When Katherine Holt from Giftast told us she was writing a new Wedding Planner Book, we got excited! When I finally got my hands on a copy, I was blown away. Quite simply, Katherine has written one of the most amazing books on Wedding Planning that I have ever read. One part personal story, one part essential planning guides and one part practical advice. Find out exactly why this is one of the very best Wedding Planner books ever written.
4
In Wedding Ideas And Inspiration
Great Ideas For Wedding Day Surprises! with Hannah Larkin, Wedding Photographer, Sarah Cammish, Elsa Rose Boutique and Susan Denton, Wedding Celebrant.
2
In Wedding Ideas And Inspiration
How To Make Sure Everyone Has A Great Time At My Wedding! with Owen Strickland, Magician and Michelle Taylor, The Funky Celebrant
“We just fell in love with helping Brides and Grooms to have AMAZING Wedding Days through DIY Wedding Planning…”
Hey there, we’re Rachel and James and you’re probably wondering who the heck we are!
We LOVE DIY Wedding Planning, movies, music, books… and cats!
We spend most weeks either at the Cinema or gigging…
Once upon a time we even met one of our absolute favourite bands of all time. Poets of the Fall… so awe struck was I that I couldn’t seem to open my eyes for a single shot!
But hey, we’re doing it AGAIN! This time for the win! 🙂
But take note grooms to be… don’t do that on your Wedding Day!!!
Practice with your favourite band regularly!!!
And here’s Barney… our “post Wedding Cat”. Proof if any was needed that cats kinda love us too!
How this DIY Wedding Planning thing began…
So let’s start at the start and I’ll share the story of how Wedding Espresso came to be and how we created a fresh look at DIY Wedding Planning.
Are you sitting comfortably?
Good Let’s begin!
12 years ago, I filmed my first Wedding at Ripley Castle in North Yorkshire. It was amazing and I loved every second of it.
Straight off the back of this success, I secured my next paid gig within a couple of weeks… filming a Wedding at Rudding Park in Harrogate. (very posh, you might have heard of it!)
The internet was a much smaller place back then…
and I was filming on tapes… TAPES! Can you believe it!
So whilst that makes me sound “ancient”, I do prefer… “experienced”!
(and actually, I’m not even that old really!)
So yes, this was obviously a good calling for me as I quickly became a recommended supplier at several top venues in the region…
and even some further afield!
However, it wasn’t until I met my (then) girlfriend (now) wife, Rachel that things really stepped up a notch.
Rachel quickly integrated into my filming team to become my full time number 2.
Our favourite part of each and every Wedding was actually meeting up with the couples before the big day.
We loved sitting down, having a good natter about their Wedding over coffee and biscuits… DIY Wedding Planning!
We’d always make our couples super relaxed before digging into the very fine details of their arrangements. We’d carefully sculpt a plan that would maximise their potential and minimise their risk / wasted opportunity.
Time after time, couples came rushing back after their Wedding Day to thank us for (what was essentially) going overboard and beyond the call of duty in helping with the planning and timings of their big day.
We even included a full DIY Wedding Planning guide which was so inclusive it could have easily been published and sold on Amazon… had that been a thing back then!
We’re not Wedding Planners as such, but we do love to offer support with DIY Wedding Planning!
I’d never suggest that we were Wedding Planners, but with over 300 Weddings under our belts, we had a very good idea how things REALLY work…
the kind of experience that most people getting married never get in their lifetimes.
(no one, I mean, NO ONE has THAT many friend’s (even on Facebook!) Weddings to attend!)
It just seemed natural to us to share. Yes it took longer, and no we didn’t get paid for it… we just enjoyed it.
More over, it’s the best feeling in the world when you do something for someone else and they appreciate it beyond words. You KNOW in your heart of hearts that you’ve secured those fantastic memories for that couple for the rest of their lives… and generations to come.
It’s a pretty big deal!
Whilst this was happening, the Internet was also happening…
Growing in scope and scale – making all sorts of new things possible.
Then the biggest of big things happened…
We decided to start a family!
And now baby Xander is on his way to joining our winning Wedding team (well, in a few years anyway)
So we set about creating Wedding Espresso to be able to share our love and passion for DIY Wedding Planning with an even bigger community of awesome Brides and Grooms.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but people just like you!
It’s an adventure unlike anything we’ve ever done before but we’re having an absolute blast.
The idea that we can extend our help to even more couples than ever before is just the best. It’s absolutely become our buzz!
To pull off this feat of unprecedented magnitude, we’ve engaged some of the very best people in the Wedding Industry to join our cause.
They’re buzzing about being able to help and guide you too, they share our philosophy and values!
Most importantly, they’re really, really nice people. The kind of people we love to hang around with and so…
Our friends are now your friends 🙂
We only want the “right” people hanging out with us, and with you, so we’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that anything we share with you is absolute top drawer!
You’re now a part of this exciting adventure, and you wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t absolutely awesome. So a huge thank you from the bottom of our hearts for letting us share this experience with you.
We’re here to help, guide and support you so any feedback, suggestions or comments, good or bad would be gratefully appreciated.
Check in often as we’re constantly adding fantastic and exclusive content to Wedding Espresso… who knows what you’ll discover tomorrow!
Happy DIY Wedding Planning!
