Why I Won’t Hire You…
fabulously contemplated by Terrica
A lot of my blog and pro friends have written about this– about how to apply, or inquire about a position with a wedding planner. I never ever ever in the history of fabulousness thought I would have to write something like this… but here it goes (and of course, I write with all the Terricaisms that bring you joy, luxelings).
So…Why I won’t hire you:
1.)You use my contact form. You are not a client. You are not a prospect. You are not getting married. Why are you using the contact form? It would be awfully nice if you took the time to research to see if I had an employment page, an HR email or the like.
2.)Your FIRST communication with me is poorly written. If your email looks like one of the LOLCats wrote it, it ends up in my trash bin. Period. I can teach you the ways of a wedding planner. I do not, however, teach grammar, spelling or English. This is an internship. Not an early literacy program.
3.)Your first communication with me is your resume…and ONLY your resume. Honey, that’s just rude. This shows me immediately that you have no imagination and personality. Sure, I have enough for both of us, but I don’t want to share. It’s BYOP.
4.)Three letters: T.M.I. I don’t care to know about where you were last night, who you were with and what you were doing. I’m not your girlfriend. I don’t want to hear about or see (two words My Space…Yes, I check it!) how plastered you were for spring break. If I can google you and find you in a bikini or some other compromising position– trust and believe that my clients can too. NEXT.
5.)You call me and the first words out of your mouth are: “Are you hiring?” Again, rude. Even if I was, I wouldn’t tell you. Not the way to apply. You have to wow me, sell me, make me love you. Playing 20 questions is not the way to do it.
6.)You know nothing about me or my company. If you can’t tell me anything about my business, how can you tell my clients? Do your research. I’m not asking for a book report, but at least show me that you can fit in as opposed to blindly sending out your resume.
7.) You tell me this is your DREAM. I hate this. I’m not looking for dreamers. I’m looking for someone who can work hard, laugh hard, and make it happen. You want romance and happy flowers, get a Disney movie.
8.) You’re a wimp. (Couldn’t really find a better way to word it, sorry). Let me put it like this: On the outside, you see the beautiful bride, handsome groom, proud parents happy guests…good food, awesome music, beautiful decor, and gorgeous venue. The inside: timelines, 12 hour work days, climbing stairs, ladders, putting floors together, moving tables, bustling dresses, crying flower girls, unpaid vendors, bridesmaids, drunk groomsmen, tired feet, and that’s only the half of it. If you’re worn out just reading that, we need not go any further. Just stick to the blog.
9.) You have no sense of style or decorum. I sell style. Plain and simple. I sell style and security. When we meet, I need to see how you would meet with my clients and vendors. So yes, honey, I’m checking you out: your clothes, your hair, your makeup, your accessories….all of it. Do your clothes fit properly? No bulges, pulling buttons, tight clothes, cleavage, etc. How well are you put together? Do you look like you stepped out of a magazine, or that you should be hit with one? Have you come professionally dressed or could I mistake you for hanging out at the mall with your friends? Are you personable adn witty? Are you shy and reserved? Are you crass and loud? First impressions are not just everything, they are the ONLY THING.
10.) You think you can do it because you saw it on TV or planned your own wedding. I’m not looking for a human TiVo machine. I don’t need you to spew every line from The Wedding Planner or the hottest new wedding show. That’s like you going on a medical rotation and telling the doctors about what you saw on Grey’s Anatomy. I’m glad you’ve planned your wedding. It was fun, wasn’t it? Now do 12 simultaneously! (Why are you crying????) Realize that you have to bring something to the table, as well as being ready to learn and do some grunt work.
Here are some other great reads:
Saundra of Planning Forever Events
That being said– Yes! We have internships open! Do you have what it takes to apply?
{Photos: Cartoon Stock, Good Old, resp.}
Liene at Blue Orchid Designs
more calls today and all I could think was “you obviously haven’t even read the four most recent posts on my blog because I tell you NOT to call me in one of them.”
January 9th, 2008 at 12:02 amISIS OF POSH EVENTS,LLC
I LOVE this post. I added an employment page to my website and people still just DON’T get it. Ironically enough, I just posted for the 08 internship and I’m just PRAYING that people have common sense this year. Otherwise, I’m going to just refer them to this post!
January 9th, 2008 at 2:05 amMs Polka
This post cracked me up!
Great post!
January 9th, 2008 at 2:26 amShaun Krisher
Point 7 is awesome. Professional produce results, day in and day out.
Amen!
I write a blog for photographers here: shaunkrisher.wordpress.com
January 9th, 2008 at 7:48 amsaundra
YES YES YES!
My favorite this week…..sent through the gathering guide: “Are you Hiring?”
January 9th, 2008 at 8:40 amInnkeeper Jason
Great post. Turnover is high among wedding planners. They want the sugar but cannot handle the spice and they usually cut out when the heat gets turned up. Dreamers need not apply… We need a hybrid of Xena Warrior Princess, Martha Stewart and Angelina Jolie. Tough, Creative and Sophisticated.
January 9th, 2008 at 10:39 amInnkeeper Jason
Wait… Is that you Terrica?
January 9th, 2008 at 10:43 amInnkeeper Jason
We are new to the blogosphere but not new to vacation and event planning. With that said, please allow my 1 shameless self promotion. Check out our new blog if you are interested http://www.boothbayharborblog.com.
January 9th, 2008 at 10:46 amTerrica
Jason. You rock. LOL
January 9th, 2008 at 11:46 amWendy
*Sigh* Three calls today and counting! I’m done! Great post, girl! I’m going to refer all wannabe’s to this post!
January 9th, 2008 at 2:15 pmJane
OMG I love this!! I had a person call that could not even pronounce the name of my company and wanted a job!?
January 9th, 2008 at 2:32 pmVicky
Ok Terrica:
January 9th, 2008 at 2:51 pmI hit my limit with these kinds of calls and emails yesterday and took the time to reply back to a woman that called and asked if we were a wedding planning firm ????? and were we hiring. I told her to go to our website and she said SHE WAS ALREADY ON IT!!!! She forwarded a jacked up email which was enough to make me explode so I sent a reply back that *I SWEAR* included 8 of the 10 points you just listed ( along with a few of my own…) in an effort to let her know she would NEVER get a job in this city let alone one in this industry. If it were so easy to do this, they should be able to do it themselves and leave us alone so that we can maintain productivity. TIME IS MONEY and you’re wasting mine ( as I comment on a blog:)
Whew! Thanks again Terrica!!! i needed that
Tish
Terrica, thank you so much for saying what I have been wanting to say. It was true and hilarious!!!!
January 9th, 2008 at 10:45 pmCarol
Terrica,
You always know how to lay it all out. Love this post.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:46 pmNancy Swiezy
Thanks so much for doing this article.
January 11th, 2008 at 8:28 pmIf get calls every week from some doe eyed gal who wants to work for me.
Why should I hire some one that wants to be my competitor?
My last wedding the bride proclaimed herself a wedding planner and another gal I hired to put out the escort cards is now saying she wasn’t the “Lead planner” on the event… She didn’t plan any thing!!!
Its quite out of hand.
Elisa - A Flair for Affairs
Terrica - An associate forwarded this for my reading enjoyment and all I can say is “Girlfriend - you hit the nail on the head!” I have experienced EVERY scenario you’ve described - but of course my favorite is this one:
January 12th, 2008 at 10:22 amI’m looking to learn about the business because eventually I’d like to start my own company” Whenever I hear this my blood practically starts to boil! You’ve done us a huge favor… I’d like to order 250 copies, please.
Laurie Portella
You are the patron saint of the wedding planners,
Last night while trying to enjoy a girls night out, I was suddenly ambushed by a wanna-be wedding planner. I was wearing a shirt with the word wedding on it, with no company name or logo, she either assumed I was a bride to be or a planner. I told her I was a planner and she began a ten minute rant about how she planned her own wedding for dirt cheap at the local highway hotel and she was going to be the next big thing and rule Orlando as the best planner in the history of world! It made me sick. Elisa sent me this and it made me feel so much better, a true planner learns their craft inside and out before entering the wedding business and is not an impulsive daddies little girl who planned her own wedding and thinks she is an expert!
Thank you so much for keeping it real!
January 12th, 2008 at 1:34 pmLaurie Anne Portella
Bliss Wedding and Events
Terrica
Laurie– for the love of God, I have no idea how you were able to endure that without slamming her head down on the ground. You all would’ve seen me on CNN.
Jane– I had the same thing happen to me; “Hi Miss Tareeka”. Me: “Who the hell is that??” (You know, since we’re being professional and all
My name is Terrica. Like Erica with a T. or it never fails to call me Mrs. Skaggs.
Nancy– I love you say that about some doe-eyed girl. We (on iWED) call them the starry eyes. They look like the cat from Shrek. But now, I think I prefer doe eyes better. Because, we all know what happened to poor Bambi’s mother…
BUT with all of that being said, I must say it is worth it to endure because it brought all of us fabulous people together!
January 12th, 2008 at 1:49 pmElise Enloe
LOVE IT!!!! One of our members referred me to your blog (thanks Kerline!) Would you mind if we linked to it from our site?
Elise Enloe, Master Bridal Consultant
January 12th, 2008 at 2:01 pmAssociation of Bridal Consultants
Florida State Coordinator
Kerline
ROFL…I sent this to a few planners in the Orlando area and they are loving it. I see a few of them have already taken the time to respond.
When I do get those calls or emails I use this standard script: “I wish you nothing but luck as you start your business. I suggest that you go on Wedding Consulting Association sites such as ABC or June weddings and look into the information they provide. You may also want to look into their PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT programs. Regretfully, I do not need any additional staff at this time. If I do need an apprentice or intern - I go through the association I am a part of and give our novice members first right of refusal. Thank you for your time.”
Kerline Docteur, PBC tm
January 12th, 2008 at 6:03 pmJoie de Vie Weddings & Events, Inc.
matt adcock
WOW, tell em like it is, eh?
Cheers,
January 13th, 2008 at 11:09 amMateo
Melissa at MasterPiece Weddings
I got back from Houston and found the words I have been wanting to say!!! So I blogged you, I hope you don’t mind.
And, uh, why am I not a good read? What’s wrong with me, huh?
January 14th, 2008 at 9:48 pmJessica Lynn
hilarious. period.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:15 pmWendy
Just discovered this wonderful post! As a planner who gets so many calls from college girls, new brides and various other random young ladies who think this is a glamorous job that would be “so much fun”, I can really relate to your well- worded reasons not to hire them. This is serious business and for everyone- including some of those who make to television!!
January 29th, 2008 at 10:05 pmAlice K. Villar
I absolutely love this. I get those “Are you hiring calls” at least 2 times a day!!! It is so frustrating.. Girld now a days get married and they think that they are the #1 wedding planners in the world. I stress the fact that it takes a lot stress, patience and comprehension to get to the top and stay there!!
Alice K. Villar
February 3rd, 2008 at 4:44 pmAffairs Remembered
Miami, Florida
Sharia B.
I RESENT THE NEED FOR MRS. TERRICA SKAGGS TO EVEN HAVE TO WRITE THIS POST! Being a student (George Washington Univ.-Go Colonials) making straight A’s in my Event Management Master’s Degree program, I take this industry very seriously! I go to the tradeshows, I have student memberships in associations, and would kill to have an internship with Fabuluxe Events, Inc.! For shame to the clown who messed it up for all college women starting in the industry! If I wasn’t in MD, I’d buss a cap in homegirl’s idea bubble for even thinking she was capable of handling a real industry internship! Mrs. Terrica, let me know when to get on a flight to handle that; don’t worry about housing, I’ll sleep in the airport! Disgust…written all over my face! 
February 14th, 2008 at 9:15 am5Senses
okay, i’m late posting - BUT this is perfect. I get requests through my contact form and it drives me BONKERS! and if one more person says, “I’m majoring in Pre-Med but event planning is my passion…” I will not be responsible for my actions.
February 28th, 2008 at 1:56 pmMark Kingsdorf - The Queen of Hearts
The ladies on CC shared this and rolled on the floor….just yesterday I got a 4 page fax from a wannabee intern from across the country…
A FAX - not style or personality involved, just a fax….more importantly it came from a PR and Marketing major- and from their college Alumni Relations office…
What are they teaching these folks?
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:34 amAmber Events
Terrica, I think I’m in love with you.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:17 pmJody
I love you, Terrica. This is like Shakespeare to me.
Bravo, bravo!
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:13 pmWow.
If I was a potential client of yours and read this, I would not hire you. It’s one thing to think these things - and we all do - it’s another thing to put it out there on your professional blog. Is this the thought process that goes through your head when you meet with a potential bride? Are you judging her appearance, inwardly sneering at the fact that her wedding has been her lifelong “dream”? Are you picking apart her grammar and spelling? I was always told that you can tell a lot about a person by how they treat their employees. I’d never want to work for you, nor would I ever want to hire you.
June 11th, 2008 at 1:24 pmTerrica
Dearest “Wow”,
I am SO glad that you wrote this because I gather that many people, like you, cannot think outside of the box and appreciate this post for what it is.
You see, “Wow”, I don’t judge my brides. That’s not my place. Together , the client and I will decide if we are a good fit. It’s all about personality, talent, panache and drive. If we click– we’re going to do fantastic together and pull ofd a fantastic event. If not, I will gladly refer you to another coordinator who might be your style.
And yes, I do think these things, and what’s even better, I say them. Why? Because this is MY company and I have to stand by everything it produces, including it’s staff. That being said, anything less than the best is uncivilized. The problem with our unregulated industry is that anyone can come in the sandbox and play with minimal experience and talent and hang up their “ready for work” sign. All I ask from my staff is that they bring their fabulous personalities and their best. There are no do overs on a client’s wedding day– and we’re their form of living wedding insurance. So, you’re probably right, “Wow”. If you’re looking for a planner with substandard help that cannot communicate effectively, dress properly, or handle the infinite details of your wedding day….we are NOT for you.
But to tend to your burning insinuation that I mistreat my employees– you’re wrong. Dead wrong. I love my employees and value them as individuals and co-workers. This was written very tongue in cheek, but as you may have been able to ascertain from the thirty two posts before you, this is a very SERIOUS “problem” in the wedding industry. Just about anybody thinks they can become a wedding planner with minimal to no experience and then want to be a rockstar from jumpstreet. It doesn’t happen that way. This may be YOUR dream, but this is MY livelihood, and I’m going to need a little more than just dreams to pull off a wedding. We all have to earn our hard knocks and bring our A game, and learn how to take constructive criticism. If you were a potential employee and have a problem with this, then again, you are probably right, “Wow”. We are NOT for you.
A lot of truth is said in jest and I stand by what I wrote. So much so, that I didn’t find the need to use a pen name to cloak my real thoughts. If you would like to discuss this further, “Wow”, you are more than welcome to email me.
June 11th, 2008 at 2:28 pmfranki durbin
I love seeing candor like this. What your client (above) may not realize, is that your bluntness is for their benefit. You cannot and would not jeopardize their event (or a lifetime of memories) for the sake of a bad hire. Your firmness and unwillingness to compromise only benefits them (and every guest that attends one of your events) in the end.
June 24th, 2008 at 11:12 amGinger
VERY well said Terrica! I applaud you for taking your role in a great industry with the utmost of seriousness. I appreciate your being so candid too. Weddings are a very big deal. People spend quite a bit of money and countless hours planning the dream wedding they have envisioned for many years. When they hire and entrust a wedding planner with the details, the event should be nothing short of amazing when all is said and done. Like you said, there are no “do-overs” on a clients wedding day and I personally do not believe in excuses. You have said in this post what ALL of us have wanted to say at some point in our careers! Thank you for putting your professionalism and honesty out there for all to see.
August 17th, 2008 at 9:53 pm