Wedding Planning Excellence Seminar 2012

The UKAWP Wedding Planning Excellence (WPE) provides a fabulous opportunity to hear from a range of truly inspirational speakers and to catch up with wedding planners from across the UK. This year's WPE was held at 51 Buckingham Gate Taj Suite and Residences in London.

On arrival we were greeted by UKAWP Directors Bernadette Chapman and Sandy Moretta. The registration desk was signalled by a beautiful welcome sign from Cutture. Their amazing bespoke laser cut stationery also featured on each of the seminar tables alongside table arrangements from Euphoric Flowers.

The programme over the two days provided a variety of thought provoking speakers, There was plenty of wedding planning business advice from the speakers on day one including presentations from Ray Hutchin of Cloud 9, Keren Lerner from Top Left Design and Tamsin Fox-Davies who then took part in a Business Panel discussion session after lunch.

Later in the afternoon the presentations included modern wedding etiquette advice from Jo Bryant of Debretts followed by Anthony Wickham of TTTents who told us what to look out for when sourcing luxury marquees. We then heard about bar trends for 2012 from Debbie Baisden of IBarco who told us how to ensure that the bar is not just an add on to the catering service at your event.

The seminar sessions on day one closed with a demonstration by Daniel Grebesse of 51 Buckingham Gate who mixed their signature cocktail The 51 Martini for us to sample! Choosing a signature cocktail for your guests to enjoy is a great way to add a personal touch to your wedding drinks reception.

Day one of the seminar concluded with a lovely champagne reception and dinner which was hosted by 30 Pavilion Road.

The programme for the second day began with a presentation from photographer Lloyd Dobbie who showed us exactly how much work goes into turning good photography into fabulous photography!

We were then treated to a presentation by award winning bridal retailer Ellie Sanderson who talked to us about bridal trends for 2012 and then split the planners into four teams for a bridal style challenge.

Each of the teams were given a different brief and we were judged by a panel of our wedding planner peers who really seemed to enjoy the X Factor style experience!

Our team scored a respectable 14 out of 20!

In the afternoon we heard from professional make up artist Jules Cardozo-Marsh who treated UKAWP Director Bernadette Chapman to a makeover and gave us lots of ideas we can use to help our clients choose the right professional make up artist for their big day. Jules also gave me a few ideas about things to add to the Benessamy Emergency Wedding Day Kit!

The seminar closed with a very interesting presentation from California based Wedding Planner Whitney Wing-Drake. Her company Wish Wonder Dream was awarded Best of Weddings by The Knot in 2011 and awarded the Bride's Choice Award from Wedding Wire in 2012. It was great to hear about current US trends as the UK wedding trends often follow the US further down the line.

All in all WPE 2012 was a fabulous well organised seminar packed with inspiration and great ideas. We heard from a wealth of quality speakers and had lots of opportunities to share experience and tips with other planners. To round off the seminar before we left all delegates received a fabulous bag of goodies!

Thanks very much to Lloyd Dobbie for allowing us to use his photos in this blog post. Thanks also to Searcys for their images of 30 Pavilion Road and to Bernadette and Sandy from UKAWP for organising such a fabulous event!

Valerie x