LEGIT Five Ways to Make Money From Weddings

[June]

I’m going to go all mushy on you today and confess that I like weddings. Love them, in fact. Growing up, I remember my mom had a subscription to a bridal magazine, and they have these yearly special editions that are around four inches thick, chock-full of glamorous shoots of wedding gowns and bridesmaids’ dresses, luxury items for that special day, and ads upon glossy ads of jewelry, shoes, makeup, veils, accessories, and other wedding day accoutrements. I was hooked on those issues and would hoard them and cut up the pages to turn into bridal pegs for my own wedding one day.

Well, I got married years ago, but it was far cry from my pre-teen wedding collage. It was a simple ceremony, one I really enjoyed and found memorable because it was an intimate event filled with people and things I love. However, I must admit to still wanting to do a “collage” of other weddings - from simple to grand - based on my own childhood fantasies of how weddings should look, feel, and even smell and taste like!

Now that I’m a certified WAHM with the freedom to do what I want on my own time, I’ve been seriously thinking about embarking on some wedding projects. It’s a billion-dollar industry, after all, with over 6000 weddings being performed per day! It only makes sense to combine my passion for anything wedding-related, with my passion for making money from home. So I thought of five income-generating gigs I can do for weddings, and today I will share them with you.

1) Be a wedding blogger

I put this item up on the list first because I already do writing and guest blogging. However, as I’m not entirely sure yet if I have what it takes to go full-time on a wedding-themed blog, I personally would try to integrate the wedding stuff into my already set-up blog, but with a sub-category (maybe a June wedding month special?) so I can still have lots of space and time to write about it.

You can set up an affiliate blog dealing with all things that have to do with a wedding, including recommendations about where to buy what. You can also do honest reviews on bridal accessories, venues, catering, and other wedding details, then become an Amazon Associate so you can cash in on referral links if people go for your recommendations.

2) Design wedding invitations

Even if you think you aren’t the most creative person in the world, you can still design wedding invitations, thanks to a host of tools and resources now available for practically everything and everyone. For instance, social media sites like Pinterest are a treasure trove of wedding inspiration, and one I like to use because it reminds me of my own juvenile bridal peg-board (albeit a more sophisticated and grown-up version). And when it comes to designing, Zazzle is a great resource, and also one of my personal faves. They have awesome-looking templates for just about any theme or motif you can think of, from nautical to classic, but still with enough room to customize so that your client can feel unique and extra-special on their big day.

3) Plan parties (for both the bride and the groom!)

Now this is something I can definitely do, having planned parties for my friends, from bridal showers to baby showers, through to kiddie pool parties and just about any celebration in-between. And I’ve done them for free, too! I really don’t mind doing those unpaid, because they’re a labor of love for family and friends.

But this one requires some serious planning on both sides of the wedding party - for the bride and the groom - and so I must charge accordingly. I know I don’t have to be the maid of honor (or the groom’s man lol) to be able to contribute to a successful bridal or bachelor party. For instance, I can help with finding the best venue, catering, invitations, entertainment, and making people RSVP in secret (many of these things are supposed to be surprise events). I can help plan out a budget for these showers, and then source all that’s needed to put it together beautifully.

4) Be someone’s plus-one

I’ve been secretly toying with this idea because I know of so many people who have declined wedding invitations because they didn’t want to appear “empty-handed” on the event, especially if the reception invite indicates “we’ve reserved two seats for you!” I talked it over with my husband - my plans of being a professional plus-one, that is. At first, he laughed, until I showed him the Rent a Friend website. It’s not as ridiculous as it initially seems, to which he agreed. The site even details what the “Friend” can be rented out for: “attend a social event, wedding, or party with you. Hire someone to introduce you to new people, or someone to go to a movie or a restaurant with.” It’s harmless, it’s fun, and you can earn money for it just by pretending to be someone’s date!

5) Help organize the big day

...and then I put this one last on the list because I don’t want to launch a career haphazardly without any prior experience. I know I may have the kind of experience that’s great for smaller events like showers and kids’ parties, but a wedding is different. It’s special. Almost all wedding coordinators and planners I know have gotten training and certification for them to get to where they are, and they’re taken seriously for that. As for myself, I’m thinking of enrolling in a wedding planner certificate course once I get my ducks in a row. I want to be able to help people have the best wedding day and to do that, I will need professional training and tools.

In the meantime, I can just observe how my pro friends do it, pick up some lessons along the way, and contribute in any way I can to make a wedding special (such as performing the rest of the tips I put above).

The verdict?

I had someone plan my own wedding for me, and it turned out great. Now, I want to return the favor to others who might need help getting their own special day organized, and this list will hopefully be a good resource for those thinking of doing the same thing.

Your turn!

Are you married, and did someone plan your wedding and other details for you? Do you think there’s a career in wedding events planning or even blogging for you? Tell us what you think!

 

[NickBlaine]

Oh, wow. I had no idea you can actually make money from weddings! Specifically, other people’s weddings, haha! Being a bachelor, I really have no idea where to begin if this were to be a chosen side hustle for me. But I have attended my fair share of bachelor’s parties and if memory serves, I think most of them did have an organizer working behind the scenes. That, or the bachelors themselves knew how to throw a mean party without any assistance (which I truly doubt).

At any rate, I can’t see myself putting up a wedding blog, designing invitations, or helping pick out flowers, table linen, or stuff like that. Not that I would want to because I would most likely end up helping the engaged couple have the worst day of their life! But since weddings occur like a thousand times a day as June mentioned, I figured why not cash in on that money maker?

I am interested in being a “plus one” to weddings for those who don’t want to fly solo on that day. I looked up Rent a Friend and yep, it seems pretty straightforward to me. As of this writing, there are 621,585 Friends available for rent worldwide! And I see that it isn’t just about bringing a date to an event like weddings and whatnot. Sometimes, people just really need a friend to talk to, show them around a new place, have dinner with, or teach them a new skill, language, or other things. I’m kind of glad this service exists, especially during the holidays when the absence of loved ones can truly bring about loneliness. Even if it means paying $10 an hour to rent that companion!

 

[Naomi]

Hey June! Thanks for writing about making money through weddings. I guess the wedding industry will always be profitable, since people always be getting hitched. I once visited a wedding trade show during a work trip, and I can only describe the wedding industry as just that – an industry. There are so many businesses, so many professionals, committed to making your perfect day even more perfect.

Weddings are big business, and to get your slice of this huge multi-billion-dollar pie, I suggest going small. There’s no point competing with these giant companies with armies of stylists, planners and address books full of suppliers and artists.

What you want to do is keep your operations lean and small. And by that, I also mean go for small weddings. You won’t earn as much, of course. But it’s generally easier to get the foot in the door (metaphorically speaking – nobody wants a wedding crasher) with smaller projects. Try to focus on getting lots of small projects, whether you’re an organizer, stylist, or florist. Once you build your network, you can start scaling it up from there. You need to be careful, as the philosopher Darth Vader once said, not to choke on your aspirations.

 

[Burt Maklin]

This is a great post! With the wedding industry booming (I mean, was there ever a time it wasn’t booming? There will always be people getting married – it’s one of life’s inevitabilities like death and taxes) there are lots of opportunities for people to make money whenever couples tie the knot.

In college I used to design wedding invitations. It was a good racket, and the type of designs that go into a wedding invitation is pretty easy to do. Well, there are actually lots of new things you can do as far as design goes, but people always want “classy” and “elegant” which here translates to “boring” and “cliche.” But hey, not complaints here. Wedding invitations usually paid better than regular design jobs.

But here’s a tip for designers: always factor in the amount of revisions you do into the cost. It’s true for other design jobs, but it’s doubly true for wedding invitations. Brides and grooms tend to be really picky and fussy about their invitations. And that means you’ll have to do revision after revision after revision until you get it just right.

But if the couple like your work, chances are they’ll also get you to design other stuff like table numbers and programs. And that’s a huge bonus!