Greek Life and Event Planning
 

I've been toying with the idea lately of being an event planner as a career, possibly specializing in weddings or some other type of specific event.

I have the feeling that being Greek and the events of Greek Life will help immensely with this and aid me in building a portfolio.

The question is, how should I go about it? Just volunteer to work on a few events my first year and then ask to head up events my second year?

Or should I shoot straight for heading things up right away?

Just jump in with both feet and start heading them all up.

Questions:

1. Do you want to deal with whiny, bitchy, stressed out, unreasonable women frequently?

2. Do you want to work nights -- Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays? How will that affect your social life?

3. Are there many good weddings in Iowa?

Question:

You are a guy and want to be a wedding planner?

The only wedding planners I know stole another womans man, and had a thick accent.

assignment:

Rent the movie "The Wedding Planner" and then start saying " my shoe...my my shoe..."


then rent FATHER OF THE BRIDE and give me one good reason why Steve Martins idea of hamburgers in the backyard wasn't a good idea.


PS. C'mon Jestor. Really now. Who are you? You can PM me and tell me. I've GOT to know! I'll keep it a secret I promise.

Re: Greek Life and Event Planning
 

Are you even serious?
I love planning events but it is seriously hard work. Event Planning is NOTHING like the Wedding Planner. (Believe me you can't do this job in those heels)

If you are actually serious (and for some reason I'd be suprised if you were)...If I were you I would talk to an event planning firm in your area and see if you can do an unpaid internship. You will spend some time finding stuff, doing a lot of the detail leg work and getting a general idea of how it goes together.

Most of my job is not doing fun things, I do lots of contracts, research, billing, costs adjustments, proposals, consultations with the chef and operations managers. Only at the end of a few months do I get to adjust tables, choose linens, design floor plans, and do the set up.

I love the process, but unless you love it, the job can be very tough. It is def a weekend and nights sort of business, with days being in excess of 14-16 hours straight. For example, my wedding this weekend I will arrive onsite at about noon, the ceremony starts at 6pm, and I will get home probably about 1:30am.

The first thing they told me when I started my certificate program for event and meeting planning was DO NOT DO WEDDINGS unless you have an EXTREME amount of patience... and we weren't learning about wedding planning at all in these classes.

I like event planning. But I think you are better off planning fundraisers, special events, charity galas etc. I am trying to do that stuff. But it IS a lot of work. You can still manage to get angry people at your events and dealing with angry people while you've been on your feet for 12 hours... it takes a certain skill.

And it's not an easy field to get into... even if you planned XYZ philanthropy (believe me I've tried.)

I couldn't deal with Bridezilla and her mother to save my life. But some people can... not for me though.

What I'm doing now is volunteering for various non profits that have special events. That way I get offsite experience and meet people in the industry. I'll be helping getting sponsors for a telethon in a little bit.

Re: Re: Greek Life and Event Planning
 

Is this consistantly lucrative?

Thanks for the advice guys :) While I realized it was a significant amount of work and that nights and weekends would be a very large part of it, I wasn't aware that 14-16 hour days were involved with it. That has me rethinking it considerably. But I'll probably try and get at least a taste of it in my fraternity to see if I like it.

i am pretty sure there are grad school programs for this sort of thing... or atleast like schools for it

Event planning is a pretty emerging field (in the grand scheme of things) there are only a handful of schools that cover the industry in depth and it tends to be in Hospitality and Tourism schools. GW in DC has a Master's prog, through H&T for event planning, I've heard there is one other that is similar to the GW prog, but I have no idea where it is.

MATC (Madison (WI) Area Tech Col.) has an associate degree prog for event planning, but their contacts seemed to be in Milwaukee and Madison which are not the biggest hotbeds for event planning.

School may not be a sure-fire way into the field. The best thing you can do is get experience and diversify that experience, planning rush for four years just won't cut it, you need a variety of experiences and then someone to give you a break and let you pay your dues. Other areas to study and then get jobs where event planning is a focus are marketing, non-profits, alumni development, etc. These jobs may let you plan events, but with a more 9-5 sched and occasional evenings.

The pay when you start is mediocre, my first year out of college (with a number of internships and college experiences) I was making 26 my first year (not including health insurance). I start a new job next week doing tradeshows and conventions and I'll have a signifigant raise and fortunatly this time, I get my health insurance covered and 401K after a year. There are some very high paying event jobs out there.

I know the time seems like a lot but when you work on an event and put all this time into it and you finally get to see it happen it is pretty magical. To see the project from concept to reality for me is really the best part of the entire process, it is a high to see it really happen.

Let me know if you have more questions.

Depending on what kind of event planning you would decide to go into you have to be prepared to travel A LOT with very very long days - at LEAST 14 hours. When you travel for tradeshows you are typically working by 6:30am if not earlier and then don't get a chance to really relax until you get back to your hotel room which, in my experience, is 10pm or later. Then you get to do it all over again the next day. You may also have back to back events. I've seen people go from California for a 5 day event then to DC for 3 more days. Some people absolutely love that lifestyle but it wasn't for me. In the department that I worked in you needed little to no experience but in the others they wanted several years of hotel or tradeshow experience. I never saw anyone hired into the planning aspect without some sort of hotel background. The company I worked for has been around for 30+ years and just keeps growing. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.