Belle Amour: Wedding Ideas Less of the traditional. More of the original.

Today’s instalment of ‘Belle Amour asks…’ isn’t about a photographer. For those that are looking for a little help in the planning of their wedding I thought why not adapt the interview and start asking wedding planners too! A further insight into these wedding professionals hopefully helps you brides decide if they are the right person to hire for an important job for an important day. And for those looking for a career in event planning it’s great to know how these professionals got there themselves. My first interview is with Kelly from Boho Events and I know if I needed a planner she’d be perfect for the job. In fact her dream wedding to plan would, for me, be a dream wedding to have!

The interview

Introduction:
Hi I’m Kelly and owner of Boho Weddings and Events. I live in Sheffield with my lovely husband Nik and my cat Dee, together they are the 2 things I love more than anything else in this world. I got married on June 16th 2009 in Ibiza and it was from this that my wedding planning business was born. Wedding Planning for the unconventional couple: create the wedding you want… not the wedding you’re told you should have!

Location:
Sheffield.

When and how did you decide wedding planning was for you?
It’s the old cliché; I got married and loved the planning process so much I decided that I wanted to make a career out of it. Well there’s a bit more to it than that. Prior to planning my own wedding in June 2009 I had got involved with a lot of event management for local charities. I had put on large scale events and had really enjoyed it, when I started to plan my wedding I could see the cross over and really enjoyed what I was doing. I was in fashion recruitment at the time and during the recession the company was making a lot of people redundant; as it turned out I was one of them. I got the news on the last day of my honeymoon. I talked it through with my husband and decided to give wedding planning a go, so began researching the idea last summer. My website went live on 18th December 2009.

Have you had any formal training?
I studied for my Diploma in Wedding Planning with the Institute of Professional Wedding Planners.

Do you specialise in a certain type of wedding?
Two types really:

• Anything that is different, I’m not really a massive lover of the big old traditional English wedding, I like to find couples who want to do things differently, slightly unconventional weddings, where people really reflect who they are.
• Weddings in Ibiza. I got married in Ibiza myself so I decided to utilise my experience and contacts and build up that side of the business. It isn’t something I have really advertised or promoted but I’d say half my bookings are Ibiza weddings.

Awesome images courtesy of Annie Peel

What inspires your work?
I love meeting couples as well as suppliers who want to do things differently. I love the new wave of weddings that is about at the moment, there are some fantastic suppliers out there who really want it push the boundaries of the normal conventional couples and make each wedding truly different. I love meeting new people in the industry and try and get out and meet as many suppliers and venues as possible. I just LOVE weddings and everything about them!

When did you first plan a wedding?
I guess the first one was my own which I actually did 3 times. The first one I planned was a big country wedding in Cornwall, I had pretty much everything booked when my husband and I decided it just wasn’t ‘us’ so we then completely changed our plans and decided to do it in Ibiza. We had to have a small civil ceremony in the UK to make the whole thing legal, before we could have the wedding blessed in Ibiza… so 3 weddings all in all.

After that my first job was a Christmas wedding on 29th December 2009 in Derby.

Where in the UK are you based and what area do you cover for wedding planning?
I’m based in Sheffield and cover the whole of Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Cheshire as well as Ibiza. I’m happy to plan anywhere, but I do think it helps to use a planner who knows the area and who can get there within 1-2 hours drive.

Typically, how many weddings do you plan a year?
As I only started late last year, it’s hard to say. I have done 6 so far and have another 5 in Ibiza booked for next summer and 5 in the UK. I’m hoping to double that by next year.

Could you please share some details of a wedding you particularly enjoyed planning?
It would probably be one I did this August. It was in the Sheffield Botanical gardens. I actually worked with the mother of the bride as her daughter lives in New Zealand so she was doing all the planning for her. It was a Papakata Tipi wedding which I love so all outside and very relaxed! The wedding blessing was outside in the grounds of the gardens with one of their friends conducting the ceremony. It was very moving and just so chilled out. The decorations were very simple, an assortment of coloured bottles on the tables with a mixture of diferent flowers in each one. Lots of candles and I took Polaroids of each of the guests that were hung up to create a unique guest book. It was so relaxed, none structured….perfect!

Awesome images courtesy of Kelly & Lisa Abbott

What would be your idea of a dream wedding to design?
Wow, that is a hard question! I do love the Ibiza wedding simply because it is such an ideal location and you really don’t need much fuss out there. I do love themes though! So maybe a village fête themed wedding. Again it would all have to be outside and very natural and rustic. A tipi tent with lots of different fête-type stands for entertainment outside… go fish, a coconut shy, skittles… there would be things to do all day long, an outside ban, hay bales, you could really go to town on all the details and lots of different food stands instead of a formal sit down. It would need to be somewhere big, a big expanse of land with long grass and VW camper vans.

Has anything gone wrong for one of your events and, if so, how did you cope?
For my own wedding we nearly didn’t have any electricity or water on the day as there was so much power running from such a small power supply, but it was all sorted in the morning. I did a civil partnership in June where the brides were 30 mins late, but apart from that I really can’t think of anything. People pay me so things don’t go wrong!

What is your work process when it comes to planning a couple’s wedding?
First of all I will go and meet the couple to find out more about them and what sort of thing they are looking for and how they want me to help them. I will then put together a proposal where I will give them a few options of involvement and services I can offer them. Once they have agreed which option they want to go for I can start working on creating their perfect day. It all depends on which service they want. If it is a full or partial co-ordination I will start working with them straight away, if it’s an ‘on the day’, then I will dip in and out and keep checking to see everything is running smoothly. I do get very attached to my couples and it’s quite hard to say goodbye once the wedding is over. They often become good friends.

Awesome image courtesy of S6 Photography

How can couples benefit from hiring a wedding planner?
Where do you want me to start?! Basically there are no rule books or ‘how to guides’ when it comes to planning your wedding. People are just expected to know what to do. Some people simply don’t have enough time in the day and others don’t know where to start. There is so much a planner can do to help. I can start you off and put you on the right road; work out budgets with you. I can take away the stress and do a lot of the work for you. I can save you money by offering different suggestions, and using my extensive knowledge and supplier base. Also I will often get discounts from suppliers which I will always pass onto the bride or groom. I can manage the day for you so you don’t have to worry about the little details when you should be thinking about getting married.

Basically this is my world: I live and breathe weddings, so why not hire in a professional to do the hard work for you, use my experience and knowledge to get more for your money and maybe come up with ideas you may never have thought about on your own.

What has been your proudest moment as a planner?
It’s hard to say; every time someone gets married it fills me with so much joy and makes me so proud that I have been lucky enough to be involved in someone’s wedding day.

Possibly the best moment was when I planned a civil partnership at this year’s Sheffield Pride. It was really hard work, but we had such an amazing day. I organised the whole civil partnership tent and the wedding took place at the end of the day, the 2 brides looked stunning; one was a good friend of mine and I was ring bearer and I cried all the way through it! It was a magical day.

Awesome images courtesy of In the Pink Photography

If you could plan anybody’s wedding, whose would it be?
Maybe my mum’s. She has been with her partner for 21 years now and have happily lived together, I’ve always dreamed they would get married. If she agreed I’d like to do it all and surprise her… it would be a massive thank you for everything she has done for me in the past.
If not her then Justin Timberlake… I just love him and as I am clearly never going to be his wife I would love to arrange the celebration for him (still hoping he gets back with Cameron Diaz).

Just so we can find out a bit more about you could you tell me 5 things you like that are completely unrelated to weddings?

• Cats. Just love them. I have a cat called Dee who is the best thing ever! She is horrid to everyone else apart from me and my husband, but to me she is beautiful, cuddly and totally loyal. She is 12 years old and I’ve had her since she was 8 weeks old. I couldn’t live without her, but know that one day I will have to
• Food. Basically I LOVE eating! Cup-cakes, cheese, crisps and dips, sea food: scallops, prawns and mussels are my favourite, chicken and of course chocolate.
• Cocktails: champagne cocktails would be top of my list, followed by a Woo Woo and a White Russian
• Ibiza , New York and Cornwall (sorry I know that is a 3 in one answer): simply the best 3 places in the world!
• Make-up: I couldn’t be without it! My face needs a lot of work, especially being ginger so I love that make-up was created, some girl’s weakness is shoes or handbags, mine is lip gloss!

And 5 things you dislike?

• Red meat.
• People who take themselves too seriously.
• Exercise (Dosn’t work too well with the love of food.)
• The smell of tar.
• Early mornings.

Awesome image courtesy of S6 Photography

What are your aspirations for the future, in event planning or otherwise?
To be as successful as I can be. I’d like to be known in the business as being the best that I can be, and as someone who knows the business and has built up a professional and creative reputation. I’d like to have my own premises, with a small team. I don’t want to take on loads of staff as I believe that the personal service I offer my clients is still very important, so maybe a couple of assistants, but I would still go and meet the couples and be very involved in their plans. I’m a very hands on person and I can’t see that changing.

The premises would be maybe an office with a wedding show room, where people can come for consultations, and just be engulfed with all things weddings. My husband keeps saying I should look at getting a shop, where I can hire out and sell a variety of wedding items, so maybe incorperating that into the showroom?

I’m also quite interested in learning about photography. It’s the thing that I’m most interested in within the whole planning process. I’d never want to do it professionally but I would like to know more than I do.

Personally I’d like loads more animals, 2 King Charles spaniels, and 2 cats… and a couple of children, 2 mini Bohos running about…..that would make Mr. Boho very happy!

Debs & Kelly

Wedding planner details:
Boho Weddings & Events
Boho blog
Contact Kelly
Phone: 01142 854532