This one tip can make planning your wedding much easier!

I’m really excited to be working with Jon this year and I thought that for my first article here I would write about my biggest tip of all when it comes to getting the right suppliers for your wedding.

Talk to people!

It may not sound revolutionary, but read on and I’ll explain exactly why talking is my most fundamental wedding-planning tip.

For someone on the outside, the wedding industry must seem huge and very confusing but when you step inside you realise that actually it’s not as scary as it looks.

Think about it for a minute: in a certain area there are only so many venues where you can get married. Those venues will be holding weddings day in and day out and many will also be hosting other events. Since most weddings have the same core values then they will also have similar needs. Of course we know that each wedding is individual but the outline is usually the same.

For example, if there’s a bride, she’ll usually want a dress. Your dress may be long, whilst hers is short; yours may be champagne coloured and hers might be pink, but we all need something to wear on our wedding day and, of course, something special. In addition to that, every wedding needs a venue, a cake, a photographer, some entertainment… do you see where I’m going with this?

It’s because of this structure that wedding suppliers all start to get to know one another. We will all have worked at various venues around the area, have seen countless brides dancing on many dancefloors with however many bridesmaids in tow. We’ve tasted the candyfloss, the cakes, the canapés and for some of us, even the champagne. We’ve seen the entertainment (good and bad!), the first dances, the giant garden games, the post boxes, the big letters and the sweet table. All of which makes us the perfect information source for your big day!

This is also how a choreographer ends up writing a blog for a photographer!

Jon and I met years ago whilst working events at Derbyshire County Cricket Club. It was during their corporate Christmas party season that I really got to know Jon whilst I stood there usually dressed in feathers and sequins and he in his waistcoat and suit whilst trying to refill classes of fizz as guests arrived ready for their party night. There were never enough arrival drinks ready!

We have worked together for years as Jon is a fantastic photographer and once we saw the photos that he took of our dancers we pretty much dragged him to every event we’ve done since! If you look at our website then most of our photographs are thanks to Jon.

My connection to the wedding industry? I teach first dances. Couples come to me full of ideas of what they would like their first dance to look like and I work with them to bring those ideas to life and I love it. I run a professional dance company and our dancers have been hired as entertainment at a number of weddings over the years but it’s the first dance choreography that keeps me coming back to weddings year after year.

It’s through years of working together that Jon and I have got to know each other and have now decided to bring all of our weddings tips together and put them in one place to help you.

I’m excited to get sharing everything that we have picked up over the years and finding more stuff to share too but to start off, remember the biggest tip of all. Ask your suppliers for recommendations. The likelihood is that we’ll be able to point you in the right direction and if we can’t, then we’re bound to know someone who can.