From the Experts, General Tips, Your Event Career
3 MORE Tips for Working with Celebrity Clients in Your Event Planning Career!
Mwai Yeboah is the proud owner of the destination wedding planning boutique, Love, From Mwai. With over 15 years of industry experience, Mwai helps culinary enthusiasts, fashion admirers, and adventure seekers plan experience-focused weddings that exceed their dreams and leave their guests in absolute awe! In addition to the countless awards she has received over the years, she’s also written and published her own book about wedding planning. Mwai is one of QC’s leading tutors for the Event & Wedding Planning, Luxury Wedding & Event Planning, and Destination Wedding Planning courses.
Earlier this week, Mwai shared 4 amazing tips for working with celebrity clients. Her goal was to ensure that you, as the planner, maintain a professional and respectful work ethic at all times. In the same breath, her advice is meant to help YOU create the best possible impression of your business!
Since those tips were so juicy, we figured, why stop there?
So, sit back and get ready – because Mwai’s back with 3 MORE tips! Let’s jump right in!
1- Understand the importance of remaining flexible.
Planning a celebration for a celebrity can be one of the most rewarding opportunities of your entire event planning career. But it can also be far more complicated (and stressful) than working with a typical client. From signing NDA’s and taking late-night meetings, to making space for secret service at the ceremony and keeping paparazzi at bay, planning a wedding or event for a celebrity comes with an array of considerations you might not be used to dealing with.
The systems, boundaries, and planning tools you’ve worked hard to hone might need to be shifted a bit in order to accommodate your VIP client’s distinct needs. Don’t be caught off-guard by last-minute surprises, or ‘Is-she-serious?’ requests. (I promise, they’re coming.) Your best bet is to set honest expectations with yourself from the start. You’ll need to be open to doing things a little differently. Remind yourself to remain nimble throughout the process, and calm in the eye of the storm (ohhhhmmmm).
2 – Play (super) nice with their team.
A celebrity’s personal assistant is a gate-keeper, scheduling savant, and crazy-effective task-juggler, all rolled into one (super) human being. You definitely want to make a connection with this person from the get-go. In fact, your job will be a LOT easier if you familiarize yourself with everyone on your client’s team. Oftentimes, you’ll work far more with a celebrity’s personal assistant than you will with the celebrity herself.
Keep in mind: at pretty much any given time, an assistant will constantly have a herd of people begging her for countless different things. In order to be an effective event planner, you need to ensure that your requests are sent to the top of the To-Do list, so to speak. Here are a few tips for getting this done:
a) Kick things off with a gift!
Start your working relationship with a celebrity’s assistant on a great note by them sending a thoughtful gift and handwritten card. It’s a smart idea to put your contact information on the card, and for the card itself to be a beautiful, branded piece of stationery. For gifts, I personally love to give fresh flowers, local coffee beans, home infusions or scented candles, etc.
b) Let their needs drive the process!
Ask the assistant how she or he prefers to be contacted, what time of day is best to reach out with any requests, and how you can make her or his job easier overall. These inquiries will show consideration; that you not only respect their position, but their time as well. This will go a long way!
c) Show gratitude!
The job of a celebrity’s assistant is super demanding, and often thankless. You can help make up for this! A good rule of thumb is to always send a handwritten Thank-You note (to both the assistant and anyone else on the team who’s been helpful) once the event has wrapped up. This is the sort of gesture they’ll be sure to remember!
3 – An emphasis on intimacy and guest experience will serve you well.
The best events are all about communicating a story through sensory experiences. This is obviously true for any celebration you plan throughout your event planning career. But with celebrity clientele – whose stories so often aren’t their own, due to media attention and public interest – it’s even more important to make an event feel special, private, and intimate. You want to help create a direct, personal reflection of the story your client wants to tell.
Think through every single guest touch-point. Ask yourself: how can I elevate things beyond the mere surface-level aesthetics, so I can create a truly extraordinary experience?
Celebrities have so much at their disposal. They’ve often “seen it all”. Because of this, they tend to really appreciate things that are rare, thoughtful, compelling, and complex. Look for every opportunity you can to plan an event that’s not just pretty or trendy, but layered with purpose and intent!
I sincerely hope all of these tips are helpful to your event planning career, planners-to-be! As a final thought, I encourage you to remember this: so many of the things to keep in mind when working with celebrities are the things you already know. It’s simply a matter of being professional, being nimble, doing your research, playing nice with the people on their team, and presenting choices that suit their style.
You’ve got this!
Xoxo,
-Mwai
