Category Archives: wedding industry

What’s wrong with the wedding industry — and how YOU can fix it

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Claire

This is what Eng­lish Wed­ding blog is all about. As well as lots of lovely real wed­dings, the blog was born because of my deep-rooted annoy­ance at our lit­tle indus­try. Brides, grooms: wel­come to our twisted and some­times beau­ti­ful lit­tle world. Wed­ding sup­pli­ers: you’ve heard bits of this before — but never quite so pub­licly. Aware­ness of the issues in the wed­ding indus­try is the first step towards change, and we need to start look­ing at and fix­ing prob­lems before the finan­cial and emo­tional pres­sures get too much.  Read more…

Posted in Advice, english weddings, wedding industry | Tagged , , | 101 Comments

Find yourself a winning wedding supplier!

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Claire
2012 wedding industry awards venue

The best wed­ding sup­pli­ers were announced at the Cafe de Paris in London

The 2012 Wed­ding Indus­try Awards Event was held last night, with win­ners in the national cat­e­gories announced. Con­grat­u­la­tions to all the win­ning wed­ding sup­pli­ers — well deserved in every category.

In the spirit of the fab­u­lous organ­i­sa­tion of this event, the national results are already on the offi­cial web­site (some­body must be updat­ing the site with a sore head this morn­ing!) for the world to see.  Read more…

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On independence

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Claire

A new year really makes you think, doesn’t it? It helps you reflect on what you should be doing bet­ter, and plan for the next twelve months. And I’ve been pon­der­ing the big things — well, for me. Here’s one I had to get off my chest!

rainbow at a creative wedding

Photo credit: Mark Carey

Eng­lish Wed­ding — an inde­pen­dent blog

Inde­pen­dence is mas­sively impor­tant to me, and to my wed­ding busi­nesses as well — and you might think that’s not the wis­est busi­ness choice. It’s not the biggest earner for my blog. But is Eng­lish Wed­ding Blog a busi­ness? I’m not even sure I want it to be.  Read more…

Posted in About, english weddings, wedding blogging, wedding industry | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

The Elite: Caroline Castigliano interview

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Claire

The Elite wedding blog logoCar­o­line Cas­tigliano is one of the UK’s favourite wed­ding dress design­ers and I’m delighted to say she’s joined The Elite on Eng­lish Wed­ding with an inter­view for you today.

With a his­tory of impres­sively ele­gant, gra­cious and lux­u­ri­ous wed­ding dress col­lec­tions, the Car­o­line Cas­tigliano brand is soon to cel­e­brate 21 years in the wed­ding indus­try. It’s a fab­u­lous achieve­ment and an inspi­ra­tion to see such qual­ity and style from a bridal designer at the very top of her game.

Caroline Castigliano wedding dress (1)  Read more…

Posted in daily UK wedding inspiration, Dresses, english weddings, The Elite, wedding industry | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Is your wedding business stuck in a rut?

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Claire

Mine is. There you go — let’s start a blog post with a con­fes­sion! My wed­ding cal­lig­ra­phy busi­ness is going well, I love the work but… there’s some­thing miss­ing. Is any­one else out there look­ing for a bit of cre­ative inspi­ra­tion to inject into their work?

I’ve spent the day with two friends who inspire me — and I’m going to make my New Year’s Res­o­lu­tion now. I know it’s a bit early (but the pagan side of me says the first of Decem­ber is surely some­thing a bit new-yeary in the cal­en­dar). I’m deter­mined to branch out a lit­tle.  Read more…

Posted in About, Advice, wedding industry | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Congratulations to Charlotte Balbier — engagement shoot!

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Claire

Charlotte Balbier engagement blog (15)

I’m way over the top excited about this lit­tle blog post. Fab­u­lous bridal designer Char­lotte Bal­bier has announced her engage­ment to the love of her life Teddy Bed­ford. Hav­ing lived a real life ‘Slid­ing Doors’, grow­ing up around the cor­ner from each other, Char­lotte and Teddy are now going to be busy mak­ing plans — quite pos­si­bly for a gor­geous win­ter wed­ding day.

It’s always big news when some­one so pop­u­lar in the wed­ding indus­try gets engaged… there’s a real buzz around Char­lotte and Teddy’s engage­ment and we can’t wait to find out more about their plans over the next few months. This is far more excit­ing for me than any celeb wed­dings that might have hap­pened in 2011!  Read more…

Posted in Engagement shoot, Photography, wedding industry, wedding news | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

What next for vintage wedding photographers?

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Claire

Hands up any­body in wedding-land who hasn’t heard about last week’s arti­cle on The Huff­in­g­ton Post about the end of the vin­tage wed­ding trend? Yeah, I knew there wouldn’t be any hands up. So — what does it mean for the wed­ding indus­try? Not much. Trends come and go. But there is one thing…  Read more…

Posted in Advice, debate, Photography, wedding industry, wedding suppliers | Tagged , , , | 35 Comments

Musings on wedding industry awards

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Claire

I’ve been mus­ing a lot recently. Think­ing about this indus­try, the finan­cial side of wed­dings, the way it all works and what moti­vates peo­ple in the wed­ding indus­try. For many of us it’s the thank you card from a happy cus­tomer; the email say­ing how wed­ding guests com­mented on our work. It’s also the sheer love of our jobs that keeps us going.  Read more…

Posted in debate, english weddings, Wedding fairs and events, wedding industry, Wedding Industry Awards, wedding suppliers | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Hats off to Hindsight Bride…

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Claire

It’s nice to have a lit­tle shake up in the world of wed­ding blog­ging once in a while… and if you haven’t already read “Dear Wed­ing Blog­gers, You Suck” on Hind­sight Bride, you will find it a great read.

In a nut­shell, Christie posted an open let­ter from a wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher about the state of wed­ding blogs and our neg­a­tive influ­ence on brides. Ouch! But there were some very inter­est­ing points:  Read more…

  • only elab­o­rate, unusual wed­dings are ever on blogs
  • it shouldn’t be all about the details
  • we only pub­lish pretty wed­dings and pretty brides
Posted in debate, wedding blogging, wedding blogs, wedding industry | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

How to find creative inspiration

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Claire

I blogged a very cre­ative pho­to­shoot ear­lier in the week — a lit­tle adven­ture I loved being a part of! It wasn’t a bridal shoot, in fact it was like noth­ing I’ve ever blogged before. But the process of doing some­thing dif­fer­ent was just brilliant.

But why would I post some­thing so bizarre on a wed­ding blog? (I hear you ask!)

I think we’re all here look­ing for inspi­ra­tion in one way or another. Brides, grooms, wed­ding busi­nesses — cre­ativ­ity is impor­tant. Find­ing some­thing new shouldn’t always be about the lat­est tiara design. Some­times it’s about tak­ing inspi­ra­tion from some­thing unex­pected. That was the mes­sage I wanted to share.  Read more…

Posted in Advice, daily UK wedding inspiration, english weddings, wedding industry | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments