Frequently asked questions

Yes. The entire course is online, so you can study from anywhere at any time. There are no in-person classes and no live sessions to attend, which matters if you are fitting study around a job or around weekend events you are already helping with.

The course is written, not video. Each unit is a long read-through built around worked examples from event planning businesses, such as a quote being rebuilt or a run sheet being tested against a supplier who has never met the planner. Each unit ends with a practice quiz and two short assignments. You get instant access to your student dashboard the moment you enroll.

The Fundamentals Course includes the first 6 units: the event planning profession today; setting up your event planning business; pricing and quoting events; timelines, logistics and run sheets; clients, briefs and expectations; winning your first bookings. The Fast Track Course adds the remaining 4: marketing an event planning business; venues, suppliers and negotiation; systems, software and your first hires; scaling and long-term growth.

No. Event planning has no formal entry requirement, and neither does this course. If you can read in English and have a device with internet access, you are ready to enroll. Many students come from hospitality, administration or retail, and plenty have only planned events for friends and family.

Both, along with private celebrations and non-profit events. Unit 1 compares these markets and helps you choose where to start, and the pricing, contract and run sheet methods that follow work in all of them. The examples move between weddings, company functions and family celebrations on purpose.

No. The Certified Event Planning Professional (C.E.P.P.) is a training certificate. It shows you completed the course and passed an exam, including written answers read by a person. It is not a government license, and in most places event planners do not need one. What a planning business usually needs is a registered business, liability insurance and whatever permits a particular event requires. Our guide to whether you need a license to be an event planner explains the difference.

No law requires one in most places, and many working planners have none. A certification helps in a different way. It gives a first client or a venue coordinator some evidence that you know how to price, contract and run an event before you have a portfolio to show them, and the course behind it teaches the parts that people starting out usually get wrong. Our guide on how to become an event planner covers the other routes in.

It is worth it if the training behind it changes how you work. A certificate on its own does not win bookings. What wins them is quoting properly, writing a contract that protects the date and running an event from a solid run sheet. Judge any program by whether it teaches those things in depth and assesses them with more than a multiple-choice quiz. You can read exactly what each unit covers on the courses page.

The Fundamentals Course is $247 and the Fast Track Course is $498. Either one includes the exam and the C.E.P.P. certificate, with no separate exam fee, no renewal fee and no charge for a resit. Both come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can compare the two courses side by side.

It depends on how much time you give it each week, because the course is self-paced with no deadlines. The Fundamentals Course has 6 units and the exam is drawn from those same units, so students on either course can sit it once they have worked through them. Each unit is a substantial read with a quiz and assignments, so plan on steady study rather than a single weekend. See the Fundamentals Course for the unit list.

Yes, entirely. The units, quizzes and assignments are online, the exam is an open-book online exam, and the certificate is issued digitally with a unique verification ID. Anybody you show it to, such as a venue or a corporate client, can confirm it is genuine on our certificate verification page.

No. The C.E.P.P. is not accredited by a government agency or an outside accrediting body, and we do not claim otherwise. It is our own credential, awarded to people who complete our training and pass an exam that a person marks in part. Our certification standards set out exactly what it represents, how it is assessed and how it can be verified.

The Certified Meeting Professional (CMP, from the Events Industry Council) and the Certified Special Events Professional (CSEP, from the International Live Events Association) are experience-based designations. Each requires years of documented industry work before you can sit its exam. The C.E.P.P. is for people at the start, and needs no prior experience. Many planners begin with training like this and pursue one of those later. The certification standards page explains how they fit together.

Yes, as one of the markets the course teaches, alongside corporate events and private celebrations. There is no separate wedding planner certificate here, and there is no single official one anywhere; wedding planner certificates are offered by many private programs. Our article on event planners and wedding coordinators explains how the roles differ and overlap.

Yes. The C.E.P.P. has no experience requirement, which is the main way it differs from the industry's senior designations. The course assumes you are starting from scratch and includes a unit on building a portfolio before you have run an event of your own. Our guide to becoming an event planner with no experience is a good place to start.

Yes. Corporate meetings, conferences, offsites and company celebrations are covered throughout, including how corporate buyers differ from private clients, how to read a venue contract, and how to turn a single corporate event into an account that books every year. Our article on getting corporate event clients goes into that market in more detail.

The certificate comes with enrolling in a course, so it is not free. Much of what an event planning business runs on is free on this site, though. Our event planning template guides walk through the contract, run sheet, budget and checklist, and the resources page collects our calculators and articles. Be wary of a free "certification" that has no assessment behind it, because it proves very little to a client.

Most planners get there through a mix of learning the business side, getting practical experience at real events and then either finding a job with an agency, venue or company, or starting on their own. Volunteering at events, assisting an established planner and planning events for your own network all count. Our step-by-step guide on how to become an event planner lays out each route.

No. Degrees in hospitality, tourism and event management exist and some larger employers prefer them, but a degree is not a legal requirement and many successful independent planners do not have one. What clients check is whether you can organize, communicate and deliver on the day. Our guide to becoming an event planner covers education options alongside the experience routes.

Start by learning how weddings are actually run: the planning timeline, supplier booking order, contracts, and the run sheet for the day. Assisting an established planner or a venue coordinator for a season is one of the fastest ways to see it done well. Then decide which service you will offer first, since coordination and full planning are different jobs. Read how to become an event planner and our comparison of planners and wedding coordinators.

Usually a registered business and liability insurance, not a planner license. Individual events can need permits, for example to serve alcohol, to hold a temporary event, to put up a marquee or to close a road, and these belong to the event or the venue rather than to you. The rules vary by city, county and state, so check locally. Our guide on licenses for event planners covers what to ask.

Less than most businesses, because you do not need premises, stock or equipment beyond a phone and a laptop. The main early costs are business registration, liability insurance, a website, software and some marketing. The startup cost calculator lets you add up your own figures, and our guide to starting an event planning business explains each step.

It varies widely with location, market and whether you are employed or running your own business. An independent planner's income depends on how many events they take, how they price them and how quiet their off-season is. Our guide to how much event planners make goes through the figures, and the income calculator lets you model your own year.

Start with the people who already see events every week: venue coordinators, caterers, florists and photographers. A planner who makes their job easier gets referred. Your own network, a clear introductory offer and good photographs of every event you run do the rest. Our article on working with venues to get referrals and our guide on becoming an event planner cover this in detail.

Yes. Our event planning checklist template runs backward from event day, in the order tasks actually depend on each other, from the signed brief and venue through supplier bookings, permits and final confirmations to pack-down and the debrief. It is free to use straight from the page.

Start from the hours an event actually takes you, then choose a fee model: a flat fee, a percentage of the budget, an hourly rate or a per-guest price. Each rewards different work. Our explainer on event planning fee models compares them, and the event pricing calculator helps you set a number.

It can be, for people who enjoy organizing, stay calm under pressure and do not mind working evenings and weekends. The work is varied and the barrier to entry is low, which also means competition. Our honest look at whether event planning is a good career covers both sides.

We offer two options depending on how far you want to go. The Fundamentals Course is $247 and the Fast Track Course is $498. You can compare both on the courses page.

Because it is delivered entirely online and written rather than filmed, there are no classrooms, no timetables and no video production to pay for. That keeps the price down without cutting the parts that matter, which are the depth of the units and a person reading your written exam answers.

No hidden charges, subscription fees or surprise costs. You pay once for your course, and the exam, resits and certificate are included.

Both courses come with a 100% money-back guarantee. If you decide the training is not right for you, just email us within 30 days and we will refund your payment, no questions asked.

You take an open-book online exam of 30 multiple-choice questions and 4 short written answers. You need at least 70 out of 100 to pass. You get up to 2 attempts and a resit costs nothing, with no waiting period in between. The exam is one sitting rather than something you save and come back to, so give yourself a clear hour.

The multiple-choice half is scored the moment you submit. The written half is read by a person, usually within two business days, and your result arrives by email. If you do not pass, you get notes on what would have earned full marks rather than just a number.

Yes. Once you complete the course and pass the exam, you receive a personalized digital certificate with your name and the date you finished, naming you a Certified Event Planning Professional (C.E.P.P.).

You resit it, at no cost, up to 2 attempts in total. Your result email tells you your score, splits it between the multiple-choice and written halves so you know where to focus, and includes any notes your marker left. You can sit it again as soon as you are ready.

There is no password. Enter your email address on the sign-in page and we send you a six digit code that lasts ten minutes. The code only works in the browser that asked for it, so request it on the device you want to use. If it does not arrive, wait a minute before asking for another one, and check your spam folder.

Payments are confirmed by our payment provider a moment after you pay, and access opens automatically when that lands. If you sign in during that gap you will see a page saying we are confirming your payment, and it opens your course by itself. If it has been more than a few minutes, email us with the reference on that page.

Sign in and open your account page. Every purchase is listed there with its invoice number, and the "Open billing and receipts" button takes you to our payment provider where you can download the receipt itself.

Yes, and you only pay the difference rather than the full price. The option is on your dashboard once you are signed in. It charges the card you enrolled with, and if that card no longer works you can complete it at the normal checkout instead.

No. They are yours to work through and nobody marks them. They matter for a different reason: the written half of the final exam is drawn from the first assignment question in units 1 to 6, and your own answer is already in the box when you sit it.

No. Each unit quiz is practice, your score is not reported to anyone, and it has no effect on your certificate. It exists so you can check something landed before building on top of it. The final exam is the one that counts.

No. Access does not expire, there is no schedule, and nothing is lost if you put it down for a few months. Your progress is saved as you go.