New Wedding Planners - 7 Items You Can Include in Your Wedding Planner Portfolio

If you are a new wedding planner and have only planned a few weddings, you might only have a few photographs from them and be hesitant to start your portfolio. But you can't just hand potential clients a stack of photographs. You want to be able to nicely present your photos to brides and vendors who can refer you. So go ahead and start your portfolio anyway. Just get a high-quality binder or album that lets you add and subtract pages whenever you want so your portfolio can grow and, when you do have a lot of photos, you can pick and chose which ones you want to include at a meeting with a potential client.

Here are 7 things you can include in your portfolio when you haven't yet collected a lot of photos:

1) Certificates

If you have completed a wedding or event planning course and received a degree or certificate, put a copy in your portfolio. Also, wedding and event planner associations issue certificates of membership that you can put in your portfolio to let potential clients know you are well-connected in the industry.

2) Licenses and permits

A copy of your business license will show potential clients that you are a serious business person, not someone engaged in a hobby. If you also offer catering or other services that require permits or additional licenses, you should include them.

3) Publicity

If you had a press release written when you launched your business, add it to your portfolio. If it got you some publicity, perhaps in a local newspaper, put that in also. If a wedding vendor has written about you in their blog or allowed you to be a guest blogger, print a color copy and show it off.

4) Samples of your organizational skills

Include any floor plans you sketched, checklists, budgets and timelines you created so brides can see that you are well able to organize their weddings. (Hide or black-out any clients' names that might be on these forms.)

5) Testimonials and thank you notes

Include any notes previous clients (even ones you worked for without pay) have written to you thanking you for your work and complimenting your wedding and event planning skills. If vendors have written to you saying how much they appreciated working with you, include those also.

6) Photographs of anything you created for a wedding

If you created gift bags for out-of-town guests, favors or any other items, be sure you have photographs of them in your portfolio along with the weddings that you planned, they are examples of your creativity.

7) Photographs of your wedding day emergency kit

Let a bride know how prepared you are by showing her photographs of your kit and talking about your ability to anticipate and handle emergencies.

Please leave out photographs of your own wedding. That is a red flag to potential clients that you do not have experience working with other brides.