4 Steps to Ease Your Wedding Planner Workflow and Wow Clients
Of my own accord, I independently created these project pieces to test my professional skills and expand my knowledge and experience. I was not hired or paid to complete this work.
What: Beyond Smitten Events is a Northern California-based wedding coordination company offering full service, partial, and month-of planning services to marrying couples.
My why: You only get married once—in theory—and the team's confidence in helping you pull off the most important party you’ll ever throw is crucial. Beyond Smitten is thorough in their professionalism and down-to-earth in their approach offering couples peace of mind at every step of the planning process.
The problem: Beyond Smitten is expanding their team to take on more clientele, but are in need of the procedures and system integration to make the growth seamless and sustainable.
The double-edged solution:
1. I created an easy-to-follow, visualized Standard Operating Procedure of the wedding planning process for coordinators
2. I refined email blueprints to reflect the brand’s tone and integrated Calendly to help make client correspondence a breeze
PART 1: DEFINING BRAND VOICE
First, based on Beyond Smitten’s web presence, social channels and Yelp and Google reviews, I defined the voice of their brand as the following:
Conversational
Supportive and celebratory
Calming
Friendly
Disarming
It was evident in the years of online reviews that clients adored their experience with the owner. Many of them said hiring her was worth every penny and then some, and she made them feel completely at ease in the midst of the stress of their wedding days.
With a reputation this sparkling, it’s imperative for Beyond Smitten to equip their onboarding coordinators with not only an organized process to follow but a trustworthy guide in communicating with clients. These resources would ensure that the same quality and warmth of service Beyond Smitten is known for remains intact as the team grows.
PART 2: COORDINATION WORKFLOW
First, I went to task to breakdown, refine, and visualize one of Beyond Smitten’s main workflows.
Beyond Smitten offers three different planning packages: full service, partial planning, and month-of coordination. For this demonstration, I utilized Lucidchart to visualize the procedure specifically for a “partial planning” client. This package involves the couple doing most of the detailed planning themselves with access to their lead planner for recommendations and support leading up to the 3-month mark prior to the wedding date.
At Beyond Smitten, a few things need to happen before couples are put in the hands of lead planners. First, the owner completes a discovery call with the inquiring couple and determines if their vision and budget are a good fit for Beyond Smitten’s services.
If so, the owner handles all contracts, deposits, and crosses all the T’s and dots all the I’s with the couple.
Once complete, the lead planner takes the baton and is responsible for providing the following services:
Following the workflow left to right, sections with purple headings represent stages of planning that begin at time of booking until 3 months out from the wedding date. With an accompanying circle beside each stage, the wedding planner can quickly detect that email communication is required at the corresponding benchmark.
For example, at purple benchmark “6 months out,” the planner is prompted to schedule a future check-in email with the couple when 4 months out. This email will be customized to the couple, maintaining the warmth and personalization Beyond Smitten is known for, and send automatically.
The email template for check in reads as follows:
This step in the workflow relieves the planner from having to remember to complete this check in down the line, and not to mention, writing an email from scratch when the time comes.
Instead, they write the email when the couple is at the forefront of their mind, it’s automated, and it’s done.
Moving along in the workflow, sections in green represent the bulk of the planning process for the coordinator, moving into in-person meetings and correspondence with the couple’s vendor team–all of which templates exist to accompany.
Finally, the last of the three sections in yellow encompass week-of, day-of and post-wedding items.
All bolded items in the text refer to pre-made templates that act as guiding lights for new coordinators at each step of the planning process.
PART 3: CLIENT AND VENDOR EMAIL TEMPLATES
Next, I created client and vendor email templates that carry the tone of the brand. New coordinators will use these blueprints for their interactions with clients and fellow vendors.
Here is a kickoff email template currently used by Beyond Smitten Events that I refined for brevity and clarity and added an infographic to aid couples in understanding the roadmap ahead of them.
Email #1: Kickoff Email to Clients After Booking
This email is sent after the owner’s discovery call with the couple. The contract is signed, deposit is retained, and contract is countersigned at this point.
From here on, this couple is officially in the hands of the lead planner assigned to their wedding.
The lead planner will send the following email:
Hi [couple]!
IT’S OFFICIAL. We can’t wait to help you tie the knot! From our whole team, thank you for this honor.
So what happens next?
Bit of a detail junkie? So are we. Click here for a breakdown of each stage.
NEXT STEPS FOR YOU:
1. We’ll start with a Zoom meeting to touch base and answer any initial questions. We’ll be sending you an invite to schedule that meeting via Calendly!
2. Our Preferred Vendor List will be sent out in a separate email if you’ve requested it!
3. Please send us Pinterest board(s) or any Instagram accounts you’re inspired by for a peek into what vibe you’re going for.
4. Let’s get connected! This is a great way for us to share vendor profiles we think you might be interested in.
All for now! If you have any questions in the meantime, you know where to find us.
Kindly,
[name]
Target: newly booked couples
Goal: I wanted to make this email template as skim-able as possible while still providing the couple with a birds-eye view of the planning process. The tone is light, clear, and friendly to reflect the disarming nature Beyond Smitten exudes.
Thoughts: While some couples may be eager to know every little detail of what’s to come, it’s likely that one, if not both, halves of the pair are overwhelmed.
For this reason, the infographic at the beginning is important in visualizing the long span of planning time. To avoid leaving the lovebirds in the dust with a long, detailed email, I wanted the infographic to serve as an easy-to-reference roadmap.
The visual was designed with the aesthetic of Beyond Smitten in mind–utilizing the same style of font and colors displayed on the website to maintain brand consistency.
Couples can print the visual and keep it on the refrigerator or at their desk to remind them of the benchmarks coming, helping everyone breathe easy all year long. An aid like this is indicative of the approachability and thoughtfulness of Beyond Smitten.
Email #2: Vendor intro email
It’s the lead planner’s responsibility to streamline communication among the vendor team to ensure everyone’s on the same page the day of the event. In order to gather necessary information that will affect the master timeline, it’s imperative that the coordinator touches base with all players contributing to the wedding day.
The email template for vendor intros reads as follows:
Hi there!
This is [name] here with Beyond Smitten Events. I was jazzed to find you were booked by [couple] getting hitched on [date] at [venue] in [city]!
I’m the lead planner for their wedding and will be the main point of contact on the big day, so don’t hesitate to reach out to me in the months to come.
I wanted to shoot you over the draft timeline I’m working on and see if you had any initial updates. You’ll find it attached. I’ll be sending a finalized timeline and vendor details closer to the event so keep an eye out.
If there are any questions I can answer in the meantime, I’m all ears!
Cheers,
[name]
Target: busy vendors
Goal: I wanted to keep this email as straight-forward as possible while maintaining approachability and supportiveness–two qualities Beyond Smitten embodies. Vendors are busy with other clients all year long so I sought to create the email template to be brief with all the necessary details but remain warm.
Including the couple’s name, wedding date, the venue, and the city in one sentence is intentional in quickly jogging the vendor’s memory of who they’re being contacted about. Vendors are juggling multiple clients at once so clarity is key and clarity is kind.
Thoughts: It’s important that new coordinators build respectful relationships and establish an open dialogue with fellow vendors. These players fill vital roles on the wedding day. To the level vendors feel comfortable coming to the lead planner with questions, issues, and concerns they’ll also feel confident in the planner’s leadership on the day-of.
PART 4: CALENDLY INTEGRATION
What: Calendly is a calendar platform that effectively streamlines scheduling appointments among teams and clients. By eliminating the back and forth of emailing to find a mutually available time, Calendly gives users the ability to set blocks of free time for specific meetings and from there, guests pick the date and time that works best for them.
No more playing phone tag or trudging through long email threads to find a good time to connect.
Why: Based on the workflow for Beyond Smitten’s partial planning package alone, coordinators rely on the information gathered in video and in-person meetings with their couples to piece together all the moving parts of the event. Having a system in place to make this step of connecting seamless for both the coordinator and the couple is crucial.
A tool like Calendly would simplify the creation of these meetings, saving Beyond Smitten’s planners loads of time going back and forth with clients to book the necessary appointments.
How: Here’s a quick demonstration of how I implemented this tool:
CONCLUSION
Beyond Smitten Events is something special and nearly every couple, vendor, and venue can tell immediately. With a reputation glowing with warm service and impeccable attention to detail, it’s vital that onboarding coordinators receive the guidance and resources to carry that brand identity.
In putting together this double-edged solution, I learned that only by breaking down the operational steps of a procedure can you find the holes in the process and as a result, develop the solutions. Without a map to follow, it’s impossible to identify the opportunities for growth.