Due to the adverse weather conditions over the weekend, the Northamptonshire course was postponed until the 21st & 22nd February. We have 2 spaces remaining on day 1 but are now full on day 2. We are in London on the 21st & 22nd of March and at present have 2 spaces on day 1 but none on day 2 (pending payment from 2 attendees). For further details on both courses please contact Bernadette on training@ukawp.com
The UK Alliance of Wedding Planners - The leading industry body for the UK Wedding Planning Market | Promoting professionalism in Wedding Planning
The leading industry body for the UK Wedding Planning Market | Promoting professionalism in Wedding Planning
Archive for February, 2009
Training Update
Monday, February 9th, 2009
Member Focus: Simone Butterfield
Monday, February 9th, 2009Hello and welcome to the first post in our regular series ‘Member Focus’ where you get to hear all about the UKAWP’s members. Today we welcome Simone Butterfield of Dimples Events in Kent.
Why did you become a wedding planner?
My ambition in life has always been to own a manor house that is suitable to hire out for functions and weddings. I have always dreamt of opening a courtyard of shops on the premises that covered every aspect of a wedding i.e a dress shop, a florist, a cake shop etc. I would love to have a little wedding village as such!
While looking for a potential venue or land to develop, I considered opening a shop to sell wedding dresses but there were so many constraints around location and which gowns I could stock, that I continued my search for a career within the wedding industry. Then I came across a website for wedding planners, the UKAWP. It was offering a course for those who wanted an insight wedding planning and it was lead by 2 successful wedding planners. I booked up to attend the next available course and have never looked back!
What’s your signature dish?
Planning weddings on a strict budget! I have had to plan a few weddings now on a minimal budget and they have been just as breathtaking as a wedding with no expense spared. In fact, it is harder to plan a wedding on a minimal budget and definitely worth hiring a wedding planner for.
Do you have a favourite venue?
I do - but I am biased. I can only chose the venue where I was married in 2002; Turkey Mill in Maidstone, Kent. What I love about this venue is that it is like a secret garden. When my husband and I first visited the venue, we had no idea what we were going to find behind a rag-stone wall. We were taken through a wrought iron gate and surprisingly faced with a secret garden. There was a water mill, 9 acres of lush grass, 2 ponds and an orangery. I can still remember the feelings we both shared when we first visited Turkey Mill.
How would your clients describe you?
All of my clients have commented on how easy they find it to talk to me about their ideas for their wedding day, which is a huge compliment. I find that I can easily interpret their characters and assess their likes and dislikes. It’s certainly not everyday that your client rings you and asks you to go bridesmaid dress shopping without any help (and trusts you to buy them with less than 12 weeks before the wedding). I have also been described to be attentive to detail, passionate, diplomatic, methodical and lively!
If you could plan a celebrity wedding, whose would it be?
The celebrity I would love the opportunity to plan a wedding for, is Kelly Brook. She has roots local to me and currently resides in a village where my husband owns his business - in fact she has dropped in a couple of times! I feel that because she is a similar age to me and has stayed local to her roots, she may wish to have her wedding in Kent - an area that I have a great knowledge of. I am also empathetic to Kelly’s loss of her father to cancer. Sadly I lost my mother to cancer at a young age and planning a wedding without a parent, is unbearable. I would love the opportunity to work with such a huge celebrity who seems so grounded and yet so successful.
Which wedding planners work do you admire / respect and why?
I must say that Bernadette has always been my mentor and I respect her profoundly. I had the pleasure of working alongside Bernadette at a wedding that was local to me and this gave me an insight into her professionalism. Bernadette has always freely shared her experiences of wedding planning and has always helped me with any questions that I have asked. I admire Bernadette for launching the UKAWP to promote professionalism within the industry, it certainly helps me to assure clients that I work to a code of ethics and that I am a dedicated professional.
What themes are you working on for 2009?
There seem to be some classic themes that have been around for a couple of years now and brides are not letting go! I have a claret wedding and a silvery green wedding. Both working with timeless pieces that are traditional - along the lines of butterflies and roses!
What is your biggest achievement since launching?
My biggest achievement since launching has still got to be a wedding that I planned in 2007. I was hired in May to help plan a wedding for the September. The only hitch was that the wedding venue had to built above the clients home! The finishing date was 6 weeks before the wedding! Luckily my clients and I developed a great relationship, they trusted me and respected my comments and advice. It was possibly one of the hardest weddings that I have planned, with so many ‘what if’ scenarios. Yet, it was one of my favourite weddings. I felt emotionally overwhelmed at what we had achieved on the big day.
A huge thank you to Simone for taking the time to complete our questions. If you’d like to find out more about Simone or Dimples Events please visit their website.
Things I’ve Learnt
Friday, February 6th, 2009I’ve learnt a huge amount since launching my business and continue to do so everyday. So many of my expectations and preconceptions have been challenged that I thought it might be interesting/helpful to put together a list of some of the things I’ve learnt along the way. Other planners please feel free to email me and let me know any more points that you feel deserve to feature.
Wedding planning is mostly unglamorous! There are moments of glamour but for the most part, the day-to-day work of a planner is fairly mundane. No matter how well planned an event is, inevitably I find myself rushing around, breaking my nails and doing the jobs that nobody else is willing to do.
Not all suppliers are pleased to be working with planners. If suppliers have had a bad experience of another planner or feel that you are going to make their life more complicated they can be uncooperative and difficult to work with.
Life as a planner can be lonely and isolating. When most planners launch, they work from home, by themselves. Compared to the gossip, jokes and general hubbub that happens in a normal office environment, working by yourself can be lonely and takes time to get used to.
Being a business owner will takeover your life. It requires a huge level of emotional, financial and professional commitment to own your own business. At the outset (or if the economy takes a nosedive) finances will be tight and you might need to change you and your family’s lifestyle. As you build the business you will find yourself working long hours, evenings and weekends which can be tough to juggle with family commitments.
Be Patient. Building a business takes a long time and perseverance is very important. In the early days, it can be hard to keep working towards the business, especially if you are seeing little return for all your hard work. Don’t give up, persevere and you will begin to see results!
Having a supportive partner and/or family can make all the difference. I constantly use my husband as a sounding board, ideas generator, proof reader and technical advisor. Whilst I have been working to establish the business, he has had to make lots of sacrifices and if he was unsupportive, things would have been much, much harder.
Do not view all other planners simply as competition. As a business owner, it is obviously important to have an idea local ‘competitors’ and to establish your USP. However, getting to know other planners and sharing experiences can be invaluable both professionally and personally.
Take advantage of all available opportunities. At the outset, it might not make financial sense to do something but if it means you’ll gain experience or make a good contact, do it. In the first month of being a professional planner I made a 560 mile round trip to attend one of the UKAWP’s networking evenings. The traveling took the best part of two days and in total the trip cost around £100. However, aside from having a great evening, I was lucky enough to meet the editor of a wedding magazine and as such I have been mentioned in nearly every subsequent issue of the magazine. In addition, I met Kelly Chandler who was kind enough to let me tag along to one of her weddings a few weeks later. Since then, I’ve helped Kelly at two other weddings, gaining invaluable experience and the benefit of her (often lifesaving) advice. If I had decided to give the networking evening a miss because it was too far/too inconvenient, my business might have been in a very different place.
Overall, successful planners have a good business head. As a planner it helps to be passionate about beautiful, seamless weddings and this can be what motivates you when times are hard. However, the most successful planners I know are actually shrewd entrepreneurs who know when an idea is commercially viable and adjust their business/es accordingly. They understand that eventually a business must generate an income for the owner and that being a planner is a profession not a hobby.
Zoë Lingard runs Weddings by Zoë Lingard, operating throughout South East England
Wedding Planning Excellence ‘09: 22 days to go…
Thursday, February 5th, 2009Recently the directors of the alliance stumbled across a quotation that had us laughing and frankly nodding in agreement. So I felt it only right we shared it with you our fellow colleagues and in many cases friends:
“Don’t wait for a light to appear at the end of the tunnel, stride down there….and light the bloody thing yourself” - Sara Henderson, Australian outback manager & writer
Apologies if the minor swearing offends anyone but this quotation is so very true for the wedding planning industry. There is so much negativity in the world today that it can be hard to remain positive and believe in yourself.
Don’t wait for clients to knock on your door – go and knock on their door
Don’t wait for the economy to pick up – go and kick start the economy yourself
Don’t fill your day with the constant negativity– say NO actually, 2009 will be my best year; I will not tolerate negativity around me
The directors have received so many phone calls from planners emphasizing their excitement about our Wedding Planning Excellence ‘09 seminar. The seminar is only available to trading planners, no enthusiasts and no vendors which appears to be a huge bonus as planners have reiterated they don’t want to be sold to, they want to learn. WPE ’09 is for planners ready to keep on learning in order to increase their profit margins. The programme has been designed to challenge the way we all operate encouraging us out of our comfort zone, definitely something we need to do this year.
In the run up to the seminar we will be posting full details on the schedule and all speakers so do keep checking back on the blog. Should you wish to find out more information regarding the seminar please visit the events section of our website or call me on 01376 561 544
With warm wishes,
Bernadette
Wedding Planning Excellence ‘09
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009As some of you might know, the UKAWP are organising their first Wedding Planning Excellence (WPE ’09) seminar for professional, successful planners looking to keep on learning and growing. The event is open to planners already trading who feel that they would benefit from in depth, expert subject speakers to improve their knowledge. The programme is designed by the directors of the UKAWP following feedback from planners and industry experts. As ever there will be an opportunity to network throughout the two days including a fun filled dinner event. Click here to learn more and keep checking back on our blog for further schedule announcements and speaker biogs. The venue for WPE ’09 is the beautiful Down Hall Hotel in Hertfordshire; allowing us some much needed luxury for our learning.
With warm wishes,
Bernadette
Pocket Positive I
Monday, February 2nd, 2009“Our problem is that we make the mistake of comparing ourselves with other people. You are not inferior or superior to any human being…You do not determine your success by comparing yourself to others, rather you determine your success by comparing your accomplishments to your capabilities. You are ‘number one’ when you do the best you can with what you have” Zig Ziglar
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Welcome to the UKAWP Blog. The UK Alliance of Wedding Planners was founded in order to promote professionalism in wedding planning. We aim to do this through training, mentoring, membership, business tools and importantly our Code of Ethics to which all members adhere. To find out more about us please visit our main site
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The UKAWP Directors are delighted to be part of the judging panel for the Wedding Industry Awards 2012.
