The UK Alliance of Wedding Planners - The leading industry body for the UK Wedding Planning Market | Promoting professionalism in Wedding Planning

One of the main areas the UKAWP is known for is our training courses, one of the benefits we try and pass onto our students is shadowing experience with one of our members or in some cases the director.

Having a student assist you on a wedding day can be beneficial and rewarding for you both. The student can help you at the wedding with the time consuming tasks like: folding napkins, laying place cards, positioning button holes at the church, assisting guests find their tables, hand round guest books. The student shouldn’t however be left alone so if you need a second planner to be at the church whilst you are at the reception venue then consider hiring another member of the UKAWP instead as a freelancer. *We have ½ day and full day rates; if you need information on these rates please contact sandy@ukawp.com.

I think in the early days there is a tendency to feel you must do everything yourself on a wedding day but as you get more experienced you realise this isn’t possible. Frequently you are called away from laying tables by the caterer who wants to run through the dietary options with you or the best man wants to check his speech - in essence you can quickly run out of time and become stressed thinking you wont finish everything in time. 

• please note this is for UKAWP members hiring another member to assist at one of their weddings.

The Benefits of Destination Membership

Last in our current series covering our different membership types comes our most recent addition - Destination Membership.This post aims to provide an overview of the entry criteria and benefits of Destination Membership. Should you be interested in applying to the UKAWP or have any queries, please contact us at membership@ukawp.com .

Destination Membership

For years we have allowed only UK based planners to apply for membership of the UKAWP, indeed hanging our hats on the fact that our training and mentoring schemes are focused on the UK, thus our planners are ideal for British brides. However, with this last point in mind, an increasing number of UK brides contact us looking for destination weddings and wanting to know where best to find reputable local foreign planners.

We therefore decided to open Destination Membership to a number of experienced, reputable non UK planners, as follows….

This type of membership is for those planners who have been running their companies and working with clients for some time.

Application criteria:

• Companies must only plan weddings outside the UK.
• Companies must have been trading for at least 12 months at point of application.
• Companies must submit details of two past clients that the Alliance can contact to gather references, one of which must be for full wedding co-ordination from venue search through to attending on the day. Postal addresses, not just e-mail addresses, must be provided.
• Companies must provide one reference from a supplier or venue.
• Companies must supply proof of public liability insurance.
• Membership fee is £145 incl. VAT for 12 months.
• To download an application form please do so here…

Benefits:

• Annual certificate of membership of the UKAWP to be shown to potential clients.
• Use of ‘Destination Member’ logo of the UKAWP on website, advertising and all marketing materials.
• Ability to refer potential clients to the UKAWP code of ethics and application process to gain enhanced client confidence.
• Inclusion on the UKAWP on-line database of member companies. Destination Members are listed by country.
• The UKAWP has links with a variety of media outlets and has an on-going press and public relations plan to continually increase the profile of the Alliance within the wedding industry. Journalists are put in touch with members for interview opportunities/coverage on a very regular basis.
• Benefit from the UKAWP’s ongoing advertising plan in wedding publications and online.
• Discounts to attend any UKAWP meetings, networking events, seminars, workshops or training courses.
• UKAWP branded marketing materials such as brochures, pens and pads and other items available seasonally.

Please contact membership@ukawp.com should you have any questions.

Following our review of Associate Membership two weeks ago, this post aims to provide an overview of the entry criteria and benefits of Full Membership. Should you be interested in applying to the UKAWP or have any queries, please contact us at membership@ukawp.com :

Full Membership

This type of membership is for those planners who have been running their companies and working with clients for some time.

Application criteria:

• Companies must have been trading for at least 12 months at point of application.
• Companies must submit details of two past clients that the Alliance can contact to gather references, one of which must be for full wedding co-ordination from venue search through to attending on the day. Postal addresses, not just e-mail addresses, must be provided.
• Companies must provide one reference from a supplier or venue.
• Companies must supply proof of public liability insurance.
• Membership fee is £275 for 12 months.
• To download an application form please do so here…

Benefits:

• Annual certificate of membership of the UKAWP to be shown to potential clients.
• Use of ‘Full Member’ logo of the UKAWP on website, advertising and all marketing materials.
• Ability to refer potential clients to the UKAWP code of ethics and application process to gain enhanced client confidence.
• Inclusion on the UKAWP on-line database of member companies. Full Members are listed above others and have double the word count for their description.
• Increased media awareness of member companies. The UKAWP has links with a variety of media outlets and has an on-going press and public relations plan to continually increase the profile of the Alliance within the wedding industry. Journalists are put in touch with members for interview opportunities/coverage on a very regular basis.
• Benefit from the UKAWP’s ongoing advertising plan in wedding publications and online.
• Discounts to attend any UKAWP meetings, networking events, seminars, workshops or training courses.
• UKAWP branded marketing materials such as brochures, pens and pads and other items available seasonally. Ideal for any exhibitions or events you are organising.
• Access to a network of supportive, approachable and experienced professionals to help, guide and advise on any critical areas of difficulty or concern.
• Access to a network of experienced planners to assist where additional staff are needed at weddings at pre-agreed and competitive rates.
• Access to a network of keen, hungry students for ‘shadowing’ opportunities.
• Full Members may be asked to help out with training, at pre agreed rates, from time to time.
• For experienced Full Members, there is an opportunity to mentor students within their first two years of business at pre-agreed rates.

One of our Full Members, Zoe Lingard, had this to say about her membership….

‘Having full membership has given me confidence in my skills as a planner. Amongst other things this has led me to being more effective in sales meetings and winning increased numbers of new clients.’

Please contact membership@ukawp.com should you have any questions.

Two weeks today we will review our Destination Membership category.

Following my post about what Associate Membership of the UKAWP is all about, I am delighted to share with you the thoughts of one of our relatively recent members, Isobel Lamplough of Isobel Weddings, whose business is going from strength to strength….

‘Being an associate member of the UKAWP has huge benefits - all my clients are very keen to hear about our training, the code of ethics that we abide by and feel reassured that we are supported by a professional body. In terms of personal benefits - I have found the media contacts invaluable and also the access to a network of like minded individuals.’

Many thanks Isobel for your thoughts.