141: How to Work with a Wedding Planner

Wedding planners are a great source of wedding referrals and can be a perfect conduit to repeat business. But how do you get on a wedding planner's preferred list? And even more importantly, how do you stay on that list? In this week's episode of This Week In Weddings, we're chatting with a seasoned wedding planner about that things to do to make yourself stand out in a planner's eyes. And, of course, Kimberly can't help but add her own two cents about the topic as well!

About our guest:

Saundra is the owner of planning forever events, an event planning business based in Evansville, Indiana. For the last 16 years, she is known to create weddings and celebrations that become treasured memories forever, usually, with large liquor and bar tabs.

She entered the event planning world with many years of business experience under her cap; such as, corporate event planning for doctors and selling advertising/media campaigns to all ranges of businesses. Real-world business experience, managing expectations, budgeting, marketing, and strong sales skills, has helped her maintain her longevity. 

Saundra never dreamed of being a wedding planner. Instead, she fell into this crazy event world through luck and has stuck it out through grit and creating collaboration with other wedding professionals to produce outstanding events.

Ten years ago, Saundra was invited to speak at an intimate event planning conference. With her extensive background in sales training from her advertising job and a passion for the subject of selling to clients, Saundra developed the Get Real Sales Coach seminars to teach other industry professionals “How to Close the Deal”. 

She has brought her no-nonsense, straight-forward delivery to stages across the country, including Australia, at conferences such as the Association of Bridal Consultants, The Special Event, NACE, privately funded conferences, and her own workshops. Currently, she has elected to pull back from speaking engagements and applauds her friends and peers that are on the speaking circuit.

Saundra could go on and on about her published articles, but really, she knows no one really cares. She is, however, proud that for the past 13 years, she has worked for a local ABC morning lifestyle show, producing and delivering wedding content for live TV and co-anchoring special events such as the Royal Wedding.

In this episode, listeners will hear about:

Saundra's experience in the wedding industry How to best reach out to a wedding planner for the first time (and what not to do) What will get you on a wedding planner's shit list Tips for working with planners and their clients

Want to connect with Saundra?

Online: https://www.planningforever.com/ Instagram: @planningforever

This episode of This Week In Weddings is sponsored by Honeybook.