6 Easy Self Care Tips For Wedding Planners That You Can Start Today

tips for wedding planners
tips for wedding planners

As wedding planners, we work hard and pour ourselves into planning and designing weddings. All too often, wedding planners give their time and their energy to their clients and their business, without taking time to recharge and relax. Over time little shortcuts to get more out of the day like getting fast food take-out for dinner, skipping a yoga class or having an extra glass of wine can add up and take a toll on your wellness and mental health. It is important to take care of yourself so you can be your best for your clients.

 Here are six easy self care tips you can start doing today:

  1. Meditation is a wonderful way to calm an anxious mind, re-focus and feel refreshed. As little as five minutes a day can make a huge difference in how you feel. Meditation doesn’t have to be structured, planned out or led by a live person. There are apps for your phone (such as Simple Habit, Calm and Headspace) that make it easy to get started and meditate anywhere. Try it before you get out of bed, in the middle of the day when you need a break or at night before going to sleep.
  2. Eating well is essential to taking care of yourself. What they say is true, you are what you eat. If you eat heavy and unhealthy foods, you will feel sluggish and unhealthy. Don’t skip meals, even when you are tempted to by a fast approaching wedding date. Be sure to include plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables in your meals. You can cut these all up on Sunday and that will make it easy to grab and snack on during the week. Meal subscription services such as SunBasket and Green Chef make it easy to quickly cook delicious and healthy meals at home, without spending time grocery shopping.
  3. Regular exercise has many wellness and physical health benefits. Exercise gets your blood pumping, burns calories, takes your mind off of work, increases your energy during the day and helps you sleep better at night. A bonus of exercising outside in the sun is getting vitamin D from the sun. Even if you can’t squeeze in a full workout every day, a ten minute walk around the block is a great way to get away from your computer, take in fresh air and clear your mind. If you need to exercise inside, check out the free app FitOn for tons of different workouts.
  4. A good night of sleep can have a tremendous impact on your day, focus and overall well being. Going to bed at the same time each night and waking up at the same time each morning will help you wake up more easily and feel less tired. When you have a good night of sleep you feel ready for the day, are more creative, are more focused and can do your best work for your wedding clients.
  5. Journaling is the perfect place to jot down your thoughts for the day, reflect on what brought you joy and be grateful for the big and small things in your life. I’m not talking about a Dear Diary type of journal here. I’m talking about a gratitude journal and acknowledging the positive pieces (big and small) of your day and life. This is very powerful for mental wellness and self-care. Even on days when your clients are freaking out because they have to think about a rain plan, it’s important to reflect on the positive pieces of that day and be thankful. If you don’t know where to start, just write: I am thankful for_______(fill in the blank) over and over. You’ll be surprised how easy it will become to list out what you are grateful for.
  6.  Spend time with your friends and family that bring you joy (and skip the ones that don’t). As wedding planners, we are often at our computer for hours alone and work at home. People are social creatures. Interacting with other people helps to stimulate new ideas, build relationships and feel part of a community. Be sure to make time in your schedule to spend with your friends and family that uplift you and make you feel good. Going to dinner or a hike together is a great way to turn off work and spend time together. 

Do you want more quick self care tips?
>>> Grab my free list 25 Ways To Recharge During Wedding Season (or any time)

Lindsey is the go-to marketing and business strategist for wedding planners who want to be fully booked with wonderful clients. She provides doable, focused, action steps based on her many years as a wedding planner. Based in Napa, Calif. she is a Bay Area native with a passion for outdoor adventures and travel. Lindsey’s weddings and expertise are featured on CNN.com, The New York Times, Style Me Pretty, Brides, The Knot Yours Truly book and more. Check out her wedding planner coaching business and get marketing tips for wedding planners on her website lovelydaystrategy.com

How To Be Inclusive In Your Proposal Planning Marketing

LGBTQ marriage proposal
LGBTQ marriage proposal

June is Pride Month, and it is the perfect opportunity to talk about inclusion. When you plan marriage proposals, the majority of your clients will be men proposing to women. However, you will also have same sex couples asking you for your services and you want to make sure that your messaging feels inclusive to them as well.

One thing that has always made me sad and cringe is when a person asks me, “You are ok with same sex couples right?” It literally hurts my heart that someone has to ASK if I am OK with THEIR choice on who they love. So I really do my best to use gender neutral pronouns in my marketing on my website, The Heart Bandits.

I am not always perfect, but when I am writing copy on my Proposal Planning website, I try to always say “they” instead of “he” or “she.” And I always try to say “partner” instead of “girlfriend.” It doesn’t make any difference to the heterosexual couple, but it makes ALL the difference when someone from the LGBTQ community is reading my messaging and doesn’t feel alienated.

Here is an example of how I do it! Let’s take The Heart Bandit’s Mission Statement for example:

“Our mission is to create a marriage proposal that is as unique as your love story.  We ensure that when your partner experiences their proposal, they know that it was created just for them and more importantly, it was created by you.  To do that, we use a holistic approach in our proposal planning.  We don’t just focus on your partner and what they would like, we also focus on what makes you unique as a couple.  We also take great care to focus on what is unique about you, the Proposer, so that the proposal is truly reflective of your style and persona.

See how easy that is? Just a small change in your marketing can really make a difference for someone else.

If you want to learn more tips on how to market to the proposer, I am actually doing a Facebook Live on Tuesday, June 16th at 10am PST. Here is a link and you can set up a reminder.

My goal is to teach Wedding Planners and Entrepreneurs how to market to the client looking to propose to their partner. I am a Proposal Planning coach that has been planning proposals for a decade and now I am here to help you get started on your Proposal Planning journey. If you are ready to get serious about starting your Proposal Planning company or adding it on as a service, I have created a completely FREE resource for you called, “4 Things You Can Start Doing TODAY To Start Proposal Planning.”

I can’t wait to see what you do with what you learn!

Why Saying You’re A Proposal Planner Isn’t Enough

epic proposal idea
How Mike proposed to Candace with an intimate New York floral rooftop proposal at Ink48 and planned by The Heat Bandits Photo credit: © Petronella Photography http://bypetronella.com

I’ve been in this industry a long time. 10 years to be exact. I have seen many “Proposal Planners” come, and many of them go. The reason that I think they end up quitting is this. A lot of people think that you can simply add “Proposal Planning” services to your website and you will start getting Proposal clients. But the truth is, if you want to become a Proposal Planner, that’s not enough.

The reality is that there are several very reputable Proposal Planning companies on the market now. So if you want to throw your hat in the ring, you are going to have to do a lot more than just use the term on your website.

Now, I know what you might be thinking.

You might be thinking, UGH, this is too much work. But the reality is that anything worth having does take some time and effort to build. But successfully marketing Proposal Planning doesn’t have to be some huge, impossible, overwhelming undertaking.

In fact, in my upcoming course Proposal Planning Formula™ I will teach you everything you need to know about successfully marketing Proposal Planning.

But for now, here are some questions I want you to think about when you are wondering why you aren’t getting enough or any Proposal Planning clients? Get out a piece of paper and write the answer to these questions.

  1. Does your website and social media really speak to that audience? If not, what are some ways you can start doing that?
  2. Are you addressing their pain points? Do you understand their pain points?
  3. Do your assets make it seem like Proposal Planning is an afterthought?
  4. What would make someone trust you to plan their proposal versus other established companies?

Now I want you to really spend some time thinking how you can improve on your answer for each section.

In my upcoming course, I teach you how to properly address all of these things. But this is something you can also start doing on your own if you really want to create a transformation in your business.

I also created a FREE resource for you to help you get started on your Proposal Planning journey. It’s called 4 things you can start doing TODAY to start Proposal Planning. If you are serious about Proposal Planning, this is a great place to start.

I’d also love to invite you to our Proposal Planning Academy Tribe where you can ask questions and get support along your journey! When you join, leave a message letting us know you downloaded the resource and tell us what you are looking for in a Proposal Planning Coach.

I’ll see you there!

Why Proposal Planning Is On The Rise

how to be a proposal planner
how to be a proposal planner

I remember starting The Heart Bandits, my marriage proposal planning company.  I started it back in 2010 and every time I would tell someone that I was a Proposal Planner, they would laugh or roll their eyes.  “A PROPOSAL Planner?” they would ask in a mocking tone, “People actually PAY you for that?”.  My husband and I would be interviewed by media and people would leave mean comments about how Proposal Planning was a joke and that no one in their right mind would pay for such a service.

Fast forward 10 years later and hiring a Proposal Planner is now a social norm and the industry is growing faster than I can believe.  Daily, I receive emails from lovers of love asking me how to become a Proposal Planner.  They contact me from around the world telling me that they want to start a Proposal Planning company in Colombia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc. and they want me to teach them how to do it.


But WHY is the industry growing so fast and why should you claim your stake in it now? Here are the 3 reasons the industry is blowing up!

1) Social Media Influence 

Before social media, if someone proposed to their partner, only their closest friends would know how that person proposed.  Let me tell you, things have absolutely changed!  Now, when you propose, getting a photo of the moment is expected.  Having a videographer shoot it is even better.  And that photo or video will make its way to Instagram, Youtube, or Facebook, where it can be viewed by thousands or even millions of people.  How has this contributed to the rise of Proposal Planners?  Well, now there are thousands of examples on social media showing how people have proposed.  The would be “proposer” sees how his peers are proposing and it puts pressure on him to make sure his proposal is equally as good or better.  The would be “proposee” is also on social media and she is seeing how her peers are getting engaged.  Her expectations of her own proposal increase and again, more pressure is put on the proposer.  He wonders, “How will I come up with a better idea?”  “Do I have the resources to pull off something that epic?”  He starts researching how to pull this all off and that leads him to….you guessed it….a Proposal Planner!

2) Acceptance of Proposal Planning

Another hurdle I had to face when I first started my company was that men were worried how their partner would feel if they hired a Proposal Planner.  They were worried that they would be perceived as “not creative enough” or “not romantic” when that couldn’t be the furthest thing from the truth.  In fact, they were creative and romantic enough to try to find a resource to make sure their proposal was impactful and memorable.  With the rise of social media and grand marriage proposals becoming commonplace, it has now become accepted that for someone to pull off an epic proposal, they are going to need some assistance. And truthfully, many of my clients hear about me FROM their partners.  Because hiring a Proposal Planner is an accepted norm, the demand for Proposal Planners is rising and the industry is on fire!

3) Media Attention of Proposal Planners

Several times a year I am contacted by major media outlets to collaborate with them about Proposal Planning articles and stories.  And every single time a Proposal Planning article is featured in the media, I notice 2 things.  One, I get a TON of new inquiries from potential clients that saw my article in the media and want to find out how I can help them propose.  Two, I get several inquiries from people that want to find out how they can become a marriage proposal planner and if I can assist them.  This is yet another contributing factor to the growth of the industry.

Now that you know the reasons the industry is growing so quickly, why should you start offering Proposal Planning services right away?  I think the question is, why would you NOT?  The industry is new enough that you could get started now and become a MAJOR player, but it is also seasoned enough that you don’t have to climb the uphill battle that I did to get noticed.  

If starting a career in Proposal Planning intrigues you, then I encourage you to head over to  www.theheartbanditsacademy.com and grab one of our FREE DOWNLOADS.  In them, we discusses the Top 3 Reasons You Should Start Offering Proposal Planning NOW and 5 Reasons That Proposal Planning and Wedding Planning is the perfect marriage.  This will help you find out if adding Proposal Planning to your Wedding Planning business could be right for you.  I hope to see you there!