By: May A.J Halasa, WPICC, DWC of The Wedding Haven in Dubai, UAE
We are wedding planners focusing on organizing and coordinating unique and creative weddings an events all over the UAE, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, Croatia, Spain, France, Malaysia, Turkey, Caribbean, and Mexico. The Wedding Haven, is a Premium-level award wedding planning firm owned and operated by May Abu Jaber-Halasa. An expert in the field of destination weddings, May is certified by the Wedding Planners Institute in Canada (WPIC), and the Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO).
You know you’re a hard-working and passionate wedding planner . . . you wake up everyday and give it your very best, no doubt about it.
All those blood, sweat, tears, sleepless nights, and overpriced coffee, it always amounts to something, right? Yet we all know there is always room for improvement. And really, understanding that part of working efficiently is looking to consistently improve. That is where we come in!
Planner-to-Planner, let us talk about some time-saving tools that we have found to be super helpful, and happen to follow religiously – if only to keep us sane! As of now, there is no better trio than you, your lists and your reminders! You are the best of friends. This cannot be stressed enough, Get! Organized!
Any tool that can help you comprehend all your information more effortlessly, and implement it more efficiently will result in giving you more free time and make you feel more confident about your day to day work. We have all had those days where we have forgotten a specific document, or forgot to send out an important email and then rush to do so. Hopefully you’ll also find these tips as helpful as we do:
1. Get yourself and your team on a shared calendar. Google calendar is free, easy to use, and super easy to set up.
2. Divide your daily tasks by categorizing their type using different colors (be it by pen or online). I tend to be a very visual person, as most creatives, so color coding excel sheets, hand written notes, or even getting different colored Post It notes comes a long way.
3. Stick to delegating a particular set of tasks to each member in your team. Everyone should do their best to achieve their task, and then look to assist fellow members once they’re done. As well, note that everyone has their own strengths, so try to delegate specific tasks based on that. It will increase overall productivity, and allow team members to finish tasks a bit quicker.
4. We all know how busy life can get, but we recommend taking the time to have in-person team meetings when possible at least twice per month! This will help you go over and discuss your performance during weddings and in some instances, it will help a lot more to brainstorm some great ideas face-to-face. I do find that getting that positive energy from my team helps me come up with creative ideas that were not even on my radar.
5. Use cloud storage services like Dropbox to keep record of all types of relevant information: Venues, suppliers and their rates, wedding gallery, styled shoots, proposal templates, budget sheets, the works! This might take a bit of work at the beginning, but trust me when I say, it is the absolute best method to never lose any of the crucial information that you will be needing whether it is for meetings with clients, venues, or suppliers.
6. Specifically on the day of coordination, we love to strap on our walkie talkies with a headset (no guests need to be hearing all that noise!) to ensure that everyone is listening in. This is great for when there are important changes in the timeline of the event, or if the head planner needs to urgently broadcast a message to all teammates.
Bottom line, we are always learning, constantly improving and tweaking our habits to their best potential. You cannot be the greatest wedding planner in just a few years, like any other skill or profession, it takes time to perfect your craft. The main point though is to remember to enjoy the process and allow yourself to grow! Those are truly the most memorable learning experiences.
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