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UPCOMING EVENTS |
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How to Organise a Marquee Reception
25th April 2013   Photo credits Kerry Morgan and Mark Bothwell By popular demand we are delighted to bring you our next workshop in time for the summer season, namely details on how to organise a marquee reception. The anticipated schedule is below, please note places are limited to no more than 10 students so book early not to miss out. The venue for this workshop is the British Medical Sciences building, accessible by train or tube, more travel details can be seen via their website http://www.41portlandplace.com/our-venue/7/find-us
Where: Academy of Medical Sciences, 41 Portland Place, London W1B 1QH Nearest Tube: Oxford Circus, Regents Park, Great Portland Street Cost: £100 members and £150 non members To book: Please complete our booking form |
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November 2013 – Wedding Professionals Business Conference
 The directors of the UKAWP will be presenting at a new Wedding Professionals Business Conference in November 2013 regarding the benefits of working with wedding planners. More information will be posted nearer the time. |
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PAST EVENTS |
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| 7th February 2013 - Matching Wine and Food for Weddings On the 7th February some of the members took part in a ‘Matching Wine & Food for Weddings’ workshop. Some might say this was just an excuse to sample some wine but actually, not only was it a fun evening, we did learn some interesting facts. The event was kindly hosted by Dominique Douglas of Stylish Events, a UKAWP member and her husband, Dan, at their home in Canary Wharf. Dan cooked some amazing hors d'oeuvres for us to try on the night, the food was so delicious so we all decided having food and wine at their home should be a weekly occurrence for the UKAWP. 
At this interactive workshop we were guided by a professional wine expert, Giles Smith Walker, on what to look for when matching the wine with the wedding menu. His advice was given in a non intimidating way and he seemed quite at home with a bunch of wedding planners. 
Our thanks to Paula Broome for taking some lovely pictures on the night and joining in with the sampling! |
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November 2013 – Wedding Professionals Business Conference
The directors of the UKAWP will be presenting at a new Wedding Professionals Business Conference in November 2013 regarding the benefits of working with wedding planners. More information will be posted nearer the time. |
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October 2012 – UKAWP Study Tour to New York City
We were thrilled to be able to conduct our first overseas study tour. This visit has been something which the UKAWP Directors and a number of members have been keen to do for quite a few years, because the role of the independent wedding planner is far more widespread in the USA (and in the Cities in particular) and has been established for many more years than in the UK. Added to the volume and range of suppliers and services in the US, we felt that a visit to learn, watch and listen would be hugely beneficial for our planning businesses and for the growth of the wedding planning craft.       To read more on the day by day visits we made and what we learnt, take a look at the New York Study Tour posts on our blog: Day One, Day Two. |
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September 2012 – Mix and Mingle
 Our annual wedding planners end of season get together was back again in September. This year, each of the three events across the country was organised and hosted by our talented UKAWP members and what a fabulous job they all did. Beautiful venues, fabulous styling, exciting entertainment and jam-packed goody bags were the order of the day, not to mention the usual wonderful camaraderie, business support and idea sharing hotspots which these events have become known for. To read up and view images of each event, do have a look at our blog posts here: London | Manchester | Midlands Mix and Mingle will return in autumn 2013. |
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March 2012 - WPE '12  WPE (Wedding Planning excellence) is a dedicated seminar for trading wedding planners with a handpicked programme especially designed to increase your knowledge. It’s been running for four years and is educational, practical and intended to leave you bursting with business ideas to further progress and grow your wedding planning company. WPE 12 was a great success – see here for a snapshot of what went on. Please subscribe to our blog to ensure you are one of the first to hear about our plans for WPE 13. If you are a venue or supplier who is interested in being involved in this fabulous seminar in 2013 please contact Bernadette on 01376 561 544. |
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February 2012 -
Webinar for beginners on ‘The basics of organising a marquee reception’’
The first one for 2012 was the basics of organising a marquee reception. This was based on the presentation Bernadette gave at WPE ’11 and was highly beneficial for those who took part and were unsure of the logistics involved in organising a marquee event. |
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February 2012 - "Blogging for Business" Northern Workshop
  In her "Blogging for Business" workshop, Julia shares her top tips for creating and maintaining a successful business blog in any business sector, with a particular focus on the wedding industry. In this interactive session, which was devoid of "geek speak" and specifically geared to generate results for your business, Julia focussed on: - Blogging for Business: Do you need a blog? - Geek Chic: The technical side made easy. - Writers Block: Getting started. - Sell Yourself: Showing what you can do - The C's of Success: content, comments, contacts and consistency. - Getting to the Top: Your blog and your Google search ranking. - Show Me The Money: Using a blog to generate income. - Social Marketplace: Using Twitter, Facebook and other Social Media to your advantage. The workshop was so well received we may consider a second later in the year. Photo credit: www.karenmcgowran.com |
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November 2011 -
Marketing Webinar
On the 30th November we held our very first webinar starting with ‘Marketing your wedding planning business’. The webinar was very well reserved with one attendee saying: “I think it's an excellent way to offer a bite-sized training course as it means it's easily accessible. This is really important for those of us that are trying to juggle other responsibilities such as jobs or children, as it's often difficult to get away for a full day. I really liked it that you talked around the slides/course notes rather than just reading them verbatim. The discussion gave some really valuable insights into starting your business.” |
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October 2011 - Wedding Planners National Mix and Mingle Evening         Our autumn wedding planners’ social event named Mix and Mingle 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. 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 was 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. 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. |
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| September 2011 – Northern Flower Workshop On Wednesday 21st September the UKAWP held its first Northern Floral Workshop. Ian Lloyd was our expert tutor and we spent a very enjoyable evening picking his brains, being taught how to make a buttonhole (see images below) and discussing all things floral. Our thanks to Andrea Swift our Northern Rep for organising this evening. We had some great feedback from planners that attended: - Wendy from the Chic Wedding Company: "It was a really interesting session and I feel like I learned loads and am so proud of my buttonhole!" Caroline from Pomp and Ceremony Planning: "Just wanted to say thank you so much for organising the floral workshop it was very useful". Thank you so much to all the planners who attended and to Ian Lloyd for so willingly sharing his time and expertise!"
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| September 2011 – PR Workshop On 14th September our very popular PR Workshop took place in London. Response to this workshop was exceptionally good and the planners arrived in force to pick the brains of industry PR specialists Nicola Russill-Roy and Suzy Dixon of Propose PR. We had a wonderful mix of new and more established members as well as some non-members who wanted to gain from the topic. Nicola and Suzie presented lots of highly practical tips on how to target your market, build your media contacts, how to treat your contacts, where to get information, what to avoid and a real insight into the role of staff and freelance journalists. Suzie talked a lot about how to apply this to social media and how to make that very cost-effective medium work for your business. We then had a whole hour of very open Q&A where we had the chance to ask lots of very individual questions and discuss amongst the group. We have had some very positive feedback from planners at all stages of their business. Thanks to Nicola and Suzy! Watch this space for future UKAWP workshops in the pipeline for early next year. |
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| May 2011 – Dress Workshop Our second workshop was led by Kay from Heading up the Aisle who taught us how to handle dress emergencies on the day. The evening included a practical session on lacing up a corset. We learned how to avoid bustles breaking and even how to tie a cravat, thanks to Lee, who modeled it so elegantly.
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| April 2011 – RSVP Show London
We were delighted to be asked to partner with the RSVP show, the annual show for the event industry. As well as exhibiting we presented a seminar highlighting the difference between the corporate & wedding industries.   |
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| March 2011 – The Wedding Sanctuary On the 20th March the UKAWP held their first bridal event at Somerset House in London. More information on the show can be found here or on our blog post  |
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| March 2011 - WPE ‘11 Our annual seminar for professional wedding planners was a huge success in early March 2011, to read more about WPE go to our dedicated website here or review our blog post for highlights of the 2 days.      Copyright Lloyd Dobbie |
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| January 2011 Floral Workshop On the 20th January we held our Floral Emergency workshop with Euphoric Flowers in central London. The evening was a resounding success and tickets sold out fast. |
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October 2010 – Annual Social Evening Our annual social evening was hosted at Kensington Roof Gardens and attended by both new and experienced planners. We were treated to some delightful canapés and lashings of Champagne, not to mention the fabulous surroundings both inside and out. |
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| WEDDING PLANNING EXCELLENCE (WPE) ‘10 26th – 27th February 2010 - Fawsley Hall, Northamptonshire For details, please refer to our blog |
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National Wedding Show - Friday 2 – Sunday 4 October 2009 We are proud to have exhibited at the National Wedding Show at Earls Court, London and we were delighted with the response. The show was incredibly busy on all three days especially Sunday when the aisles were packed and our leaflets were flying off the shelves. There was lots of interest in planning, particularly day management and partial planning services and a very positive response to the professionalism portrayed by the UKAWP and its members, many of whom were there to talk to brides directly. Below is a photo of our lovely stand. Huge thanks to Clive of More Production for the brilliant draping of the otherwise boring exhibition panels.  |
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| London and North England Networking Evenings 17 and 22 September 2009 We were delighted with our two recent networking evenings especially for wedding planners. Both events were awash with idea sharing, good natured camaraderie and encouragement amongst planners across the country ranging from those just launched to seasoned planners with years of experience. There were almost 50 planners in attendance at the London event which took place at the beautiful and cosy 30 Pavilion Road, Knightsbridge. 50 planners is an all time record for a UKAWP event and there were 10 planners at the Cheshire event at the Nuneaton Hall which was excellent for a first official North region event. We will be repeating the highly successful networking events annually at the end of the summer wedding season next September. The next UKAWP event will be WPE 10 next February.       |
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| Friday 27th – Saturday 28th February 2009 The first Wedding Planning Excellence 09 seminar was a huge hit with attendees and speakers alike. Feedback has been phenomenal with all attendees wanting to book for WPE 10. There were some wonderful talks from our experts and it was great to get inspired and renewed for the coming season. Please do log onto our blog for the full run down & pictures from the event. You can also view a short video clip via YouTube. |
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| 9th September 2008 Networking Evening – Mandarin Oriental We had a great turnout for the networking evening on 9th September with both members and non members in attendance. There was a definite end of season feeling with planners finally getting a little breathing space. Our thanks to Mandarin Oriental who laid on some wonderful food and drinks and provided impeccable service. |
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| 6th February 2008 Our 3rd workshop was on the very inspiring topic of floral disaster remedies. This session proved very popular with all attending both from a practical & creative point of view. Jades Flowers talked through how to rescue arrangements that topple over and advice on what to have in a floral emergency kit. We never knew for example that just simple sticky tape would lift up pollen from table cloths! Every attendee got the chance to make a bouquet & buttonhole from scratch just in case a florist lets us down on a wedding day. The Crowne Plaza City were our hosts and provided a wonderful drinks reception and canapés to end the evening. Thank you Lloyd Dobbie for being our photographer.     |
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| 26th October 2007 Our second workshop was on the much needed subject of PR. It was an intense and focused session led by PR expert Paula Gardner of ‘Do Your Own PR’. It became apparent from the session that although we are all wedding planners our markets are incredibly varied. Attendees left the workshop inspired with many writing releases, blogs and articles that very same week. The Berkeley Knightsbridge were the hosts for the evening and provided a tour of their beautiful wedding facilities and served drinks and canapés. Our lovely photographer Lloyd Dobbie even got involved with explaining more about blogs, our thanks as always for the photos.    |
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| 8th August 2007 We ran our first Workshop, on the subject of catering, at the beautiful Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park. The evening was a great success and we have received excellent feedback. Our guest speakers included head chef David Nicholls, banqueting manager Andrew Coy, the mandarin oriental’s sommelier and Clare Smith of Berry Scrumptious. As well as learning from our excellent speakers we had a chance to network, eat fabulous bowl food and take a tour of the hotel. Our thanks go, as ever, to Lloyd Dobbie for his photographs.       |
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| 29th March 2007 Our Spring networking event was held in the stunning Savana Spa in Notting Hill. The theme this time was Refresh, Revitalise, Tantalise. There was a brief introduction from the directors before an interesting and informative presentation on colour, image and style by Colette Douglas from House of Colour. Planners were then able to network and compare notes, occasionally taking a break to enjoy the free hand massages that were on offer.     |
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| 20th February 2007 The directors of the Alliance attended the prestigious Wrapit Wedding Industry Awards 2007 ceremony at RIBA in London. Dream Occasions and The Bespoke Wedding Company were finalists in the category of Best Planner judged by Wrapit, Wedgwood and Brides Magazine. Kelly and Britt from The Bespoke Wedding Company were delighted to win this outstanding award recognising excellence in their category. Well done, Kelly and Britt. |
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| 27th January 2007 The UKAWP were asked to present at the Wedding Professionals day held at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Reading. The directors spoke about why the Alliance was formed, the training courses it offers and ended with a lively debate on commission. Around 50 planners attended on the day from around the country and was a huge success. Watch this space for future events. |
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| 19th October 2006 Our Autumn networking event was held at the amazing Great Eastern Hotel in the City. The evening was themed around wedding celebrations at the hotel with mock ceremony and reception tables. The bar manager later showed us some popular cocktails and planners’ taste buds were teased with the bowl food.    
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Our latest tweets |
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From our blog
Pocket Positive 20 May, 2013 ‘Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.’ Dale Carnegie Tweet This Post About Time – Sneak Preview 15 May, 2013 We were asked whether our readers would be interested in seeing the first trailer for Richard Curtis’s new film, due to be launched 6th September. Having looked at it we suspected it would interest many of you – it did us – so here’s a quick look see….. Love doesn’t always go to plan, but [...] Member Focus – Lindy Dowling Wedding & Event Planners 13 May, 2013 Today we would like to introduce you to one of our newer Associate Members, the lovely Lindy from Lindy Dowling Wedding & Event Planners …… How did it all start? After many years working in the City I decided it was time for a change and launched my floristry business. After years in this profession, meeting [...] Choosing Diamonds 10 May, 2013 When buying any form of jewellery it is important that you do your research to make sure that you are getting the best quality for your money.This is even more important when investing in an engagement or wedding ring. Diamond expert and founder of Diamond Manufacturers, Vashi Dominguez, offers his top tips for choosing the [...] Pocket Positive 8 May, 2013 “The answer is ‘Yes.’ What’s the question?” Therein lies a guiding principle for truly creative problem solving in any business that serves…wait…isn’t that ALL businesses? Thomas Taylor Tweet This Post |
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