I’ve had a wedding stationery business for two decades, and my approach to listings and visibility was always scattergun. I wanted backlinks from everywhere – the more the better, right? So I got listed on wedding directories, submitted to blogs (I got this wrong – I’ll explain why later) and spent hundreds of hours posting and then trying my best to be lovely to people on social media to feed the algorithm.

Some of it worked. Some of it almost broke me. Being everywhere online isn’t easy – it’s definitely not a strategy! But the overwhelm of being self-employed in the wedding industry was real for me. I felt like I had to keep up with socials, keep blogging and guest blogging as much as I possibly could – and I realise that sometimes, we all feel like this.

So in 2025 I took a step back and looked at how I was pushing my business to be seen online. I stopped trying to follow all the advice from content creators on instagram. I unsubscribed to business and marketing podcasts. I focused in on what I know – and that’s the wedding industry. We are a one-off. Our industry is all about love, and celebration, and joy. The UK wedding industry is a space where collaboration has blossomed and suppliers support each other in the most amazing way.

Any strategy for how a wedding business appears online should have roots in how our amazing industry functions. Collaboration and support between wedding supplier friends is everything. A scattergun approach to getting listed on every wedding directory going will never work: success comes from being included as a genuine contributor in all the right wedding websites. Here’s how to make it work for you.

How couples will be searching for wedding suppliers in 2026

I completely disagree with anyone saying most couples are choosing wedding suppliers on social media. They’re looking, of course – but deciding where to spend thousands of pounds (on a wedding photographer, venue or stylist for example) isn’t a spontaneous choice. Most couples are searching carefully for their wedding suppliers – and while it’s often a starting point, social media is only a tiny part of the search journey. Couples need more than just socials.

How real couples actually find wedding suppliers online

Couples are still using Google to search for wedding venues and suppliers. AI mode – underpinned by Gemini – throws up all the info they could possibly need (and then offers more). Because when they’re looking for a wedding photographer, for example, they want to know more than what they can quickly see on instagram.

Couples still make shortlists of wedding suppliers, do deep dives into websites and compare everything from pricing packages to personalities. They look at suppliers’ experience of different venues, whether they can include a second photographer, whether golden hour photography is a particular selling point, or if raw documentary style is what you specialise in.

And then there are the extras that signal credibility and experience: the awards, the press features, the pages where they learn all about you, the person behind your business. (There’s far more to this than your website’s About page – keep reading and you’ll see what I mean.)

Glance back with me to that scattergun approach to being seen online. Listings in 1990s style wedding directories can’t help you to highlight any of what really makes your business shine. Wedding directories just don’t give enough back.

Getting featured and dropping backlinks all around the internet is too simple, too rushed. Taking time to invest in a thoughtful approach is worthwhile – it’s the stuff that goes deeper that will really work.

Why familiarity builds trust

Couples are doing two things as they plan their weddings. They’re actively looking for suppliers for their own celebrations, and they’re enjoying browsing wedding stuff for entertainment’s sake and being in a bit of a wedding bubble online. Their instagram algorithms will be serving up aspirational content, and they might subscribe or occasionally visit wedding blogs and websites for advice and inspiration.

If you’ve already made their supplier shortlist, then spotting your wedding business on a new platform – a blog or website – is a gentle signal to your couple that they’re making a good choice in you. They’ll be interested to see when other platforms want to publish something about you – like a real wedding at their venue, or a feature on a blog they already enjoy reading.

Choosing a high value wedding supplier can be quite an intense decision making process.  It’s not a decision to be made instantly: so if you can appear in different places online, where couples are browsing or searching, in the weeks when they’re making their shortlist, and in the days after they send enquiries out to a bunch of suppliers – it really boosts your brand and can have a big impact on that decision.

So how do you choose where you want your wedding business to be visible?

It’s not about being everywhere – that can even dilute your brand

You absolutely don’t need to be in every wedding directory. They can be expensive, they can look cheap if they’re oversubscribed, and some are pretty dated.

Basic directories are well known for not being worth the money – so choose your platform carefully. (Some are forward-thinking and give more back to wedding businesses.)

Always ask yourself if a directory website feels worth the price. What do you get back, over and above your listing?

This is what good feature and article placement looks like (where to get published)

So consider where your dream couples might search for your business. Are they visiting Rock n Roll Bride (niche, alternative, inclusive and gorgeous) or Hitched (mass market, but a solid directory on a busy and well-publicised wedding website)?

Aligning the platforms you choose for listings is important. The bigger, busier wedding websites and blogs usually do have directories – but use these cleverly, as a starting block for your involvement with the platform. Follow up every directory listing with getting published in a more considered way. This will do much more for your brand visibility.

Align your brand voice too – it’s a thoughtful strategy for visibility for any wedding business. I think of This is Reportage and other photographer communities as having really distinct ways of talking – and your features and links on platforms like this are just as valuable as being published on wedding blogs.

Love My Dress has a gentle, caring tone of voice perfectly suited to thoughtful bridal designers and luxury brand positioning. English Wedding is super focused on publishing articles by and for wedding suppliers as part of our membership programme.

The quiet role wedding blogs can play to help your business appear online

Spoiler alert: it’s more than the ‘features’ you’re used to

Most wedding suppliers have ‘been featured’ on a wedding blog. Maybe that worked brilliantly for you, maybe it did something to your search ranking, but maybe you haven’t seen obvious results. I’ve experienced all of these with features on worldwide and UK blogs – I’ve dropped everything for a ‘collab’ I knew would get published on a major publication – sometimes it was effective, and sometimes not so much! What I missed was consistent guest posting. So we need to look at expectations, and how to make the most from wedding blogs in a futureproof way.

Wedding bloggers are just people. Never be nervous about reaching out. The heart of everything wedding blogs do is the people behind them: Claire (me), Annabel, Kelly, Kat. (Our middle name is Approachable!) Some have teams to support admin, but for a wedding blog to be relatable the owner / editor (and let’s face it we’re all making the tea and folding the washing at the same time) has to be there when you want to talk. So reach out, have a chat.

The features that will work for you go deeper than real weddings with nothing more than a list of suppliers and a few notes about the styling. Styled photoshoots won’t work hard for your wedding business unless you lean into the narrative and make your team’s story the heart of what’s being published.

Instagram can illustrate this nicely for us – look at the performance of “here’s a beautiful wedding ” carousels, vs the performance of raw, honest talk about social media algorithms, or real life wedding business experiences, or people who are outspoken about  how weddings aren’t being portrayed as meaningful in our media any more.

Being included on a wedding blog is simple. Being understood is golden.

That basic list of supplier credits on a blog post – so often a copy and paste job – doesn’t work very hard. It’s easy, requires no thought – and it’s been done so often that no one’s really reading it any more.

But use your blog feature to say something thoughtful, honest and meaningful, and your brand will be noticed. By the blog owner, by readers who stumble across the post or subscribe, and by search engines including AI. (Hate AI? I totally get that too – but it will drive website traffic in 2026, so I don’t think any wedding business owner can afford to ignore it.)

This is why getting featured on a blog outside of the usual styled photoshoots and real weddings counts so much. It’s new, different – and people notice. And those clients we were talking about earlier, making a careful decision about where to spend their wedding budgets? They might stumble across your thoughtful feature, relate to your empathy and respect your experience within the industry.

If I could sum all of this up in one sentence, I’d say that wedding bloggers aren’t sharing weddings and inspiration because we want to: we’re sharing that content because you want to, and wedding blogs exist for you, the suppliers.

Choosing where your wedding business should shine

Let’s address the issue of a hundred wedding directories and blogs, and thousands of wedding supplier websites. Add social media into the pot with all of these, and the sheer number of places you can appear online is overwhelming.

So figuring out where to start is your first step. And you can save yourself hours of work and worry by keeping things simple.

• List the wedding websites you already enjoy.
• Include a couple of wedding blogs which align with your brand.
• Include your wedding industry friends and local venues.
• If any wedding directory websites spring to mind, keep them on your list.

Three questions to ask before giving your money to any wedding website

1. How will you give me value for money?
2. Can I contribute to the platform, outside of the directory?
3. Who should I contact if I need advice?

The answers to each of these questions should reassure you and make you feel confident. If at any time you feel you’re talking to a salesperson who isn’t involved with the website in any meaningful way, be cautious.

When a wedding website feels cold, it’s ok to walk away

Even wedding blogs and ‘big’ industry websites should ‘fit’ with how the UK wedding industry works. It’s all about self employed creative people, working incredibly hard and with such passion for the services they provide. When you’re reaching out to advertise on a wedding website, do you get a sense that the person you’re talking to understands that? If all they see is your money, it’s not the platform for you. (We are not check a trader… that’s not how this is meant to feel!)

Practical steps to focus on

Take your shortlist of wedding websites, and approach them.

Wedding directories might only offer a listing – choose wisely, spend carefully.

Talk to your local wedding industry friends – write guest blogs for each others’ websites. This can be a fantastic source of trust (and is more engaging than a simple ‘recommended’ page on your sites). It’s good practice for guest blogging too!

Approach wedding blogs strategically. A membership or advertising subscription is often the minimum they’ll ask before you can publish a guest blog. Be charming and generous, and offer a guest blog up front.

Some blogs might have a wait time before you can get published on their home page. (When I was researching this article I spotted one which agreed to publish content for suppliers only after 3 months of membership – I can’t remember which it was!)

Find out if there’s an opportunity to be a regular collaborator for a wedding blog or website. This is really useful to build a consistent brand voice on a reputable website – it will really help with long term visibility for your wedding business. If there’s a cost for being a regular guest blogger, make sure you’re happy with it. Then sign up to the blogs where you feel most welcome, and most included.

How a calm, considered strategy helps you, not just your wedding business

We wear all the hats, don’t we – the accountant’s one, and the photography one – even for product businesses – and the marketing one, the website building one… all on top of the hat for the beautiful, creative business we came here for. It’s the same for every wedding business owner, and it’s hard to keep on top of everything. (Cue: pile of hats tumbling off. We’ve all been there.)

Feeling like you have to be everywhere can slowly drain away the love for your business. It’s the most amazing feeling to collaborate or work with couples to bring something amazing to elevate their wedding day. But if that’s Saturday, and by Tuesday you’re panicking about your next reel or TikTok, the rollercoaster of emotions can feel like too much.

Once you realise you don’t have to post everywhere, you can slow down. By choosing the platforms you enjoy, and more importantly by ditching those which bring you down, you’re making your wedding business marketing a nicer, more positive experience. That matters.

By taking the time to plan more considered articles for publication on wedding websites, you’re going to release yourself from that feeling of having to constantly feed your socials. I’ve done this for my stationery and calligraphy business, and it’s so freeing. And when I do check instagram, I’m seeing so many of my fellow wedding business owners echoing either frustration with the algorithm which isn’t helping any more, or a need to step away to protect themselves from burnout. Having an alternative strategy in place is such a relief, and brings much needed perspective.

Some key things to remember

Couples aren’t rushing into decisions, but carefully considering which wedding suppliers to book. The spontaneity of instagram isn’t enough for them to make these choices – they’re looking for credibility and experience, which comes from being seen on other platforms.

Familiarity builds trust in your brand. By regularly appearing on reputable wedding websites you’re creating a gentle signal to couples and building confidence, which boosts your brand and can influence the decision to book you.

Being visible isn’t the same as being everywhere. Basic directory sites give poor value while bigger wedding websites and blogs incorporate their directories into their content strategy. You can do this too – expect more than just ‘being featured’, and go deeper than real weddings. Lean into the narrative of what really makes you and your business unique. Being understood is golden.

Keep things simple: approach websites and platforms you already enjoy. Ask wedding websites the right questions about value for money. If you feel seen, welcomed and included, ask to become a regular collaborator.

Frequently asked questions

I’m already listed on a bunch of directories. Should I keep those listings?

Check your existing directory listings are up to date. If you can give them a bit of a refresh, do. If you’re paying a subscription and your listings aren’t giving back, reach out to the platform and ask for more. If they’re not helpful, leave!

Are wedding blogs still worth submitting to?

Yes, absolutely – but they should work a little harder than they used to. Avoid blogs which only give a list of supplier credits (without keywords). Include considered copy which tells a little of the story of each supplier. Make it human: people don’t read this stuff for descriptions of glassware, we’re much more interested in relatable stories behind the aesthetics.

How long does it take for visibility to work?

I’ve written a really detailed article about visibility for wedding businesses, which will answer your question and explain exactly how all this works. In a nutshell though, 3 – 6 months of considered guest blogging will make a difference, and after a year of doing this consistently, you’ll have created something unique which really supports your wedding business.

Building a brand presence that reflects your wedding business

Wedding suppliers do this because they genuinely adore working in such a special industry. There’s no other like it, and I’m continually blown away by the brands I discover through both my calligraphy business and my wedding blog.

Investing in how your wedding business appears online shouldn’t be a chore. It should be a collaboration with lovely people – some you already know and some you’re about to meet – who genuinely want to support you.

The strongest wedding brands aren’t the loudest. They’re the ones which are so clearly fuelled by love, whose voices are clear and who care deeply – and this is shown when they’re being published consistently on trusted wedding blogs and websites.

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English Wedding is a wedding blog for suppliers and couples, publishing content for our members to help and support their visibility online.