(VOVWORLD) - How would you like a job that involves luxury hotels, gourmet meals, fancy parties and photoshoots, and a generous salary for enjoying those things? If you like it, then wedding planning may be the perfect job for you! And this is just the tip of the iceberg! Join VOV reporter Thanh Ha to learn a few more reasons why wedding planners are so in love with their job!
After graduating from Foreign Trade University and trying out a number of jobs in different fields such as television and magazine writing, 28-year-old Duong Vu Hoang Anh found herself falling in love with wedding planning after she organized a friend’s wedding. As her passion grew, it took her to Koh Samui island in Thailand to work for an international wedding service company. After 2 years, she returned to Hanoi and started her own boutique service. “To be honest, I love weddings!”, she told VOV, “ I think marriage is boring, that’s why weddings have to be fun. With that in my mind, I treat every wedding as if it was my own. Maybe that’s why my work speaks volumes.”
 Hoang Anh helps up with wedding decoration (Photo: Duong Vu Hoang Anh) |
A wedding planner is basically an event coordinator. After discussing ideas, concepts, and budget details with the bride and groom, the planner reaches out to make up artists, photographers, venue owners, decorators, florists and so on. Their job is to make sure every part of the wedding blends smoothly with every other part, so the lovebirds can enjoy to the utmost their special day. Hoang Anh’s typical day involves lots of emailing back and forth and meeting with vendors. With sufficent cooperation, wedding planners are confident they can fulfill the bride and groom’s wishes no matter how extravagant. Dinh Thi Thach Bich of Hanoi decided to use Hoang Anh’s service for a very specific reason: “We decided to go for a wedding planning service because my husband is Australian, and he was staying in Canberra while I was living in Hanoi. We chose Da Nang as our wedding destination, which is faraway from both Australia and Hanoi. So we thought that engaging a wedding planner could definitely help reduce the stress we had to face during wedding preparation.”
Bich’s husband, Bee Souvanaphong, was very pleased with the wedding planning service. He said: “On our wedding day, it was nerve-racking and fun at the same time. Our wedding planner managed to relieve a lot of the stress for me because I was able to chill with my groomsmen and family before walking down the aisle, so it just made the experience that much better with having that service.”
 Bich and Bee's wedding in Da Nang (Photo: Bich Dinh) |
Hoang Anh says she has done more than 60 weddings, one of which took only 20 hours to do. The average planning time for a wedding is 6 months. “It was back in the time when I was working in Koh Samui island”, she said,“The girl was proposed and she got so excited. She walked into my office and said ‘I want to get married tomorrow’. And we did it! We could arrange some simple flowers, the guy already got their rings ready, we took them out for a flowy beach dress, and in their religion, a captain can be the celebrant, so we found a captain for them! That’s how it’s done!”
In addition to memorable stories, a wedding planner gains much in terms of skills and life experience. Ngo Tu Anh, a member of Hoang Anh’s staff has worked in the field for a year and a half:“This planning job taught me to become more organized, professional, trustworthy because that’s what the couple expect when they hire a wedding planner. I learn a lot of soft skills which are useful for every aspects of life. Next is the chance to travel to a lot of wonderful places as a freelancer. Finally is the opportunity to meet so many people with different backgrounds, jobs, characters and learn from them. Especially, I love how clients become my friends after each wedding. Several months working together made us so close and develop such strong friendship between us.”
Most important to Hoang Anh and Tu Anh is that wedding planning lets them witness the strength of love and hope. “I learn a lot about relationship and love. It’s not only about the love between the couple but also love in a big family, between the parents and their son and daughter, the love among friends. All is so beautiful and touching. It’s so embarrassing to say but I cried in every single wedding I planned”, said Tu Anh.
“The best thing about being a wedding planner is the chance to stand among so much hope and love”, Hoang Anh continued, “When you come to the wedding, you can see all the guests and parents, who understand the most how difficult and challenging a marriage can be. Still, they are there to wish you all the best. So it’s kind of like hope in everyone’s eyes.”
 Hoang Anh's team cheer on successfully organizing Bich and Bee's wedding (Photo: Duong Vu Hoang Anh) |
Despite having organized quite a few weddings, Hoang Anh surprisingly doesn’t have a dream wedding of her own. She believes love will lead her way: “Sometimes it sparks when I witness a couple in the wedding and I say ‘Oh, this is how I want it to be’... of course some tears and some laughter... But I don’t really have a vision for it. I feel like a wedding should be a celebration of love when you enjoy being your own and people around you are happy with your happiness.”