Little did I know 18 years ago when I started to plan my own
destination wedding, that further down the line, I would be helping hundreds and
hundreds of couples bringing their wedding dreams to reality.
My story began as I was looking for a destination wedding
where we could be private as we only had close family. Villa weddings were really unheard of and the
wedding planner role then was so much different to today. You had a choice of resort or resort.
I toyed with many locations but in the end we settled on a
resort in Mauritius as offering only one wedding per day was what attracted
us. Too many resorts were offering
conveyor belt weddings. I had seen brides queuing up to be married
whilst another wedding was in progress.
My wedding was booked.
There were many hiccups along the way.
The initial wedding paperwork firstly disappeared and then arrived with my ‘husband to be’ marrying
my mother. As
you can imagine my stress level increased and I wondered whether when we
arrived what kind of wedding we would have.
To think my only worry when i first booked was what happened if it rained and finished with so many
more concerns. My first real contact
with my wedding planner was when we arrived.
I knew what we wanted to have but designs and styling were not confirmed or even discussed
until we arrived. A huge relief flooded
over me when I saw she was real and clearly knew what she was talking
about. Had I had that contact before I came,
so many concerns could have been wiped out.
We spent the best part of three hours choosing flowers,
wedding cake designs, food and even confirming the wedding time and
location. Looking how things have
changed, I cannot imagine any bride happy to do that now.
So despite no rehearsal and a celebrant that was difficult to understand I needn’t have worried, the wedding was beautiful. Attention was paid to keep other guests away
and keep it private, I certainly didn’t want a 'speedo' shot in one of my photos.
It was a dream and subsequently led to my love for travel and experiencing new
things.
After spending years both in my home country in the UK and traveling, our lives led us to Thailand where I was asked to become a wedding
planner. Having previous event
experience and first hand knowledge of being married overseas, its felt only right to take on this role.
After five and a half years managing a wedding company, it
felt the natural thing was now to open my own company and give my clients a more
flexible service to cover all budgets and sizes of weddings in many locations. Nearly two years on and over 400 weddings in
the last 8 years, I am blessed to bring so many couples dreams to
reality.
Happily, the standard of wedding planning has come such a
long way from when I first embarked on my journey. I am here for each and every client whenever
they need me, 24 hours if need be. My
clients come from all around the world so I need to be incredibly
flexible. I joke I am like 7-11, open
all hours. Being an independent company, I can bring the best pricing and focus
on clients’ budgets not profit. Individually
planned weddings and not cookie cutter styling and certainly not having multiple
weddings each day, gives each client a bespoke service that meets their budget and dreams,
no matter how big or small.
Weddings can be stressful so part of my role is to ensure the couple can relax and enjoy the planning leading up to the big day with no hidden
surprises.
So from a destination bride to a destination wedding
planner. Its not a job, it’s a dream and
every day creates so many happy memories and often many new friends as well.
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