What an event planner actually does
Before you train, it is worth being precise about the job. An event planner does not decorate. An event planner coordinates vendors, manages budgets, builds timelines, negotiates with venues, and stands between the client's vision and the reality of what can be delivered on the day.
Decoration is a separate discipline — one that many planners also learn, but one that is not the same skill. If what you want is to style events, you are looking at event decoration. If what you want is to run them, read on.
Does a degree matter?
No Nigerian university offers a dedicated degree in event planning. The closest paths — hospitality management, mass communication, business administration — teach adjacent skills but not the job itself. A degree will not get you clients, and its absence will not stop you.
What matters is demonstrable competence: can you plan, can you budget, can you coordinate vendors under pressure, can you handle a client who changes the brief three days before the event? These are learned skills, and they are learned faster on the job or in a structured programme than in a lecture hall.
What training should cover
A good event planning programme covers four things. If it covers fewer, it is incomplete.
Planning process. How to take a brief, build a timeline, create a vendor shortlist, and produce a run sheet. This is the core skill — everything else depends on it.
Decor and styling. Not because you will always do your own decor, but because you need to brief a decorator, assess their proposal, and know when what they are quoting is overpriced or structurally unsound. Hands-on practice with draping, florals, table setting and balloon work gives you the vocabulary and the eye.
Pricing and profitability. How to price your services, how to build a client budget, how to manage cash flow when vendors want deposits and clients want to pay after the event. Most new planners underprice because they do not know what the market bears. This is the module that separates a hobby from a business.
Business operations. Registration, tax, contracts, insurance, marketing, social media, and how to get your first five clients without spending money you do not have. The planning skill is necessary; the business skill is what keeps you in the market.
The Pleasant Jay Events Academy runs a four-week programme in Ibadan and online that covers all four, with a portfolio event in the final week. If you are evaluating programmes, compare against this list — not against duration or price alone.
What training does not cover
No programme can teach you what happens when the generator fails at a 400-person wedding in July, when the caterer calls at 6am to say they cannot come, or when the bride's mother rewrites the seating plan 90 minutes before guests arrive.
Those situations are learned by being in them. Training gives you the framework; the first 10 events give you the instinct.
The first two years
Be honest with yourself about what the first two years look like:
Year one is mostly assisting. You assist established planners, you assist decorators, you volunteer to coordinate small events for family and friends, and you build a portfolio from real work, not mock-ups. The income is low. The learning is high.
Year two is when you start taking your own clients — small birthdays, baby showers, intimate traditional ceremonies. Your reputation at this stage is built on reliability, not creativity. Show up on time, respond to messages within the hour, deliver what you promised, and do not take on events you cannot handle.
The planners who survive year two are the ones who said no to the 500-person wedding they were not ready for, and yes to the 50-person birthday they could execute flawlessly.
The transition from assistant to lead planner is not a promotion; it is a choice you make when you have the confidence and the vendor relationships to deliver independently. Most people are ready after 8–15 events as an assistant. Some are ready after 5. If you are still nervous about managing three vendors simultaneously, you are not ready — and that is fine, because another 5 events as an assistant costs you nothing except time, while a failed event as a lead costs you your reputation in a market where word of mouth is everything.
The money in year one
Be honest: year one is not profitable for most new planners. You are investing time in exchange for skills, portfolio material and relationships. The events you assist on pay modestly — if at all — and the events you do for friends and family at cost are exactly that: at cost.
This is normal, not a sign of failure. The planners who quit in year one usually quit because they expected income to arrive before competence, and it does not work that way. If you have a day job, keep it. Build the event business on weekends and evenings until the bookings justify the switch.
Building a portfolio before you have clients
You need photos of real events, not mood boards. The fastest path:
- Assist at real events and ask permission to photograph your work and ensure to credit the owner of the work— the table you styled, the timeline you built, the setup you managed.
- Do two or three events at no/or little cost for people you trust, explicitly in exchange for portfolio photographs and a testimonial.
- Document everything. Before-and-after shots, setup process, the finished room. Your Instagram and all other social media that work for you is your portfolio; treat it accordingly.
Do not use other planners' photos. Do not use stock images. Clients will ask for references, and when the reference does not match the portfolio, you lose both the client and your credibility.
Equipment and startup costs
The barrier to entry is low. You need a phone, a laptop, a reliable internet connection, and transport. You do not need to own decor inventory to start — you rent it, and you only buy when you know exactly what you use repeatedly.
The real startup cost is time. The months you spend assisting, the events you do at no cost, the evenings you spend learning pricing — that is the investment. If someone is selling you an event planning "starter kit" for six figures, they are selling you a shortcut that does not exist.
Certifications and associations
Nigeria's event industry does not have a single regulated certification body. Various associations offer memberships and certificates. These are worth joining for the network, not for the certificate itself — no client has ever hired a planner because of a certificate. They hire because of the portfolio, the referral, or the conversation.
Ready to start?
If you are serious about the career, see what the Academy covers — four weeks, the planning process through to the business plan, in Ibadan or online. Or if you already have the skills and want to talk about working with us, start the conversation.