As a wedding planner you'll be responsible for organizing weddings and ensuring that the day runs smoothly, as well as acting as a calming influence on your clients.

Professional wedding planners offer several levels of service, such as:

Full wedding planning - organize every last detail of the wedding.
Partial wedding planning - be responsible for some aspects of the wedding while leaving others to the clients.
On-the-day management - provide support on the wedding day itself.
On a typical full wedding project, you'll start by discussing your clients' initial ideas and budget, then make a proposal setting out what you can do and how much you'll charge for your services (a fixed fee or sometimes a percentage of the total cost of the wedding).

Once you're hired, you'll draw up a master plan that sets out everything that needs to be done and by what deadline.

Tasks will include coming up with possible themes, suggesting and booking a venue, and negotiating with suppliers such as photographers, florists and caterers - always bearing in mind the amount of money your clients have set aside.

It's vital you have a comprehensive knowledge of venues, products and suppliers, so a lot of travel and background research is required.

In the run up to a wedding you'll need to be prepared to work long hours, including evenings and weekends - especially in the spring and summer when you're likely to have multiple projects ongoing. You'll also attend on the wedding day to oversee the logistics.

The reward is to see the happy couple enjoying their big day thanks to your planning and organization.

Wedding planners are often self-employed and, in this case, you'll have additional administrative tasks such as your accounts and promoting your services, usually by creating and maintaining a website.

You'll need to have these key skills if you want to be a successful wedding planner:

Calm under pressure - your clients will expect everything to be perfect. They may take some of their stress out on you, or a supplier might let you down at the last minute. You'll need to able to deal with all of this in a professional manner.
Communication skills - you'll have to advise your clients, but also listen to them. It's their day, not yours, and your job is to ensure everything is as they want it.
Creativity - whatever the theme or style favoured by your clients, you'll have to be creative and stay on top of the latest trends to put together a wedding to remember.
Strong research skills - It's your job to meet the brief of your client and so it's important that you know where to look for all the weird and wonderful requests you will have to meet.
Entrepreneurial spirit - you'll usually be responsible for marketing your services and growing your business.
Good with money - as well as managing your own finances, you'll be given responsibility for spending someone else's money. Staying within the budget you've been given is essential.
Organizational skills - juggling the many different elements of a wedding isn't an easy task and you'll need to be able to stay on top of it all. Not only that, but you're likely to have more than one wedding on the go.
Time management - there's no stricter deadline than a wedding day, so it's vital that you can get things done efficiently and effectively to the highest of standards.
Tough negotiation skills - being able to haggle down the price with suppliers and venues will ensure you get the best prices and keep your clients happy.
Wedding Bell is the top Wedding Planning and Management Company in Kolkata, with a 30 year old background in organizing successfully different kind of events.