. The mayhem that comes with scrambling to fulfill requests if you don’t have what you need in stock is a mostly avoidable stress point.

4. Take stock of equipment.

I have a friend who’s a wedding photographer. Equipment failure haunts her. She always talks about “reducing the risk of disaster” by constantly checking her gear and carrying multiples of everything — cameras, lenses, flashguns, flashcards, hard drives, you name it.

You may not need to go to that extreme, but the idea is sound. While you’re taking stock of supplies, take stock of your equipment, too. Make sure everything you need to run your business is working well and not in disrepair or needing replacement.

Now is the time to get things fixed if repairs are needed. Always have a backup plan in case something goes missing or wrong.

5. Time your marketing activity.

The wedding season may run from spring to autumn, but consider promoting your products and services ahead of then. Here are some things you can do ahead of time:

• Add your business to wedding directories
• Learn how to improve your business’s rankings on Google
• Update your portfolio
• Refresh your website (ask past clients to leave reviews)
• Write blogs (or link to them from your website or social media posts)
• Automate your social media so when you post on Facebook or Instagram, for example, it automatically posts on Twitter. It will save you time!
• Attend wedding fairs because face-to-face advertising is important, too.

The idea is to market your business online and offline before the wedding season so you can focus on what matters during the wedding season — running your business.

6. Review and streamline processes.

Once the wedding season is in full motion, you’ll be juggling tasks, clients, and different wedding events all at once. It’s important to streamline your workflow ahead of time so operations run smoothly.

• Here are some tips on how to do that:
• Organize your documents and paperwork. From questionnaires about your couples to invoices and purchase orders, keep everything together so you and your staff can easily access information when needed. It will make answering a client’s questions easier and save you time.
• Stay sorted. Make separate folders if you prefer hard copies or sort projects electronically to keep your docs and paperwork organized. If you prefer doing it electronically, remember to create backups.
• Archive. Last year’s business transactions could get in the way of this year’s business transactions, which might get in the way of next year’s. Clear space. Develop an archiving system.
• Automate workflows. Many cloud-based storage systems automate the things just mentioned in the previous three tips. They also can assign project tasks and create timelines to keep you on-track.
• Check in with your vendors. It’s generally a good idea to check in with your suppliers ahead of the busy season to review upcoming orders and timeframes. Their workflow efficiencies may dictate yours.
• Review your insurance coverage. This is an often-forgotten action item. But it’s super important to review your insurance coverage for a slew of reasons, which we’ll get into next.

Make Sure Your Business Insurance Is Ready for Peak Wedding Season

Wedding planner insurance is probably the last thing you want to think about as you get ready for the wedding season. But it can be as important as managing the rest of your business.

If you invest in new equipment, you’ll probably want to consider inland marine insurance in case anything gets damaged, stolen, or lost while in transit or on a job site. If you hire additional staff, there’s a good chance you’ll need workers’ comp insurance in your state.

Even if you already have an insurance policy in place, it’s always a good idea to review it in case you need to make changes to your policy, such as updating any business information that has changed and obtaining additional coverage.

And it’s not just equipment and staff you need to worry about. It’s your business, too. Some things you can plan for — like the busy season ahead. Some things you can’t plan for — like accidents. They can happen. And when they do, claims often follow.

Having general liability insurance, the workhorse of small business insurance, that is customized to your needs may keep you from experiencing the full financial burden of covering out-of-pocket expenses from a third-party claim against your business.

We know, all this is a lot to think about. But that’s why we’re here. To help you prepare, Simply Business® works with top insurers that specialize in the types of coverages businesses in your industry may need. That means you don’t have to invest a lot of time doing research or visiting dozens of different websites. We do it for you.

With our easy quote tool, you can get free quotes in minutes. You may even be able to select and buy your policy 100% online. Or give one of our agents a call — we’re always happy to help.

Preparation Is in the Air

Of course, love is in the air, too. But if you don’t prepare your business for the busy wedding season, feeling the love could be harder to come by.

So be sure to create an action plan and try to knock off as many tasks on your to-do list as you can. That way when the bride and groom come knocking on your door, you can focus on what really matters — them!