Business: Wedding Planner
Business
Wedding Planner:Dawn Nash
by Brian McInnis
DAWN M. Nash of The Romance Specialists is Hawaii's only licensed wedding planner certifier and runs her own successful planning business at the same time. How does she do it? By turning her competitors into her allies…
…If you can't beat um then why not join um?
Planning And Plotting
Dawn didn't know it right away,but the skill sets she used in events planning for a traveling theatrical company would translate successfully to weddings. "I more fell into it to be honest," Dawn says. "I was the manager, and I had to arrange everything from travel accommodations to a set up for the state, seating, coordinating for all the different venues, everything. I became a planner without really knowing that's what I was becoming."
An Industry Standard
Once she tried her hand at weddings, Dawn felt she had a career match - but didn't know how bad she was at it until today, when she looks back at the way she was. "In Hawaii there's no requirements to be a wedding planner. Virtually anyone can declare themselves [as one], most people get started by helping friends and family.[But] on the mainland,it's an industry standard to get your certification. So, when I went back and I found out, 'whoa, wait a second, I'm kind of operating below industry standards here,'that's when I went and got my certification. "It took three months of online training, plus a week of in-class instruction in Sacramento for Dawn to get her degree. Then, she turned around and took an additional course to become a certified instructor. Since then, she's trained 20 wedding planners of her own here in the Islands.
No Competition
Wouldn't it work against Dawn's best interest to let loose a bunch of new wedding planners in her own environment? Not necessarily, the market is over-saturated as it is, she explains. If you Google "Hawaii wedding planners," more than 600 pop up. Recently, at least one of her local competitors asked her to help them turn their business around. "They said, 'Dawn, we know you do this, and know that you're kind of kicking our butt.'" Dawn laughs, and continues. "And we know you're a coach, can you come and help us out?' That let me know that to be able to go and help them,and turn around their business, it really kind of made me feel that people are putting certain things aside and focusing on what's important, that really is the bride and groom, and not on beating their competition."
Enemy Of My Enemy…
Because so many wedding planners work independently, they rely on each other for help in certain situations. If, say, Dawn needed a coordinator/photographer on a certain day; she'd contact one of her associates with the proper skill set. It's basically a large network of planners. Says Dawn," My competition is my ally. Because I'm in the office taking care of things, and if I need a coordinator,I need a planner on this day,I can hire them that way. You can work against your competition, or you can work with them. And I just chose a smarter route. It's very unique, but it's worked out very, very well; that's part of the reason that I'm thriving."
The Mark Of A Wedding Planner
What do students need to become effective wedding planners? "One is an artistic ability, and that doesn't mean that they can paint or that they can draw, just means they're creative and that they can make the prettiest vase of flowers and all that stuff," Dawn says. "Second is attention to detail,that's where the wedding either comes together or falls apart. The other is, the majority of wedding planners I've worked with get bored very easily. A lot of them say we're really bad students: you're very project-based. You work on one project, then you move onto the next, and then the next, and you're always multitasking. Nine times out of 10 they're a really bad student because they can't focus on something for a really long time. That's probably not a very good thing to say," she laughs, "but it's true. You're very goal-based."
A Thankless Job
Dawn believes that most wedding planners lose their passion for their job because it can be a thankless one. Problems arise that the planner has to deal with,and if they do their job right,the bride and groom never find out about it. "It doesn't matter how stressful it gets, you always smile,"Dawn says. "You're not permitted not to smile. A meteor falls in the middle of the wedding, you say 'it's okaaaay.'" She laughs. "No matter how bad things may be, the wedding planner makes sure nobody else stresses. You're their shield, their punching bag. You are their emotional baggage. The bride and groom's never going to come up to you and say, 'Oh, thank you for solving that job that you never told me about.'"