I spent last weekend locked in a conference room but what a great experience it was. It was time for one of our regular ‘business practicalities’ training courses and we had a full complement of students attending the two day course with Bernadette Chapman and myself at the Crown Plaza Hotel St James, London.

The group were a lovely mix of ladies from backgrounds as varied as sales, PR, corporate events, business development to name but a few and all keen to start up their own wedding planning businesses. Whilst teaching the range of topics, it was fascinating to see for myself the variety of different approaches to wedding planning there would be from just this small group from those keen to operate very locally and environmentally in their unique geographical areas, to those aiming for a very distinct cultural sector (Indian weddings) to those keen on destination weddings. It just goes to prove what we always say ‘ clients choose you for you’ and there is certainly a range of different services out there for brides. Additionally it was great to see all of the students swapping details and aiming to keep in touch, meet up at one of our events and the National Wedding Show later in the year.

Much of the weekend was taken up covering a range of heavy business topics but we like to finish on a lighter note and the students were set into teams to work on mood boards to the themes of ‘vintage’ and ‘seaside dining’. You can see the results here:

Next training (18/19 July) : our new ‘step by step’ course that takes the student from the moment they are hired through to the day itself.