Would you want to work in the wedding industry?

I actually work with a catering company that works weddings fairly often. I've served, bartended, and been the event manager for multiple weddings through that. I've also planned about 25 weddings for friends and members of my church and acted as DOC for most of those and a few extra. I might pick up a bartending gig for a wedding here or there because those are usually fun and the tips are good, but I definitely wouldn't want to work in the industry full time. I'm happy to help friends/family/acquaintances out where I can and volunteering to do stuff generally means I'm not subject to the crap that people being paid to do a job often have to deal with. I'll be completely honest - my patience for working with people is just about non-existent now that I've worked in customer service for about 15 years.

You know I thought about that too! I can imagine it's such a great feeling to know that you're helping someone achieve their fairy tale day, but then there's the Bridezilla syndrome that is a little scary, haha. I used to do makeup for events but never dabbled into the wedding world and while planning my wedding I was like huh, maybe I could try this out.

Side note, I've never heard of Bridesmaid for Hire, but I'm totally going to look it up!

I could see myself being a wedding photographer, possibly a wedding planner or day of coordinator or a florist. I've been a semi-professional photographer for nearly 15 years (photography paid my bills throughout grad school, but now I work full time in a different industry and photos just pay for the hobby itself). I photograph mostly nature, wildlife, landscapes, and sports so transitioning to people would be both fun and challenging, but I'm sure I could do it. I would probably gravitate towards elopements or intimate weddings, as I really enjoy the outdoors, adventures, and working with natural light.

I'm very logistically minded and good at planning events and coordinating things, so I think I would be a good wedding planner, but I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy it. I've seen a few established business models where there is an elopement photographer that offers elopement planning services and I could see myself being really good at that - plus I could probably steer couples towards mid-week events that way which would appeal to me a lot more than working weekends all the time, which seems pretty common in the wedding industry.

I love flowers and would be super interested in learning more about flower growing, floristry, and flower arranging. I could see myself being an apprentice, or doing some workshops and doing flowers for friends weddings, but I don't think it is something I would want to do full time and couldn't see myself doing it solo as a career.