September in the elopement planning business where I live is the stressful transition between the busy August email season and the beginning of our insanely busy fall wedding season.
It’s the month where last-minute couples, deciding they are done with the heat and want to escape to the mountains, clash with those who planned a little early for the fall colors and came up early to say their vows on mountaintops.
Luckily, this year’s fall colors started very early. I was seeing bright red colors during the second week of September. The fall colors is what sells next autumn’s weddings – an exceptionally long, vibrant year provides the most valuable social media content.
The September Numbers:
- This month, we booked a respectable 37 weddings. This is down only slightly from our insanely record-breaking September 2020 year of 39 weddings, a 5.1% decrease in bookings. However, due to a very slight change in our pricing strategy this year, we brought in 8% more in revenue.
- The amount of sales we made this month was $49,328.
- The biggest cost for us each month is permit fees. We paid a total of $3,800 in permit costs.
- Our other two main expenses are to the florist and baker: $775 total in September.
- That brings our total expenses to $4575 (not taking into account fuel costs, on-the-road food, taxes, and other incidentals).
- Total profit in September comes to $44,753.
September: Not even that busy
September is one of our lighter months… at least at the very beginning.
There’s definitely a point in the second half of the month where the fall season “hits” and it’s balls-to-the-wall weddings until the second week of November.
That first half of September is spent doing emails. Unbelievable amounts of emails – with clients, with venue owners, with vendors. It’s not uncommon for me to send 75+ emails a day, every day, between mid-August to mid-October.
The biggest challenge this month is the email/wedding/work-life balance at home. I can’t tell you how difficult it is to spend 2–3 hours getting your inbox down to zero. You celebrate by going to make a cup of coffee and walk the dog down the road and back.
You then sit back down and there are 20 new emails you have to respond to.
The good news about this is that that your average elopement couple has low stress as one of their main priorities in planning a wedding. This isn’t email after email from bridezillas wondering about every single aspect of their wedding. This is a bride asking, “What’s a good hair person I can book for my wedding day?” Or it’s a groom: “I want a really great restaurant that is nice but not too terribly stuffy that also has a great beer list.”
I joke that I’m 1/3 a wedding planner, 1/3 a travel guide, and 1/3 an office secretary.
Will your September look like this?
I hope so! Eventually, it definitely could. It probably won’t during your very first year, and possibly not your second or third.
How much can you get out there and get your name out? How can you find a way to attract the business away from people considering a traditional wedding but know, deep down, they don’t want the expense or stress associated with it?
We will show you how! You won’t have to worry about it.
What if you only did a few weddings in a month? How would an additional $4,000 look in your bank account?
What is that to you? A couple of payments on your car and mortgage? A huge sum deposited into your Disney World savings account?
You can do this part time – very part time – and still make huge strides into your personal financial goals. All for providing a beautiful wedding to a couple who otherwise wouldn’t have had such a great experience!
Contact me today to get started on your journey. You provide the dream, and I’ll provide the blueprint to get you there!
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