Wedding Planner's Conference - Thank You!

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to go along to The Wedding Planners' Conference at Lord's Cricket Ground organised by Square Meals Venues & Events to speak about 'good weddings' and it was fabulous. Who would have thought that we would be sipping champagne in the sunshine on the Member's Terrace, eating lunch in the glorious Long Room and having a sneaky peak into the England team's dressing room?

But, best of all, it was brilliant to meet so many people who are passionate about weddings and wedding planning. I wish there had been longer to chat and swap thoughts and ideas because I'm sure we could have all talked into the evening!

I was there to talk about 'good weddings' and my role as Ambassador for Oxfam Weddings. Anyone who was there (or anyone who knows me!), is fully aware of my tendency to get terribly excited when I talk and yesterday was no exception. But, as I said, if you can't get passionate about weddings, there's something wrong with you!

My agenda for my talk was simple - I just wanted to get people thinking. I'm not one for telling anyone what's right and wrong so my goal was to share some ideas and thoughts. I feel very strongly that wedding planning as an industry in the UK is a little hard done by at times and I feel that we all have responsibilities to improve our image - we need to be professional and innovative for sure but we need to be respectful of each other. Who is to say that one person is 'better' than another when we're all so different? We plan very different weddings for very different clients and surely, when we all encourage our clients to have 'their day they way', we should be encouraging ourselves to be ourselves, not copies of anyone else. I could have talked about this for a long time as it's something I feel very strongly about so I hope I controlled myself!

I also wanted to get planners thinking about the responsibilities that we have to produce 'good' weddings - and by that I mean ones that go beyond looking good on the surface. We should be asking questions of our suppliers that are deeper than their availability and their costs. Weddings should be ethical, respectful events on all levels and not done for show.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to contact me after the event, some of the Tweets I received made me feel very humble. If I inspired you, interested you or just made you smile, then I am very glad indeed.

Thank you to Square Meals Venues & Events, Triggerfish PR and Lord's Cricket Ground for hosting a wonderful day full of wonderful people.