Introducing, The Wedding A-List, bespoke help with wedding coordination, for modern couples
Introducing a new breed of wedding planner:
Supplier-couple match maker, empowering women in the planning of their big day while donating to domestic abuse charity Solace.
Sarah Faulds of The Wedding A-list, is a power house of cool wedding supplier knowledge, something she is merging with her background in TV production in order to forge a new way to plan your wedding, more suited to modern couples.
After spending 10 years producing documentaries, she was more than versed in how to coordinate several ideas, themes, companies and general logistics in order to create that one big event, which saw her in great stead to plan her own wedding days (yes, she had 2) which she actually references as ‘easy’. And now she’s helping other couples to plan their own wedding, by launching her own company, The Wedding A-List. So who is this wonder woman?
Photo: Lisa Carpenter Photography
(Sarah at her own wedding)
‘I love a spreadsheet,’ describes Sarah, ‘and was very used to running large events and love nothing more than in depth online research. It was only after I was married that I realised these were things that not everyone found easy – or had the time to do. Lots of my friends who were planning their own weddings were coming to me and saying they had no idea where to start, they’d never planned anything before and they felt really overwhelmed. I realised there was an opportunity to help people by giving them tools and shortcuts (by removing the bulk of the research needed to find suppliers) and empowering them to plan their own wedding.’
And so The Wedding A-List was born.
It offers a number of packages, all based around the ethos of a truly bespoke helping hand for couples, alongside taking out the most time consuming and often stressful aspects of planning a wedding, namely sourcing and initial liaison with suppliers. There are packages for those who are struggling to find that one elusive perfectly matched supplier, to couples on a tight six month schedule, right up to the long game, which begins right at the start of the planning journey and focuses on a bespoke venue and supplier sourcing service. For more info on the packages, click here.
Every person receives a custom hand picked service, with Sarah’s starting point of really getting to grips with the style and feel the couple want. ‘There is no magic algorithm putting our shortlists together for us!’ says Sarah. ‘I spend time selecting the best suppliers for each client depending on their creative brief, and contacting each supplier personally to check their availability.’ It’s affordable too, starting at a mere £50-£200 for her most simple package.
‘Based on the client’s vision and creative brief, we handpick the very best suppliers, local to them, who can make that vision reality. We make all the initial approaches (which can be a really time-consuming and often disheartening job for couples when suppliers aren’t available) and present the couple with a handpicked shortlist of between 3 and 5 suppliers for each category – all of whom are available on their date, within their budget and fit their creative vision. All the couple has to do is pick their favourite.’
The Wedding A-List also provides all the questions they need to ask and consider when they follow up with suppliers, all the wedding planning tools they need to manage their budget, schedule, guest list and table plan, and a bespoke vision board on Pinterest to help them manage the creative side without becoming overwhelmed.
Sarah is finding that her clientele are usually already style savvy, with a link to the creative industries and have an overall vision, with their own innovative thoughts for their big day, but are often time-poor, so she becomes the added logistics cog in the wedding wheel.
‘The couples we work with are cool, busy, modern couples who are planning their own wedding,’ Sarah explains. ‘They are style-conscious and have lots of great ideas about how they want their wedding day to look and feel – they don’t need a traditional wedding planner to plan and style the whole day for them. But they lead busy lives and don’t want wedding planning to take over their lives either. They’re looking for someone to do the research for them and help them find the very best suppliers to make their vision a reality.’
Sarah is also passionate about giving back to a charity close to her heart, Solace Woman’s Aid - who work with and provide vital services for victims of domestic and sexual abuse, helping over 11,000 women and children every year. While having such a blast with her wedding and within her growing place in the industry it is important to her to acknowledge that many women do not get to live such a fairytale, in fact quite the opposite. ‘We have partnered with Solace from the very beginning as our partnership is totally integral to the work we do,’ explains Sarah. ‘We want every wedding we’re involved with to help other women and children. We donate money from every single sale of all 4 of our wedding planning packages to Solace, to help them continue their crucial work.’
And what does a day in the life of the Wedding A-List look like?
Each day is different as I spend a lot of time getting out and about meeting new suppliers and visiting new venues. Although we’re predominantly an online business, the relationships we are building with the suppliers we recommend are very much real and they are incredibly important to me. I love to get out there and meet people and see their work in person, whether it’s a designer showing me their new collection, a photographer showing me their latest work or a baker letting me sample their delicious cakes (a massive perk of the job). I also regularly visit venues and although I’m London based we work with suppliers and venues all over the country and I’m always happy to jump on a train to visit a venue anywhere in the country. I often attend wedding showcases at venues which are a great opportunity to meet the local suppliers who love working at that particular venue. Our network of venues and suppliers is ever-growing and we invest a lot of time and effort into growing and nurturing those relationships.
I also catch up regularly with Solace, our charity partner, to update them on our work and find out about their latest campaigns and events. The work they do is incredible and as well as donating money to them we try to support them as much as possible by featuring their campaigns on our blog and social media and attending and promoting events they organise.
If I’m office-based for the day, I spend time selecting the best suppliers for each client depending on their creative brief, and contacting each supplier personally to check their availability. The Wedding A-List blog is a really important part of the business too – we want it to become a leading, free source of wedding inspiration for cool, modern couples and we feature amazing real weddings, practical planning advice and detailed profiles of our favourite suppliers around the country. I’ll spend some time most days planning, researching, writing and promoting blog posts. Social media is obviously also very important and also a great source of inspiration so I’ll spend time updating our profiles, particularly Instagram and Pinterest, most days. And finally, I’m always on the lookout for inspiration, new trends and amazing new suppliers and venues so devote some time every day to research to make sure I’m keeping up to date with everything wedding related.
What is the proudest moment you have had working with brides so far?
It’s still early days but two moments spring to mind so far. One was working with one of our very first couples, who had a little bit of money left in their budget and decided to hire a videographer – just 10 days before their wedding. It was immensely satisfying to find them not one but three great options, one of which they hired and were delighted with. Another moment was seeing a wedding video recently from a wedding where, again, we sourced the videographer. It’s amazing to see the fruits of our recommendations. In that instance, the videographers also posted on social media about our service, thanking us for a ‘match made in heaven’ – weddings really are a collaboration between the couple and their suppliers and it’s so important to me that the recommendations we give are beneficial and creatively exciting for both sides, so that was a great moment.
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FIND OUT MORE AT:
The Wedding A-List sarah@theweddingalist.com
See more here: https://www.instagram.com/the_wedding_alist/