UKAWP - THE LEADING INDUSTRY BODY FOR THE UK WEDDING PLANNING MARKET

Archive for the ‘Life as a Planner’ Category

UKAWP member’s new service for ultra fashion-conscious brides

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

We at UKAWP are always stressing how different our member wedding planners are and how their often diverse  talents come to the fore in how they run and grow their wedding planning businesses. Today’s post  is an example of that from boutique consultancy Cranberry Blue Weddings who have recently launched ‘The Fashion Indulgence’.  Director and former fashion buyer Melanie Helen clearly has the interest, talents and contacts to design a very fashion-led service and here is what this new service is all about. It looks fantastic. 

They have teamed up with some of the industry’s most reputable brands to offer a unique, luxury service with a fashion twist. Directed by founder and former fashion buyer Melanie Helen, you and your girlfriends can indulge yourselves for a whole weekend with a personal shopping experience, champagne afternoon tea, professional hair & make-up styling and a photo shoot with some of the top names in the industry.

The experience would begin with a personal shopping trip at either Selfridges or Harvey Nichols, followed by:

  • - A sumptuous champagne afternoon tea
  • - An overnight stay in a boutique hotel
  • - Hair styling by leading bridal hair company The Hepburn Collection
  • - State of the art airbrush makeup, by celebrity makeup artist Mariam Jensen or by the renowned JemmaKidd Professional Team
  • - A location photo shoot with leading photographers Eye Imagine
  • - A private car to the hotel and the photo shoot location
  • - A selection of mounted prints

Melanie would work with you beforehand to discuss different looks and possibilities for the photo shoot, before creating a design concept that includes everything from clothing, accessories, locations and hair and make-up ideas.  It could be for a 1950s theme for example or based around the current fashion trends.

This is perfect for a sophisticated hen party, a gift to the groom or an original take on engagement photos; alternatively it would be a fabulous birthday treat.

Melanie, who has worked for the elite of the fashion world from renowned French designer Roland Mouretto the cream of the high street chains such as Oasis and Arcadia, personally attends to the brides every step of the way. Aided by her in-depth knowledge of the fashion and buying world, Melanie keeps a close eye on the latest trends in the fashion and wedding industry and understands how they can be adapted to suit individuals.

Prices are based on a minimum of 4 people and are from £675 each for the whole weekend. 

For further information please visit:www.cranberryblueweddings.co.uk or email fashion@cranberryblueweddings.co.uk or call 07974 157885

 

 UKAWP members - do you too have a new service for 2012 couples? Do let us know.

Fashion Indulgence Credits

 Eye Imagine: http://www.eyeimagine.co.uk/

Mariam Jensen:http://www.mariamjensen.com/#/

The Hepburn Collection:http: //www.hepburncollection.com/

Jemma Kidd Makeup:http://www.jemmakidd.com/

Cranberry Blue Weddings: http://www.cranberryblueweddings.co.uk/

A little useful reading …

Monday, December 5th, 2011

Today we would like to bring a free e-book to your attention. If you source and book entertainment then this engaging, highly practical e-book is all encompassing and should make your job so much easier. Ideal for newer wedding planners, it is also a useful reminder to those who have booked a lot of entertainment already. UKAWP Director, Kelly Chandller, wrote the foreword for this e-book which is available here:

 http://www.facebook.com/LM2Entertainment.


The author, Brad is founder and MD of LM2 Entertainment, a professional function band management company. Brad also writes extensively on the topic of professional function bands through his LM2 Entertainment blog . He shares his knowledge and experience by serving as a mentor and running occasional master classes for music degree level students and alumni looking to pursue a career in the professional function band market at one of London’s foremost music institutions.

We hope you find it useful.

Great news for UKAWP Destination Member, Exclusive Yacht Weddings

Monday, November 28th, 2011

We are delighted to hear good news from our first destination member, Exclusive Yacht Weddings.  

They have recently been awarded the BA Award from UK Weddings for “Unique Wedding Specialists of the Year 2011″. They are also ”highly commended” at the Weddings Ideas Awards Ceremony, London! 2011 

Proud to announce their achievement throughout 2011, EYW are growing and expanding now into Mykonos and the Greek Islands! Having 17 years experience as specialists in weddings in Cyprus in Yachts, Beach and hotel weddings.

Exclusive Yacht Weddings

Manager Sharron Masoura says” We specialize in weddings being unique and give the couples what they want, with all these years of experience we have now decided that we need to offer our services into Mykonos and the Greek islands, demand is there for something a little different from the “ordinary” wedding.”

We make sure that our wedding specialists are fully trained, have experience in our fields and can offer what people want.  We are proud to say that nothing is too much trouble for our team, we always will go that extra mile to make sure our couples have the best.

Our team are also based throughout the UK and Scotland too!  We have wedding specialists covering different areas and are always ready to come to you!! 

Sharron is proud to announce that all their wedding specialists have all been married by the company and want to prove out there that they have the most unique weddings available for their couples.

Good luck Sharron and team for an equally successful 2012.

Your Christmas Wish List

Friday, November 25th, 2011

OK, you might fancy a lovely pair of shoes, a new handbag or a day in the spa, but the effects of those are never going to last a long time. How about adding some business mentoring to your Christmas wish list this year? 

New shoes or Business mentoring? Tough choice

Our UKAWP Business Mentoring Service and newer Business Support Hotline are available to less than 2 year old businesses who need a boost in those delicate and difficult early stages. Whether it’s more one to one help following our training courses on marketing, advice on your first marquee wedding or being able to talk through client and supplier difficulties and issues, one of our UKAWP Directors is available to help with one of the above services.   The annual service is priced at £500 but support is available by the hour at the rate of £60 if you prefer the Business Support Hotline.  For full information take a look here

 Below is what Stacey-Marie Chalk of Cherry Topped Weddings thought:   

 “As a new business and new into the wedding planning industry I wanted to have the support of the mentoring service provided by the UKAWP. With 3 mentoring meetings with Kelly throughout a 12 month period and email and phone support, this provided plenty of time for me to go through all sorts of questions, concerns and ideas with Kelly. It also meant that by spanning it across 12 months your business has the opportunity to grow and change which in itself raises new challenges which Kelly was able to support and guide me through. You can talk openly and honestly in confidence about anything relating to your business, the industry, your experiences with clients and suppliers, ideas for progress and development, the list goes on… I found the whole mentoring programme extremely worthwhile, and great for giving you that little extra confidence boost by knowing that you’re not the only one out there who goes through those sometimes challenging early stages of a business. It was great to look back to the first meeting 12 months ago and see how far I had come too - the year really did fly by without even realising! Thank you Kelly and UKAWP!”

 We hope to be able to help you in 2012.

 Photo credit: PR Photography

WPE ’12 – AN OVERVIEW

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

 What is WPE?

WPE ‘Wedding Planning Excellence’ was first established in 2009 and in essence is a training seminar for wedding planners. From visiting websites of our US counterparts we began to get a little envious of the number of specialised seminars open to wedding planners throughout the year. As our industry has grown we felt it was about time the UK followed suit and had an event just for ‘wedding planners’ and thus WPE was born.

Attendees at WPE 11

I’m already trading so why do I need more training?

Most importantly this isn’t a training course, it’s a seminar. There are 2 days of intelligent, inspirational speakers for you to learn from. If you are ready and willing to push your business further ensuring increased profitability, then take the plunge and commit to  WPE. Sometimes we spend all our time working IN the business, i.e. planning weddings that we don’t spend time working ON the business and this is what WPE helps you focus on.

Business-focussed presentations

 

So when is it?

As in previous years WPE is held over 2 days Friday 2nd - Saturday 3rd  March 2012, and after listening to feedback we have kept it to central London. The venue chosen for WPE ‘12 is the gorgeously luxurious 51 Buckingham Gate http://www.51-buckinghamgate.com/. There will be a Friday night dinner which again is optional, more details to be published on the dinner in the New Year.

How much?

The investment we ask from you for the 2 days + dinner is minimal compared to similar events in the US who charge $2,200! The prices will go up after the 2nd January so we advise you book early to make your pennies stretch even further.

Early bird UKAWP member rate - for one day £160, for both days £290 / Early bird non member rate - for one day - £170, for both days £320 / Dinner is £45

Annabel from Love my Dress at WPE 11

Who is Speaking?

We have a range of business and industry experts confirmed already (see below) and plan to add more over the coming weeks, do visit our website for full schedule information.

The art of negotiation

Looking Fantastic Online

Practical Marketing Strategies for Planners

Etiquette for the Modern Wedding Planner

Luxury Marquees & What to Look Out For

Using cocktails to enhance the wedding design - hot trends for 2012

Business Self Discipline

Wedding Planning business software demonstration

Wedding planners continue to learn

To review the schedule go to http://www.wpe.ukawp.com/schedule.htm

What’s New?

WPE ‘12 is going to be even bigger and better than in previous years. Alongside the formal presentations will be more Q&A + some panel discussions for more in depth questions.  After dinner on the Friday one of our members is organizing a surprise activity, more details will be announced in the New Year.

We hope to see you there!

Training and Using Your Talents

Monday, November 21st, 2011

On 15 and 16 October I trained an inspiring group of ladies all looking to enter the wedding planning industry. Although I’m the tutor I always learn or reaffirm something from every course which is wonderful.

Recent UKAWP training

 It was fantastic to welcome back 3 UKAWP students who had done our Business Practicalities course previously and are ready to launch after completing this Step by Step training. It was also really great to welcome new students onto the course and what struck me most was the diversity of talent we have entering the wedding planning industry. One student comes from an interior design background, another is an event florist, another an experienced wedding photographer. Now you may well ask, why are these ladies wanting to enter wedding planning too? Everyone has a different focus, motivation and plan but mostly these ladies love the wedding industry they have already seen, recognise that they have talents for the planning and design side and want to tap into them. And good for them.

Recent UKAWP training

 Although many of our UKAWP member wedding planners focus full time on planning, that doesn’t suit everyone and in these days of flexibility how marvellous that many are choosing to combine multiple and often complementary talents to make a working lifestyle that suits them. We don’t all have to follow the 9-5 plan.

 A few planners we know who do this marvelously are:

 Liz from  Simply Elegant who is a balloon artist as well as running her planning business

Melanie from Cranberry Blue Weddings who offers a bespoke table plan design service.

 Both of the ladies above were contributors to our successful The Wedding Sanctuary bridal event which will return in autumn 2012.

 Then there is Helen from Bespoken Dreams who is a clever wordsmith and offers a “We Heart PR” service to those in the industry seeking to improve their PR presence so do have a look if you need help on that side of things.

 And then we know a range of planners who whilst they don’t formally practice other careers, have very useful backgrounds in law, finance, marketing, PR and design. We really are rather a diverse and talented bunch if we say so ourselves!

 Do you combine wedding planning with another business pursuit? Or do you find that wedding planning is more than enough of a day job?

Wedding Photo Vault - keeping those photos for life

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

Today, Director, Sandy Moretta writes on a new service that none of us has seen before that is inexpensive and practical and might be worth considering for your business photos as well as recommending to your wedding clients:

Q: When the wedding is over and the planning stages and preparation have all successfully drawn to a close, what is left of the day?

 

A: The memories shared by the couple, their family and friends…and their wedding photographs.

The newlyweds head off on a golf buggy

 

These days wedding photographs are not just a selection of posed group shots, but often tell the full story of the day from the preparation of the Bride and Groom to First Dance and evening fun that follows.  This is how a bride will be able to recall her day for many, many years to come.  Or will she?

 

With the age of digital wedding photography and photojournalism style photography has also come the age of digital storage.  It’s great.  Neat little USB drives or DVD’s that can be put away safely and last forever.  The only problem is that they don’t.  These are easily lost in house moves, can be damaged or simply mislaid and then what is left of the day? Those that store them on computer hard drives and possibly have a couple of copies should feel slightly more secure, however all hard drives eventually fail and in the future can they be accessed? Remember tape, or VHS ?

 

A wedding photographer I know had brides with exactly this problem.  In some cases these brides had not even got around to choosing the photos for an album yet and suddenly found that they had lost their photo DVD in a move.  All that planning, effort and memories … Lost.

 

As a solution to this problem the UKAWP was excited to discover this clever company that stores wedding photos, simply and cheaply for as long as you want!

 

Wedding Photo Vault (www.weddingphotovault.com).  

 

To register the bride simply needs to enter some simple details at www.weddingphotovault.com  There is a one off registration fee of £4.95.  They will then be sent a DVD to copy their photos onto (simple instructions will be enclosed for those not so computer literate) and then return the disc in the pre-paid envelope provided.  

 

Once received Wedding Photo Vault will then store their precious memories for just £3.65 a year. 

 

If you want more details send an email to (info@weddingphotovault.com) or just go to the FAQ at (www.weddingphotovault.com) the website and see how easily our brides can lose those memories in the digital world.

 Photo credit: http://pr-photography.org/

UKAWP blog features

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Just a short post today to share with you two lovely blog posts we’ve been lucky enough to feature in recently. Both of them share information not only on UKAWP and what we do but go into much detail about our talented members work (check out the photos on Love My Dress!) and demonstrate our diverse creativity with a huge number of planning tips. We hope you find five minutes to grab a cuppa and have a read!  And thank you if you contributed.

Love My Dress

Before the Big Day

WPE ’12 – REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN - 2nd & 3rd March 2012

Monday, November 14th, 2011

We are delighted to announce registration is now open for WPE ‘12. We will be sending invitations out very soon, but if you can’t wait, you can register online here http://www.ukawp.com/booking-form-seminar.php. As in previous years if you register before the 2nd January you will receive the early bird discounted rate.

 Wedding Planning Excellence '11

If you’re a planner and looking to take your business to the next level by way of continued development and learning, then Wedding Planning Excellence (WPE) is for you;  tailored to meet the needs of wedding planning businesses only, it’s pretty much one of a kind!

 

The programme is coming together nicely with a mix of business motivational specialists as well as industry gurus.  Keep checking back on the website for details on new confirmed speakers http://wpe.ukawp.com/index.htm

 

We hope to see you there!

UK Wedding Planners’ Mixing and Mingling!

Monday, November 7th, 2011

 Today I’m writing on the recent Mix and Mingle Events which took place on 20 October across the country. We were rather ambitious in our plans to get wedding planners together across various regions of the country on the same night and were delighted with the results. 

Mixing and Mingling

We had over 35 planners attend the largest London event with smaller, but equally successful, events in the Midlands and Cheshire taking place on the same night. The format of the evenings were informal and an opportunity for wedding planners (many of whom work alone) to get together with others running the same kind of business in their area. Whilst many of our UKAWP members regularly network with each other and meet at lots of our events, we welcomed lots of recent students, newcomers to the industry as well as more established planners who wanted to get to know their industry colleagues.   

UKAWP Directors Brief Welcome

UKAWP Directors Brief Welcome

 

Planners dig into delicious bowl food by BMA House

Planners dig into delicious bowl food by BMA House

Venue showround

Venue showround

Fragranced champagne candles by Sandy Bay

Fragranced champagne candles by Sandy Bay

Wedding planners catch up on the summer season

Wedding planners catch up on the summer season

Wedding planners in Cheshire at their mix and mingle

Wedding planners in Cheshire at their mix and mingle

And the Cheshire planners were treated to goody bags by Molton Brown

And the Cheshire planners were treated to goody bags by Molton Brown

Our enormous thanks to all of the venues who so kindly agreed to host us.  In London we were welcomed by BMA House (where most of the above photos were taken), in Cheshire at Doubletree by Hilton and in the Midlands at Hampton Manor.

Also thanks to Sandy Bay London and Molton Brown for their wonderful goody bags as well as the ever-fabulous Lloyd Dobbie Photography for capturing images from the London event.  

The below comment from one of our guests sums up the ethos of UKAWP we feel -

‘I wanted to write to say thank you for organising such a lovely evening. It was a real pleasure to meet new and established planners who shared their experience and knowledge. Being new, I felt slightly apprehensive about the idea of meeting so many lovely ladies who would probably have so much to say about their businesses while I had relatively nothing to say. I was so pleased to notice, however, that everyone was exceptionally friendly and helpful!’

Future events - Our annual social event will return next autumn 2012. In the meantime do look at our Events page for more on upcoming seminars, workshops, training and learning opportunities with UKAWP, whatever stage of business you’re at.

Recent course students chat to Director of UKAWP, Bernadette