Jan 27, 20226 min read

Are You My Ideal Bride?

So I've done a previous blog on the types of brides there are and which you might be (you, being the one reading this right now) as I'm pretty sure I know what type of bride you are if you are reading this.

This blog I'm going to get a little bit personal (so please don't take this personally!) and tell you my favourite wedding styles, the types of couples I tend to work with as a planner and the couples I don't work with, as well as the wedding budgets I work with and don't work with.

I'm literally spilling the tea... so let's dive in!

Why I'm Different

Now I offer a very different service to most wedding planning businesses. The majority of wedding planners will offer full planning services as their main service alongside partial planning and on the day coordination.

I like to push the industry and try to stand out from the crowd by not fitting into that mould of the above three services. Don't get me wrong, when I first started my business I did offer all these and said I was a luxury wedding planner and only worked with certain sized budgets. However, I soon realised that was not what I wanted to do, as a luxury wedding planner you attract a particular type of client when you set your budgets high and those people were not my type of people. I found it hard to connect to them and communicate with them.

So I decided to change my business model. It wasn't just the clientele that made me change my mind, I also realised that there was a massive hole in wedding planning market which was there were no resources out there to help everyday couples with a modest or low budget. There was nothing out there to guide or help these couples navigate the wedding planning process when you're taking on a job that you have no knowledge in as you've never done it before.

That's when my YouTube channel, Bluebird Bride Academy was born! I wanted to be accessible, approachable and affordable. All the advice on there is totally FREE so if you don't have a big budget then you have all the information available to you.

I then created some digital products to give couples additional resources that I use to help with their wedding planning process, keep you on track and organised throughout your journey and help to keep stress levels to an absolute minimum.

My main final service then fits in with my YouTube channel and digital products and thats On The Day Coordination. The couples that come to me have watched my videos and bought my digital products and have planned their own weddings, but then want someone they trust to help run and coordinate all their hard work just on the wedding day. And I love it! I love empowering couples to plan their own weddings and watching everything unfold on the day.

We do then offer consultancy hours to help those couples that do want some extra advice but can't afford a full planner, I try to build a bespoke package for the couple to fit within their budget.

Full Wedding Planning

All that being said, I still take on a very small and limited amount of full plans each year but only if the right couple comes in for me. Please don't take offence to that, I just have a very particular criteria as I only want to work with couples that light me up and are my people.

As a business, our style is very much modern, meaningful and relaxed with one of my motos being 'you do you'.

So let me tell you the type of couple I do not take on as a full plan wedding.

Someone that requests a weekly meeting or needs a very in depth logical plan I sadly had to cancel a couple as they requested this and I realised I wouldn't be able to provide them with this as it's not how I work as a planner. I'm very free-flowing and very on it but I knew it wouldn't be a happy experience for either myself or the couple and that I wouldn't meet the clients expectations.
A couple that wants to micro manage what we're doing This ultimately comes down to trust, if the couple cannot trust us and want to micro manage us then we're not for you.
Anyone with a budget OVER £80k That may sound strange but couples with this budget or more just aren't the type of couple that would probably fit within the type of wedding we like to design or plan for.
Understanding our boundaries As a mumma of two I'm only in the office 3 days a week but also have a VA and team working with me so we always get the work done and are very productive within our office hours. We only work with couples that respect that and aren't going to whatsapp us on a Sunday evening needing something immediately.
Someone that is a lover of chair covers I'm sorry but if you love a chair cover then it's a NO guys, sorry but it's a no, and I'm not the right design led planner for you!
A couple that will not let us get involved in the design process I'm very much a wedding designer and stylist and love this aspect of the process. A lot of couples come to me because they have some design ideas but don't know how to bring the design together and bring it to life. I work with my couples on the design and don't just suggest what I think, it's always a two way process. I sadly can't work with couples who have a set and rigid design as we are a design led company.
Someone that likes tight florals Similar to the chair covers, if you love tight very structured florals then I don't think we're the right planner for you as in my opinion they are not modern in design.
Someone that wants all the traditions Now there is nothing wrong with having all the wedding traditions and if that's what you want then fine, but I'm all about being flexible with traditions with a 'you do you' approach to your wedding day.
No trust Now I know I touched on this earlier but, if a couple can't trust us to do our job and leave us to it then it's not going to work.

It's difficult to gage all this from an initial meeting but that's why I always do enquiry calls with couples to make sure that we're the right fit for each other. The couple has to make sure I'm the right planner for them and that Bluebird Creative is the right company for them as you have to have that connection with your planner. But it's also a way for us to vet if they're the right couple for us as I have learnt over the years that you do not have to say yes to everybody.

Types of Couples I Work With

So what are the types of couples I'll work with?

Couples that 100% trust me This is key guys! You have to trust me!
Couples that come to me for the design As I mentioned above we are a design led wedding planning business, we love helping couples with their design. So we'll take on couples that have ideas but don't know how to bring it to life and we can do that for them. We want wedding designs that are cool, modern and stylish!
Couples who love flowers I love flowers and love the floral elements to weddings, I have some amazing suppliers that create incredible floral designs which are wild, loose and of course stylish!
Couples that are all about the fun, the love and the food! We want couples that are all about their love story for their wedding and not the circus that surrounds it, this day is all about you so embrace that! We want couples that want to have fun whether thats with bands and music or live guest entertainment, we're here for it! And finally food, I'm a huge foodie so the food is super important to me and hopefully it is to the couple too.
Budgets between £40k - £80k This is a good bracket for us as a company to create and produce the design led weddings that we love to do. If you're budget is under that then it doesn't mean we won't work with you we just have different services that might be better suited for your budget.
Couples that have a 'You do You' Approach We work with couples that want to make the day all about them and are not stuck by every single wedding tradition. They're willing to change and mix things up as they want to do things that make them happy!
Couples that hate chair covers This is a make or break really, we like to work with couples that hate chair covers! There I said it!

So there we go guys, a little bit of fun and insight into how we work as a wedding planning business (and I'm sure other wedding planners also work in a similar way). There is a wedding planner out there for everyone and even if you can't afford a full planner then there are always other options to consider.

Don't forget to check out our digital shop for help with wedding planning and sign up to get your FREE wedding planning checklist!

Happy Planning

Lauren xx