Complete Guide To Become A Wedding Freelancer In India

In recent years, the word “freelance” has gained a lot of hype. With the pandemic situation, freelancing has become the inthing for many and even a side job that pays the bills. However, there are still many who are to jump on the freelancing train or rather know what is “freelancing”.

Quick note:

A freelancer is a person who does not belong to a company, organization, etc. but contracts freely according to work. Popular freelance professions in the wedding world include planners, photographers, designers, makeup artists, etc., and these people often work individually, and make use of their own raw talent.

The different kinds of freelancing jobs

What kind of role can you do as a freelancer in the wedding business

1. Full-time freelancers:

They are the ones who make all of their income from freelance and do not have any other full-time job.

2. Contract Freelancers:

These freelancers work with companies or on projects for a stipulated period of time.

3. Side Hustle Freelancers:

These are the people who have full-time jobs and freelance on the side. Most content writing freelancers start out this way, although, it is important to check your full-time job contract and see if you can actually freelance, legally.

4. Freelance Business Owners:

They are the people who treat freelancing as a full-blown business. They either work alone or have a team of people helping them manage overall events(in our case weddings) for various clients.

The Pros and Cons of Freelancing

Pro's

1. Freelancing offers you a lot more freedom and flexibility than a regular desk job.

2. You get to choose the type of work you do & who you work with.

3. You decide how much time you spend on a project, and the location you work from.

4. You get sufficient work-life balance when you are a freelancer.

5. You can charge as per the work that you put in.

Con's

1. Lack of job stability and (rare)periods of time where you may get no work.

2. Apart from your work, you also need to invest time in administrative responsibilities like marketing yourself, following up on your payments, and chasing clients.

3. Your income depends on the number of events.

4. They do not have an end to end information about planning during weddings.

How much do wedding freelancers charge in India + ways to charge for freelance work?

There are three ways by which freelancers charge their clients.

1. Retainer basis

A freelance retainer is a contractual agreement between a freelancer and a company. The agreement states that the freelancer will work a certain number of days per wedding and get paid accordingly.

2. Charging hourly

This works if you’re dedicating a certain fixed amount of time per wedding to your freelance clients. Here you may set an hourly rate for your freelance skills and the total is calculated by the number of hours it takes you to finish a project/wedding.

3. Charging on a project basis

This is by far the most common method. Most freelancers take cognizance of their skills and account for everything that goes into a project. Project basis is usually when the freelancer sees a particular freelance project end to end.

How to start freelancing in India?

Well, the very first step of course is to get wedding work. So, if you’re starting freelance work without any prior experience it’s a good way to start building your network first. Tap into your primary network of friends or close acquaintances and let them know that you’re looking out for wedding freelancing in the particular job role. Networking is the key to getting new projects when you are a freelancer. Everything from attending events as a freelancer, to being a part of any social media community of freelancers, you never know when, how, and who can give you a job. Here are some of the things you can do:

• An essential part of networking is to keep in touch with your old friends, acquaintances, and companies. These guys are the ones you can count on to lend a helping hand, especially as you start out.

• Make it a point to attend at least one networking event in a month if possible. It’s not only useful to meet new people, but the experience can be handy in accelerating your career graph.

• Send out cold pitches to places that you want to work(even if they look out of your league). Go through their website and social media to find out the kind of work they do, and make your pitch as personalized and relevant as possible.

• But it all comes down to enrolling on platforms that guarantee jobs. Get your profile and CV up on platforms like WedJobs, which cater exclusively to your niche work. With WedJobs.in, you can search jobs, know about current job openings and apply for the same easily.