Considering becoming a DOC - DOC's/ Wedding planners respond please

Good info, @Wendy C.

I think many people do not know the true time commitment to an event.

I recently was involved in an auction fundraiser for 925 guests (these are two photos of the event before guests arrived). The actually planner was onsite for 4 full days prior to the event and on-site from 10AM on Saturday (the day of the event) until 2AM Sunday.

While a DOC would not put in those hours, they would need to be available for 12+ hours on the day of the wedding (as well as before, to set things in motion).

Wedding/DOC/Event Planning look glamorous and seem easy, until you really do them. I am in the wine biz (I also plan our events) and we get the same thing. "Oh the wine business is so glamorous." Umm, sure, yeah right. It can be, and is, from time to time, but it is also a lot of hard work.

Yes, be prepared to give up your evenings and weekends. To attend my out-of-state nephew's wedding, I had to turn down 3-4 weddings (I officiate, not plan, so I can do more than 1 wedding a day).

When I owned an upscale, busy catering business, I can't tell you how many of my clients told me that they always wanted to be a caterer. My answer? Come by my shop on Tuesday and help dig the guacamole out of the van's radio knobs. It's totally glamorous.

Planning your own wedding is not like planning a stranger's wedding. It's knowing,in intimate detail, how every vendor works and what to expect from them. It's working endless hours and actually getting paid for them (and justifying that expense to your clients). It's being a pro; great website, insurance, good vendor relations, unquestionable ethics and a really thick skin. If anything, no matter how minor, goes awry, they will be looking at you.

My best advice is to offer to work, for free, for pros you'll need; a florist, a caterer, music, photog, even an officiant. Learn the language they speak, learn what makes them different. This is a business that you can't learn online, and most brides don't care about (cont)

Your certification, they care about what you can deliver.

Thank you everyone. You've given me alot to think about and consider. I'm definitely not going to jump into this because I don't want to get in over my head. So far my friends wedding is actually coming together pretty good, I've been able to keep her well under budget and when I told her I'd be her doc she was so relieved. She said she was actually scared worried because she had no idea who was going to set everything up for her and make sure everyone was where they needed to be :-). Me and her just have to sit down and go over the little details about everything else.