Hello, hello!
As you would have just heard, we have launched our live podcast.
Yeah, so make sure you book your tickets, people.
get the tickets.
Hot off the press.
It's going to be a really fun night. So let's get started and then we'll tell you a little bit about it. Shall we?
Yeah, let's do it.
Hi, I'm Hannah,
And I'm Hayley,
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
get
wedded!
you wed! Woo!
So, essentially, that is it. The idea of our live podcast is to get you wet. So this is a bit of fizz. So it's essentially going to be like what we do on one of these records. We're going to be doing it live and we're going to split it into two sections. So we're going to do me and Hayley as we always do every week. And then the second half is going to be a bit more interactive with a few potential guests and, you know, asking the audience to for their questions and stuff like that.
we love our listener's questions, so we'll expect lots of those. Am I the arsehole? Throw a few of those in.
It's also set a really, really nice wedding venue in Northamptonshire, so if you're looking for a wedding venue, it's also a good opportunity to come along. Yeah, we're just going to have, we'll have like a drink on arrival, there'll be drinks during the interval, some popcorn. Corn. So yeah, it'd just be a nice evening out. Like bring your, I'm thinking like bring your bridal party or bring your other half, bring your parents.
So they feel like they're involved in the, you know, like when we get these people right in, like, how do I get parents and stuff involved in planning?
Yeah, these are the perfect kind of events because
Literally.
and it's funny and it's not so like, don't know, sometimes when you go to some events it can be a little bit Boring
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
more like come and have a laugh, have some fizz, have some popcorn, like you said, and just yeah, make it a bit
Get your questions answered. You know? If you need some supplier recommendations, we'll be there. You can ask us. Also, you could even, like, tie it in to, like, you know, if you wanted to go, like, bride or dress shopping beforehand, then have some dinner, then come to the show. What a great afternoon.
dress shops out near
really is. Yeah. Beautiful. Okeydoke. Well, how was your week anyway?
yeah. My week's not been too bad. Thank you. I've been doing lots of sort of like. Officey bits, you
Oh, the admin.
up in the, yeah, admin. Officey bits. Oh my god, webmin, yeah,
Yeah.
miss that word, doing all
No, no.
but yeah, just, I've been updating my website, so
Oh,
which
did see this.
Yeah,
this on the show notes and it very much excited me. I need to hear all about it. Tell me all,
so basically I've got some new products for like bouquet. So I'm doing like more of like a, my flowers are always luxurious, but I've
obviously. Yeah.
end.
Mm-Hmm?
It's just, if you want to send them, I feel like these days, if you've got the money to spend on flowers, you want
Mm-Hmm.
top quality, luxury flowers, a really big bouquet. bunch. Like I feel like one of the days you're like 20 quid, can I bring a florist and get a bouquet? I feel like if you're going to go to the effort of going to a bespoke florist for a bouquet, you're probably going to be wanting to spend a bit more because it's a special occasion
Yeah. Yeah.
in a, not in a blue moon because people should buy flowers all the time, but because he lives. So, so I feel like if you're going to spend, on flowers, get some decent ones. So I've done some really nice bouquets, got some new product images and They've been uploading them and just just basically making my website a little bit more modern
Nice.
the is it the pièce de résistance? Is I'm in the middle of like doing my wedding page, basically. So it's going to be
Nice. Yeah.
some work on the front page, but like the homepage and then on the wedding page itself is going to be like really nice, like images. So rather
Yeah.
before it was
Nice.
all myself. You see, before I
Yeah.
pictures, whereas now someone's doing it for me. So we've been there.
That's so exciting. Who's doing it for you?
it's, it's my website provider,
Yeah.
it all for me rather than me uploading the photos and
Nice.
when you do it yourself, they're just
Yeah. Yeah.
So, yeah,
That's Exciting. Have you got the video? Are you doing work? Or you got to have some footage done? Yeah.
I just thought I'd kind of, I just want me like with a bouquet and like some ribbon and like
A hundred percent.
I don't know, a dress in the back. I might just contact a few people and see if anyone wants to get together and just I mean, I've got my own wedding dress, so
Yeah.
So, I wouldn't fit into it now, but I'm sure someone else could just hold a bouquet for me.
I'll put mine back on for you if you want.
fancy yours. I'm two years down the line. I've had a baby. It's no chance. Yeah,
I, yeah, that's really exciting. I love doing stuff like that. That's why I always take a photographer behind the scenes when I do weddings, because
idea.
like you, that's that kind of content is, yeah, to show what you actually do is, it's Yeah, priceless.
So, so yeah, just doing bits like that. I had a consultation on Saturday with a bride that was really nice. So I met her and her mum and a coffee shop and we had a good chat. So
Yeah.
married January and they only got engaged in August. It's a five month.
Oh, quick turn on. How was the how was the old, the, I just can't think of the word, but you know, mom and daughter, there was like differing opinions or was it, you know, was there any like, you know, when there's like a an argument between them and you're like, Oh, this is all good. Any like disagreements? Nice.
like that. So they were both on the same page and actually she was you could just tell the bride was really like relaxed as well. Like she wasn't, she, she was really, what was really nice about it is she was open to ideas.
Yeah.
She kind of told me the color scheme that her bridesmaids are in emerald green
Oh, stunning.
groomsmen are wearing like navy suits. So she wanted to have, she originally was going to, she was toying with the idea of whites and greens, but then she didn't want it to feel washed out against her, her, her, because
Yeah.
you'd sort of wear ivory or
Yeah.
And So I said, well, cause I did a friend's wedding actually, and her friend had really bright colors and I was like, well, why don't we do something colorful, but
Yeah.
to go down like the vibrant, like bright. yellows and pink,
yeah, yeah, yeah.
like rich colors and rich tones.
Oh, nice.
to go for burgundies, navy, plums,
Nice.
like cerise
Yes, stunning.
So they'll all pop, especially against the Emerald green,
Yeah.
dress, they're going to look really
I love that. I love it when people When did you say the wedding is?
It's in
Oh, so it is Wyn's wedding.
Yeah. So
still just think, that's like, I had dark green for my wedding, as you know, but I had the pops of red and the pink.
Yeah,
I do think, like, you can use those because some people have said to me, like, oh, you had dark green in May. I'm like, yeah, why not?
Yeah, you can do what you like. Whatever. There's no, there's no rules on
There's no rules.
can do whatever you like.
the rule book away.
That's,
No.
gone. That needs to go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love that. That sounds so nice. Look forward to seeing that.
Yeah. That'd be
Yeah.
So, so that was that was really nice, but. But her mum was telling me that she works with this lady who's a psychic,
Right.
and this, and this, the psychic we'll call her, the psychic had gone, online during the week and said, like, and found a for her daughter and was like, she'd like this, and it was the colours that I then suggested to
No.
So yeah, how weird is
Well, and she hadn't mentioned this to you before, huh?
No, it was the end of the meeting. She was like, Oh, you'll never guess what then she said about it. I was like, wow, this woman is a psychic.
Yeah. That's mental. That would creep me out a little bit. I love those colors though. I was, look, do you know what? I was literally looking at a Pinterest board this morning 'cause we're getting ideas for the colors for the house. Obviously it's not gonna be our house, so I need to like rain it in. I actually,
Magnolia.
yeah, I had, I actually saw a mood board with those colors that you just said. So like, you know, a deep plumbing, almost like my.
almost dual
Nails.
Your nails look lovely by the way. I keep
Yeah.
them, I'm like,
Thanks. Thanks Vicky. Yeah.
He
And like the navy blues, dark greens, that dark, like, plummy color. And 100 percent when we have our, our own house, our final house, I will have those colors in my bedroom. Love it.
Love
Stunning.
Yeah. So
well, sounds like a good week.
week. There was something else I wanted to mention but I'll let you, I'll let you tell me about your week first and then
All right. All right then. Lovely, lovely. Yeah, no, it was, it was good. I, I had a weekend off,
Woo hoo!
so exciting. I mean, normally, to be fair, if I've got a weekend with no wedding, I will still work on the Saturday morning, but I thought, no. I'm not. I'm having a weekend off. I did get to the point a little bit Saturday afternoon where I was like, What do people do with two days off? Because I need to kind of like, spread myself over two days. Like, having two days off together is like, alien to me. But no, I baked some cookies, made a stew, made a curry.
Made a stew
No way!
beef stew,
Oh, I made, honestly, I need to send you the recipe for this. This shoe. It's from this it's on Instagram. It's called like you probably see his books like bored, bored of dinners or bored of lunches or something.
I? I've not heard
Have you not heard of it? He's got like loads of books and he's all about the slow cooker and the air fryer.
Love a slow
Yeah, absolutely love the slow cooker. So he has like this recipe for, I don't know if it's his recipe or if it, oh he's called Board of Lunches, Board of Lunch on Instagram and he's got books and stuff. But yeah, he had the, I don't know if it's a normal dish but it's called Marry Me Chicken.
Oh my god, I can't believe this.
Yeah,
in law makes this margarine chicken, right, and they've given me the recipe. I've still not made it, but I need
it's so good. I want to say this. Well, I don't know if it's him or if it's just a generic thing. But he's made this Marry Me Chicken Stew.
Oh.
Martin was like, that's the best thing you've ever made. And we had it with like, sourdough bread with garlic butter on the bread.
yeah, go on.
my mouth's it. I might have to make it again this weekend.
restaurant.
Oh no, I will send you, I'll send you the recipe. Whap it in the slow cooker this weekend. Honestly,
yeah.
beat it. And also, what was quite good is there's quite a lot of ingredients in it that you just have in your cupboard. Because I hate that when you've got a pile of just rammed crap. Yeah, you're like, got that, got that, got that.
cupboard. I like a bacon recipe like that.
Yeah, so yeah, anyway, completely un wedding related, but yeah, so I had a weekend off, that was really good, and been on boarding new clients, so doing like the, so when they first come on board with me, and we set up their drive, they do an initial meeting, we go through Through like what the next steps are. So I've been doing a couple of those and it also had a tasting last week with one of our couples for next year.
Which always love to look at people's food and talk about food and you go home and you feel really hungry. It's still fun and games.
Me Chicken,
Yeah. And cookies and lovely loving life. So yeah, that's, that's been my week really. And obviously just massively promoting the one year live record.
know, yes, we're just trying to spam everyone with it because we just
Yeah, I just don't want anyone to miss out. It's going to be such a good event as well.
podcast as well. I
Yeah, same. Yeah. Yeah,
to, but it's just so fun because you can just get involved. And I feel like as well, like if you listen every week, it's kind of like, I feel like it's like meeting, not saying the word, it's like
yeah,
behind
exactly. Come in and say hi, and and also, like, we're going to have a couple of, like, we're going to have a singer there. So, for example, you might come and be like, oh, actually, this works really well. Like, we really like the singer, so let's put the singer for the way. You know, things like that. So yeah, come and get some ideas. It's like a new, it's like the new kind of way that wedding fairs are going.
I think it's like live podcast, live shows that where you can actually see and talk about like your questions and your ideas instead of just going around trestle tables. Like hello, you
Yeah. Sometimes it can be a little bit like formal
exactly. Yeah. Like we're going to have a photographer there. So you might think, oh, I'm going to go have a chat with the photographer about questions I've got on photography, you know?
yeah, so we'll have all the, yeah, the people, I feel like with the photographer or entertainment, things like that, venue, and then obviously we'll have,
Yeah.
questions as
Yeah,
it'll,
between us all.
more, just, what's the word, I don't know, laid, relax,
Yeah, relax, there's no hard selling, there's no just
it the hard,
chuck your questions at us.
couldn't deal with when I was getting married I got really intimidated by
Yeah.
for a wedding fair Sometimes people are like come at you like I've done loads of wedding fairs and don't
Yeah.
They're they're actually really good way for businesses like me to showcase what I can do
Yeah.
but I feel like I never like to jump on customers or client or like couples or whatever
No.
let them come to me because I feel I don't personally like being hard sell
Exactly. Yeah. No. 100%. Yeah, exactly. I mean, the exhibitions and stuff work really well, which actually getting onto that, we do need to just do a little plug. So we are going to be having flyers handed out in the goodie bags at Central Exhibitions Milton Keynes Wedding Show this weekend.
Yes. So it's 20th.
Yep,
on a Milton Keynes center, it's in, it's in Middleton Hall. So it's like the main, when you come in, it's by John Lewis, basically.
nice.
Keynes, but it's, it's huge. It's, it's like
Yeah, these ones are great because you can just literally wander around. There's so many different people.
feel like
No,
like there's so much choice is
yeah. Get all your leaflets, get all your freebies, your free pens, your free bits of cake. Also, is it like the perfect spot because you can like go have a little shop at Zara, go for some lunch, go to the wedding fair.
exactly Perfect.
more do you want? Ha!
Love it.
Literally. But yeah, so yeah, pretty good week all in all.
Perfect. Well, I've need to tell you about these weird dreams. I've been having
Oh, well, come on.
so I don't know if it's a thing that happens after you have a baby, right, but I've turned into, I've never walk or anything like this,
No, people that sleepwalk freak me out.
this is weird. Like I've been waking up in the night and like thinking that like Lily's fallen out of my bed. She's never slept in our
What?
but I'll be like smacking Richard. I've woke up like hitting him like, he's falling out of the bed and he's like, oh, what the hell? And then the
She's literally in her own bed sound asleep.
yeah, then the other night I woke up and I was like, stroking the wall.
What?
Yeah, so weird. And I thought there was a cat in the bed and I
And you don't own a cat.
I don't have a cat!
I don't have a cat.
of the bed, get out of the bed, and I literally got Richard to get out of the bed, he was half asleep, and I was like, get out, get out, there's a cat in the bed, and he was like, what are you on about? But I genuinely believe it, I'm like, this is
You actually think. Yeah, I do think that that happens though. You know like when you're asleep, when you're, when you're, In a, especially a deep sleep, but if you kind of like wake up, if something wakes you up and you see like, you know in a shape or something and you're like, oh my god, there's a man in my room. And
yeah.
you get up and turn the lights on, it's just like the dressing gown tie or something. You know? And you're like, what is that? Or like a sound sounds really loud and then you actually wake up and you're like, oh no,
it's
that was nothing. Oh,
been talking in my sleep as well and
have you?
I hope he doesn't hear any of my secrets, I'm
Well, I mean, you do hear this. It could be a bit of
know,
because you hear actually people that are getting, planning their weddings. They have, I had a few wedding nightmares leading up to the wedding that things like, that I was like, like ridiculously late, but didn't realize. And it was suddenly like, Hannah was five o'clock and I was getting married at three and I was like, Oh my God. Oh my God.
married that I didn't turn up or
Yeah.
ahead or I got there and it was all over and I'd missed it
Yeah. I'd forgot that I'd forgot it was the wrong day. I was like, Oh yeah. So I didn't say that. I know it was yesterday.
I'm glad it wasn't just me, but
So I do think, yeah. So obviously you're dreaming of cats in your bed. Like maybe, yeah. It's just a bit of like, yeah. Stress related
dream.
dreams. Yeah. So weird, isn't it? What the brain can do to you. Literally,
so so that was that was also interesting part of my week But going back to the couple or the the bride that I met with their mom on
Yes.
She she said something to me which I thought was really interesting actually and very Rare, I would say and I don't want to tar all men with the same brush, but I would say generally the woman tends to take over in the wedding planning process, or there's always someone that kind of takes the lead, you know,
Yeah. If it's a man, woman married, let's face it, majority. Oh,
woman tends to
they,
it.
do you know what? Lately? I've actually had a couple of couples, couple of couples. I love, I want to say that
kaboom,
where the man has led a bit more, which kind of, one of the new couples I've just taken on, it's all the man that I've spoken to and he's done all the contracts and everything.
yeah,
But, but I agree with you, general consent, like the general, yeah, majority of the time
Yeah, well, let's
is
shy about it. It's just
the woman.
fact of the world,
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
they're like welcome signs It's like welcome to I don't know. Welcome to Haley's wedding featuring Richard. It would
Or it's like Hayley and Richard's wedding. They've crossed out Anne Richard and it's just like, welcome to Hayley's wedding. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So like the industry knows and jokes about the fact that it is mainly the woman. What? Were they
was that this this bride, her other half actually went to a wedding venue and booked it without even telling her that he was, that he went to look at it, but then he put a deposit down and booked it there and then. And she hadn't even been there.
engaged?
engaged. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Wow.
and he did it, I
That's a, what's the word, like,
Cause he was like, I knew you'd love it. So I just, I just went ahead and put a
that's brave.
It is brave, but I feel
Bold.
bold. It's like a bold
That's a bold move, because I actually had a wedding, I think I probably mentioned it on here before, where they, they, the couple came together and looked at a venue that I Used to manage. So I used to manage the venue. So they came booked in a few in, but he kind of made out that it was like for a party. And then he told me afterwards that he hadn't actually proposed, but he was going to propose to her that Christmas. And then he booked the venue.
So when they got engaged, he was like, ah, do you want to, will you marry me? Obviously very confident that she was going to say yes. And then and then was like, this is the wedding date. This is a venue. Okay. But I've, which I think is still very brave, but I think that's braver. The fact that he's already proposed. So she's probably already looking at venues and stuff like that. At least with that situation, it was like, you know, will you marry me? Here's the venue.
His, do you know what I mean? She could have then said, no, she didn't like the place.
Yeah.
Whereas
I don't
this guy has just like, like that, that's nuts. What, what
were laughing sort of, he was sort of groomzilla, but kind of like
really isn't he very involved, but he wasn't at your me in.
No, he didn't come to the meeting with us, but he, but they said that he's apparently he's very laid back. He doesn't like being a center of attention, but this is the one time he's like really like, well, I'm the groom, like he wants a
Yeah.
suit and stuff and
Nice.
to be in, wants to
Yes, that's right. Yeah.
I thought, I just, I've never heard
No!
particularly, or
Taking that much control. Sorry, I'm just
it and be like, well I knew you'd love it. I
joking. Did you see it? I don't know.
so shocked, just coughing to death.
Sorry, go back to what you were saying,
Yeah, so I've never heard of like a groom going on their own and booking
No!
venue,
Even a bride!
Yeah, anyway, I was going to say like, even a significant other, your fiancé,
Yeah.
just book in that. I just think it's a real, it's confident, but maybe sometimes it's what you need.
Yeah, I mean, it's a big part of the day, isn't it? To just decide without the other person's
wedding centre's around the venue.
Yeah!
it's pretty much the, the hub of the
Yeah, like,
can't really, if you don't like it, then it's a bit, and to put a deposit down, we're not talking like a couple hundred quid here,
that's big money.
is like thousands of pounds.
And also, what, even if it's not the fact that she didn't like it, but maybe, like, if you haven't had conversations, like, if you're that early on in the process, like, what if you haven't discussed, like, how many guests you're going to have? And then he booked a venue for like 80 people and they're like, we need more than that. Or What about if he hasn't thought about things like, oh, she wants candles, but you can't have candles there. Or do you know what I mean? Like
I just think they must be, the vibe I was getting was that they, they're like almost, oh it was really lovely actually, like they're, they just know each other really well
Yeah.
like they're just quite a laid back
Yeah. Nice.
like I don't think they're having a huge wedding and they've booked it quite, they got engaged and like they just want to, Get married soon. She was saying like, it was up to him. They would have got married like the next couple of weeks or something
aw, cute.
I thought was
Yeah,
actually it was like that. The sentiment of it was
yeah,
And if he obviously knows her well enough to know that, cause he said, Oh, the reason I've done it is because I know you'll love it. And she does. And she
yeah. I was gonna say as it has it
yeah, she was like, Oh, but I just thought fair play to this guy for doing that, but I've
Yeah.
heard of that before, to be honest. I just thought it was something like
No,
to bring
tastes crazy.
because yeah,
I mean, I would trust Martin to do that, to be fair. I think he would pick something good. But I also think that, you know, I worked in venues for ten years, and when couples used to come in, it wasn't even necessarily that they didn't like it, or there was a reason to not like it. They just didn't get that It's like with houses, isn't it, if you're looking at a house. They just didn't get that, like, Oh, yeah, I want to get married here,
Yeah, like,
so
is it.
that is a real risk if,
Yeah.
she might like it, but then walk into it and just be like, I just don't get that pull,
Yeah. So
you know?
never looked at any other venues.
Yeah, you walked into it, you knew. Oh, wow. Yeah, I could
because we were on the fence between having a, it's really funny because we had a completely different wedding, but like part of us was like a teepee wedding. I know. And then the other half obviously we ended
imagine that.
married
In like a slavey home, yeah,
completely different, but it was like, it was between having a teepee outside in this one, one other venue
Yeah
it was Stowe, Stowe house.
which is completely different vibe.
well, we we'd been and done a wedding there. You see,
Yeah.
together, he'd helped me do someone's wedding. We were both like in awe of the
Yeah.
loved it, but we just thought it'd be way out of our budget, but actually what just turned out it wasn't.
Yeah.
I would trust Richard, I think, because we were both on the same
Yeah.
what we
Same. Yeah, same. I think Martin would have gone for something very similar to like what we did to be fair. He, I don't think he would have necessarily thought the logistics through like I did of like how it would work.
like a part of the industry, don't it? I feel like, and your job,
Yeah, true.
you kind of just, there's things you see that other people don't.
Yeah, whereas a coordinator would have helped him with that. Yeah, but it's yeah, it is You But I do also sometimes think, like, even with our wedding, with my knowledge of the industry, when we went there, you know, he had some great ideas that I hadn't thought of, or I'd be like, oh, but I don't know about this, and he'd be like, oh, we could do it like this. Like, sometimes having two of you make the decision, it helps, but, I mean, it's worked, worked in their favor.
for them. Yeah, definitely.
Same with the couple I did, you know, she said yes, and she was very happy, and yeah, it went to plan.
that's really unusual though to someone to book a venue before they're even engaged. That's,
That's brave, isn't it?
is, yeah. Fair enough. Fair
So had they even started viewing venues or anything, did she say?
I don't think so. I think this was like the first place. Literally, it was the first place he'd gone to, yeah. And he just loved,
And then what he just said, I booked it. The fact that he even went to a viewing on his own. Yeah. Maybe
It's really, I mean, it's really unusual, isn't it? I mean, fair, I just think fair play to this guy. Yeah.
he just like saw there was a wedding fair or something and just hopped in or maybe his work from there or. Oh. Oh, okay. So she knew he was going to look at it.
Venue that they, they sort of wanted to look at and he went on his own. She said that she trusted it. I think she must trust him. She said, oh, I trusted him to sort of, to go and look on it on his own. So I don't, but he, but he was like, she was like, oh, he just. I think, yeah,
Oh, okay.
Oh, he goes, well, I need to tell you something. I've, I've put the deposit down. I've booked it,
Wow.
but yeah, cause they must've had their day. Cause they, they get married in a church first and then
Yeah. Nice.
venue.
Yeah. Yeah, it's quite a difficult one with a church as well. Like, if you've got your heart set on having a church, and I've had this a few times in the past, because you actually are only, you're really set to an area. So suppose if he knew, right, we're getting married at this church, it's gotta be, you know, there's only so many wedding venues in areas.
area.
You know? You just don't want people driving really,
Too
really far, Mum. Yeah.
What's the furthest distance from a church to a venue you've done? Do you
I've once done an hour, and that was quite a lot.
that is
Yeah, I would say you want to try and keep it to half an hour.
hard as well if they were gonna have like someone for example Sometimes I have to like move stuff after
Oh, yeah, nightmare. Yeah.
gotta move stuff. That's
I don't think they did. I think they were like, no, we're not doing that. But also like when we do London weddings, we've done London Cambridge, Oxford, where we've done this multiple times, but yes, it's only 10 minutes, but actually on a Saturday afternoon. Sorry. Yeah. Oh yeah.
true traffic's bad isn't it but I remember the one we did in it was the church And no the other one. Sorry the one we it was at Kelmarsh with
That was half an hour. Yeah. That was far.
felt like a long,
Yeah. That was from like,
It
that was like,
roads.
South Northamptonshire to North Northamptonshire, yeah, it was far and the traffic was bad.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, well, that's very interesting. Well, I hope it all goes well for them and that, yeah, she continues to love it because the thing is as well, right? He's done, it sounds very romantic, but he's done what I always advise against. He's done it. Impulse signs that contract because I always advise and I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to ruin the romantic moment, right? With a little tip. If you're venue searching right now, it sounds great.
It sounds lovely and, and you know, fair play to him. I think it's lovely what he's done. But if you're looking at venues, ask for a copy of your contract to be either emailed or printed for you and take it home and look at it before you sign anything. And I've seen a lot and look, apologies to venues, but. I've seen a lot lately where it's like sign on the night at the wedding fair and you get a discount and things like that.
Even if that, even if that's the case and you need to do that, go and sit in the bar for an hour and read through the contract. But this is so many little things that people miss. And I've worked with quite a few couples, you know, this year, last year, where they've booked the venue before they've met me. And then there's certain things that they're asking me for, like. Candles or a certain caterer and I'm like, you can't do that. It's in your contract. You can't do that.
And they're a bit like, what? We didn't realize that. Or, you know, that I've even had venues this year that you, where you can't have children on site. And. Yeah, well, they don't have any disabled access or, you know, all these kind of things will be in your contract or they should be, but if you've got in that excitement, I always say this, right, you go to a wedding venue for you and you get really excited. You're like, yeah, we love it. We love it. We love it.
If you then sign that contract without sleeping on it and thinking about it can cause you issues down the line.
Yeah, that's
I'm just.
you make there.
Just gonna ruin that little pipeline dream, but, you know, sorry. Okay, shall we go on to the listeners questions and messages? Yeah,
so I've got an interesting one here which I will feel like I need to pipe up on
you go for it, gal.
So, do I have to have table centrepieces? Yes, you do. And let me tell you, they need to be floral ones.
Oh, go on. You, you, you ran away, gal. I can feel it coming. Again. Woo.
what? The amount of comments I get from people when they've, when you go to one and you go into that room, it's all set up and it looks absolutely beautiful, but it's stunning floral centerpieces in the middle. Without the flowers, is it? Let's be honest. No, seriously,
Yeah,
all
I'm, well, I'm with you. Yeah.
without the flowers there, it could be anything, it could be any celebration. It could be, you know, the flowers, they just
Yeah.
feel.
Yeah.
no, I just feel with a centrepiece, it's, I just feel like it brings everything together. So all your colours that you want to
Yeah.
like anything on the table. You don't have to go big with them, but I do feel like you need
You need, Oh, a hundred percent.
it'd just be an empty space of what?
Well, especially if you have the, the advice I do always give though, is that if you are like, I don't know if you'll disagree with me on this or agree or whatever, but if you are low on budget for decor, regardless of how big your budget is, but if a deck or you don't want to spend loads of money, round tables are always going to cost you a lot more money than long tables because round tables, it's a big space to fill and you need to go kind of big, really like, you know, something tall or do
you know what I mean? Something a bit bulkier. Yeah.
a vast nothingness in the middle because it's such a big white cloth or something. You just, there's,
yeah. Whereas long tables, there's actually not a lot of room for decor, so you can go with trails of ivy, or with some nice candles, or you can go with bud vases all down the centers, which is going to be a lot more cost effective. Whereas you imagine if you just put some bud vases in the center of a round table, well, I've been there before, and trust me, it just, they just, it just, the table's too big, it just looks like nothing.
en masse. You need like
Yeah.
if you're gonna do that, they need to be different heights, and they also need to be a lot of them to actually, and with
Yeah.
because otherwise they just, like you say, they just get lost.
Yeah, especially if you've got six
they
foot rounds. Six foot round tables, they have such a big
than
space,
Yeah.
Five foot rounds aren't as bad, but yeah, six foot rounds, there's a real vast space in the centre to just have a couple of bud bars as they literally look lost.
And
It's just pointless.
ask me, should I go like tall or should I go short? You know, they don't want, I don't want something that's in people's eye line.
Yeah. Mm-Hmm.
it depends like as well, like you say on the The way you're having your tables laid out like if you've got long tables and like round tables it's different because it depends how people are sitting but actually you do generally want to go one or the other and a bud vase actually same with the floating candles is they sit right in your eye
Yeah.
but it's just different if you've got like clear vases and stuff they're not so like if you had like a block
Yeah. I don't ever think of something
I don't think it's as big as a
I,
as people think it is
my advice on the low and high thing is always, it depends on your venue. So if you've got tall, so like I had tall flowers, 'cause the ceilings are tall. You add tall flowers, the ceilings are tall. If imagine at your venue having low flowers on the table, they would literally look like nothing in that room.
Exactly. We lost.
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, that's what I would always say. A marquee with like big, you've just got a big expanse of white. Go tall because it just adds a little bit of something something.
Yeah. I
but yeah, if you, that was, that's always my thing is, yeah, if you haven't got as much money, go for long tables because I don't think the expense is as high.
No, cause you like, you can say, like you say, you can just have trails of foliage like,
Yeah,
garland in,
you can't do that on rounds, can you?
no.
But yeah, you definitely need something. They'd look
Yeah,
terrible if you didn't have anything.
Do you remember when all the rage was like balloons?
Oh, no, don't. I've always said balloons belong at parties. They're
Yeah,
at weddings.
yeah, balloons are, I don't
seen this new trend, actually? I don't know if we've talked about this. So you're not gonna like it because you're like, Well, no, you might. You can bring in the flowers. Bye. I think it's genius personally, but you have an individual, like small one tier wedding cake, and you have one for each table on like a stand. And then that's like, they're like, you could have that as your dessert or whatever. And then, so you could still bring flowers in because you could decorate all the bottom of it.
Like if it was like a high stand, I
on the
think is fricking cool. And I saw it at a wedding,
different, isn't it? I
open day.
I
Yeah, it was awesome.
when it's something that actually, like, serves a purpose, or it actually looks good. I just don't like it when people do things and they think it looks good and they're
And then it doesn't.
and it's just like,
Yeah.
you
Yeah. No, I know what you mean. Yeah, that does look cool. Anything, I always think any, like, you can turn your food into decor. So like, if you have like, sharing platters, for starters, like charcuterie, like have them raised up on razors and have that as your decor and like, have all your flowers and stuff underneath it. Looks really, really cool.
Yeah, I
So, you know, we're not telling you to go mental here, guys. We're thinking, we're telling you to think outside the box. Obviously, you don't have, Masses and masses of room in terms of, you know, you've got your water on the tables, your wines, all those bits and bobs. But yeah, you need something. Little
summing.
something, something. What's your opinion on like, I mean, it was kind of a real trend a few years ago, but especially if people want like a bit more of like an ornate or Harry Potter kind of vibe is the books, the stacks of books. Are you,
I
E A, or are you an A?
mean, it's not my kind of vibe,
No, I wouldn't have it. Yeah. Yeah.
It's alright if you're doing, if you've got, if you've got like a five foot round and it's a small, more intimate wedding and it depends where you're getting married. Like, say if you're in a big stately home with high ceilings and really grand decor and then you pop a few books on a table with a bit
You're like, shit, yeah.
just not gonna, you know, you might, why, why do that?
Unless you do want that, like, I always think, like, if you get married at a school or a university, is a cool vibe, or if you want that Harry Potter theme, and if you go for, like, the big, like,
through,
Yeah, and you go for like the big, chunky, leather bound books. But then actually, any wedding that I've ever done that has still had flowers because they've had like the little bud vases propped. So they have them all angled and then have the bud vases propped on like the corners of the book. So you still have got all like, I did one where they like had all ivy trailing around it. Yeah.
wherever. I just, you know what, it's not even the fact that it needs to be, has to be flowers. I just feel like
Yeah, it does.
it does, but it needs to be something that's gonna stand out and actually make, or
Yeah.
in with your decor.
Yeah.
In general, your colour scheme. It's just, to have nothing.
That would just be awful. Imagine that.
thing, is
Just your cutlery and your glasses and then just nothing in the center.
well.
would throw me off. Oof. So yes, please do. Please do. Next question we've got, I thought this was very related to me.
Ah,
I want brownies as my wedding cake. Is it a bad idea? Any ideas for how to decorate? Brownies were my idea! That's literally what
queen!
And actually, yes, so, bringing it back to the brownies. So when I was, I, I've probably mentioned this before, but I actually had a chocolate brownie business during COVID when we couldn't work. I was basically selling brownies. To pay my mortgage,
that.
but I actually got into a couple of weddings. It's a lot of brownies. Honestly, it's a lot of brownies I was making, but actually a few friends and stuff asked them for their weddings. And I did a couple of local people's weddings who had been buying my brownies every week and wanted to bring it into their wedding, which I thought was really cool. So I did them and I did the same at my wedding. I did like a big board, like a wooden board.
Platter, basically just got a planker wood, wrapped it in bacon pa paper. I did four different types of brownie, cut them into different sizes and then displayed them almost like a big, sounds like crate weird, but like a pile almost, but didn't look like a pile of look
yeah,
you know?
looks like a nice pile.
So that's how I did it. But there's loads of ways you could do it. You can put them on like a normal cake stand, can't you
Yeah, you could
pile 'em up?
like decorate. It's like people that have cheesecake and stuff like that as
Yeah, yeah, like your tiered stands and then just stack all your brownies around it and then get your florist to add in bits of like
like
Trailing ivies or
a few sprigs of foliage and
yeah.
can decorate this like around the stand anyway. But I do, yeah, I actually quite like that idea. I love it when people are creative with their cake and their desserts
Yeah
like it doesn't just have to be like a tiered cake
No.
I love, I love the fact that people are going a bit more personal
And, I'll be really honest, right, I cut up cakes every weekend, right? The cake never goes. You always buy far too much cake than you need. You always end up, without a doubt, taking home big chunks of your cake the next day. If you want something that's gonna go, we did, I did one of these brownie platters that I was saying about. So mine's almost like Graze and Board style.
Yeah.
and then whatever the toppings are, so say I'm doing like friar rochee toppings, I'll get a load of friar rochees and dot them about. So my some of Martin's friends actually had one and they said that they're the brownies they went, they had all gone, but their wedding cake wasn't. So people preferred the brownies over wedding cake. And I do just think that is the way, like people prefer something like a brownie. They see it displayed all cool. And they're like, Oh yeah, I want that.
I don't, I don't want the wedding cake, you know?
Yeah.
Ours all went. Every wedding I've done them for, they're like, they've, they've all gone. Or if I've done them for like parties or whatever, they all go. So I would definitely say to do it, if that's what you want to have. And yeah, yeah, just do it like,
to have a cake, do you, these days? You can have whatever you like.
Now when I, and I, I just didn't, I, like I said, I eat the stuff every weekend. I weren't bothered. Martin wasn't bothered. So I was just like, and like I say, I see how, A lot of it does go to waste, so, which doesn't, which is not us saying, cake makers don't come at us, that's not us saying don't have a wedding cake, like,
wedding cake! I had a full three tier wedding cake.
yeah you did.
all went
Well there you go.
with We Take Home
Yeah, so there you go, but just yeah, maybe like pre plan it and make sure that people actually eat it, but yeah, if you don't want a wedding cake, don't feel like you can't.
yeah, you.
You do you. You do you, honey. Well, that's us for this week, but just do not forget to book your tickets. We'll put the link in the show description. You can click on that, go and get your tickets over on Eventbrite. Yeah, we just love to see as many viewers as we can.
Yeah make sure you get those tickets
Get them tickets.
are back every week on Thursday with a new episode. We don't take breaks here.
No breaks here.
breaks here. And send us in your questions. It is let's get you Word [email protected] and you
Yep,
on socials at Let's Get You Word Podcast. And we hope to see you at the live record on the
we do. Also, don't forget to get yourselves down to the MK wedding fair this weekend. So it's Saturday and Sunday. So what date is that again? 19th, 20th, did you say?
and 20th
There you go. Get yourself down to the MK shopping centre. Big wedding fair going on. Yeah! Busy week.
Bye.