How to become a Virtual Assistant for Wedding Planners and Photographers

I’m constantly shouting from the rooftops that you need to have a vision for who your ideal client is. With this in mind, have you ever considered becoming a Virtual Assistant for Wedding Planners or another Wedding professional?

Believe it or not, the wedding industry is one that makes use great use out of Virtual Assistants like us. The best part is, their need for our support is about to explode.

Need convincing? Well, as a result of weddings being rescheduled, cancelled or delayed in 2020, the number of weddings in the US are anticipated to grow from 1.9 Million in 2019 to an estimated 2.5 Million in 2022.

That’s the highest it’s been since 1984!

So if you grew up watching “Say Yes to the Dress” and “The Wedding Planner” like I did, then I encourage you to consider serving Wedding Professionals with your VA services.

I know that as a newbie VA though, it can be hard to understand exactly how and why they work with Virtual Assistants in the first place. That’s why today, I want to dig deeper and share a little more about what it looks like to be a VA in this niche!

What is a Wedding Professional?

A wedding professional is anyone who is hired by a couple assist in the planning and/or execution their wedding day. You probably know of a lot of these, even if you’ve never planned a wedding yourself before!

Here’s some examples of the most recognized ones:

• Bridal Dress Shops
• Photographer
• Wedding Planner
• DJ / Band
• Makeup and Hair Stylists
• Venue Planners
• Caterers
• Rental Services

The two that most commonly hire Virtual Assistants are Wedding Photographers and Wedding Planners.

Why do Wedding Planners and Photographers hire Virtual Assistants?

Most times, the Wedding Vendors that work hard to create their couple’s special day are single person teams. This means that it’s just them doing everything.

Think about it: Most Wedding Photographers are of course taking photos at their client’s weddings, but they’re also posting on Instagram, sending contracts, doing invoicing, bookkeeping, and so much more.

Which means that when their business takes off, they find that they desperately need business support.

Enter: Virtual Assistants!

It’s really easy for that solopreneur Wedding Pro to simply choose a handful of tasks they want to outsource and find a VA to help them do it. That’s why Virtual Assistants for Wedding Planners are exploding right now!

Wedding professionals really tend to benefit from the ease of hiring a VA because they can get the support they need really quickly and they don’t have to worry about the long-term commitment or legalities of hiring an employee.

Wedding vendors can hand off the tasks that suck up their time, and instead focus on giving their clients the best experience possible. Which in turn allows them to raise their prices and step into the “luxury” wedding market where they can make even more.

Common Tasks of a Wedding Virtual Assistant

So what types of services do Wedding VA’s offer? Great question.

There’s a really wide variety of what Wedding Planners and Photographers request, based on their business’s needs.

However, these are some of the most common areas where they need extra support:

1. Email Inbox Management
2. Calendar Management
3. Sending Proposals
4. Sending Invoices
5. Instagram Management
6. Pinterest Management
7. Blog Writing
8. CRM / Workflow Setups
9. Photo Editing
10. Networking with Vendors

As you can see, these aren’t wildly technical tasks. But they are the things that usually get pushed down a Wedding Pro’s to-do list when things get busy.

When that happens, they’re loosing out on the long-term growth opportunities that these marketing and customer service tasks give them. That’s why they’re happy and willing to invest in someone else to take them off their plate and help them grow.

Read Next: The Ultimate List of Virtual Assistant Services

How to know if you’ll enjoy working as a Wedding Virtual Assistant

The million dollar question!

The beauty of becoming a Virtual Assistant is that you have the power to customize your business to what works for you and what you enjoy doing. That’s why it’s important to recognize how partnering with Wedding professionals will impact your daily work life.

If you find yourself resonating with the following, you’ll more than likely love being a Virtual Assistant for Wedding Photographers (or any other wedding pro!)

You love simple, repetitive tasks

Wedding pros do a lost of “wash, rinse, repeat” type work. Yes, every wedding and every couple is unique and special in their own way. But when it all comes down to it, these business owners are doing essentially the same tasks for every wedding they’re booked for. So they copy and paste the same process anywhere from 10-30+ times a year. So you have to love reciprocity in your work.

You Love Systems + Planning

When a Wedding Professional partners with a couple, they are essentially helping them plan the biggest event in their lives (aka: a system). So you have to love systems, project planning and be extremely detail oriented – Because you better believe that the bride will notice when you don’t have the fork on the left side of the plate at the reception like she asked. 😉

You’re Customer Service Oriented

We tend to be naturally customer service oriented people as Virtual Assistants, but you really have to be if you move into the wedding space. Wedding planners and photographers really like to show their appreciation and love for their clients, so it’s important that you hold those same values as they do in wanting the best for the couple.

You can’t get enough Marketing

One of the first things that Virtual Assistants for Wedding Professionals usually take on when they get hired is all the marketing for the business. Blogging, Pinterest, Instagram: All that jazz! So it’s important that you love to create content on (at least a very basic level) in order to execute it for your clients.

You’re Naturally Empathetic

For your client’s clients (aka: the couple) this is one of the most emotionally exciting and special times in their lives. So it takes a very empathetic and understanding person to be able to remember that yes, your client is running a business and needs to make money. But at the same time, this is a very emotionally charged business transaction that your client holds with them. Believe me: it can get dicey!

You Love love!

This one is pretty obvious, but if you love weddings in general – You’ll probably love working with Wedding Pros! If you can see yourself gushing over photos of the couple every time your client sends them over to you for posting or if you already follow a ton of wedding photographers on instagram… chances are this is the niche for you! 🙂

How to find Wedding Professional Clients?

There’s a lot of different ways to connect with Wedding Planners and Photographers that might need your support!

Facebook Groups

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Facebook Groups reserved especially for Wedding Professionals of all kinds. Look through the different groups, join some that feel like a good fit for you and start networking with the people in the community! You’ll be surprised at how valuable building connections online like this can be.

Instagram

This is the platform of choice for most Wedding Photographers because it’s extremely visual. Their entire profile feed acts as a sort of portfolio for them. So it’s really easy to make connections with them on the platform since they’re already there!

Connect Directly With Venues

The venue is usually the first step in the wedding planning process, so they always have a list of referrals they provide for couples for all the other services they’ll need for their big day (photographer, planner, Dj, etc). Connect with venues directly and share about your services. Let them know that if there is anyone on their referrals list that needs business support – You’re available!

Straight Up Ask for Referrals

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: Wedding vendors in a given local area know all the other Wedding vendors in their area. So don’t be afraid to let your current clients or any of the connections you have know that you are accepting clients. They’ll have people in their network to share the you with!

I hope this gave you a little insight into the life of a Virtual Assistant for Wedding Professionals. Let me know if you’ve considered this niche before!