When you're working with professionals. Yeah, I do think any sort of like transparency and sharing that information is for the benefit of everyone. At the end of the day, it causes less confusion, less misconceptions, and it just like level sets expectations. I think too, for couples, which, you know, ultimately benefits the vendors at the end of the day when they're not having to explain to their couples, like.
Oh, what you're asking for is actually really expensive and the budget you have is not realistic. So yeah, a thousand percent. I'm just like, make everything transparent all the time. . Becca: I'm Becca Pountney wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger, and you are listening to the Wedding Pros who are Ready to Grow Podcast. I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you love, then you're in the right place. Let's get going with today's episode. Today I'm chatting with Jessica Bishop, founder of The Budget Savvy Bride. Her site is the number one online resource to help couples plan a wedding they're proud of and can actually afford.
She shares practical tips, expert advice, free principles, and approachable advice for her couples. Now I know many of you are already hearing the word budget and freaking out, but I think this is a sector of the industry that we need to think more about. So listen up and let's see where this conversation takes us, Jessica, welcome to the podcast. Hey, Becca. Thanks so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here.
I am thrilled to have you. I know that as we're recording you're in Mexico, which is a whole lot more sunny than it is here in the UK. So I'm a little bit jealous.
Yeah, I can't complain for sure. It's beautiful, beautiful here in sunny Mexico.
It does look amazing. Now, before we get into this whole budget bride sector, I would love for us to just hear a bit more about your story because I think it helps put things into context when we understand where people come from. So how did you end up? With this site, The Budget savvy Bride.
Yeah. Oh gosh, the origin story. Here we go. So I was engaged in planning my own wedding back in 2008, which as anyone listening knows was about the time the recession was kicking off in the United States. I was freshly out of college. My, my fiance and I at the time were both working jobs, very entry level positions. And Of course, with the state of the economy in the U. S. Our families weren't really in a position to help us a lot with our wedding budget.
And so we really had to look at things and decide, you know, how are we going to plan this wedding? This is the wedding that we want. How are we going to get creative and make this happen so we can include all of the people we love and want to celebrate with? And so I actually started the blog kind of as a personal journal or diary of sorts at the time, just to document my ideas and my process as I was going. And it grew really organically.
I think a lot of people were in similar positions during that time because of, you know, just the greater overall economic. state and we're looking for creative ways to pull things off on a budget. And so that's really how it started. And, you know, that's been over 15 years ago. Now the site has evolved in so many ways, you know, within that first year, it pivoted to be more of a resource to help couples all across.
The country and beyond find ways to plan a wedding that they're proud of and do it on a budget they can actually afford.
Amazing. So basically out of your own experience came this wedding blog. And I think that's often the case for so many people with their businesses as well within the wedding industry that they plan their own wedding and then they're like, Oh, I'm going to become a florist or a cake maker. So I love that. Now you said that you've evolved over 15 years. So if we were to go to the budget savvy bride. website of today. What are we, what are we seeing now? Where have you evolved to?
Yeah, absolutely. Well, there's so much more than just a blog and it's not, you know, obviously just my personal story anymore that, that is part sunsetted a long time ago. But what we really aim to do is introduce couples to resources and services that can help them, you know, pull off the look that they're hoping to get on whatever budget is they have. And that's included. basically developing a whole gallery of real weddings.
So we have couples who submit their weddings to us where they share, you know, their actual budget breakdown. So a couple, you know, other couples who are currently planning can see, Oh, I'm planning a wedding in this state. This is my budget. They can see examples of weddings in their area. at different price points and see how other couples were able to pull it off on a similar budget.
So that's especially helpful for couples who might be working with a smaller than what's considered average budget, right? But across the board, like price transparency is something we're really, really passionate about. I'm personally really passionate about it. And so that's one thing that we really aim to do at Budget Savvy Bride. We also have a whole collection of free printables.
And so if, you know, couples want to utilize those for their wedding stationary, or, you know, we have everything from, you know, the save the date to the thank you card after the wedding to the menus, to the table numbers that all cohesively work together and they're all customizable through canvas. So we've provided like a lot of really great resources like that. In addition. To our wedding deals section, which is almost like a wedding specific coupon site.
So couples can visit that area of the budget savvy bride. com slash wedding deals to find discounts on everything they need from invitations to bridesmaids dresses, to flowers, to gifts. It's everything you might need for your wedding and even stuff after like beauty products or you know, gift items or things like that. So we've really aimed to just provide a ton of value and resources for free to our couples.
And the last remaining piece of that puzzle has been To try to connect them with the vendors who can bring their wedding vision to life. And so that's been our most recent addition of our budget savvy evolution over the years, I guess you could say, is our recently launched vendor directory, which we're calling the savvy wedding guide. And that's a place where, you know, vendors can list their services and our. audience of millions of couples a year that visit thebudgetsaviebride.
com will be able to browse and find local pros in their area. So that was like the final piece of the puzzle that we've finally been able to bring to life on our site. So yeah, it's a lot. We got a lot going on.
You have got a lot going on and I'm sure in another 15 years that evolution will have continued and there'll be more to come from you as well. Now I want to address the elephant in the room straight away, because as I hear you talk, I get really excited from a bride or a groom perspective because I'm like, I can see how people are going to love that. I love how people are planning their wedding. This is going to be really exciting.
But on the other hand, I can already hear the pushback from the listeners who are obviously wedding pros and wedding venues listening to this podcast going, no, I don't want to devalue my work. When you're talking about budget, are you talking about cheap? So can you kind of dispel some of those myths for me?
Absolutely. Well, I think it's a common misconception. You know, people hear that word budget and they automatically assume that that means low budget or cheap to your point. But one thing we really want to emphasize in our brand and all of our messaging and all the stuff that we put out there is that being budget savvy is not necessarily about being cheap. We're finding the lowest cost option. It's about. Being smart with your money.
It's about being resourceful and making efficient financial choices without, you know, compromising on quality or value. I think every person can relate to wanting to get the most for their money, whatever they're spending. And it's not about, you know, cutting corners or devaluing anything in any way. It's about prioritizing what matters most to the couple and, you know, optimizing their spending in the areas that. Maybe isn't as important to them.
And, you know, it's all about making informed decisions. to get the most value for your money across the board. And so I think that's something that like, I really want to dispel is the fact that, you know, budget savvy, especially isn't, isn't about being cheap. It's about being wise, being smart.
And I think when we start to think about it a bit more, a lot of us fall into that category. We have a website here. I don't know if it's available in the U S called the money saving expert, which again is all about spending your money wisely and, you know, making sure you're on the best. energy deal and all those kind of things. And we all love that, but it doesn't mean that we don't have the money to spend. It just means that we're looking for the best way to spend our money.
So would you say your clients fall more into that category? And do you have like an average, do you know how much they're averagely spending on their weddings?
If they're coming to you at the budget savvy bride, we don't have any like strict data on, you know, what. What is the average budget of our audience because we do get so many visitors throughout the year. We don't have like traditional accounts for couples, like maybe some of the bigger wedding media brands like the knot or wedding wire. So we don't have like that, that specific of data about our couples, but I think it kind of runs the gamut, right?
Like we definitely feature weddings on a wide variety of budgets and we're open to featuring weddings on larger than what's considered average, which right now in the U S they're saying is around the 30, 000 mark. But again, like, I think it's just so helpful to see. What, what, where that money goes and like how couples are breaking down their budgets no matter the size of it. And I think that transparency like helps everyone at the end of the day.
Absolutely. Now again, I can hear my listeners shouting at us through their podcast because I have a lot of conversations. with various vendors, various venues where they're saying, I want to break into the luxury market. I want to go for the bigger budgets. I want the high spend high value couples. Yet we are talking about a completely different sector of the market, which I don't think that we should necessarily neglect, right? Because it's a huge part of it.
So how can people serve your couples without undervaluing their services as a whole?
Yeah, I think it's so interesting because obviously you and I just met at Wedding MBA and a lot of conversations were taking place there about, you know, how do you drive like incremental revenue or incremental sales and filling up your calendar beyond just those like prime Saturday dates. And I think there's a lot of options to vary the sort of packages or services that you're offering to meet couples at various budget brackets per se, right?
And so I think it's all about kind of thinking, you know, What, what can you offer maybe, you know, considering your hourly rate, like, could you offer a smaller package for a few, fewer number of hours to sue, you know, maybe like a smaller budget client, you can still provide them with the same level of experience. You know, if you're a photographer, like you're just doing your work for a shorter number of hours, things like that, you know, if you're a wedding planner, like.
Could you potentially offer wedding consulting services or any sort of virtual offerings instead of like a full service package? There's all sorts of things that you can do. It's all about like, how do you fit that into like your personal situation, like your, your profit margins, like thinking all of those things through, obviously. But then also getting in front of couples in places where they're actively planning.
And so that was one of the big, you know, goals for us with launching the Savvy Wedding Guide is we have, like I mentioned, millions of couples visiting the site every year and they're actively shopping. Like we, we have tons of affiliate partnerships. We're seeing them actively. You know, buying the products and services virtually that we're recommending. And we see that in our affiliate data. And so we really feel like that same principle is going to apply with the vendor directory as well.
And so we know that our audience are looking for those resources to bring their wedding dreams to life. And we wanted to provide them with an avenue to connect with those, those wedding service providers on a local level as well. And, you know, obviously there are other platforms out there besides ours. So it's just knowing like where else you can get in front of those.
Folks, obviously social is such a big thing and there's, there's so many opportunities to, to do that on a, on a budget, like limited budget as well as a business owner.
So we're not saying then that we need to slash our prices. We're not saying we've gotta do these huge big Black Friday discounts. People who listen will know. I have a saying that says Disney never discount. So we're not saying that we need to do discounts, but what we do need to do is we need to. Find ways to strip back some of our offers to the basic to reach those price points.
So it would be okay to come out with a package and only offer it on our off peak dates or only offer it midweek, for example.
Absolutely. I think that's such a tremendous like idea and being able to offer something to those couples who are looking for something. They, they still want to work with you. They still like resonate with your brand and your service offerings, being able to provide like a package that is suited for. Those dates that maybe aren't prime and those are going to be like just added value for you and your business, you know, is it is a great win for both sides at the end of the day.
And as we're having this discussion, I've just had two scenarios that have come to mind, which I've suddenly thought, actually, this fits in exactly to what you're saying in this sector of the market. So one of them is a cake client I had a few years ago, and she offered really luxury wedding cake. really beautifully designed bespoke cakes. But she also saw that there was this market for people that were going to the supermarket and buying supermarket cakes.
So they obviously didn't have the budget for her bespoke collection. So what she did is she bought out something called her simple collection, which was very basic, two tier white iced cake with two choices of flavors that she could whip up really quickly, but was better than the mass produced supermarket brand. And she price matched it. And all she said was, you know, if you have this option, This is how it comes.
Like it comes with this flavor or this flavor with this no decoration, no bespoke elements, no nothing, but it's better than the supermarket brand. And I love the idea because she's not taken away from her bespoke high level clients, but she's kind of found that gap in the market, which is slightly better than what the big supermarkets are doing.
Yeah, I love that so much. And it really allows. It's her to like meet the needs of the customers who, you know, still want to work with her. And you know, again, not to harp on price transparency, like too, too much, but I just think it's a big problem, honestly, in the wedding industry is the lack of price transparency. And I think vendors are doing themselves a disservice at the end of the day, as well as the couples who are looking to hire them because today's couples.
are price conscious, you know, the millennial generation and Gen Z's, we're having a tough time in this economy. I mean, let's be real. Right. And so we're looking at, you know, want to, we want to have all the information available to us to help us make the best decisions. And for couples, you know, they, if they can't find pricing information on your website, that's like putting up a barrier.
Not to mention it's, it's not allowing you as the vendor to pre qualify the couples before you even meet with them. So you're, you're going to waste potentially your own time and the couple's time by meeting with couples who can't actually afford to work with you. If you're not giving them some sort of idea of the investment that it would be to work with you before they inquire and book a meeting.
Absolutely. And I am 100 percent with you. I always say that we need to have prices on our website. In fact, back in episode 90 of the podcast, I recorded a whole episode called should I put prices on my website? And of course the answer was yes, you absolutely should because we're living in an age where, you know, you, even if you go on Uber to order a taxi, it comes up with like four different taxi types. different prices. You know, do you want the green one? Do you want the XL one?
Do you want this one? And we can see exactly how much every journey costs gone are the days where we jump in a cab in London and we don't know how much it's going to cost till we get out the other end. We need to know now we want to make decisions.
Yes, I would totally agree with that. Like I can't remember the last time I just blindly jumped into a taxi in any city not knowing how long it was going to take me to get there and what I was potentially going to be paying because. That could be a big financial mistake at the end of the day these days. So yeah, I think, you know, to your point, the, the Uber or Lyft, I don't know if they have Lyft in the UK, but I know in the UK, a Lyft is an elevator, not a rideshare service.
So, but yeah, even, even in the States people might compare, you know, Uber to Lyft prices before deciding which one to jump into. So, but yes, I, I do think the, the price transparency conversation is such an important one and I'm not sure where, where in the industry it's been, you know, suggested to keep that information a secret, but it seems like the wrong move to me.
Yeah. And I think it's that same thing, isn't it? It's an evolution, just like taxis. You know, it was 10 years ago, normal for me to get in a taxi in London to say, I want to go here. And you just watch the price clock up as you went along. And it was kind of a bit of a gamble, a bit of a guess of what it was going to be. And that was normal. But now those black cabs are having to evolve with the times because that's not what we're used to anymore.
And it's the same with wedding couples, maybe not putting your prices work 10 years ago when there was less options, but right now. doesn't work anymore. So we need prices. So when it comes to your couples then, what are they looking for from pricing? What, have you got some ideas, some examples that you could give people of how they should display their prices or the kind of things your couple's looking for for prices?
Yeah, absolutely. I think You know, obviously it depends so much from vendor type to vendor type. Everyone's business model is a bit different and your profit margins and the way everything is structured is a bit different. But I think at a, at a very minimum, having either like an average investment or starting investment, starting prices is always appreciated because again, it prequalifies.
You know, those couples, you know, that a couple is not going to make the effort to inquire and book a meeting with you. If they already know you're out of their price point. And this is something that I just don't know if like a lot of vendors are considering if that information isn't readily available and they fall in love with you completely based on your portfolio and they decide to book a meeting and then in that meeting they see.
the numbers, you know, that have been kind of held back until that point. That's, that's, that can be triggering, you know, that can be like a source of embarrassment if you realize that it is far beyond your realm of possibility when it comes to the finances. And so it's an awkward situation. And then, you know, we hear so often about, Couples ghosting their wedding vendors after having these meetings after getting information via email.
And I just want to pose the question, like, have you ever stopped to consider that maybe they don't want to admit, or maybe they might feel slightly embarrassed that they can't financially afford to work with you.
And so again, having this information, even just a baseline, Publicly available that they don't have to, you know, inquire or go back and forth via email to get this basic information will just help avoid, you know, wasting your time, wasting their time, helping them not to feel, you know, embarrassed when they have to, you know, remove themselves from the conversation. So it's just something to think about, I think.
I'd love to ask you a little bit more about one of the features of your site, because I'm just sparking some ideas as we're having this conversation. So you, you mentioned about having the real weddings and how you're showing kind of the breakdown of costs on those weddings, or how much that budget was, like, practically, how are you breaking that down? Do you just say this? This wedding cost 10, 000 or are you saying the flowers were this much, the cake was this much?
Oh, they, they give us like a line by line breakdown. So it, we try to get as granular as possible. Obviously everyone's situations are a little bit different. You know, sometimes we do have couples who maybe. Got a special discount from somebody or got an item for free from a family member, things like that. But what we really tried to do is standardize it as much as possible.
So yeah, they'll share what they spent on their photography, what they spent on their venue, what they spent on their catering. You know, sometimes these These costs are kind of like all commingled, especially if they're working with like an all inclusive venue or something like that. But to the best of our ability, we try to break it down as granularly as possible so that you can see exactly like what percentages of the budget are going to which area.
And so that is something that you can see on all of our real wedding features. It has like little percent, it's like a little chart. underneath like the total budget. And then there's like a chart with the percentages for each area and it lists them all out. So I think it's interesting. And obviously we don't have like as huge of a data set as like the not, you know, we are of super small business. You know, I'm very proud to have, you know, started this.
this accidental business and, and be here 15 years later and running it as a small business all this time. So I think at the end of the day, our goal is always just to provide information and transparency and value, you know, not just to couples now, but also to the vendor's side as well.
I think what you're doing is amazing. And I think we need to start a revolution. So bear with me on this, Jessica, but this is what I think needs to happen. I think we need to start normalizing having pricing ideas on styled shoots, because one of the biggest things that I see in the industry, when couples get married, and I talked about this at the national wedding show, is they go on Pinterest and they have a completely unrealistic expectation of what something costs.
So when I did this talk, I put up a picture of this beautiful floral arrangement on Pinterest and said to the audience, okay, guess how much this cost. And then I gave them the quote that I'd got from some real life florists and they were floored because they had absolutely no idea how much a fresh flower costs. And in the industry, we are pumping out style shoots, left, right, and center. And I love them to pieces. I think they're a great way to showcase our products.
But, why don't we start doing a rough price breakdown at the bottom of the styled shoot? Like, to create this look, this would cost you this much for the venue, this much for the cake, this much for the flowers, this much for the photographer. Like, how great would that be if people started talking about that?
A thousand percent. I think it's something that trips couples up so much in the process because they see these styled shoots that are, you know, kind of positioned as if they are real weddings. And, you know, to the everyday consumer, they might not know the concept of having like a styled shoot just for inspiration. And they might assume. And I think a lot of times, you know, there has been trends obviously over the years of things being. a bit more like almost like it looks handcrafted.
It looks DIY. It looks boho or whatever, but there are professionals behind putting that together. And that doesn't come cheap. Obviously, if you want to take the time and effort to do it yourself, there are ways to do things for less. But when you're working with professionals, yeah, I do think. any, any sort of like transparency and sharing that information is for the benefit of everyone at the end of the day, it causes less confusion, less misconceptions.
And it just like level sets expectations, I think too, for couples, which, which You know, ultimately benefits the vendors at the end of the day when they're not having to explain to their couples, like, Oh, what you're asking for is actually really expensive and the budget you have is not realistic. So yeah, a thousand percent. I'm just like, make everything transparent all the time.
I love it. Let's start the revolution here. And if you're listening to this, you've got a style shoot and you are up for doing this and being some of the first people to actually put your shoot out there and put the pricing breakdown on it, reach out because I would a hundred percent feature it. I'm sure Jessica would be interested in talking more about it too.
So yeah, be that person that's brave enough to say, this is our inspiration shoe, and this is roughly how much it would cost you to have these services. Because not only is that transparent. But I think that could also be a really great marketing tool for you to actually put your prices out there. And so someone can see that incredible cake in that incredible setting and then come to you and say, yeah, I want the same as that. And I can afford it.
Cause you've told me how much it was going to cost.
Yes. I mean, how much more. Like, just seamless and satisfying is it to know that a couple is coming to you because they have seen your pricing, they already know they can afford you and they have enthusiastically reached out to work with you knowing all of the details. And then there's not that friction, there's not that back and forth.
And you're both entering into this agreement or this arrangement with like eyes open, you know, like that's a beautiful thing that I mean, trust and transparency and communication in any relationship is so important, especially in business, especially in weddings on such an emotional day. So Yeah. I'm all, I'm all for the revolution of price transparency on everything.
Fabulous. I can't wait to hear who takes up the challenge and goes to do it first. Cause I know that someone listening absolutely will. Now we talked a lot about budget savvy couples and, and how we can talk to them and what they're looking for. But I know another side that you're really passionate about is from the vendor perspective. And budget savvy marketing for the wedding pro.
So have you got any tips, any thoughts about where wedding pros listening should spend their marketing budget or how they should become more budget savvy when it comes to that?
Yeah. Well, I think Obviously, there are some big mainstream media platforms that charge a pretty penny to advertise and you, it might feel like a big financial risk, right? To spend that kind of money and not know what kind of ROI you're going to get. And so one thing I really love is the idea of like working with more niche publications. Of course, I'm a little bit biased on this.
Because I run a niche publication, but you know, we've really aimed to make our rates incredibly affordable in comparison. And we want it to be like. a no brainer for vendors to join us and have that extra potential place to become visible for less than the cost of, you know, a coffee or two a month. And so that is definitely one way if you are looking for, you know, affordable paid opportunities, but there's so many. free things you can do to promote your business.
You know, I think that a lot of vendors don't take enough advantage of, you know, submitting their work to publications to be featured. You know, I know some publications do charge for real wedding submissions these days. I think that's crazy. We, we never have, never will. And we publish vendors, whether or not they want to choose to participate in our directory. But it's a great free way to get exposure and to get your work in front of the couples who are actively planning.
So definitely taking advantage of submissions. Also, networking with your fellow vendors in your local area. You know, I'm a big proponent of affiliate relationships. Most of mine do occur online versus offline. But it's something you can definitely set up with people in your local area as well. Additionally, I think another thing that vendors can take advantage of is opportunities like being a guest on a podcast, sharing your expertise with, you know, magazine or blog editors.
I don't know if your listeners might be familiar with some of these platforms, but sites like HARO, which stands for help a reporter out. Or quoted, which is not spelled properly, it's Q W O T E D are both great resources where journalists or editors from different magazines or newspapers will put out queries about you know, subjects that they are writing about. And granted, there's not a ton of wedding stuff all the time, but you can get, you know, opportunities to share your expertise.
and have it featured in major media. And so I think those are some great examples of opportunities that are, you know, completely free for vendors to take advantage of.
Yeah. And you're so right. So often it's just that people just don't make the most of these opportunities. So I'm always saying to people, submit me real weddings for vicinity weddings, which is my local wedding blog, or submit me styled shoes or submit me this, but they just. Don't. And I don't know whether people are afraid of getting a no or whether they just don't have time, but yeah, make the most of these opportunities.
It's definitely, I'm sure a bit of a bandwidth issue, right? Because when your primary business is serving the couples who you're working with, right? The marketing side of things can feel really daunting. And so having options at your fingertips that are a little bit like lower lift, you know, I think. Even if, even if it involves like a small monthly payment to be listed on, on a, you know, vendor directory or a website, the SEO value of that can be really tremendous.
You know, and you just, you never know, you know, at the end of the day, time is money too. And so sometimes if you don't have the time to spend marketing your business, it makes sense to pay a little bit of money. It's all about figuring out the best options for you and your business.
Love it. So if people are listening and they're thinking, I really like this concept, I, I've got loads of ideas about this part of the market and how I could reach some of these budget savvy couples. What are ways both maybe paid and free that they could work with you? And do you accept applications from people in the UK or just in North America?
Well, we're happy to feature real weddings on our website. site from all across the world. There's definitely like a big push for destination weddings. And so I think those are always really, you know, helpful to see. So we're definitely open to featuring, you know, weddings from all, all across the world. And that's completely free. There's no, you know, like cost involved and submitting on our platform.
As for our vendor directory to get started, we are focusing mostly on the United States just to get started. It's been a true labor of love building this project. We completely self funded and bootstrapped the development. It took. about two years, which is a really long time. But you know, we're hoping that if the U. S. market goes well, we could expand into other territories as well. So that would be really great, especially because my partner in life and business is British.
So yeah, we'll see. We'll see what the future holds where that is concerned.
Well, I'm sure there's some people over here as well that have got some great. Real weddings or photo shoots from London or from parts of the UK that the American audience would absolutely love. And I keep hearing, and I don't know whether you have a thought on this, I keep hearing that people in America think that the wedding industry is a lot cheaper. It's a lot cheaper to get married in the UK. Don't know if you have any thoughts on that.
I haven't heard a whole lot about that. I've heard a lot about the, especially being an American who has considered potentially tying the knot in the UK. I've heard that there are quite some complicated I guess civil and legal things you have to jump, hoops, you have to jump through to get married over there. The whole registrar situation and all of that.
It's very different from what I, from what I can tell based on the, the US situation, but yeah, I'm not sure if I'm, I'm not sure that I've heard that that weddings are particularly less expensive over there. Is that true? Should I be sending all of our American readers to get married in the UK?
Well, that's what I've been hearing. And I was having conversations when I was out at Wedding MBA in Las Vegas with various vendors who were saying, you know, like the, the prices that vendors charge in the UK is so much less than they are in the U S and therefore it's a really attractive market. So this is definitely something I want to find out more about. And I need to find someone to have the conversation with on this podcast. So watch this space.
And if you hear anything on the subject, let me know. But yeah, maybe you should be sending them all to have a destination wedding over here in the UK because they love it. Now that we've got the crown and Downton Abbey and all Bridgerton, all those shows, there's definitely a love for the English wedding.
Absolutely. And I mean, you can't beat Just the beautiful, like, green countryside. Now that I've spent some time over there over the last few years, I mean, it is, there are some really stunning venues and just beautiful scenery, which I love because You don't need as much decorations if it's just a beautiful natural setting. So
absolutely. So yeah, definitely some opportunities for you listening. If you're based in the UK to reach out to Jessica, see if there's ways that you can work together. And if you're a us listener, then go and check out that new directory as well, because I think there's some great opportunities there too. I've loved this conversation. Time has got away with us. So we are going to have to draw it to a close.
But I always end the podcast with the same question, which is this, what's one thing you personally wish you'd known sooner in your own business?
I think the biggest thing is just a, I can't do everything. I tried for a very long time to do it all. And I did until I nearly burnt myself out completely. And so really, truly the value of. Good help building a good team and, you know, fostering, you know, those relationships to grow together, I would say is, is the biggest lesson that I wish I had learned sooner in business.
Yeah, absolutely. Jessica, it's been so great having you on the podcast. If people want to find you on social media, on your website, where's the best place for them to do that?
Yeah, absolutely. We've definitely got, you know, social presence on all the major platforms, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. I refuse to call it X Twitter, TikTok, all those places. But really our primary home is the budget savvy bride. com, which is where all the good, good stuff is. And as well, we also have a podcast called the bouquet toss podcast that helps couples decide what to keep and what to toss from their wedding day plans. So check that out as well.
I love it. And just a word of warning to the listeners, if you go to budgetsavvybride. com, like I did earlier today before recording this, you will get lost in a rabbit hole because there's so much great stuff on there and you start clicking and clicking and then you find yourself, you've been on there for ages. So that is a word of warning, but do go and check it out because there's loads of great resources. Jessica, it's been so fun talking to you.
I'm sure we'll talk again and do more together in the future. Thank you for your time and being here today.
Of course. Thank you so much for having me. It was fun.
I love that conversation with Jessica. I don't know what you thought about it at home. As I said at the beginning, maybe it was a controversial topic for some of you as we started the podcast, but I hope that it's changed your perception and you're starting to realize that Budget doesn't necessarily mean low, cheap, but actually being budget savvy can be a good thing.
And it sparked a lot of ideas for me and I hope it sparks a lot of ideas for you too about how you can reach that sector of the market and hopefully make more money for your own business. I'll see you next time.