Should you become a wedding planner as your career choice? Being a wedding planner is a very popular career for both men and women. There is something very special about being able to help engaged couples plan, design and produce the wedding of their dreams. Many times brides come home from the honeymoon eager to start a new career in wedding planning because they absolutely loved planning their own wedding.

When you become a wedding planner, it can be fun, exciting and rewarding. But how do you know if it’s the right fit for you?

Here are 9 traits of a great wedding planner:

You have ridiculously good organization skills – If you are planning ten weddings and there are at least 10 vendors for each wedding, you need to keep track of details for all 100 of those vendors PLUS manage the business if you are an entrepreneur. The sheer amount of paperwork and emails can be exhausting for even the most organized wedding planner. If your friends say your organization skills are borderline obsessive compulsive, wedding planning could be a good career choice for you.

Commitments are easy for you – Wedding planning is a long term project. You may be working with couples for a year or more to plan, design and produce their wedding celebration.  With your favorite clients, this is easy peasy. But with those challenging clients, it can be a major commitment of time and emotional energy to see the event through to the end.

You are capable of empathy – Being kind and compassionate to your client’s needs and problems is key to having a successful wedding planning career. This also applies to having empathy for the parents of the bride and groom. This is a big day for them too. Wedding planners need to be assertive yet kind and pleasant throughout the entire planning process and on the day of the wedding.

You can be ruthless when necessary – On the opposite side of empathy, you need to have thick skin at times. Dealing with bridezillas and drunk guests isn’t for the faint of heart. Can you take the heat without melting? You will need to be stern at times and be able to stand your ground when pushed to the limits.

Energetic is your middle name – Spending 10-15 hours on your feet on the day of the wedding is hard for anyone no matter how good of shape you are in. If you have energy to spare, this could be a great fit for you.  Also, if you don’t mind getting dirty and sweaty, that helps too. Wedding planners can be found on their hands and knees bustling a dress, picking up trash or racing across a venue to find the missing wedding programs before the ceremony begins.

You have self confidence – Do you have good self esteem? Will you be able to sell yourself as a professional wedding planner once you have some education and experience under your belt? If you aren’t confident in your ability to do a good job, why would a potential client be confidant enough to hire you?

You have a passion for planning – I can’t imagine anyone staying in this career if they weren’t passionate about it.  From photography to cakes to flowers and limousines, you have to care about every single aspect of the wedding to be a great wedding planner. If you don’t have the passion and show it to potential clients, it will be a major challenge to get hired.

Your have a thirst for knowledge – There are new trends, resources and ideas happening every day in the wedding industry. As a wedding planner, we have to be familiar with all the resources and trends so we can help our clients plan the best possible event.

Remaining calm in stressful situations is easy – If the cake melts, the band doesn’t show up, the tent falls over and it rains on the day of the wedding, can you remain calm, cool and collected while dealing with the worst situations? The last thing your client wants is to see is a stressed out wedding planner. Wedding planners need to adapt quickly to last minute catastrophes without panicking.

What do you think? Do you have the traits to become a wedding planner? Will it be a good career choice for you? We’d love to hear what you are thinking. Please share your thoughts in the comments!