Wedding Planner Society Podcast

Hosted by Laurie Hartwell & Krisy Thomas - CWP Society

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Episodes

126

Latest episode

Jun 2026

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EN-US

About the show

CWP Society is proud to produce the "Wedding Planner Society: Industry Expert Insights" podcast! Laurie Hartwell & Krisy Thomas, award-winning Master Certified Wedding Planners and Industry Educators from the CWP Society, discuss the real lives of wedding planners and professionals, dispense business tips, and share ways you can elevate yourself and your career in the wedding industry. Visit the CWP Society website for more information: www.cwpsociety.com

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60 recent

June 8, 2026Episode 2246 min

Your Business Grew. Did You?

When was the last time you made a decision that was entirely for you — for your business, and for the version of you that's still becoming?That question sits at the center of this conversation, because wedding planning is built on heart. But heart without structure has a ceiling — and a lot of planners hit it before they ever realize what held them back.This industry has a way of keeping you so focused on everyone else's big day that your own professional growth quietly gets deprioritized. And that gap shows up eventually — in your systems, your pricing, your confidence.In this episode, Krisy Thomas is joined by Denitra Barnes, Certified Wedding Planner and owner of Tailored for You Wedding and Event Planning, who is currently pursuing her Master Certification. Denitra opens up about what finally pushed her past the internet rabbit holes and into structured professional education — and the real-world difference it made: stronger client consultations, clearer pricing, more confident vendor relationships, and tools that help her deliver a consistent, elevated planning experience every time.They also get into something that doesn't get talked about enough — how education reshapes your internal credibility. Denitra shares how client psychology training has changed the way she responds when emotions run high, family dynamics get complicated, or conflict shows up mid-process. That kind of calm doesn't come from experience alone. It comes from preparation.If you've been sitting on the fence about certification, Master Certification, or simply how to grow your planning business without burning out, this conversation will give you something real to work with.Subscribe, share this episode with a planner who's ready to grow, and leave a review — it helps more planners find this community. To learn more about professional development, certification, and what's possible for your planning business, visit The CWP Society — the world's premier wedding planner certification and membership organization — at CWPSociety.com.www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety

June 1, 2026Episode 2137 min

The Calm Is the Service

Most couples think they're hiring a wedding planner/coordinator for timelines, vendor coordination, and flawless logistics. And yes — we deliver all of that. But the deeper truth is that they're hiring us for permission to be fully present on one of the most important days of their lives. When something goes sideways, our calm becomes their peace of mind. That steadiness isn't a bonus. It's the service.Krisy Thomas, Senior Educator with The CWP Society, sits down with Master Certified Wedding Planner Brittney Poole of Forever Moments to dig into a mindset shift that changes everything about how we show up: confidence isn't just something we build for ourselves — it's something we provide for our clients. From the nerves of a wedding morning to the moment the room looks to you for the next move, couples take their emotional cues from our pace, our presence, and our energy. And performing confidence without the foundation to back it up eventually cracks under pressure.Together they talk about what emotional safety actually looks like in practice, how preparation builds real confidence under pressure, and why systems, education, and professional structure lead to better decisions when it counts. We also get honest about the consultation process — how trust is built less by over-explaining your services and more by listening well, asking the right questions, and leading with clear professional judgment.https://www.cwpsociety.com/www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety

May 25, 2026Episode 2046 min

Become the Planner Your Dream Client Is Looking For

If you've ever wondered why some wedding planners earn glowing reviews, steady referrals, and dream clients while others stay stuck in the chaos — this episode goes straight to the root.We're not talking about having a prettier timeline or better software. We're talking about the moment the schedule slips, a vendor is frustrated, the client asks the same question for the third time, and every eye in the room is on you to lead.Krisy Thomas, Senior Educator with The CWP Society, sits down with Laurie Hartwell, Founder and CEO of The CWP Society, for an honest conversation about what it actually takes to be good at this work: self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and the discipline to pause before you react.They unpack how aggressive communication, slow response times, negative energy, and careless email tone quietly erode trust with clients and vendor partners — and how those small, repeated patterns can cost you the relationships your business depends on.The conversation also gets into real wedding day crisis management: how to stay composed when something goes sideways behind the scenes, and how to protect the couple's experience so what they remember is joy, not your stress.And then they connect the dots to professional growth — why becoming a well-rounded planner who leads with kindness and confidence is the standard worth building toward.www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety

May 18, 2026Episode 1942 min

Emergency Preparedness for Wedding Planners

There's a split-second on a wedding day when something shifts — weather, a timeline slip, a vendor delay — and every person in the room reads one thing first: the planner. If we tighten up or sound frantic, stress spreads. If we stay steady, the room steadies too.Quiet confidence isn't a personality trait. It's the visible result of preparation done before anyone is watching.In this episode, Krisy Thomas, Senior Educator with The CWP Society, is joined by Brianne Ackerland, Master Certified Wedding Planner and Certified Educator and owner of Stress Free Wedding Space in Iowa, to get specific about what "prepared for anything" actually looks like in practice.They cover the blind spots many planners miss — including planning for the possibility that you can't be there — and how to build a backup plan with a qualified assistant, keep documents accessible for a seamless handoff, and use strong contracts to protect both the client and the business.They also go deeper on venue walkthroughs: not just layouts and logistics, but emergency protocols. Who is the point of contact after you leave? How do emergency services enter the building? Where do guests shelter in severe weather? Where is the AED — and does the staff actually know?Plus: how to have contingency conversations with couples without bringing doom, and how clear vendor communication during pivots protects trust and prevents missed moments.If you want venues to refer you, vendors to love working with you, and couples to feel safe the moment they meet you — this one is for you.🎙️ Subscribe, share this with a fellow planner, and leave a review sharing the preparedness habit you're committing to next.www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety

May 11, 2026Episode 1832 min

22 Years Later — Laurie Hartwell Sits Down with a Past Client

In this episode, Laurie Hartwell sits down with Amber — a bride from one of Laurie's weddings she planned back in 2004 — to ask a question most couples never think about until much later: what do you actually remember?Before Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok told brides what they were supposed to want, wedding planning depended on trust, clear choices, and the right vendor team. Amber's answer is refreshingly honest. The tiny details people obsess over? Not what stuck. What stayed was the feeling of being calm, cared for, and completely present.Amber wanted a "kick-a** party" — great music, nonstop dancing, and a reception that felt effortless. What Laurie delivered was something deeper: blind trust. The kind where the couple never has to carry the stress because someone qualified is already handling it.They cover the DJ moment Amber's friends still bring up decades later, the bar cap decision that kept the party alive, and what it really means to lead with quiet confidence instead of ego.For wedding planners, Laurie breaks down why attracting your ideal couple starts with intentional messaging, how certification protects the couple's investment, timeline, and emotions, and why unqualified advice is one of the biggest threats to this industry.If you are wanting to create a lasting legacy years later, and if you are interested in building your wedding planning business the right way — this one is worth your time.🎧 Hit play, subscribe, and drop a comment with the one wedding detail you think you'll still remember in 20 years.www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety

May 6, 2026Episode 1752 min

Integrity In Wedding Planning

Integrity doesn't announce itself — it shows up in the small decisions no one's watching. And in this industry, those decisions either build your reputation or quietly erode it.Founder and CEO Laurie Hartwell and Senior Educator Krisy Thomas are saying the uncomfortable parts out loud. The gray areas. The shortcuts. The behind-the-scenes choices that couples never see but absolutely feel — through trust, referrals, and the kind of reputation that either opens doors or puts up walls.They get specific about what a lack of integrity actually looks like: misrepresenting experience, leaning on unverifiable credentials, ghosting clients, overpromising through vague package language, and taking credit for work you didn't do. They also tackle one of the most talked-about hot buttons in the industry right now — vendor kickbacks and referral fees — and walk through how to build a preferred vendor list the right way, so couples understand your recommendations are based on fit, not a financial arrangement happening behind the scenes.From there, the conversation gets practical. What does integrity actually look like in action? It looks like telling hard truths with care. Owning a mistake before a client hears about it from someone else. Treating every couple with the same level of respect regardless of budget. And showing up for your fellow planners and vendors in a way that strengthens the community instead of competing with it.Laurie and Krisy also address modern marketing ethics — AI-generated imagery, reposting work that isn't yours, and the ongoing question of whether integrity can be taught at all, or whether education only sharpens skills without touching character.You'll leave this episode with a clear-eyed look at the standards you can apply immediately, and a strong reminder that long-term success is built on trust you earn repeatedly — not just once.If this conversation resonates, subscribe, share it with a planner or coordinator who needs to hear it, and leave a review so more wedding professionals can find their way to it.www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety

May 4, 2026Episode 1716 min

The Follow-Up That Builds Referrals

A baby shower invitation landed in the mailbox — and it wasn't from a close friend or a family member. It was from a bride whose wedding Krisy Thomas, Senior Educator with The CWP Society, had planned years earlier. She wasn't inviting the vendor. She was inviting someone she genuinely wanted in the room for one of the most personal moments of her life.That's what this episode is about.Most wedding planners are exceptional at the before — the planning, the logistics, the wedding day itself. But the window that follows? The quiet stretch after "thank you" and the flowers are gone and the couple is on their honeymoon? That is where some of the most valuable relationship-building in this business actually happens. And almost no one is talking about it.In this episode, Krisy gets specific: what to send within 72 hours of the wedding that feels personal instead of transactional, why the six-week mark is one of the most overlooked opportunities in a planner's calendar, and how genuine long-term presence — not newsletters, not automated sequences — is what turns past clients into lifelong referral sources. She also shares real stories: the first client from years ago who still sends business today, the family whose grandfather officiated three weddings she had the honor of planning, and what it felt like when those evenings ended.If you want more word-of-mouth referrals, deeper client relationships, and a business that grows stronger with every wedding you book — this is where it starts.Ready to build the professional foundation that makes all of it possible? Visit cwpsociety.com. www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety

April 27, 2026Episode 1537 min

Stop Delaying Your Business Decisions

Master Certified Wedding Planner Tish Clay joins CWP Society Senior Educator Krisy Thomas for a conversation that will feel uncomfortably familiar.If you've ever wrapped a wedding, sat down in the quiet, and told yourself this is the week you fix your pricing — then watched that promise disappear the moment the next inquiry landed, you already know what we're talking about. That pattern has a name: chronic postponement. And it's one of the most expensive habits in this industry.In this episode, we break down how it shows up differently depending on where you are in your business. For newer planners, it often looks like waiting to build structure until you've "proven yourself" first. For seasoned planners, it looks like not wanting to disrupt the momentum you've worked hard to build. The cost is the same either way — shaky boundaries, leaky systems, and confidence that never fully settles.Tish Clay of Simone Elise Events brings rare honesty to this conversation: what it felt like to invest in education that wasn't the right fit, keep pushing through it because of sunk cost, and quietly wonder if the problem was her. She shares how finding the right certification and a real professional community changed that — giving her repeatable processes, clearer pricing, and a business that stopped depending on her reinventing everything from scratch with every new client.If you're ready to stop waiting for the right season to do the work that actually builds stability, this one is for you.Subscribe, share this with a planner who needs to hear it, and leave a review — so more planners find their way here sooner.www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety

April 20, 2026Episode 1528 min

Why Your Content Might Be Costing You Clients

There's a fine line between marketing yourself and accidentally making yourself obsolete. Most planners cross it every week without realizing it.In this episode, CWP Society Founder and CEO Laurie Hartwell and Senior Educator Krisy Thomas sit down together to dig into what they're calling "planner code" — the professional responsibility we all share to protect the value of wedding planning and coordination. Because oversharing doesn't just hurt one business. It erodes pricing and trust across the entire profession.They walk through the three places planners most often give away the milk for free: social media content (Reels, TikTok, captions), sales consultations, and blog posts or website resources. If you've ever posted "how to build the perfect wedding timeline," handed a vendor list to a prospect mid-consult, or published a full planning guide on your website — you'll recognize the pattern. Couples see repeated how-to content, assume planning is simple, push back on fees, and then end up overwhelmed when the real complexity shows up.Then the conversation shifts to what you can do differently — starting today. Laurie shares her golden rule for wedding planner marketing: Inspire and Intrigue. Don't Instruct and Complete. You'll hear examples of content angles that build desire without giving away your process, a four-question filter to run before you post, and Krisy's consultation framework for showcasing your value while keeping your most essential services firmly inside the contract.www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety

April 14, 2026Episode 1444 min

The ROI You're Not Calculating

You can be fully booked and still feel like you're starting over every January.That gap — between staying busy and actually building something — is exactly what this episode is about. So many wedding planners and coordinators invest in client-facing upgrades while quietly avoiding the one investment that compounds over time: their own professional development.Matt Mitchell, Co-Founder and CEO of Event Ledger — a bookkeeping and advisory firm built specifically for event professionals — joins Senior Educator of the CWP Society, Krisy Thomas to talk about why that pattern exists and what it's actually costing us. Matt has been on both the planning side and the finance side, which means he doesn't just understand the numbers — he translates them into real wedding-world decisions.Together, they dig into why education gets treated like a reward instead of a business strategy, how "creative martyr syndrome" keeps planners undervaluing their own growth, and what it really looks like to take professional development seriously before another year slips by.Matt shares three straightforward ROI tests to use before saying yes to any certification or masterclass — can it support a 5% pricing increase, will it save you hours per project, and will it help you avoid the kind of costly mistakes that quietly damage your referral reputation. He also gets concrete about what a financially healthy wedding planning business actually looks like: paying yourself consistently, planning for taxes, understanding your net profit margin, and knowing your effective hourly rate so that being "busy" doesn't quietly become burnout.If you're ready to stop pricing on instinct and start building real authority in this industry, this one's for you.Subscribe, share this episode with a planner friend, and leave a review so more event professionals can find it. And ask yourself: what's the next investment you're willing to make in your own career?www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety