Morning.
Good morning.
So at the time of recording, apparently today is Blue Monday.
Oh yes, of course.
Yeah.
blue
Although, no, it just feel normal sometimes. I think it's like, you know, when people say it, I probably shouldn't have told you because then you're like, oh,
Oh, suddenly I feel
am I having a bad day?
yeah,
But, well, the sky is blue. I got up early this morning, did my workout. We're recording the pod. I'm officially, actually, let's, should we get started and then I'll tell you what I'm doing today.
You tell me in
Cool. Yeah, let's go. Hi, I am Hannah
and I'm Haley
and we are your wedding planning experts.
here to spill the tea on the inside of wedding planning and everything that goes with it,
Expect our honest opinions, the real juice on what happens on a wedding day,
with a few tips thrown in between.
and also just a chat between friends.
And of course, make sure you hit that subscribe button
And let's get you word. Woo. Fab. Yes. So basically today I am giving my notice of marriage.
that is exciting.
Yeah, I am excited. So I basically like suddenly yesterday was doing the old Google, what do I need to take to my notes of marriage? I kind of roughly knew, but I wanted to definitely make sure because if we turn up and I'm missing something, my other half will give me daggers.
So this nearly happened to me. So when we went to our notice of marriage, so I was like really prepared, you know? I was like,
Yeah.
got everything I need.
Nice.
walking out the door, I was like, do you know what? I'm just gonna grab this bill on the side. Like, just got our address on it and I just feel like I need to take it. And
Yeah,
job I did because if we hadn't had that, we wouldn't have been able to do it
what?
off side before left.
Well, I've put a bill in our pa, but I read online you either you have your passport and if you've got a driver license in your current address,
Yeah,
you don't need a bill. But I am gonna take a bill just in case.
I would, that's, see, that's what I was under the
Yeah.
they asked for that as well when I was there. So maybe they're just being,
Oh.
I dunno,
Extra protect. This is the thing and every registry office is different. So I think just take,
just take
everything you've got. Also, I changed my name when I was younger, so I've gotta take my dhole certificates and like, I, I was like, where the hell are these? 'cause like, that was like 20 years ago.
Dig that outta the archives.
Oh no. Thankfully my mom had kept them
That's
I got them off her like a couple of months ago 'cause I knew I'd need them. But yeah, otherwise I probably wouldn't known where they were. I'm not gonna lie,
I just
So, yeah.
funny. All of the different questions that they ask you when
Oh yes. So, well, this is, this is what I'm intrigued to, to, so I'm going this afternoon, and then on the next week on the episode, I'm going to talk all about it. Because I always think it's a question, like my couples always say to me, what happens?
And you know, it is a marriage, and I'm like, well, I've never really done it before, but as far as I'm aware, you know, they speak to you both together, then they take you off to make sure that you're not being forced into it, that you definitely want to get married.
guys. Can I ask again? Are they must ask you, are you related about 10 times and then imagine if you just cracked a joke. You're like, yeah, actually we are like That's just
I am from Norfolk. So what? You know, you'd never know
I've seen your sixth toe
And they're not from what I've met from registrars. They're not like the friendliest
No,
junkiest of people. So where well, we'll see, you know, they might be.
But
No offense, registrars, So yeah. So yeah, so I've got that today. Very exciting. Yeah. But how's your week been?
Yeah, it's been all right. I mean, I'm still getting a few inquiries coming through.
Yeah,
an exciting one actually this week. So
nice.
me about a corporate event in London
Oh,
Waldorf.
Oh, nice.
yeah, so I was like, oh, this is like. Exciting and kind of got me like a bit more because I've been a little bit, I dunno, I was sort of saying last week, it's a bit weird, like when you start winding down to,
Yeah.
and then you get a bit of fomo, like looking at what everybody else is doing.
Yeah.
if you know what I mean. But so I was like, and this is for May, next year, this year.
Nice. This year. Better not be on my wedding weekend,
it's, don't worry. Oh.
That's exciting. Oh, so sorry. I'm now not available. I've
meaning to tell you, I didn't wanna say here, but I was joking.
I've had a bigger booking come in.
Sorry, So that's, that's exciting though. And I've sort of got all like, you know, the feelings you get when you get like a really good inquiry and so,
Yes.
mean,
What are they doing then? Is it like an awards thing or?
I don't actually know what the corporate event is, to be honest. They've sent me through like a the word,
A brief.
Yeah, like a brief of what they would like.
Mm-Hmm.
sort of like 12 center pieces and then like six
Yeah.
So it's quite,
Pose tables. Yeah.
Yeah. So
Posey tables.
was thinking of doing PO poses on them, so that's why I'm like,
Oh yeah. Posey on the poser tables. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Well, that's exciting.
I'm gonna send a proposal off to them in the next couple
Yeah.
hopeful, hopefully it's a confirmed booking, but obviously you never know.
Yeah.
But
You never know.
to. It's just nice to be
Yeah.
someone to come forward and ask to do something like that. Especially
Yeah.
I
A hundred percent.
London weddings. It's just something about it. I love like the hustle
Yes.
of
too.
and
A hundred percent
know, I actually, if you know me well, you'll know that I love to be stressed. So I just like
She does.
of stress in my life.
Why not? Why not?
you know,
Yeah.
wedding
know.
the.
Yeah. Lovely. That's the same as me, like wedding, moving house. Like why not
I just live off of being like, I dunno. I like their
Same. I feel weird, like I don't feel right if I'm just like not doing anything. I, I'm a bit like, like I should be doing something right now. Like, I'm really bad though. I'm one of these people that's like, oh my God, if I have a day off, my business is gonna fail.
Yeah. so bad, isn't it? It's such
It is so bad.
it does make
It is.
To be fair, if nothing else,
Yeah, I suppose, yeah, there are, there are bonuses. Yeah. I feel like I was, I was saying to this somebody the other day, it's really, really bad, but when I go on my honeymoon in end of May, it'll be the first time in four years that I wouldn't have, like I. Take my laptop with like, that's so bad. But like the, the longest I've had off. Yeah. And like the longest, I either take my laptop with me on holiday or I will go on holiday bit.
It'll only be for like five days, but I'll have my phone with me, so I'm replying to my emails on my phone. So like Adam, I'm posting my social media, but my plan is that I won't be on my emails and I won't be on social media for like two weeks. And yeah, I'm a.
a break. I know it's, it's hard.
You know, and they kind of said to me, you know, couples understand, and all my couples are aware, they all know that I'm not gonna be available. I've got Chloe who works for me. She's gonna be responding to them. I'm not worried about them. I'm worried about me,
Yeah.
How am I gonna cope? I don't like being out of control. You know?
No, I don't. I'm terrible like that.
Yeah. Yes
I went on honeymoon, I actually was still replying to emails. It's terrible.
you were.
honestly bad. I had so, so I did the bad thing of, I basically booked weddings around my wedding and my
Yeah.
So I worked up like quite close with other people's weddings. And when I came back, I had, I actually had a wedding on like the, I think it was like four days after, which
Yeah.
in hindsight, not a good idea.
No, I mean I'm doing the same, I'm not gonna lie. I've got my last wedding the week before my wedding, and then I come back and like three days later we've got a wedding, but it's on the day management and Chloe's their main contact. So we basically, we will do the final meeting before my wedding anyway. And then any supplies that have got questions that will go to Chloe and then,
So Kind of
Yeah, but we literally, because it's it's it's wedding season, obviously. We get married in wedding season, so I come back and it's like, boom, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding. It's pretty crazy.
the
But yeah,
self-employed though. But it's funny
it is.
like, I dunno if it's like, do you know what I mean? You feel like you kind of have to apologize for it. I always find that I
Yeah.
a sense of
Same.
may be judging me because I'm doing that, but actually it, is
It's not, it's normal.
Yeah. It's fast as normal because
Yeah.
falls down to like, we're the only person running the business like this. It all falls
Yeah.
Like everything comes down to you. I think you can't just, just. You can't just literally forget about it. like say
no,
working for a company, it's so much different. I'm not saying
a hundred percent.
but you can just like check out. Like no
It's 'cause you put your out of office sign and you tell 'em to email this address instead. And, and that's that. You can't do that. You know when, when you're self-employed.
exactly. With like with attorneys and things like that. Obviously if you give, like, if you don't, if you're not online or you're not replying to people for so long, it has actually got long-term implications
Yeah, it's detrimental. Yeah, massively. It's a difficult one, but my, I mean, what everybody keeps saying to me is That, you know, at the end of the day, hopefully you only get married once and
Yeah.
you know what? You've just gotta go and enjoy it. And I think as long as people are like fully aware, like I say, all my couples, when they, even when they first booked me, I was like, just FYI, I am getting married.
Yeah.
You know, next May, I'm gonna be out in the business for two weeks. It was even like when I was away at Christmas, I said to them like, you know, I'm gonna be working while I'm away, but I'm gonna take these five days off over Christmas. And they were like, absolutely fine. Like what? Like, you know, they're busy with their Christmases as well, and I didn't hear from any of them. If anything, I was messaging them like, have you done this? So
Yeah.
Yeah. Like, hello, I'm still here.
Don't forget about me. I need
Please start harassing me again. No, none of nobody harasses me to be fair. I mean, the, the thing is, it's quite good with my job is that the reason people book me is 'cause they're such busy people. So it is normally me chasing of chasing them up than them chasing me up.
I went through a phase when I was getting hassled by, by brides that I had on WhatsApp like
Oh
Yeah. So that's, so I, you know, I'm must notoriously bad at replying
well, yeah.
because I'd like sort of got to the point where I like wouldn't go on my WhatsApp because I was getting like
Oh
constantly. So I have the same, my, my personal phone is the same as my business phone,
yeah. Same.
have a few.
Same.
friends that have separate phones they do that and then like they
Yeah.
but I'm so, like you say, I have to be in control. I like to
Yeah,
there
and you could, you just don't know, like say you said to yourself, right, I'm only gonna turn my work phone on on these days. At these times, if then somebody say, somebody calls you with an inquiry. I know it's quite rare, people call with an inquiry, but it does happen. Like I wanna be able to like.
Take
Answer
Yeah.
them. And, and you know, what about if like the BBC call and want a quote from a wedding florist about, you know, the industry, the wedding trends of 2021? Like, I wanna be part of that, and I don't wanna, and once you've missed out on that, like, I always think if people are calling around with an inquiry because they're desperate, like say somebody's pulled out on them or they're just, they're stressed, they wanna get everything booked, like they're, they're short on time.
Like you, if, if you miss it, they're onto someone else. And. The first person that answers Yeah. Bye-Bye. So, yeah, no, I know what you mean, but yeah. Oh, well, that's good.
yeah.
Yeah, it was good. It's been, you know, January engagement season, like I say, I'm given a notice of marriage today. I also, yesterday, as you know, sent out my wedding invites.
Yes.
Very exciting. I'm so excited and it's just such a nice feeling like seeing those responses come in.
Yeah.
Obviously we, so we've done the wedding website route, so obviously as soon as people are getting the invites bonus of having a web wedding website, people are just straight away, they're excited, so they're just responding. It's not like you've got a, you know. Fill out the card and send it back, get a stamp, like, ugh. And so, yeah, so we were already automatically seeing responses come in. It's quite funny though, you might see this on my Instagram. I didn't really think this through.
So one of our, one of the questions obviously is do you have any touch requirements? And then we doing a breakfast the next day for anybody that's like staying over
Yeah.
one of our friends is vegan. And he's Responded like, so the, the question that I've put is like, are you attending our breakfast the following day? And the answers are you, it's like multi-choice. So we see, you've found like, no, we can't make the break breakfast or Yes. Give me all the bacon So he's put literally his responses come back, like dietary requirements. Vegan. Will you be attending our breakfast? Yes. Give me all the bacon
It's not right is.
I thought that was quite funny. Yeah. And I used my prea, which is already working out. I've had a couple of presents already as well, like people that can't make it and they've bought something, which is so nice. Yeah, so very
That's cool. Is good. I love that.
Yeah, it's good. And then I had a meeting with one of my couples. So part of our on the day management package, we do like a site visit a few months before just for, for us both really. So for us to be able to see exact, I don't, I don't like to turn up and just not really know what I'm going into. So See the site, where, where do you want things, where's the drinks reception happening? Where's the, you know, where's your marquee going if it's a marquee wedding?
So yeah, we did one of those on Saturday over in Oxford Cheer, which was really nice. And also for them, you know, we then sit down, we go through any questions they've got, anything they're not sure about. So yeah, it's a bit of like a, a couple hours just to kind of map things out. So that was really, really nice. Nice to see them. Nice to catch up. So yeah.
site visit. I just,
Yes.
it just gets everything fresh in your mind. And like you say, you can lay any questions out on the table, but I think,
Yeah,
it's, I think it's, it's, it's not good practice to just turn up to a venue on the day, and and like not know it, because there's always something, there'll always be
Exactly.
Not,
Access
yeah, like
yeah, like straight away. Like the what? The road, road up to their house is like really like, it's like a dirt track basically. So like straight away I now know that to put that on the wedding plan for like the marquee company and stuff like that.
So yeah, even though it is just an on the day management, we're not actually Planning anything, we still wanna be able to like communicate, like we are gonna be the main contact on the day, so we need to know that kind of information and it's not necessarily something that people would think about telling us. So yeah, I never used to do them, but I introduced it back last year, year before and I'm just so glad I did. 'cause yeah.
I
It's also just.
it.
Yeah, it's a nice relationship builder as well. Like you know, I'm building a relationship with a couple if I'm, if it's at a venue, I'm starting to build a relationship with the venue, so, yeah, it's nice. I like it.
Huh?
so yeah, and just really like going gungho now on our wedding, you know is, I sent a list to my hairdresser today of like appointments that I'm gonna need, like, just so I get 'em booked in. Because honestly when you think like a hair appointment can be like three, four hours or whatever, like
Yeah.
you like fitting that in is It's, yeah, my April is looking very busy. Yeah,
it's exciting though. It's
it is
all coming up quite quick now. Really, to be honest.
It is. Yeah. And do you know what I, I was thinking about this this morning and obviously sending out the wedding invitations and stuff and I think it really just.
Honed in a little bit and I just wanted to talk about it a little bit because I think we talk so much in the wedding industry about like maybe some like the negatives and things you shouldn't do and you know, and about, you know, don't invite people that you don't wanna be there or people that you haven't seen and this long and you know, and we've given that advice as well. But I think also the guest list that we've invited.
Everybody is on our guest list and is invited, is genuinely people that we want to come. And not people that we feel like, oh, we've just got to invite them, but I have got. Yeah, yeah. Feeling obliged. But there are people on there. I'll be honest, I haven't seen in a long time. You know, I used to live in Birmingham. I, I come from Norwich. I've got lots of friends and family in Norwich and you know, life's busy and I don't necessarily see these people all the time.
I speak to them and actually there's quite a few people on the list. I thought, do you know what? I'd love it if they could come, but I'm not expecting them to, 'cause they're gonna have to travel. And actually, and it was the same with my Hindu as well, like. I'm very much the kind of person that's like, look, please don't feel obliged. You know, I'd love you to come, but you know, we completely get it if you can't come. And I said exactly the same with my Hindu.
And, and also if just weddings aren't for you or Hindus aren't for you, like absolutely fine. Like I'd rather someone just say to me, you know, it's just not for me. Fine. Absolutely fine. And. Actually the response like just makes me realize like how much like people actually love you.
yeah.
you know what I mean? Like people, I might not have even spoken to them for like a year and I've sent them my invite and they've messaged me and they're like, oh my God, I'm so excited to come. Like I can't wait to see you and spend the day with you. And I know, and I was like, do you know what?
Actually it's a complete reverse to like sometimes what we do speak about in the industry, and I do think it is So, such a nice feeling like, do you know what these people like Genuinely the fact that they're making the effort to travel. I don't see them that much. I don't speak to the masses, but they're, they want to be there for me because I've made it very clear.
grateful that you've invited 'em, sort
Yeah.
actually really excited and then they'll tell you and it makes you feel so good
Yeah. And actually it's very easy for people to say no and, and especially because I've made it very clear that don't feel obliged to come. I think it's easy to be like, oh, do you know what? We're not gonna be able to make it and not have to give an excuse or give an excuse, you know? But the fact that they haven't done that, they've gone, yeah, oh, we, we will be there. Like, we can't wait.
And I'm like, that's, so it makes you really realize that how many people you have in your life that are there for you care about you, that people that you maybe not speak to that often, but actually you could reach out to them and be like, you know, if you're having a bit of a crappy time or that they are, they are people that are there for you that
And I think
you.
especially does sort of
Highlight that.
highlights that. Yeah.
Yeah.
I found that as well. Like people just really, they're just really happy for you. They wanna celebrate with you
Yeah,
and. Yeah, just share, like sharing the love and, and yeah. It's just,
it's lovely, isn't it?
it's, but it's really nice
Big cringe, but
okay. Cringe is okay and I
And I think it, and it's important as well 'cause I see it a lot and I've kind of, you know, felt it at times as well where you, there's probably people that you think would be like massively excited for you. And actually it's like they don't really mention it a lot and, and you obviously you're excited, you wanna talk about your wedding, you wanna talk about your plans and stuff. And actually it's like people sometimes are. Aren't it?
You don't expect, you know, so I felt like, yeah, if you are doing your planning, you're feeling a little bit down, like, oh, the people I thought maybe would support me aren't, then reach out to these people that
Yeah.
actually they've replied to your invite. They're really excited. Message them and be like, you know, oh, you know, I know you guys got married. Like what did you do for
Yeah.
Or, you know, because these people are excited.
because you're getting everybody that you love and that you care about that you're, you know, friends, family, and then you're bringing everybody together. And I think it's,
Yeah.
really good time to kind of, like, if you haven't spoke to somebody in a while and you've been meaning to, and like you say, they say, yeah, we're coming. Can't wait. It's just a really good opportunity to kind of open that
Yeah,
up
a hundred percent.
know, build that relationship back. I, I think it's, yeah, that's,
it's nice,
great.
exciting. And I had a really nice weekend. I had a couple of my my two best friends who are my bridesmaid, come and stay in. And they were just, they're so excited. Like when we talk about the wedding and they're like, oh, like, you know, they've got their dresses and they can't wait to wear them. And they're like, oh, I'm a bit nervous 'cause they're doing a speech. I all a bit nervous about the speech and, you know, and it's so nice to see because this isn't, you know.
I'm a massive believer that the wedding day is about, it's about me and my other half. A hundred percent. It's about you and your other half. That's what it's about. But when you've got every people, but you want everyone to enjoy it as well and to be excited and stuff. So when you see that, it's just the nicest, it's just really nice feeling I want people to come that are just like, exactly like these people are, they're excited. They're like, yes, I'm gonna have a dance. I've got some wine.
I was telling 'em about the wine I've got. Yeah,
yeah.
definitely.
afterwards, like the, like after wedding, it was so nice. Like people would like message and send photos and oh my God, we had such an amazing day. And that
Oh, I love that.
After like
Oh, I can't wait for that.
We went away on our honeymoon, I think like two days after we got married.
Yeah.
in those two days you had like family and friends, like messaging you like with photos and just saying how much of a
Oh,
they had.
I love that.
was honestly like I must have cried so much. And they like Tears. It was just like everything, obviously like you've had such a great day and then, then everybody tells you how good it was and how much
yeah.
it a good time and
Yeah.
it just solidified for me like all of these little extra things you do. All of the work that goes into the planet is so worth it. Like that's what it's for. That
Yeah.
get is so nice.
I'm excited and I've, do you know what? I really was really like, I've always been 50 50 on about exactly like you said there, the honeymoon, like when you go on it, because I think there's pros and cons.
Yeah.
You, you know, I think you know it, yes, having a honeymoon six months later down the line is great 'cause you can save and you can, you know, you've got something else to look forward to. But also exactly like you said then, like, we are going on ours literally like two days la less than two days later.
And. Just, I think it's nice 'cause we're then going into something else and exactly like you've said, you've got time to like sit, you know, when you are relaxing and look through the messages, look through photos that people are sending you. Like I'm really excited for that
Yeah,
buzzing.
I liked it 'cause it was all like, although it was all close together, it was like we stayed in that like bubble for
Yeah, exactly. I don't wanna go back to work
Yeah. Like I feel like if, obviously you do what you need to do, but I feel like if you can go on your honeymoon or that's what you've decided to do,
Yeah.
it was, for me, it was like a positive because we had our wedding on the Saturday. The Sunday spent like we had some ca of our cake and we opened all of our cards and we went through that
Nice.
and then the next day, like we went, we went away. It was just like
Yeah. Love that. Yeah. Yeah. Love that.
Like in a hotel and,
Yeah.
from
Nice.
so we stayed
Yeah.
nice hotel before we went on the,
Oh, nice.
So
Yeah.
into like a, a bit of a thing as well.
Thing. Yeah. Yeah. We are gonna, so ours is literally the day after our wedding and we need to travel to Heathrow that night because our flyers are like 6:00 AM
Oh
So I'd say I'm gonna pick a nice hotel, but I'm gonna have to get up at. 3:00 AM so probably doesn't really matter. I'm probably not gonna get there till like 10 o'clock at night either, because I'm literally gonna, we're doing a breakfast the next day of everyone. We're gonna set down the venue and then we're literally gonna have like the afternoon to like sort out, I suppose, packing for our honeymoon.
See the only thing I found like with doing the honeymoon quite close to our wedding
Yeah.
like you are sort of doing all those last minute planning bits. But then I was also packing our bags, I just
Yeah.
in
That is the thing.
all my clothes and like putting
Yeah.
suitcases and being like, oh my God. Oh my God. But to be
Do you? Yeah. Such a good point.
list, list.
Yeah, this is what I was, I think a massive tip for anyone that is doing a honeymoon with their wedding, like same as I'm doing the same as Haley did, is I've added it to my to-do list. So for like April, like March, April time, get, start buying your honeymoon clothes.
Yeah
you know, start like, and then I think once you're buying bits, then start putting it in a pile
away.
and then like yeah, literally two weeks before the wedding I've put it on my to-do list, like make sure you're packed.
But yeah, I think that's definitely so important is that you think your to-do list is so much like all focused on the wedding, but actually focus on like the honeymoon as well and things like, I dunno, like if you have like laser hair treatment or like, you know, having your hair dyed, things like that, you need to make sure that that's all done, ready for all your holiday prep that you would normally do.
Like
sure you've done that.
wedding prep. Yeah.
Yeah, which you probably would anyway. It's the kind of thing you're gonna have your hair done for the wedding, aren't you? LA but
in great shape. As in, I mean like your eyebrows,
your eyebrows share. Lovely.
extra hair
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, but definitely like bear that in mind at the same time and spread it out as well. That's why like I'm gonna start looking for like honeymoon clothes in like March, because I know April's really busy with appointments and stuff, so Yeah.
That's
Lovely.
also, this time of year you still, 'cause I've noticed in the shops, obviously you got the sales and stuff, but they have actually started bringing in like all of the swimwear
Yeah,
and
will.
I'm like, my
Yeah. Sad time of year.
May, that's pretty good. Whereas, whereas old
Yeah, exactly.
you might
Ah,
deal this time of year is what
yeah.
like where I went, it was all like
They were getting all the autumn stuff in. Yeah, they were getting all the coats in
Yeah, I was like, no, I need a swim shelter, Oh dear. So I know we've mentioned wedding websites quite a lot over the last couple of episodes.
We have,
so I just wanted to touch on that because they're honestly amazing. So if you dunno what wedding website is basically, you can, it's free, you can set one up, you get like a unique, like URLI think
yeah.
to just basically go with what's going. But for our wedding, we had like Walla Wedding 2022.
Cute. Yeah. Well you can edit it, can't you? Because mine, mine originally was Hannah and Martin and Martin's like no, my name should be first What a loser. And also top tip, what you can do is you can go on like GoDaddy or 1, 2, 3, reg, like basically Google
and
Bio, URL.
one? Yeah.
Yeah, they're 10 pound 99 for 12 months and obviously you just cancel it off 'cause you, well, unless it's your wedding's, you know, two years or whatever. But
Yeah.
normally you'd sell, have a wedding website within 12 months and you can literally have it, it's like www dot haley and richard's wedding.com. So, yeah, top tip there.
we were quite lucky 'cause the surname's a little bit what's, what's the word? Unique
Are you unique?
So I was like,
You are all right. Yeah, mine to be fair was fine. Mine was literally like with joy.com/.
And
then our names, and I'm not gonna give it to you 'cause everyone's gonna be cut. On my wedding website,
I mean, mine's been and done. If you wanna
there's our names,
be live
there's my name, and there's our names and some and some numbers.
some numbers that
I'm not gonna tell you what they are.
as I'm as, I'm a celebrity
So many people are just gonna be bombarding my website.
getting so many messages through. People wanna attend my wedding, have to
Oh dear.
the gate.
Yeah, I now need to, that actually happened at
Oh,
Jamie and Sophie's wedding. Jamie and Sophie Lang, Maine and Chelsea Stars. I think that he I think he put up a picture of their wedding invite or something
no.
she, she obviously just not thinking like. I feel always feel like if you're quite a down to earth person, you probably don't think like, oh, loads of people are actually gonna think of me as a celebrity. So they were like, we're gonna have to get security because
shit.
loads of people are gonna be like, respond. I think they had like a couple of responses, well I don't know if they did a wedding website or whatever, but they had a couple of responses from people that they didn't know,
Oh, that's so
They had to basically like get security. It was me, I was there. With my camera in my wedding guest dress. Yeah, no. Yeah, so yeah, no, it's a good point. But there is a couple of ways you can do it because
ugh.
depending on the website, I only ever really use with joy.
Yeah, so The Knot.
Oh, okay.
so that's the one that, 'cause I was gonna say there's a few, but like the ones most popular is with Joy and then I use the Knot. So,
I found the not quite American though. Did you not find that that in the way.
the way that they kind of advertise themselves a little bit American, obviously
Yeah, like the dates and stuff, the way it was listed.
Yeah, I just, well, I, I found, 'cause I just basically, you can go in there and they have like templates and
Yeah,
a template of how you want your website to look. But I just, I don't know, I found it easy to use. I didn't, I wouldn't
yeah,
had any issues with it. And, and then you can link obviously like with your gift list as well. I'll get to that. But you can
yeah.
I found that was compatible
I,
like, we were doing, but yeah,
yeah.
didn't find it too, too,
Yeah, that's good.
Bad to be honest.
Yeah, but with your guest list, what you can do is you can have it at private so when you go on to press RSVP, you have to put your first and your surname in. So obviously you can't put like grandma because they need to put in their first and surname to.
Yeah.
Find, yeah. To, for them to pinging up. And you have to do it, you can do it the other way where it's unprivate and people can literally just, so they'd have your invite. They'd go in and they'd say, yeah, I'm attending. This is my name. But the problem with that is that people can then add plus ones. So they could say, your friend is called Mary. They could be like, oh yeah, my my name is Mary. And then they could add on like their other, half, their kids.
Whereas if you are quite like strict on This is the person that's invited. I mean, I doubt I'm, I'm sure if you, if you, you know, put like the two, you know, Hailey to Hailey and Richard, they're not gonna go and like add on
someone else.
Mates,
but you
but you never know exactly. So I wanted to keep it to make sure, 'cause we've got a small capacity to be like, right, these are the people and we're not having children as well. So these are the people that invited. So yeah, it's quite an easy way and the way that we did it. So we basically did our actual invitation. We did it. On green envelope.
So we, we still did it, but a lot of my couples still have a hard copy invitation and then they send that and then they have the URL or a QR code that people can scan.
that's
we basically did ours all completely paperless. And then you just click the link. So they get the invite through from green envelope, the envelope opens, it plays, music
Wow.
pops out.
Welcome.
So cool.
invited
you are invited and I'm so excited. And then you click on the URL and it goes through to the the wedding website.
I loved the ease of it. I loved that, basically.
So easy.
would go on there
Mm-Hmm.
website and just RSVP, and then on all of your RSVPs you could go in and then you'd have a list. And also we'd done, so you can ask with each person's RSVP to say, like, I went on there, Haley Waller, and then you, you can put Your dietary requirements
Yep.
message to the couple you can ask them to say if you want them to request a song.
Yep.
you, you can put request a song. and then, and like lots of little things like that, they're kind of a bit
Yeah.
and I
can add, add any question you like, can't you? So like for example, we are doing the breakfast on the Monday, so we wanted to know who's gonna attend that. Or like, quite often with my couples, they'll put on like a bus to take people from the hotel to the, to the church and they'll ask people, do you need use of the bus? Like you can ask people anything, which is
so good.
handy.
It's great.
Yeah.
great to help you with planning. Like if you need to go on and say like, tell your caterer how many people are coming that are like gonna be vegan, vegetarian, and gluten free. Any dietary things like that, you can just like literally go in there and people have put it all in. It's sort of, it's right there in front
Great.
haven't got chased people up because
No.
already done it. It just,
Yes, lovely.
it so much easier.
So much easier. And you can, so what I do as a planner and what the couple can then do is once they, they are at the point where the caterer want their final information is you just pull an Excel document and it literally has all the information on there, people's names, their dietary requirements, you know how many guests are attending. It works. All that out for you, which is great. You haven't gotta sit there making a spreadsheet or
Oh.
counting up your RSVPs. And also, I just think I've said this before, like who is 2024? Like who is gonna go? I hate that when I get an RSVP, I don't even know where the post box is in by Village Like
Yeah.
don't like who buys stamps. Like, and then you've got a stamp on posting it back like, no
rely on the, you can't
you can't.
anymore.
No,
but you can't. I
no.
hate to the post office, but currently they're in a bit of hot
Well, it's a
so,
lot of hate on the post office right now.
But you know, you just dunno if it's gonna get there. And I just think this is just
Exactly.
Everybody's
And I think
computer these days, like even
Exactly,
so it's fine.
yes. 'cause I get that comment a lot or, but what about like the grandparents? But you can still do, like you did a hard copy invitation, didn't you? Still?
sent
Yeah.
copy. Yeah. And then on on that was the, basically you just go on the website, it was the
Yeah.
url. You just type that into Google, whatever and, and obviously they get there, but if you have got like occasionally, like the odd, I don't wanna like be ageist here, but your grandparents or somebody that may not be able to go on and. So easily. Like it's, you can always give them a ring like you one per one couple out of like, I dunno how many people you're inviting is fine. You know what I mean? Just, but it
Yeah.
life easier.
Or just send them a complete hard copy
yeah,
or you can just like so say for example, you send it to them with the website, you can just go onto the website for them, an RSP
Yeah.
for them. So if they then ring you and say, oh yeah, I've got your invitation.
I think
Yeah it's easy.
that was finding it difficult and I just said, oh, don't worry, I'll sort out for
Yeah, I'll do it. Yeah.
least all the information was there and was still in one place.
Yeah and you can have like your little, you can add all your different pages, which is what I like as well. So we've got like our full schedule. And sometimes I feel like you don't actually get the schedule, like it's like arrive 2:30 PM or 1:00 PM or whatever.
when you're gonna be eating. Let's be honest.
Yes.
whenever some
That's all people care about. Yeah. So.
I come? Or
Yeah, we've got like one so like with our, oh, we are having a barbecue on there, so that's on there. 'cause I don't, I don't like that when I go to a wedding and like, I dunno what I'm eating. Not because I'm fussy, but I am basically a bit fussy. And I've got like, my order of schedule on this. 'cause like we were saying You'd say, oh, arrive at one o'clock, arrive at two o'clock, but you don't actually know.
When you're eating
happening for the rest of the day. Yeah. And that's all people care about is when they're eating. So we've got that on there. We've also got like a frequently asked questions page. So like, things like, yeah. So we are having our ceremony outside. Our band is on like an is is all out pretty much a lot of our days outside, so it's on a lawn. So I've said like, don't wear stilettos. Like you can put like your dress code in there, like. All your accommodation options can go in there.
We've also got a cool, cool little bit that I wanted to do. So basically I like am big into like party dancers and stuff. I was an entertainer back in the day, so I'm really into stuff like that back in the day. So there's like a couple of songs which we like. I absolutely love for my other half legs as well, and they've got like a dance that go to them. So we're doing the candy dance and the Cupid shuffle.
So what I've done is there's obviously like there's gonna be a lot of people that don't know. Like if that just came on, and I see this all the time at the wedding, right when the DJ puts the Cupid shuffle and I'm like, yes.
Yes.
I don't care that I'm working. I'm on the dance, I'm doing the Cupid shuffle. And there's always a handful of people and there's always people around that are like, I don't know what's going on here, but this looks fun. But I dunno what I'm doing. So I've put. A page on my wedding website with the links to hat to the songs and how, and like basically a YouTube tutorial on how to do the dance. Because my hope is
idea.
everyone does it. And then on the day everybody does the dance. And I just think I'd be so cool for like the video and the photos of like everyone just doing this dance. I just think it'd be really fun. So yeah.
being really drunk at my wedding and trying to do the dance with the candy. And like one of my, my, my really close friend couldn't come 'cause she had covid, which was really
Oh yeah.
like her wedding. They did it and I was like, oh my God, I'm trying to, my friends are trying to like, film me doing it and I was just like really drunk. Like
I can do the candy.
it didn't quite, it didn't quite work out. Although we did do a conga line.
Yes, I remember that. Yep.
Oh
You did do a conga line.
but these
Yeah, it's just
videos,
exactly
but I love
personal. Oh,
done that.
and I love that you can put on all your different photos and you can eat, I haven't done it, but you can have a page where you can have like all your diff your wedding party. So like who your bridesmaid are, who your best man is. I love that.
cool.
Yeah.
we had on ours like a, an, it was like a, our story thing, like a page. It was like our story
Yes. Yeah. We didn't do that, but you can.
wedding, you should kind of know who we are. It's not like an about us page, you know
About me.
us.
I was trained at the
Well, we
University of
we did we just did a timeline. Of like each year we'd been together. I think it was something that,
Oh, cute.
we used our photos of of our, from our like engagement shoot,
Nice.
to do that. So it was, yeah, it was just a nice little touch that you can
Yeah.
And I just, I just think it's great. It's like, I, I just think it's, it's so get with the times. Like this is like, this
Yeah,
it is. Like do a wedding website. It's so easy.
a hundred percent.
And I
Yeah. Cheaper.
you are cheaper
Stationer is expensive. Sorry, stationers, but
it is, but it's, but yeah. Well I did both so you know,
Yeah,
I have
there you go. Exact. No, but I think that's the way to do it, is I know I've gone completely e but that, that's for my own personal reasons. But actually, yeah, maj, I always say to my couples to still have a lovely, beautiful invitation and, and actually you've probably got more budget then instead of having to do like the individual cards for accommodation and RSVP, you've got more budget to spend on like the lovely, like the wax melts and like, you know, the
melt,
Outer you love a wax mount, the belly band like that, you know, like where you can have that, you could just got more, you can spend money on like the gold having like the funk gold and you know, a, a nicer envelope and. Actually, I think people will still spend the same with the Stationer. They're just like not having to spend it on rub, like a little cards that people are gonna lose.
Well, that's
The only thing I'd say with a wedding website, and I have put a note about this on mine, is to tell people to bookmark the page. 'cause the only thing I do find is that, especially as I've sent my invitation, like By e like email, but essentially is that people then are like, oh, I can't, I can't find the, like the website. So, yeah, that's the only thing I'd say is like, whereas with a hard copy invitation is you probably put that in on the fridge or whatever,
Yeah,
I do still find that people lose an invitation anyway. So either way you've kind of got that.
get like, so, so your day guess and your evening guests. 'cause I know obviously if you are attending evening, do you get kind of like a different set of questions? You would, obviously your day guests?
So my FAQs page stays the same,
Yeah. Yep.
but you? Yes, exactly. So the RSVP, so you add in all your guest lists. So you add your day guests and you tag them as day guests. Now the tags on with joy. There's hundreds on there because you can like Also use it for your table plan. So you can tag people as like bridesmaids or my college friends or my my work friends and all these kind of tags. But I've literally got day and evening.
And then when you go through to the RSVP, you tell it what, so you say ask this question to, and you tell it which tags to ask it to. And then the evening guest, it's then the questions, the the questions that they need to, to the information for,
that's good as well, isn't it?
yeah,
you got, you haven't got, confusion there or anything
exactly.
got
And Yeah, exactly. The other thing with Joy does, I dunno about the Knot, I, I can't speak for it 'cause I haven't used it before. But on with Joy, you unlock your schedule. So you can't see the order of day until you've rvpd and then it only shows you a schedule for, so for example, my evening guests can't see that my ceremony's at three o'clock and you know,
was really good I noticed that obviously, so that's
yeah.
was asking. I didn't, I wasn't sure
yeah,
evening guest note exactly what's going on. But, because sometimes I feel like when you have an evening guest, you say, just
yeah, yeah.
don't actually know what's going on
Yeah. They're like
the day guests do a bit more maybe.
Yeah.
But I mean, we didn't do a schedule on our, so I'm not sure if it works like that, but that is a good, I like that's a good
Yeah, that works well, doesn't it? 'cause you don't wanna obviously get a schedule for the full day. 'cause then you'd think, well, am I invited to the day or the evening?
And
I'm confused.
thing, isn't it?
Yes.
I had, I think, I think a couple of people of mine were like, oh, am I, is like my plus one invited to, because I had like
Yeah.
was like family that was invited to the day
Yeah.
I'd invited their other half to the evening
the evening.
a separate invite. So I thought it
Yeah, clear.
you're still gonna get people like you know.
Yeah. And again, you can add that in your FAQs, like, we've got that as well. Can I bring my plus one? And we've said like the invite is just to the people that we've addressed it to. So how did you do your guest guest list on yours? You said about on your wedding website. You did it a different way.
Oh, so we, we just had we had evening guests, all day guests, and I think it did give you the option to obviously choose that with the per, like, when you put that person's details in.
Yeah.
and then it would just do a different set of questions. But we just
Oh, nice.
We didn't have a schedule come up or anything like that,
No,
plan
yeah, I see what you mean.
we uploaded each person on there
Yeah.
you can say like, tick if it's, are they evening, are they full day?
Yeah.
the questions that you wanna then come up.
Yeah.
type their name in.
Cool. No, that sounds good. And then what about, then what about your GIF list?
Oh.
you do that through? Because like with Joy you have an option to do it, but again, I feel like that was quite American, so I did the ZOA thing.
so we did Pola. So we just added it, added it to the page. So
Yeah.
you have a GIF list page there and then it let you use your, so with Pola you get like your, again, it's like again. a unique kind of link
Yeah.
your gift list which you create with them. And then we just linked it onto there so people could go straight to there. And then we'd done, like we sort of discussed last week with we, we chose we wanted people to give us some money towards our honeymoon,
Yeah.
kind of picked things on there, like, oh,
Yeah.
by the beach and stuff. So
Yeah. I love that.
that, and then
Nice.
it's all in one place. They could see all of that on there as well. So,
Yeah, that's good, isn't it? Well that's what I like about these websites as well, is they not, they have like you can use their gift list option if you want.
Yeah,
Yeah. And also an accommodation finder as well. It like you can put in your accommodation, but it also, you can search the local area with it. So Yeah. I'm proud of where their website,
But yeah,
yeah.
I think they're great.
Easier.
it's the future people.
It is the future. Should we go on to with listeners questions? Cool. I'll do this first one. So basically the this lovely lady wrote in, I've actually spoke to her after she wrote this because I. Asked her if I could put this in a membership group of the suppliers that we are in to see what suppliers thoughts were on it. So she said I've been planning it for 18 months now and getting married in May. Ooh, we're a wedding buddy. Well, I don't think we're we're wedding month buddies.
Went to a wedding fair today to have a look around and had a chat with a couple of vendors. Cake lady. Three beautiful three tier cakes with cake pops and a booklet of pictures. No prices at all, so take a leaflet and look at the website from 350 pounds. Photographer, beautiful stool, beautiful shots. No price Packages again on display. Told me to look at the website from a thousand pound. Why can't supplies just be upfront?
It really puts me off using a vendor when they're so shady about their costs, and I thought this was brilliant, and I messaged her.
good point of view actually.
Such a good point of view and what was interesting was is that when I put it in the supplies group, because I completely agree with this woman, I think everyone should be transparent with their prices, and I do agree. With a lot of, 'cause I know what a straightaway wedding suppliers are gonna say is, but it's hard for me to, to quote without giving you without, you know, doing a consultation, finding out more.
But straight off, like for me, I agree, I I'm the same because it depends, like, say you come to me and you say, I've already got my venue and it's a venue that has internal caterers, it's gonna be a lot easier for me to plan than a lu. Like, you know I've got a piece of land. And I've gotta get Marques toilets, generators, work out all the, the power.
it?
Exactly. So my price is different, but I do however, give a price guy to say, look, it's gonna roughly cost you this amount. Yes. Now what I wanted to ask you was a lot of the suppliers that responded to this saying, it's impossible, I can't do that, was florists.
Yeah, so, so it's a good one actually. So there's. There's two answers here, really, to be
Mm-Hmm.
with, with flowers, as I've explained before, it's all done on auction. So it depends on time of year, the
Yeah.
the size, the flower you want, everything. So you are working with lots of like external factors. It's not even just about like how much they might want, where it is,
Yeah.
And things like that. So. Really, it is actually quite difficult to quote wedding
Mm-Hmm.
if you have this, unless for example you had packages, so say if I had like package A, package B, package C, and
Yeah,
the same flour, you know, like every time. So I know I can quote that price. then
yeah,
that person turns around to me and says, well, I'm getting married over like Valentine's Day on Mother's
yeah.
the price is.
It's a different price. Yeah.
Because it's done on an auction. So it is, it is hard. And, but obviously I have a, I do have a price guide so people can download that on my website and request it, but and it, and it, again, it is annoying, I suppose because she says that, obviously it just says from this price, from this price tend to be quite accurate. To be fair, I try to be as
Yeah.
as possible, but if you just, I mean, if, I know it might be annoying for her, but if she reaches out, I can get back to someone within a day, you know, and give you like a, like a cost.
Yeah. I think it's just, I get what she's saying because if, if then somebody comes back to you and it's way outta your budget,
Yeah.
I. It's got, it's. You kind of feel then to be like, oh, sorry, I can't afford that. It's just awful. But then I suppose again, does the owners fall a little bit on the couple that they need to be reaching out and saying, hi guys, this is what I want. This is the budget I've got Very much like we've spoke about before about setting your budget. So I would definitely say to couples like, my advice for that is if you, there is a supply that you really like, have a budget and say, look.
This is how much I wanna spend on flowers, and I'm gonna put it out there. If they're a good supplier, there's no way. 'cause I know a lot of people think, oh, I don't wanna give my budget, because then they'll only, you know,
Oh,
as a florist, if you say, my budget's five grand, for example, they will only give you a quote, five grand. That's not true. If, if you've asked for only a few things, then they're only gonna quote you what it's gonna cost them.
I.
And if they're a good person,
Yeah, well, exactly. No, that's it. And that's about being an honest and being transparent. It comes not from just from pricing, but just
Yeah.
is that as well. But if you are selling a product, so for example, I, I don't wanna speak for people that, you know, like with say, a wedding cake.
Mm-Hmm.
You've got a three tier wedding cake with buttercream
Yeah.
you might add in some decoration on there, and then you can do that every time. So
Yeah,
of, you're not you're not affected by the time of year because I'm assuming the price of eggs and like flour and things don't tend to
yeah. Don't
much.
that much. Yeah.
you can kind of give a set price
Yeah,
tier cake.
this is, and this is, yeah, this is what I think and and the fact that a photographer does that, I'm sorry, is ridiculous because they know what they wanna charge for a day, let's face it.
So I suppose for
a lot of photographers know. A lot of photographers, I work with the prices on their website or in their brochure to say, this is the price, because that. You know, surely your cost is the same unless, and then have a little clause in to say, you know, dependent if you've gotta travel and stuff, it might fluctuate. But I do think we need to get rid of this from like, because
I
it needs should just be
yeah.
But if you say in the, even if you put a price and then put a clause at the bottom to say it in the region of, you know, estimated, so like I do, this is gonna be, it's gonna range probably from this price to this price. And what I also think that suppliers should be doing is, for example, at a wedding fair, if you've got a beautiful, you know, she's put here, three tier cake with cake pops, have an example. Yeah, so say have a picture.
You know, if you've got a, a bouquet and some lovely flower display, say this is how much the couple, but you don't have to name the couple obviously. 'cause I know it is confidential information. But say this couple had this much stuff in this month and it cost them this much. They had this cake
I do.
cost this. Yeah.
when I go to wedding fairs, anything like that, anything I have on display because. They're always, always, the couple is always gonna ask you, how much will that be?
Yeah.
just say, well, what, what, what time year you getting married? I,
Yeah.
know, just so, but no, I will, I
A hundred percent.
of how much that is.
Yeah.
but prices you can quote accurately. You have to in mind obviously to say if I had someone come to me now and they want a quote for in two years time obviously I can give them a quote, but I just do put a clause on there with that, just
Yeah,
things can change.
exactly.
Years. Obviously prices go up every
yeah,
so
yeah.
to be honest and,
Exactly.
as you're putting
Yeah.
there, like a little clause. But, and, and for couples obviously, just look for that. Just
Yeah,
ask that question. You know, I thank you
Yeah.
and everything. Is this likely to change or is, you
Yeah.
but I do try to be as transparent as possible, but sometimes
And that's so important. And I think, yeah. So in response to this woman, I completely agree with, I think, yeah, it's ridiculous to not give
be, yeah, to be Some people are very vague.
And to say like, oh, just go and look at the, my website. Let's be like suppliers. Let's be honest. You know, roughly bottom line. What? And even if you had on your website, look, you kind of need X budget to work with me. Like some, just some. Just give something. Yeah. Minimum spend.
oh, I've got a minimum spend. So at
Yeah.
can see on there. But
Yeah,
when, when they approach, you don't just say, Hey, look
exactly.
or give them a,
Go get the,
them
but I think this runs back to, yeah, I think this goes back to people hate talking about money as well.
Yeah,
think sometimes it is. They just don't wanna sit there and discuss price. But that's when you need to have like, exactly like you said, a QR code of A PDF that people can scan and all your pricing is there. And even if it's a rough cost, like as long as you've got it in there with a little star at the bottom to say, look, this is a rough cost. But I agree with her about the front price. I don't like it because it is like, well, Yes. Say you say from a thousand. Yeah. Is it 1200 or is it 5,000?
You know,
yeah. No, no, you're you're totally right. You are? Yeah, I think,
So I think if we can give
yeah,
ranges instead. So a thousand to 2000? Yeah. Yeah.
No, totally, totally
Yeah. Good question though. Do you wanna do the second question?
yeah. So someone's asked, should I send save the dates to the evening guests? So
Good question.
because I had this, I was wondering this when I got married, like should I send them, because I worry, the worry for me was if I send someone a save the date, do they think they're invited to the whole day?
Yeah, exactly that. No, it's true.
don't
would, yeah.
yeah. So
Yeah. So
actually, but.
Did you not? Yeah, so well, I did an Evo, I didn't send save the dates, evening guests. 'cause I think, well my invitations, you, you, I always advise to send out your invitations four to six months before, if somebody's just coming into the evening, they probably don't need to know much before that. But if you are worried about it and you maybe you're having a really small day and you have an everybody else to the evening, then you can do what they call the save the evening invite.
So you can say
Interesting.
the evening. With the venue or even if you dunno the venue, just, just don't put that on there and put like from 7:00 PM more information to follow.
That's good. So
There you go. Boom.
Yeah.
then the day guests get, yeah, save the and then the day guests get, save the date. Save the date, save the evening.
yeah.
there you go. Answers that question. But yeah, I wouldn't worry too much to be honest because like I say, I, I don't think I would commit, like, you know, you send a, save the date when you first like, you know, set the date or when you first book your venue. So normally like a year, maybe even more in advance. I personally wouldn't probably hold off a date as an evening guest that far in advance. So, yeah.
Totally. Totally. Right.
Amazing. I think that's us for today, isn't it? Lovely. Yeah, we did lovely to chat and we'll see you next week. So as always make sure you're following us on TikTok and Instagram. Your at, oh God, I can't talk. Then at Let's Get You LED podcast.
And you can email us with any questions at, let's get you we [email protected] and we love to hear any questions you have, if you've got any unusual stories
Yeah.
you know, if you've been to a wedding, seen something weird, you know, we wanna hear about it.
Yeah, we wanna hear about it. The bad stories, the good stories. The Emma, the assholes. Yeah. Love it. Brilliant. Send them in. Thanks guys. We'll see you next week.
See you week.
Bye.
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