Bespoke wedding planning for modern couples for Devine Bride

Today’s blog is courtesy of the Pick ‘n’ Mix queen - Devine Bride, who loves the stuff so much she even trademarked it. Not the bag and weigh sweets kind, but a totally innovative way of approaching wedding planning. Laura offers modern wedding help for modern couples, meaning that her offerings are bespoke, flexible, and, frankly, bloody brilliant. She’s all the best bits of a super-organised wedding planner, a really clued-up pal (the kind you’d go to for serious straight-talking life advice), and a really creative bridesmaid, all rolled into one.

Tell us about your business – what do you do? What do you do differently to everyone else?

I’m a wedding planner and run a multi award winning blog as the backbone to my website offering planning tips, advice and inspiration to those planning a wedding. My planning services are bespoke and flexible, so my tag line is ‘pick + mix wedding planning’. Couples can pick and choose which elements they need help with and we’ll take it from there.

I offer creative ‘pick + mix’ solutions to planning, budgeting, and coordinating weddings. And I’m obsessively organised. The experience has to be easy, yet unique, innovative, and personal for my clients. Above all, it should be stress free and fun. It’s a celebration after all!

From planning power hours to partial planning, help on the day to hire a bridesmaid, and everything in between! My speciality is difficult dry hire venues. I’ve planned and styled a goth wedding in an industrial metal works warehouse but also an ex fashion editor’s pretty Chiswick marquee wedding too. I’ve planned a wedding at *the* Love Actually church followed by the most elegant Christmas reception, but also many a warehouse party wedding.

I tend to help couples who know what they want and what they are doing, who are generally quite creative and non-traditional, but just need a hand to bring their vision to life, hone in on the finer details of the planning, and make it all happen on the day.

Why & how did you start?

I started helping my friends with their weddings and my sister with her wedding, then started my blog offering planning tips and advice when I was planning my own wedding… more and more people started asking me to help with their weddings from bits they’d seen on my blog or on my Instagram, and so pick + mix wedding planning was born! I found friends, and friends or friends, were coming to me with specific areas they needed a hand with after they’d planned or DIY’d the most part of it, so that’s really how I developed my flexible service offering.

After getting so much joy from helping others in my first year dabbling in wedding planning (seeing someone happy on their wedding day and knowing you’ve contributed to that, even in the smallest way, is the BEST feeling), I realised I actually hated my office job so chucked it in to focus on Devine Bride full time. That was over 3 years ago now, and over 170 weddings later, and I’ve never looked back.

Who or what inspires you (don’t be afraid to be specific & bold!)

Three main things…

My pals in the wedding industry. We are all entrepreneurs and self-employed, so we all constantly have loads to learn from each other through the trials and tribulations of what clients have asked for, how each wedding has worked, what’s trending, new ways of doing things, and just running a small business in general. I always feel so inspired just getting out the office and meeting up with some of my peers and industry pals IRL for a drink.

Instagram. It inspires me through my peers, fashion, music, design, and home interiors; Instagram is my creative and inspirational kaleidoscope! It influences my work and connects me with clients and peers on another level.

And the third is my sister, who is an inspiration, a creative genius, and always a voice of reason.

Cityscapes and art deco architecture

Talk us through a day at the office/studio/wherever you work from.

I usually work 3-ish days a week either from my pink home office or from The Wing. 2 days a week I freelance at a wedding venue in Islington. And weekends are usually for weddings. My home office is my little haven (complete with a pink sofa!) and I’m there from around 7am drinking a sugary coffee. I usually go through my emails first and make my priority to do list for the day. I’m at my desk most of the day squirrelling away on planning my next upcoming weddings, along with all the other normal business stuff like marketing, social media, and my finances. I usually try to do client work in the morning and then in the afternoon switch over to business stuff.

What’s your fave part about what you do?

Seeing how happy couples are on their wedding day, and knowing that I’ve contributed to that. I enjoy the social media aspect as well, but keeping up with it is quite the chore and has somewhat sucked the fun out of it!

What are you excited about for your business?

Next level weddings to come in 2020! I only do one or two full planning jobs and a couple of partial planning ones a year to be able to fully focus on each properly (time-wise). The remainder of my weddings, usually around 20 or so of my own a year (plus another 30 or so where I freelance), are made up from different levels of help from my pick + mix services (set up, styling, planning power hours, and wedding day management).

Who are your fave 3 wedding suppliers?

I adore Mother Wild, who does the most amazing sign writing, modern lettering, and calligraphy and is just all round good fun – I love her style and her fun chat on Instagram.

Green & Envy is my fav florist, her floral designs are just so modern and considered without being too fussy.

Triangle Nursery is my go to flower wholesaler (like going to the flower market, but online!), if I’m styling something for a couple or a venue using fresh flowers or foliage, or helping a client with some DIY’ing.

What’s your top advice for couples getting married?

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail….! Slightly dramatic, sorry! But…..! You’ve spent so much time and money planning your wedding, get a wedding coordinator, even just for on the day (hello!), so you can sit back and relax and they can do all the preparing for you!

If you want to chat to Laura about your wedding, make sure you book your tickets to our London fair here!