Why your wedding planner is willing to get their hands dirty & part 1 of Hannah's honeymoon!

Hey.

Oh, hello.

currently look like Hermione Granger. It's too hot to use a hairdryer.

Yeah, it is. And, I mean, I'd say what I look like, but, it's basically a mound of shit.

Hayley has a cold if you can't already hear. How do you get a cold in the summer?

Oh, just,

hottest week of the

I know, it's just my luck, because literally there's finally a heatwave and my body's like, no, have a cold.

What the hell?

no, it's not great. I mean, I'm not going to moan about the heat, because, I mean, we're never happy in this country, are we?

the thing, isn't it? I am enjoying it. I'm not going to lie. I mean, I don't know how much I'm going to enjoy when it gets hotter over the next few days, but currently The weather, temperature it is, I'm loving.

Yeah, it's alright, it's alright. I just hate being like, because in this country it's always muggy when it's hot. It's never like, it's, there's never like a nice breeze, it's always just stuffy and oh, I think I was saying to you earlier, I'm thinking about getting one of these little like aircon units, like the little portable ones to keep me cool, and my baby obviously. Yeah, exactly, yeah.

Let's go Hi, I'm Hannah. Yeah.

And I'm Hayley.

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let's get

you wed! Woo! It's been stressful, I'm not going to lie.

How are you? How's your week been other than having a cold? Bad

cold. My baby's been a bit ill as well, which is really sad.

times.

then To be honest, I've I've not been doing an awful lot. I've just been kind of preparing, preparing for that. I've got a few summer weddings. I think I said to you before, I wasn't taking on a lot of work this year, just

No.

Lily's still small. I want to make the most of that, but I'm I've got weddings in August and they are quite big weddings. So I'm just doing what I can to prepare for them at the moment. And I'm getting a lot of people getting in touch with me for bouquets and things at the moment. So, I, at the moment I'm not really doing them, so I'm having to sort of like, turn people away, which I don't like doing, but I'm thinking

Yeah.

my plan was to not be doing like, the retail stuff until I start back again, doing a

Yeah. Cause I can imagine it's a bit like, because then you're to do it for the cost that you get for a bouquet to order all the stuff in. And it's not really probably worth it, is

well no, not unless I've got like, work already, so I'm having to sort of like, weigh it up, but I've got a week next, next week where I've got like, an event. And then I'll be doing a few bouquets, I've managed to kind of like, amalgamate it

put it around it. Yeah, nice.

also I have to get childcare and things like that if I can't take her with me. So I have to make sure it's like, worthwhile. Worthwhile? Worthwhile.

wild.

but yeah, so. Well,

Yeah, you were also quite busy in April and May as well, weren't you? So you probably need a bit of

That's it. like, June's been my only month where I've had no, I've had no work on since I've had Lily. Like, I've had, I've actually had work pretty much every month since I've had her. So.

Yeah, you need like,

kind of, yeah, and then I think July, July, is looking pretty, well, beginning of July is a bit busy for me, but then that's it until August, but I'm happy with that to be honest, and at the moment I'm kind of thinking about my marketing and advertising and stuff for next year and what I'm going to be doing, so,

All the fun stuff. Do you know, I was speaking to a florist today. She did the wedding at the weekend. And she, how she does this, I'll never know. But she takes off every July and August. She's like, I do not work July and August. She was like, my kids are like, I don't know if her kids are like uni or something. But she said, my kids are around. And like, I just, yeah, I don't, I don't want to. But she said she'd already done quite a bit

Fair enough.

she must work on like, go, right, I'm only going to take, I don't know, like 10 weddings a year, and she just takes them in like May, June, September, October, or whatever, or even like, she was saying she does quite a bit, like, you know, February, March,

Yeah, I was going to say, it's kind of changed a bit now. I mean, it used to be that like July, I mean it still is, July and August are like peak months for

Yeah, but I, no, I

I feel like it's spread out a lot, like I get loads in September, September,

And June.

yeah, and I think April, May is busier as

Yeah, well, I was

winter weddings.

Every supplier I've worked with on this wedding, just gone this weekend, said that this is the two week, this two week, so last week and next week, is the busiest weeks of the year for them. And I think it's because people are avoiding July and August, A, because the weather is very hit and miss now, and B, because everybody's on holiday, because the kids are off school, so it doesn't make sense to have a wedding, because then people are like, Oh, sorry, can't come.

Also, if you're getting married in July, August, then you're planning on going on your honeymoon straight away, your price of your honeymoon is going to be like, astronomical, because

So true.

It's, I hate That they do that, it's so annoying, but I mean, even if you want to go to like, Cornwall somewhere So I've been looking and I was like, oh, maybe we'll go July or like, end of July I was like, no, I always go away in September, because I can at the moment,

same. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's, yeah, it's, it's mental. And also, you've got to think, every year, when you go on, have your anniversary, if you want to, like, go away for your anniversary, it's going to be expensive. So I do think, yeah, a lot of people say July and August are a month. You've got a lot of people, like festivals and stuff happen that time of year, events are happening, so accommodation's always more expensive.

Yeah. so it's like, felt extra busy.

Yeah, so I've had two weddings in the last two weeks. I literally got back from honeymoon, bam, straight into it. Had two weddings. So I'm just gonna like give, one was an on the date management, one was a full plan that I've been working with in the last year. I thought I'm just gonna go in with some top tips that I've taken away from these weddings, instead of going too in depth into the ins and outs. But both were at home marquee weddings.

How big was the marquee?

Humongous. It was a Nigerian wedding, a British slash Nigerian wedding. We do a lot of fusion weddings. That's kind of what we specialize in. And then one was about 130. Yeah. So my takeaways are If there's anything that can go wrong at your wedding, I'm talking toilets, generators, marquees, anything that's, it can easily like, you know, if something, so if the generator stops working, you're screwed. If the toilet stopped working, you're screwed.

Come and fix it. there and then. Yeah.

Yes. My next takeaway

Sorry, did something go wrong? Is that what you're saying there?

Yes.

Oh god. Oh! Oh! Oh, sorry.

to happen to the toilets. I don't think I've done a wedding this year where we've had toilets on site where I've not had a problem. And I kid you not, I am like, well versed now with

toilets. are we talking here? Poorly. Because surely that can't go wrong. You just

the only toilets I haven't had a problem with

Like those ones that are like, hook up the trailers. Yeah, okay. Oh

Saturday I was lugging around hose pipes to try and fix up because they hadn't filled the tank properly and

that's so bad.

getting out screw I'm talking screwdrivers Hayley, I've got screwdrivers out, I'm

I would have been in my element. You should have called me. You know what they say, where there's shit there's broth.

Honestly, I've had hands down toilets. I'm well versed in how

my

work now. I should probably buy a block myself

Maybe you should. Perhaps that should be our next venture.

Yes! Then let's

could call it Shit Happens.

is so true!

I'm gonna trademark that so no one else can take

quickly, quickly. Yeah. Something always goes around the toilets, please hire local people because I am so sick of fixing people's toilets. Like, I feel like, and do you know what? If I hear one more supplier say to me, that's not my job. I feel like I should start saying that about toilets. It's not my job. It is my job though because I'm there to make things, you know,

I know, what you mean But so the thing is, that is annoying actually because I feel like, sometimes it's just nice to all chip in, to like make sure the day goes well, like if you have to go a little, I feel like if you're good at your job, generally you're gonna go above and beyond, like your main, sort of, job.

100%.

The basics just to make sure the couple has a good day like I'll always like I was helping doing all sorts of stuff for your for your wedding like I was like oh if you need me to stay and like polish cutlery or whatever if it helps you like it helps me like sort of thing it's fine I just feel some people are just so like do you know what I mean

Well, this Saturday I was in a bush looking for a toy because a kid had chucked his teddy in the bush and the mum was in there, and I was like, no, no, no, no, no. You've got a nice dress on. I'll get in there And she literally said that to me. That's above and beyond. That's going the extra mile. But yeah, no, it was so true.

two hours away.

Yes. My next takeaway was always overall on the glassware. With my on the day management, I got their glassware order with their final details two weeks before, and I was like, you need to order more glassware. So then moving on to my next point, always listen to the professionals. If they tell you to order more glassware, order

Order it. Do what you're told.

And another big takeaway that I've really learned in this year not necessarily learning, but You know that I'm really like seeing is always chat through the intricate details with your caterers And I'm talking like how service is gonna work ask them the little quick, you know, they're the professionals They should be guiding you but you need to have those conversations Like for example, we had a caterer at the one that we did on the day management Who wasn't prepared to serve the wine?

Oh, okay.

their bar staff in early enough, which I flagged to them. But they were like, oh no, it's fine, the caterer will help out. And the caterer was a bit like, yeah, we'll help out where we can. But they didn't actually have people to do that. Now that's a big issue when you've got 275 people that want a

Don't want a drink? Yeah. That's a bit of a problem.

can not tell you how many cuts I've got on my hands from opening corks. That's another thing. Always tell your caterer if you've got corks or screw tops, because the difference in time is huge. So yeah, that was, I was bar staff toilet fixer er that day. There's yeah, a lot of things going on. This

do.

This is me just pulling out the little top tips, by the way. They were both amazing days. They really went well. They, the couples were so, so happy. This is just me talking from the, from, from the back

I hope you didn't open the bottles of bubbly after you'd had your hands down the toilet. Obviously.

Hayley, I

Obviously.

But yeah, both, we had, we had issues with toilets for both actually. And do you know what? One thing that I'm going to say surprised me, from my wedding this weekend. So I'd done the full planning and I found out on the day of the wedding that her brother had basically been saying all along, I'm going to do fireworks, I'm going to do fireworks. And they were like, absolutely not. And I was like, absolutely not. It's, it will go wrong. It will go really, really horribly wrong.

this is giving

And I was like, I know exactly what I said. I said, I'm staying out this, I'm staying out this. But I tell you what, considering I'm not a record, I'm not advising anybody to do this, but he did a bloody good

Oh, fair play to him.

was absolutely hammered and considering, I dunno what he bought or where he got them from, but he did a really good job. There was a couple that me and the photographer thought Mob was aiming in the direction of the marquee. Could have been an issue.

Oh no.

But other than that, he did a really, really good job, bless him. And I said that to him, I said, Do you know what? Fair, fair hats off to you, Because I really thought that was going to go wrong.

And it didn't. That's so

And I thought, I'm not going to lie, I thought they were going to be really terribly shit. You know when you see them in your garden,

they're like, Pew! pew,

And then, five minutes later, it's like, Pew! No, it was the whole little display. It

good Some of them you can get now are pretty good. They're like, come in like a, they call them cakes or whatever, don't they? They come in a

I do not have a clue. Dunno.

yeah. We got

I always hire the professionals, but they're not cheap. Won't lie. They're not cheap, but they are worth it. They do really good displays. Some of these displays are insane. You can spend thousands on fireworks.

I've met the company that do the ones, The ones in London.

like the New Year. Yeah.

They're really friendly actually. I've met them at a couple of wedding fairs I've done. They do a lot of Stowe House, as well. But yeah, I remember, I can't, I can't want to say, it's like, I think it's like 500 for like a minute. Something like

Oh, that'd probably be more than

Yeah.

probably be like

I'm like that's literally just getting blown up. Yeah,

cost literally thousands and thousands and thousands of

they look incredible though

You're talking like, probably minimum 20k to have a drone fireworks display. Like, it's insane.

yeah, that's gross,

it's a lot of money. So yeah, I thought I'd just flick on over those

No, that's interesting, I like that, I like that. Sometimes things have to go wrong for you to have a good story, but that's what we like, we like the tea, we like the behind the

like the tea. Yeah, it's all about the toilets. yeah, that's a, that's a little quick, little quick fire, fire lowdown on the weddings. But like I say, both beautiful days, both very different, very

was the style? I always like to ask what flowers they had. Obviously.

Yeah, so the first, the, on the day management we did, oh god, I'm trying to think

You're like me. You haven't got baby brain to blame it on. Oh.

I actually, I'm going to have to think, I'm going to have to think about that. Yeah, so the first wedding. They went quite simple and then the wedding that I planned this weekend just gone insane. So the mum is very much into growing her plants. So she had these huge butt wicker baskets. She'd been growing all these plants for

I love that. I

They were beautiful, really beautiful, like, like, whites and lilacs, but the whole vibe of the day was like different greens. So we had these amazing, if anyone wants to know about these tablecloths, pop me a message, but they're like they're print, they're like printed.

Oh, I remember you saying about this. they were

Yeah, they were like leafy, green leafy, stunning, stunning. I will send you the pictures. And then we had like an olive, with the glassware, we had two standard wine glasses and then an olive green goblet for like water, which was beautiful. And then they did all little bud vases down the center. And again, our mum did them all for her the day before.

love that. Yeah.

Yeah, and then her friend,

I mean, sage green's been in for a long time, I feel like we've sort of spoken about this before, is basically now it's more tonal, so you get like different tones of colours, which kind of make up a colour scheme, so even though it's green, you're like using all sorts of different tones,

Yeah, definitely. And I feel like sage green's not as, it's more like your olives and your forests and stuff now. Yeah, your limes, I've seen quite a lot of, like, the lime green and stuff. Bit of sage green in there, but, you know like when people, yeah, you know when people used to just focus on sage green, I

Sage green and white. Yeah.

Yeah, it's not as much anymore. But yeah, I am loving the use of green. Yeah, that was beautiful. I loved that. I'll have to send you the pictures cause it looked really good. They had a really nice Sperry tent as well, which was a

I love a sparrow tent. I love them.

Beautiful. Big round wooden bar. Yeah, it was cool. But yeah, so if I've been full, it obviously had the honeymoon and I've been like full

Straight back in. That's happened to me when I got back off my honeymoon. I literally came off my honeymoon Then two days later I had a wedding. Oh, three days later I had a wedding, which was a nightmare because I always had to get all the flowers in and everything. Cut them,

you've got to get back to Sometimes when I come back off holiday though, I don't know about you, but you just want to You know those last couple of days when you're away and you're like, I just want my own bed and I just want to eat like a vegetable and like drink good old British water and

That is true.

you know, just like actually go to bed at a normal hour and get up at a normal

Yeah, the novelty eventually does wear off and then you want your home comforts, don't you?

Yeah and you start to switch back to work mode a bit don't you, thinking about it a

your mind just

when I get

yeah, oh, I've got to do this. and I

this. Yeah, better go do, book a food

And I wonder if it's best, like you say, just to go straight back into it, so you haven't got that time at home To kind of like, drag in your heels, at least you go straight back in. full on, you're like, getting back into the swing of things straight away, so you've got no

boom into it.

that you're not on honeymoon anymore.

Yeah, no, I, I'm always a little bit like the last couple of days. I'm like, Oh, we're going home soon. Oh, we're going home. But yeah, once I'm back, I'm like, I always say that, you know, when people are all back to reality and I always say, but I like reality.

Yeah, that's it.

Yeah, no, I wasn't, I was a bit sad that it's like, the things I'm sad about is like that we're just both such busy people and it's like we got so much lovely time together like the last few weeks, you know, honeymoon and weddings and, you know, we had that time away in Wales and now it's like, oh, like, it's just so hard to like have quality time together.

Yeah, that's what I find, like, we, we both, and especially now with the little one,

well, yeah.

Like, our time is like split so much. Like, we're basically like, what they call it, passing ships in the night. and I feel like if we do have any time together, it's more like the actual time together that I appreciate more than where we are, maybe?

100 percent I completely agree and I do think it's really, I know now I've experienced it myself, like it is a lot to have to think about oh got a pack before the wedding for the honeymoon and you know you're going straight off and you know there's a lot going on but I do highly recommend doing it straight after the wedding because I completely agree I do think you need that time and I think it's something to really look forward to. I feel like we really elongated our

that's what I liked about it. Elongates your whole like wedding doesn't it and but like we sort of spoke about as long as you're making a list you're preparing in advance Like you just gotta like literally organize yourself and if you can do that Then there's no reason why you couldn't go away like even that like a day after do you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah, that's

But it was early early flight,

went at like one o'clock

Yes, basically

24 hours later,

Yeah. sorry.

go, and I also think, right, because we didn't even just do that. Obviously, we had like six weeks of celebrations because we had our hindu stag dos, and then A week later we went to Wales for a week, which was to get, which the time we spent together. Then we were back for two weeks and then we were straight into our wedding, then honeymoon. So we had like six, seven weeks of all these things happening and I have to have a business to run.

That's it. Like, we're talking like, how many, like you say, six weeks out of your whole, like, what, how many, thirty years probably of, like, you'll be working, maybe long, you know, longer. Like, it's nothing, it's a, it's a nothing, and it's time that you'll never get back, and if you don't do the things, I, I do feel like sometimes people don't know.

No.

to make money and things like that, but I think sometimes it's important to put yourself first, and like, your relationships and things like that, because otherwise, you don't get the time back, and then when it's too late and you're looking back, it's quite sad if you've spent it all working and you've taken no time to appreciate that,

Yeah. And I also think, you know, I see a lot of people in terms of, you know, everyone's in different financial positions, but I do think if you can wait another year to get married and you can save that money to go on a honeymoon, it's so worth it. Or just go on a shorter one or do something in the UK or, you know, just cut back a bit on the wedding funds to, to have honeymoon funds. Like, I do think it's key.

Yeah, so my brother always says about when he gets married, he wants to go abroad and get married. And I'm like, do it, And then have your honeymoon while you're out there. Cause they're like, I don't think they want a big, like, so I'd say, not that I had a big wedding, but I suppose we had like a more

Yeah, you did. You had a big wedding. 100%.

that's what I'd always sort of dreamed about. So like, I'd put a lot of, whereas he wants more of like a low key one, like not many people, and that's for him. And I think they

mine.

Yeah. they would rather spend their money probably on a honeymoon, and like, probably go abroad and just have close family, and But that's what I mean is everybody's different, but I do agree like if you can take even like you say the wait a year Save up more money, but I feel taking that time afterwards and quite soon afterwards to have that

You need it.

definitely

I see someone the other day say that they'd been traveling for three months for their honeymoon. I was like, that sounds like

I know a few people that did that I know a couple that went and traveled America for like a

Nice. Why not?

Well, exactly if you can do it do it You

Start as you mean to go on, as they say.

yeah, exactly. So, I want you to tell us about your honeymoon. Anyway, because I've been, I'm dying to hear all about it. we haven't spoken about it at all and I'm like, oh, I need to know.

No, we haven't, have

No. I was like, save it for the podcast.

need the tea on the honeymoon.

Tell me all about it.

It was beautiful. We had a really lovely time. We, we talked about it before, but we went to Costa Rica. It's a really, really amazing country. It's very us. We wanted quite an adventurous honeymoon. You know, we were doing hiking and kayaking and mountains and yeah, the amount of waterfalls we saw was crazy. Look at, I mean, there's things that I would, obviously it's hard cause you've never been there before. You know, there's things I'd do, I'd have done the route a little bit different.

What's the difference? The time difference?

they're seven hours behind.

okay.

I never fully felt like I got into their time zone. Because I actually slipped back into English time quite well, Martin didn't. But yeah, so, we, that was, you know, it was busy, and that was, that was amazing, you know. Busy, but I got really bit as well on the first couple of nights. Because we were standing like little Airbnbs in the

Oh my gosh, do you know what, if I'd have been there I'd have probably died. I get really allergic to bites. Real bad. Yeah, just one bite will come up. I have to be, like, I want to go to Scotland. For my birthday. But my birthday's in summer and they're full of midges. So I'll be going in the winter time. Otherwise I will not survive. But yeah. No. that's, that's not great.

yeah, but it was all right, you know, with the old creams and antihistamines and whatever. And then, And then we went into like a more, not touristy areas, but like, you know, they're a bit more well known. So we stayed at one place for four nights and then the next place for four nights. And we stayed in two really nice hotels. They were lovely, really in the jungle, did loads of activities and excursions and stuff, which was amazing. Had a really good time.

You're like, I've seen enough now. I don't think I can do any more.

Literally. And that was by

there?

That was how Martin felt. He was like, I'm done. And because we'd stayed at these really nice hotels, we were like, Oh, going back to slumming it and

Wow.

we did one night, we went to, I really wanted to go to this volcano. It was one of my highlights actually of the trip. Went to the top of a volcano, which is like active and you can see It's not actually, there's no lava, but you know, I don't really, I don't know how to explain it. I'm not a scientist, but you can see like the hot water and you can see all the mist from where it's really, like there's, you couldn't go into that water because it's so hot.

You would boil alive like a

yeah, literally the, the smell, I cannot describe it, it's hideous.

like egg.

Literally, it's the gases it

Yeah, sofa, I

Apparently they're not actually that great for you, you can only stay up there for 20 minutes.

hell.

Yeah, but that was the coolest thing. So we did that, stayed in this Airbnb, and then we ended up checking into a Hilton that had a really nice swimming

heh

stayed there. Went for a couple, we were like, do you know what, I just want to like, get dressed up, go for a couple of nice dinners, chill by the pool, and that's what we did.

you were meant to stay in Airbnbs, but then you changed and you stayed in

Yeah, I just cancelled it. We stayed there for one night, and then we left, and then I messaged like, Hi, we're not coming back, sorry.

Hi. Did they ask you why?

No, I just said that our plans have changed, basically. And we just, because we just, we've done so much in the jungle. We've done so much hiking, so many waterfalls. And we were like, do you know what, we just want to

What a bit of luxury now, actually.

Yeah, and because we'd had like the luxury for like eight nights, going back

It was just a bit of a

bet like, yeah, so I probably would have planned those last, what I'd say is if you're going to go on an adventurous honeymoon, just have last couple of nights, just a really nice and chilled, like I say, nice dinners, get a bit dressed up, cause that's what, we'd been going out doing all these excursions and stuff, then coming back, getting ready, going out for nice dinners and stuff, and I was like, ooh, I'm loving this, but when you're in an Airbnb, you just go to, I don't know, wherever, and

That frightened me a bit, I'm not gonna lie. I'd be a bit worried about doing that. Like staying, I

We went to one place, right, in this Airbnb, and we, we went out for dinner in this, like, little restaurant. No one could speak English, you're literally pointing to the menus are all, you're just kind of guessing what it is, like, just pointing.

Oh, that's jokes.

And, I kid you not, right, we're sitting at this table and Martin's eyes go like this. And I look behind and there's just this massive crab just walking out the cupboard. And we

What, out of the cupboard? What? What?

must be like vermin to them. It's like a rat or something. Like, I

don't think that maybe, did they serve crab there? Was the crab making the great escape from

I said this! I said this!

boiled

I don't think so. any because this woman who's serving goes to go in the cupboard, it's like their pantry kind of thing, and and

fucking

and and sees it and screams and then it like scuttles off. It was the

See, I don't imagine a crab being very, like, covert or quick. That it sort of like, just slowly sort of scurry

yeah,

That's so jokes. Oh, God. Oh. I don't really like crabs. They remind me of spiders, so I don't, I'm not a big, not a big, crab fan.

they do!

Oh, it's the legs. Oh. And I don't really like eating them either, to be honest.

Yeah, oh no, I,

We went to we went to Cornwall and Richard had softshell crab. But we didn't realise, we went to that Rick Steins restaurant, so it's like

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he ordered the softshell crab and we thought it was just gonna be like crab meat inside something. But he was eating realise it was like, he was eating the whole crab because it's softshell. Do you see what I mean? I was like and he was like eating it and I could just tell he didn't,

Do you know what? This really bothers me with seafood. Like, Martin's done this before. He's got like, I, I don't even know, lobster or something. Nobody ever shows

how to eat

things. Mm. Like, how are you supposed to know if you've never

We kept asking, we kept asking. I mean, I Like, fish. yeah. I'm quite into fish seafood But some things are a bit weird obviously when you get like shellfish and stuff You need to know how to like, especially when they serve it. It's like all whole like But they were quite good in their restaurant to be fair. They just told us how to do everything

That's good. Yeah, you feel like you can ask, yeah.