March 18, 2025 • 11 mins
Wedding planners—are you cutting event management from your services? BIG mistake.
If you’ve hit that “fully booked” stage and think the only way to scale is by eliminating event management, I need you to STOP. Cutting it means losing cash flow, vendor referrals, and a built-in training ground for your team.
But here’s the good news: you don’t have to do it yourself. In this episode, I’ll walk you through how to keep event management as a strategic part of your business—so you can scale faster, build a stronger reputation, and create predictable income WITHOUT adding more to your plate.
Let’s make your business a money-printing machine. Apply to work with us inside Wedding Pro CEO at weddingproceo.com/application, and let’s build your dream team!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brandee Gaar (00:00):
I see this all the time with wedding planners
who are trying to scale.
They hit that point wherethey're fully booked, they're
drowning in weddings, and theythink the only way to grow is to
cut event management completely.
because let's be real.
It feels like the entrylevel service, right?
Something you only did whenyou were first starting out.
But here's the thing, droppingevent management is one of the
(00:20):
biggest mistakes you can make.
If you wanna scale faster, builda stronger reputation in your
market, and keep cash flowingconsistently in your business.
Hey there, CEO.
You're listening to theWedding Pro CEO Podcast.
The podcast to helpyou grow and scale your
profitable wedding business.
I'm your host, Brandee Gaar,and over the last 17 years,
I've grown one of the largestplanning firms in Orlando,
(00:42):
Florida, grossing morethan $6 million in revenue.
Now I'm one of the industry.
Top business coaches and mymission is to break the industry
standards and change the way thewedding industry does business.
In today's episode, I'mbreaking down why Keeping
event management in youroffers strategically can be the
secret to growing your businesswithout overloading yourself.
(01:03):
And the best part, you don'thave to do it all yourself.
Okay, so first things first.
Let's talk about howthis mistake happens
in the first place.
You start your business andyou do what most planners do.
You start with event management.
Because it's lower cost, it'seasy for clients to buy, and
then boom, all of a suddenyou're getting experience
making money and startingto be referred all over town
because you've built thisreally great reputation.
(01:25):
And then success hits.
Suddenly you are booked outand full service clients are
knocking at your door and youdon't have any availability.
So what do you do?
You cut event management to makeroom for all of these luxury
clients coming your way, andyou're like, yeah, Brandee,
I just solved that problem.
No more event management forme, luxury clients all the way.
So you cut it, event managementgone, and you start to
(01:48):
tell yourself the story.
I only wanna work withhigh-end luxury clients.
you justify it bysaying, I don't have
time to work with budgetconscious couples anymore.
And before you know it,your pipeline dries up.
Because here's the partyou didn't realize.
One event management wasfueling your sales funnel.
You were being referred bypartner vendors and venues
(02:08):
all over town that wereconsistently driving leads
into your sales funnel.
Number two, it was a trainingground for your team.
You could have used thoseevent management weddings to
train a team so that you couldslowly start to step into
those bigger weddings yourselfand really own your role as
the CEO of your business.
And number three, eventmanagement weddings we're
(02:28):
keeping your cash flow steady.
It feels so good whena full service wedding
comes along and pays youthis large sum of money.
But full service weddings aremuch fewer to be had, and so
you go through peaks and valleysof cash flow when you don't
have those event managementweddings there to consistently
fill your cash bucket.
And you threw it all away.
No shade.
(02:49):
CEO.
I have seen countless weddingplanners that come into Wedding
Pro, CEO to work with us, thefirst thing they say is, I
don't offer event managementanymore, but I'm not sure
why I'm not making any money.
And we're like, we know exactlywhy, let's add it back in.
But we're not just gonnatell you to add it back in.
We wanna help you do it ina really healthy way that's
actually gonna help yourbusiness to make more profit
(03:09):
and to scale you into thathealthy work life balance.
So let's talk about howwe're gonna fix this mistake.
The good news is it'sreally easy to add event
management back intoyour service offerings.
And the even better newsis you're never gonna
do one again yourself.
The secret (03:24):
to build a team, Your event management weddings
should not be run by you.
Once you get to this point.
You will never do an eventmanagement wedding again.
We are gonna build up astrategic team to be able
to run these for you createthat consistent cash flow.
This is how we are going to onetrain up and coming planners to
join your team and really helpthem to learn how to run the
(03:46):
last 60 days of coordinationfor any of the bigger weddings
that they will eventually do.
Learning this piece of thepuzzle is essential to becoming
a great wedding planner, so whenyou get rid of event management.
You have no training groundto be able to bring new
planners into your team.
We wanna bring new plannersin, let them learn on event
management, learn how to keepthat calm, cool exterior on
(04:07):
wedding day even when everythingis burning down around them.
And we want them tounderstand the logistics
of running day of onsiteat a coordination wedding.
Keeping event management aspart of your service offerings
also allows you to keep yourbrand name front and center
with all of those venuesand partner vendors in town.
Think about it when you'redoing 20 or 30 event management
(04:29):
weddings every singleyear, that's that many more
opportunities that you have toget your brand at the venues
to work with, the teams ofvendors that you get to work
with every single weekend.
And that many more opportunitiesfor five star reviews for
your company to receive.
And keeping event managementas part of your service
offerings also allows youto keep predictable income.
(04:51):
We talked about those big fullservice weddings are so fun
when you book them, but theyare so much fewer that you're
gonna get as bookings, and thatreally causes that peak and
valley cash flow that so manywedding planners go through.
When you offer eventmanagement, that's gonna allow
you to have two to three newbookings every single month.
And while there're a smalleramount, it's predictable
(05:13):
income, it's income thatcan help cover your break
even every single month.
It's income that helps coveryour fixed expenses, and we
really want to allow that foryou so that you as the CEO.
Can be focused on getting someof those higher end weddings
that are gonna be kind of thegravy to your cashflow and are
gonna allow you to flex yourdesign muscles while still
(05:34):
having your team out everysingle weekend in these venues.
This CEO is how thebiggest planning firms
scale their business.
They don't kill offevent management.
They delegate it out.
If you're listening to this andyou're like, Brandee, listen, I
hear you, but the math does not.
Math I, it just doesn'tmake sense for me to
keep event management.
It's so stressful,it's overwhelming.
(05:55):
I don't reallywanna build a team.
Let me reign you back in.
I want you to dial inand really listen to me.
I'm gonna break down themath for you right now.
Let's say that you charge$2,500 for your event management
service, and you can book.
30 of those in a yearbecause you stop turning
those clients away and youactually take them on, right?
So 30 event managementweddings times $2,500 is
(06:18):
gonna be $75,000 in additionalrevenue that flows through to
your bottom line this year.
Now I want you to imagine thatyou have an associate team
that's running those weddingsand you pay them 40% of the
total package price, which ifyou haven't heard this in a
past episode, that is the goalnumber that we want to pay
(06:38):
our planners that work for us.
40% of what you chargeto the customer.
That way, 60% is flowingthrough to the business.
So now you've got $75,000in additional revenue
coming through into yourbusiness, and $30,000 going
out to pay those associatesto plan those weddings.
So $45,000.
In profit that's flowing throughto your business, all because
(07:02):
you added event management backinto your service offerings.
You actually were excitedto take them because you
are not the one goingout every single weekend.
now your brand has 30additional weddings this
year for Google reviews.
For networking withvenues and for networking
with those vendor teams.
Think about the reality of that.
That's just not$45,000 in profit.
(07:23):
That is a whole pile on ofamazing opportunities for you
to capitalize on, all becauseyou added event management back
into your service offerings.
Wedding Pro.. This is whatI call scaling like a CEO
because you're not just runninga business, you are scaling
a money printing machine.
Here's the thing, CEO.
If you want to scale pastsix figures, you have to stop
(07:44):
thinking like a solopreneurand you have to start thinking
bigger event management isnot a low budget service.
It is literally a strategyfor scale and growth.
So if you're listening to thisepisode and you're like, okay,
Brandee, tell me exactly whatI need to do right now because
I got rid of event management.
Number one, I want you to addit back in, get it back on
your website, add it back toyour pricing brochure, and make
(08:06):
sure you tell the venues andvendor partners in your local
network, Hey, we are addingevent management back in.
We would love to workwith you if you have some
perfect couples for us.
Number two, if you're like,yes, that sounds great.
I wanna do this.
I believe you.
I know it's gonna work, butI am already tapped out, like
my availability is at a max.
It's time to hire a team.
And if that's where youare, I want to chat.
(08:27):
Drop into my dms.
I'm at BrandeeGaar on Instagram.
Let's chat because this isliterally what we do inside of
Wedding Pro, CEO, and we helpyou to build out that strategic
team inside of our InnerCircle program, and we're gonna
help you two x your revenuewithin a year by building
out that strategic team.
And number three, if youwanna scale, I want you to
start thinking like a CEO.
(08:47):
Really take some time thisweek to think, do I still have
a solopreneur mindset or am Istarting to think like a CEO?
You have to get pastthat mindset that's
keeping you small.
And if this episode resonatedwith you, and you're like, yes,
I am in, tell me what to do.
I want to understand betterabout how I can create this
money printing machine formy wedding planning business.
(09:08):
I want to invite you toapply to work with us
inside of Wedding Pro CEO.
You can head over to weddingpro ceo.com/application.
Fill out a few questionsfor us, and then book a time
to talk with our coachingteam about your business.
We're gonna work throughwhere the gaps are in your
business, where you need themost help, whether that's
building a team or with theprofit on your packages, or it
(09:30):
could be sales or marketing.
We're gonna identify those gapsand we're gonna work through
what the solutions are for youspecifically in your business
to really close up those gaps.
This is completely free.
It's our way tohelp the industry.
We absolutely love doing these.
So head over to weddingpro ceo.com/application
and I will see you there.
I see this all the time with wedding planners
who are trying to scale.
They hit that point wherethey're fully booked, they're
drowning in weddings, and theythink the only way to grow is to
cut event management completely.
because let's be real.
It feels like the entrylevel service, right?
Something you only did whenyou were first starting out.
But here's the thing, droppingevent management is one of the
(00:20):
biggest mistakes you can make.
If you wanna scale faster, builda stronger reputation in your
market, and keep cash flowingconsistently in your business.
Hey there, CEO.
You're listening to theWedding Pro CEO Podcast.
The podcast to helpyou grow and scale your
profitable wedding business.
I'm your host, Brandee Gaar,and over the last 17 years,
I've grown one of the largestplanning firms in Orlando,
(00:42):
Florida, grossing morethan $6 million in revenue.
Now I'm one of the industry.
Top business coaches and mymission is to break the industry
standards and change the way thewedding industry does business.
In today's episode, I'mbreaking down why Keeping
event management in youroffers strategically can be the
secret to growing your businesswithout overloading yourself.
(01:03):
And the best part, you don'thave to do it all yourself.
Okay, so first things first.
Let's talk about howthis mistake happens
in the first place.
You start your business andyou do what most planners do.
You start with event management.
Because it's lower cost, it'seasy for clients to buy, and
then boom, all of a suddenyou're getting experience
making money and startingto be referred all over town
because you've built thisreally great reputation.
(01:25):
And then success hits.
Suddenly you are booked outand full service clients are
knocking at your door and youdon't have any availability.
So what do you do?
You cut event management to makeroom for all of these luxury
clients coming your way, andyou're like, yeah, Brandee,
I just solved that problem.
No more event management forme, luxury clients all the way.
So you cut it, event managementgone, and you start to
(01:48):
tell yourself the story.
I only wanna work withhigh-end luxury clients.
you justify it bysaying, I don't have
time to work with budgetconscious couples anymore.
And before you know it,your pipeline dries up.
Because here's the partyou didn't realize.
One event management wasfueling your sales funnel.
You were being referred bypartner vendors and venues
(02:08):
all over town that wereconsistently driving leads
into your sales funnel.
Number two, it was a trainingground for your team.
You could have used thoseevent management weddings to
train a team so that you couldslowly start to step into
those bigger weddings yourselfand really own your role as
the CEO of your business.
And number three, eventmanagement weddings we're
(02:28):
keeping your cash flow steady.
It feels so good whena full service wedding
comes along and pays youthis large sum of money.
But full service weddings aremuch fewer to be had, and so
you go through peaks and valleysof cash flow when you don't
have those event managementweddings there to consistently
fill your cash bucket.
And you threw it all away.
No shade.
(02:49):
CEO.
I have seen countless weddingplanners that come into Wedding
Pro, CEO to work with us, thefirst thing they say is, I
don't offer event managementanymore, but I'm not sure
why I'm not making any money.
And we're like, we know exactlywhy, let's add it back in.
But we're not just gonnatell you to add it back in.
We wanna help you do it ina really healthy way that's
actually gonna help yourbusiness to make more profit
(03:09):
and to scale you into thathealthy work life balance.
So let's talk about howwe're gonna fix this mistake.
The good news is it'sreally easy to add event
management back intoyour service offerings.
And the even better newsis you're never gonna
do one again yourself.
The secret (03:24):
to build a team, Your event management weddings
should not be run by you.
Once you get to this point.
You will never do an eventmanagement wedding again.
We are gonna build up astrategic team to be able
to run these for you createthat consistent cash flow.
This is how we are going to onetrain up and coming planners to
join your team and really helpthem to learn how to run the
(03:46):
last 60 days of coordinationfor any of the bigger weddings
that they will eventually do.
Learning this piece of thepuzzle is essential to becoming
a great wedding planner, so whenyou get rid of event management.
You have no training groundto be able to bring new
planners into your team.
We wanna bring new plannersin, let them learn on event
management, learn how to keepthat calm, cool exterior on
(04:07):
wedding day even when everythingis burning down around them.
And we want them tounderstand the logistics
of running day of onsiteat a coordination wedding.
Keeping event management aspart of your service offerings
also allows you to keep yourbrand name front and center
with all of those venuesand partner vendors in town.
Think about it when you'redoing 20 or 30 event management
(04:29):
weddings every singleyear, that's that many more
opportunities that you have toget your brand at the venues
to work with, the teams ofvendors that you get to work
with every single weekend.
And that many more opportunitiesfor five star reviews for
your company to receive.
And keeping event managementas part of your service
offerings also allows youto keep predictable income.
(04:51):
We talked about those big fullservice weddings are so fun
when you book them, but theyare so much fewer that you're
gonna get as bookings, and thatreally causes that peak and
valley cash flow that so manywedding planners go through.
When you offer eventmanagement, that's gonna allow
you to have two to three newbookings every single month.
And while there're a smalleramount, it's predictable
(05:13):
income, it's income thatcan help cover your break
even every single month.
It's income that helps coveryour fixed expenses, and we
really want to allow that foryou so that you as the CEO.
Can be focused on getting someof those higher end weddings
that are gonna be kind of thegravy to your cashflow and are
gonna allow you to flex yourdesign muscles while still
(05:34):
having your team out everysingle weekend in these venues.
This CEO is how thebiggest planning firms
scale their business.
They don't kill offevent management.
They delegate it out.
If you're listening to this andyou're like, Brandee, listen, I
hear you, but the math does not.
Math I, it just doesn'tmake sense for me to
keep event management.
It's so stressful,it's overwhelming.
(05:55):
I don't reallywanna build a team.
Let me reign you back in.
I want you to dial inand really listen to me.
I'm gonna break down themath for you right now.
Let's say that you charge$2,500 for your event management
service, and you can book.
30 of those in a yearbecause you stop turning
those clients away and youactually take them on, right?
So 30 event managementweddings times $2,500 is
(06:18):
gonna be $75,000 in additionalrevenue that flows through to
your bottom line this year.
Now I want you to imagine thatyou have an associate team
that's running those weddingsand you pay them 40% of the
total package price, which ifyou haven't heard this in a
past episode, that is the goalnumber that we want to pay
(06:38):
our planners that work for us.
40% of what you chargeto the customer.
That way, 60% is flowingthrough to the business.
So now you've got $75,000in additional revenue
coming through into yourbusiness, and $30,000 going
out to pay those associatesto plan those weddings.
So $45,000.
In profit that's flowing throughto your business, all because
(07:02):
you added event management backinto your service offerings.
You actually were excitedto take them because you
are not the one goingout every single weekend.
now your brand has 30additional weddings this
year for Google reviews.
For networking withvenues and for networking
with those vendor teams.
Think about the reality of that.
That's just not$45,000 in profit.
(07:23):
That is a whole pile on ofamazing opportunities for you
to capitalize on, all becauseyou added event management back
into your service offerings.
Wedding Pro.. This is whatI call scaling like a CEO
because you're not just runninga business, you are scaling
a money printing machine.
Here's the thing, CEO.
If you want to scale pastsix figures, you have to stop
(07:44):
thinking like a solopreneurand you have to start thinking
bigger event management isnot a low budget service.
It is literally a strategyfor scale and growth.
So if you're listening to thisepisode and you're like, okay,
Brandee, tell me exactly whatI need to do right now because
I got rid of event management.
Number one, I want you to addit back in, get it back on
your website, add it back toyour pricing brochure, and make
(08:06):
sure you tell the venues andvendor partners in your local
network, Hey, we are addingevent management back in.
We would love to workwith you if you have some
perfect couples for us.
Number two, if you're like,yes, that sounds great.
I wanna do this.
I believe you.
I know it's gonna work, butI am already tapped out, like
my availability is at a max.
It's time to hire a team.
And if that's where youare, I want to chat.
(08:27):
Drop into my dms.
I'm at BrandeeGaar on Instagram.
Let's chat because this isliterally what we do inside of
Wedding Pro, CEO, and we helpyou to build out that strategic
team inside of our InnerCircle program, and we're gonna
help you two x your revenuewithin a year by building
out that strategic team.
And number three, if youwanna scale, I want you to
start thinking like a CEO.
(08:47):
Really take some time thisweek to think, do I still have
a solopreneur mindset or am Istarting to think like a CEO?
You have to get pastthat mindset that's
keeping you small.
And if this episode resonatedwith you, and you're like, yes,
I am in, tell me what to do.
I want to understand betterabout how I can create this
money printing machine formy wedding planning business.
(09:08):
I want to invite you toapply to work with us
inside of Wedding Pro CEO.
You can head over to weddingpro ceo.com/application.
Fill out a few questionsfor us, and then book a time
to talk with our coachingteam about your business.
We're gonna work throughwhere the gaps are in your
business, where you need themost help, whether that's
building a team or with theprofit on your packages, or it
(09:30):
could be sales or marketing.
We're gonna identify those gapsand we're gonna work through
what the solutions are for youspecifically in your business
to really close up those gaps.
This is completely free.
It's our way tohelp the industry.
We absolutely love doing these.
So head over to weddingpro ceo.com/application
and I will see you there.
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