August 2015 - Bridebook

Hamish Shephard – Author Bio

Hamish Shephard is the founder and CEO of Bridebook, the UK’s no.1 wedding planning app. He is now considered an expert in the wedding industry, having appeared on BBC news multiple times to provide his expertise and having his own Evening Standard column, Groom With a View, where he shares his insights as one of the UK’s most prominent wedding experts.

Hamish founded Bridebook in 2015, having previously co-founded Hello Fresh. His vast experience in the wedding industry began long ago when he transformed his grandmother’s old home, Hedsor House, into one of the UK’s leading wedding venues with his two brothers.

Hamish discovered that most brides spent the majority of their engagement feeling overwhelmed, stressed and confused by the whole wedding planning process. He thought there must be a way to help couples plan their wedding in a stress-free way and soon became enamoured by the mission to make wedding planning as fun and enjoyable as the big day itself.

Thus began a journey of inspiration, discovery and creativity… to create the UK’s leading wedding planning app, now used by almost 2 million couples.

Below are some of Hamish’s top wedding articles:

Hamish has also appeared as an expert speaker on the Financial Times’ Money Clinic with Claer Barrett, as part of the recent July 2023 episode ‘The high cost of being a wedding guest’:

Link to podcast episode here
Link to podcast transcript here

Privacy Policy – OLD (pre May2018)

Introduction

This is the privacy and cookies policy for www.bridebook.co.uk (Website). The Website is operated by Bridebook Limited (we, us and our). For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998, we are the data controller and are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office on the Register of Data Controllers.

We are committed to protecting your privacy on-line. We appreciate that you do not want the personal information you provide to us distributed indiscriminately and here we explain how we collect information, what we do with it and what controls you have.

By using the Website, you consent to the collection and use of information in accordance with this privacy policy. Use of our Website and Services is governed by our Website Terms of Service.

We reserve the right to change this privacy policy from time to time by changing it on the Website. This privacy policy was last updated on 30 September 2015.

Information we may collect from you

We may collect and process the following personal information about you:

information if you are an individual user (such as your first name, last name, email address, location, device type, operating system, language preferences, gender and age) that you provide by completing forms on the Website, including if you register as a user on the Website, subscribe to our newsletter, upload or submit any material via the Website, or request any information from us about the Website or the service we offer via the Website;

information if you are a venue or other supplier (“Suppliers”) using the Service (such as relationship information between you as a Supplier and individual users; photographs, telephone numbers, email addresses, website addresses and other publicly available information such as venue capacity and venue location) that you provide by using the Service in a capacity as a Supplier, communicating with individual users via the Website or by uploading or submitting material via the Website;

in connection with an account sign-in facility, your log-in and password details, if you choose to register with us (either as a user or Supplier) on the Website;

details of any Supplier bookings or other transactions made or received by you through the Website (such as information you input into the budget planner or any venues or other suppliers you have tagged or otherwise listed within your dashboard);

communications you send to us, for example to report a problem or to submit queries, concerns or comments regarding the Website or its content;

information from surveys, promotions and competitions that we may, from time to time, run on the Website, if you choose to respond to, or participate in, them;

guest list and wedding day budget information (such as overall budget and amounts booked) which you choose to input into our budget planner facility on your dashboard within your account on the Website;

details, including photographs, relating to your wedding day and associated Suppliers if you choose to participate in our Real Weddings feature; and

information that you post in the form of comments or contributions to venue and/or supplier reviews or discussions.

You are under no obligation to provide any such information. However, if you should choose to withhold requested information, we may not be able to provide you with certain services.

Uses made of your information

We will use the personal information you provide to:

identify you when you sign-in to your account;

enable us to provide you with the services and information offered through the Website and which you request;

administer your account with us;

analyse the use of the Website and the trends of the people visiting and using the Website in order to improve our content and services, including research into our users’ demographics and trends within the wedding industry;

send you information we think you may find useful or which you have requested from us, including receipt of marketing communications such as our periodic newsletter provided you have indicated that you are happy to be contacted for these purposes;

allow, with your consent, carefully selected third parties to send you information directly which you may find useful regarding their products and services.

You can tell us not to contact you with information regarding our products and services, or to share your details with Suppliers so that they can send you information regarding their products and services, either at the point such information is collected on the Website (by checking or un-checking (as directed) the relevant box) or, where you do not wish us to continue to use your information in this way, by following the unsubscribe instructions on any communications sent to you. You can also exercise this right at any time by contacting us using the contacting us details at the end of this privacy policy.

Additional information

When you visit the Website, we may automatically collect additional information about you, such as the type of internet browser or mobile device you use, any website from which you have come to the Website and your IP address (the unique address which identifies your device on the internet) and your operating system, which are automatically recognised by our web server.

Cookies and similar technology

The Website also uses cookies or similar technology to collect information about your access to the Website.

Cookies are pieces of information that include a unique reference code that a website transfers to your device to store and sometimes track information about you. A number of cookies we use last only for the duration of your web session and expire when you close your browser. Other cookies are used to remember you when you return to the Website and will last for longer.

We use the following categories of cookies on our Website for the purposes set out below:

Essential session management cookies.

These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the Website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the Website. Without these cookies, services you have asked for, cannot be provided to you.

Creating a specific log-in session for a user of our Website in order that the Website remembers that a user is logged in and that their page requests are delivered in an effective, secure and consistent manner to allow you to navigate around the Website quickly.

Recognising when a visitor to the website has visited before; this means we can identify the number of unique visitors we receive to the website and allows us to make sure we have enough capacity for the number of users that we get.

Recognising when a visitor to the website is a registered user member.

We may also log information from your computer including the existence of cookies, your IP address and information about your browser program in order to allow us to diagnose problems, administer and track your usage of the Services.

Functionality cookies

These cookies allow our Website to remember choices or selections you make around functionality features (such as your user name, language selections or region within which you are located) and provide enhanced, more personal features. We also use these cookies to remember changes you make to other parts of our Website which you may be able to customise from time to time. The information we collect via these cookies may be anonymised and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.

Customising elements of the promotional layout and/or content of the pages of the website for example by storing a country code and providing users with content relevant to their country.

Performance and measurement cookies

These cookies collect information about how visitors use a Website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies do not collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how a Website works.

Collecting statistical information about how our visitors use the website(s) so that we can improve the website(s) and learn which parts are most popular to visitors.

We employ Google analytics. You can opt out of Google analytics by going to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout and following the instructions.

We use an analytics provider called Mixpanel. More information about the service Mixpanel offers can be found at http://mixpanel.com/privacy. Mixpanel offer a cookie based opt-out facility at https://mixpanel.com/optout/. Please note that if you clear your cookies cache on your browser, this opt-out may cease to have effect and you may need to follow the above mentioned opt-out process again to remove Mixpanel cookies from your device.

Some of the cookies used on our Website are set by us and some are set by third parties who are delivering services on our behalf.

Most computer and some mobile web browsers automatically accept cookies but, if you prefer, you can change your browser to prevent that or to notify you each time a cookie is set. You can also learn more about cookies by visiting www.allaboutcookies.org which includes additional useful information on cookies and how to block cookies using different types of browser. Please note however, that by blocking or deleting cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website.

Information sharing

We may disclose aggregate statistics about visitors to the Website in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers, sponsors and other reputable third parties and for other lawful purposes, but these statistics will include no personally identifiable information.

We may disclose your personal information to any of our affiliates, or to our agents or contractors who assist us in providing the services we offer through the Website, processing transactions, fulfilling requests for information, receiving and sending communications, updating marketing lists, analysing data, providing support services or in other tasks from time to time. Our agents and contractors will only use your information to the extent necessary to perform their functions.

In the event that we undergo re-organisation or are sold to a third party, you agree that any personal information we hold about you may be transferred to that re-organised entity or third party.

We may disclose your personal information if legally entitled or required to do so (for example if required by law or by a Court order or if we believe that such action is necessary to prevent fraud or cyber crime or to protect the Website or the rights, property or personal safety of any person).

Public forums

The Website may, from time to time, make review and comment boards and/or other public forums available to its users. Any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when using these and never disclose your personal information.

External links

The Website may, from time to time, contain links to external sites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of such sites.

Security

We place great importance on the security of all personally identifiable information associated with our users. We have security measures in place to attempt to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal information under our control. For example, our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorised personnel have access to personal information. Whilst we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of information will never occur, we use all reasonable efforts to prevent it.

You should bear in mind that submission of information over the internet is never entirely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of information you submit via the Website whilst it is in transit over the internet and any such submission is at your own risk.

It is advisable to close your browser when you have finished your user session to help ensure others do not access your personal information if you use a shared computer or a computer in a public place.

Data storage and international transfers

Information that you submit via the Website may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). By way of example, this may happen if one or more of our servers are from time to time located in a country outside the EEA or one of our service providers is located in a country outside the EEA. If you make contact with any Suppliers featured on the Website your details may be transferred outside the EEA. If we transfer your information outside the EEA in this way, we will take steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected. By submitting information via the Website, you agree to this storing, processing and/or transfer.

In addition, if you use our services while you are outside the EEA, your information may be transferred outside the EEA in order to provide you with those services.

Your rights

You have a legal right under the Data Protection Act 1998 to a copy of all the personal information about you held by us. On request, we will provide you with a copy of this information subject to a fee not exceeding the prescribed fee permitted by law. You also have a right to correct any errors in that information. As mentioned above, you have a right to prevent the use of your personal information for direct marketing purposes.

Contacting us

Please submit any questions, concerns or comments you have about this privacy policy or any requests concerning your personal data by email to hello@bridebook.co.uk.

Terms & Conditions

Last updated on 02/01/2024

1. Introduction

These are the terms of use (“Terms”) which set out how you may use the Bridebook website and mobile application (together the “Bridebook Platform”).

The Bridebook Platform is owned, operated and managed by Bridebook Limited (“Bridebook”, “we”, “us” and “our”). We are a limited company, registered in England and Wales with company number 09190872, and whose registered office is at 43 Manchester Street, London, W1U 7LP. Our VAT registration number is GB 204 9275 15.

These terms of use (“Terms”) constitute an agreement between you and us regarding your use of the Bridebook Platform and any text, images, descriptions, pricing, reviews, messages, files, videos, 360° images and videos, logos and photographs that are incorporated into, uploaded to and/or otherwise forming part of the Bridebook Platform (“Platform Content”).

By interacting with the Bridebook Platform, whether you are generally accessing and browsing the Bridebook Platform or whether you have registered with us and are using the Services we provide via the Bridebook Platform (being a “Couple”), you signify that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree with any part of the Terms, you are not permitted to use the Bridebook Platform in any way. You may only access and use the Bridebook Platform if you agree to all of the Terms.

2. We may make changes to these Terms

The date of the current version of the Terms is set out above. At any time, for any reason and in our sole discretion, we may revise the Terms without notice to you. We may notify you of material changes to the Terms by email if you have registered as a Couple.

Please check the Terms regularly to read any revisions we have made. Any revisions that we make to the Terms are effective immediately and so are binding on your use of the Bridebook Platform when we publish the revised Terms on the Bridebook Platform.

Your continued use of the Bridebook Platform after we have revised the Terms indicates your consent to the revised Terms.

If you do not agree with any revision to the Terms, you are not permitted to continue to use the Bridebook Platform in any way.

3. Registering to use the Bridebook Platform

You may access and browse a limited version of the Bridebook Platform subject to these Terms. However, to make full use of the Bridebook Platform and to use the Services you must register for an account as a Couple and provide certain information about you as set out in the registration process, including details of:

your name and that of your partner;
contact details for yourself and your partner (including e-mail address);
your budget for your wedding (if decided);
the proposed date of your wedding (if decided);
the type of venue(s) you would like to use for your wedding; and
the number of guests you intend to invite to your wedding.

The information that you provide when registering and all other information and content that you upload to, generate or create when using the Bridebook Platform (including guest lists, reviews, messages, files etc.) will be together referred to in these Terms as “Your Content”. Please see clause 11 for the rights that you grant us when uploading Your Content to the Bridebook Platform.

Please make sure that all of Your Content is accurate and complete and is kept current and up-to-date whilst you continue to use the Bridebook Platform and the Services. You must contact us promptly to inform us of any changes to this information.

Upon registration for an account with us, you will be asked to create a username and password. You must keep your username and password confidential and secure at all times and use it only to access and use your account and not for any other purpose. You are the only authorised user of your account, unless expressly specified otherwise, and accordingly you must not disclose your username and/or password to anyone else. You should contact us immediately upon discovering any unauthorised use of your account or error in the operation of your username and/or password.

Usernames and passwords are our property and we reserve the right to alter or replace them at any time in our sole discretion.

Please notify us immediately via the Bridebook Platform if anyone else has become aware of your login details, in circumstances in which there is a risk of misuse or if you have any reason to believe that there is any other risk of any unauthorised use of your account.

We reserve the right to disable your username and password and suspend your access to the Bridebook Platform at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms.

4. Your privacy

We respect your privacy. We have a privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) which you can access here: Privacy Policy. We strongly recommend that you read and ensure you understand our Privacy Policy prior to using the Bridebook Platform.

Any personal data we collect through your use of the Bridebook Platform will only be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Please be aware that internet transmissions are never completely private or secure and that any message or information you send using the Bridebook Platform may be read or intercepted by others, even if there is a special notice that a particular transmission is encrypted.

By using the Bridebook Platform, you agree to us collecting and using technical information about the devices you use the Bridebook Platform on and related software, hardware and peripherals to improve our products or services.

5. The Bridebook Platform and our Services

We provide a comprehensive online wedding planning resource service which helps you to find inspiration for, plan and co-ordinate your wedding (“Services”). It is currently free for you to register with us, set up your dashboard and use the Bridebook Platform and Services to help you with the planning of your wedding day.

The Bridebook Platform is also available to various suppliers of wedding services, such as venues, photographers, florists, caterers etc. (together “Wedding Suppliers”). Wedding Suppliers may also register to use the Bridebook Platform in order to list the various services and arrangements that they provide (“Wedding Services”) as part of our directory and promote those Wedding Services to you and other Couples.

We currently provide Couples with the ability to register for a free account on the Bridebook Platform. However, we also offer account types and privileges which you can pay to access and, in the future, we may charge fees for other features of the Bridebook Platform. Wherever fees apply you will have the opportunity to review and accept such fees prior to incurring any costs.

We do not control the material submitted to the Bridebook Platform by you, any other Couple or any Wedding Supplier. In particular, we do not control descriptions of Wedding Services provided by Wedding Suppliers or the ratings and reviews that our Couples provide regarding Wedding Suppliers. We have no connection with any Wedding Supplier that features on the Bridebook Platform.

We do not vet any Wedding Supplier and you acknowledge and agree that you, and not we, are solely responsible for any conclusions you may draw from any Supplier profile, rating or review of any Wedding Supplier appearing on the Bridebook Platform.

6. If you make a booking of wedding services

We allow Wedding Suppliers to register to use the Bridebook Platform in order to promote their Wedding Services to you.

For all Wedding Services promoted by Wedding Suppliers via the Bridebook Platform, it is either the case that:

we do not offer the Wedding Services for sale ourselves and we have no role in the booking of the Wedding Services; or
to the extent that you can make a reservation for Wedding Services via the Bridebook Platform, we act as an agent on behalf of the Wedding Supplier in question when processing that reservation.

In either scenario, if you make a booking of Wedding Services, you will enter into a direct contract with the applicable Wedding Supplier of the Wedding Services you have chosen. This will be a direct contract between you and the Wedding Supplier. We will not be a party to this contract. Your booking with the Wedding Supplier will be subject to the specific terms and conditions of the relevant Wedding Supplier you contract with and we advise you to read the same carefully prior to booking. The Wedding Supplier’s terms and conditions may limit and/or exclude the Wedding Supplier’s liability to you.

7. Accessing the Bridebook Platform

It is your responsibility to ensure your equipment (computer, laptop, netbook, tablet or other mobile device) meets the necessary technical specifications and is able to connect to the internet, to enable you to access and use the Bridebook Platform.

We may, from time to time, restrict access to certain features, parts or content of the Bridebook Platform, or the entire Bridebook Platform, to Couples who have registered with us.

We do not guarantee that the Bridebook Platform, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. If you visit the Bridebook Platform and find that it is down or otherwise not functioning correctly, please contact us at hello@bridebook.co.uk and we will endeavour to assist. We recommend that you back up any of Your Content used in connection with the Bridebook Platform, to protect yourself in case of problems with the Bridebook Platform.

There may be times when certain features, parts or content of the Bridebook Platform, or the entire Bridebook Platform, become unavailable (whether on a scheduled or unscheduled basis) or are modified, suspended or withdrawn by us, in our sole discretion, without notice to you.

8. What you are allowed to do when using the Bridebook Platform

In return for you agreeing to comply with these Terms you may:

use the Bridebook Platform for the purposes of planning your own wedding;
print off one copy, and download extracts, of any page(s) from the Bridebook Platform for your personal use. However, you must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text;
retrieve and display content from the Bridebook Platform on a computer screen; and
where you are using our mobile application (“App”):
- download our App onto a device and view, use and display our App on the device; and
- receive updates to the software code of our App via the relevant app store that you downloaded our App from – these updates may incorporate corrections to bugs in our App.

Your right to use the Bridebook Platform is personal to you. If you sell or give away any device on which our App is installed, you must first remove our App from the device. Additional terms may also apply to certain features, parts or content of the Bridebook Platform and, where they apply, will be displayed on-screen or accessible via a link. If you make a booking of Wedding Services provided by a Wedding Supplier, your booking will be subject to the specific terms and conditions of the relevant Wedding Supplier you contract with.

9. What you are not allowed to do when using the Bridebook Platform

You are only permitted to use the Bridebook Platform for the purposes of planning your own wedding, as set out in these Terms. Unless you have requested and received our prior written consent or unless expressly permitted in these Terms, you must not, without limitation:

sub-licence, assign, share, sell, lease, grant a security interest in or otherwise transfer your right to use the Bridebook Platform;
store pages of or datasets from the Bridebook Platform or any Platform Content on a server or other storage device connected to a network or create an electronic database by systematically or otherwise downloading and storing any or all of the pages of the Bridebook Platform;

by any means scrape, extract, download, data mine, display, transmit, publish, upload or sell or offer for sale any part of the Bridebook Platform or Platform Content;

remove or change any Platform Content or interfere with the proper working of the Bridebook Platform or the servers on which it is hosted;

circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with the security-related features of the Bridebook Platform or features that: (a) prevent or restrict use or copying of any part of the Bridebook Platform; or (b) enforce limitations on use of the Bridebook Platform.

create a copy of the Bridebook Platform, Platform Content or a standalone website or platform which impersonates the Bridebook Platform, the Platform Content or the Services;

attempt to access the database, user information, passwords or other records relating to the Bridebook Platform except in the normal course of using the Bridebook Platform;

attempt to modify, translate, adapt, edit, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reconstruct or discover any source code or software programs used by Bridebook in connection with the Bridebook Platform or the Platform Content; or

use any network monitoring or discovery software to determine the Bridebook Platform architecture or extract information about usage, individual Couple or Wedding Supplier identities.

10. The Bridebook Platform is for use by Couples and Wedding Suppliers only

We make the Bridebook Platform available for use by Couples and Wedding Suppliers only.

Companies, partnerships, and other entities or businesses providing or intending to provide a Similar Offeringto Bridebook, as well as their employees, agents, directors, or contractors, whether based in the UK or anywhere in the world, do not have permission to use or access the Bridebook Platform or Services for the purposes of establishing, offering, providing, improving or comparing the Similar Offering.

Any breach of this condition, without our prior written permission, will be a breach of these Terms and we reserve all rights in relation to such a breach, including to remove or refuse access and/or to suspend or disable profiles or accounts or to pursue legal action to protect our rights in the Bridebook Platform.

A “Similar Offering” means the provision of online wedding planning tools, wedding supplier directories, or confusingly similar services to Bridebook, internationally or in the UK.

11. Your Content

All of Your Content will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary.

By uploading or creating Your Content on the Bridebook Platform, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable licence for us to use Your Content and all material embodied therein for any purposes including but not limited to:

reproducing, distributing, modifying, publishing, translating, creating derivative works from, displaying and performing Your Content (in whole or part) and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology in connection with the Services provided through the Bridebook Platform or to enable us to promote or develop our business;
providing Your Content to third parties including other users of the Bridebook Platform, Wedding Suppliers, our partners, advertisers and/or our sponsors to use Your Content for their purposes;
auditing/accounting purposes or as may be required by law;
measuring and improving the Bridebook Platform and our related products and services; and
in a form in which Your Content is combined with data from other Couples, whether for own purposes or to provide services and data to third parties, including Wedding Suppliers.

In relation to Your Content you:

warrant that you have the requisite rights, licences and consents to upload or create Your Content;
waive any moral rights that you may have in Your Content;
warrant that Your Content does not infringe the rights (including intellectual property rights) of any third party; and
warrant that Your Content is not unlawful, threatening, defamatory, obscene, indecent, offensive, pornographic, abusive, liable to incite racial hatred, discriminatory, menacing, scandalous, inflammatory, blasphemous, in breach of confidence, in breach of privacy or offensive and will not result in any civil or criminal claim being brought against us by a third party in any jurisdiction.

We reserve the right to:

disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that Your Content constitutes a violation of their rights (including intellectual property rights); and
remove Your Content, at our sole discretion, without the need to give reasons.

We do not guarantee the availability of Your Content and you may not use the Bridebook Platform solely for storage purposes and in the event that your user account is deactivated (either by us or you), deleted or blocked in accordance with these Terms, Your Content will no longer be available to you and we will not take steps to retrieve Your Content for you.

12. Sharing Your Content among other users of the Bridebook Platform

The Bridebook Platform may, from time to time, allow you to upload and communicate Your Content either to selected recipients or in public areas, such as comments pages and/or message boards (collectively “User Content Areas”).

We do not control the material submitted to User Content Areas (collectively “User Submissions”), nor are User Content Areas actively moderated. You are solely responsible any User Submissions that you submit and acknowledge that all User Submissions express the views of their respective authors, and not our views.

If you participate in any User Content Areas, you must:

keep all User Submissions that you submit relevant to the purpose of the User Content Area and the nature of any topic;
not submit any User Submission containing any form of advertising; and
not impersonate, or misrepresent an affiliation with, any person or entity.

Complaints about the content of any User Submission must be sent to hello@bridebook.co.uk and must contain details of the specific User Submission giving rise to the complaint.

13. Platform Content

The Platform Content may include trademarks or copyright material owned by us or third parties.

We may change the Platform Content from time to time. You agree that the Platform Content is on an ‘as is’ and ‘as available’ basis and at your sole risk.

Whilst we try to make sure that all of the Platform Content (other than any User Submissions or Wedding Supplier content) is correct, it is not intended to amount to authority or advice on which reliance should be placed. You should check with us or the relevant information source before acting on any such information.

Except to the extent expressly set out within these Terms, we make or give no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, completeness, currency, correctness, reliability, integrity, quality, fitness for purpose or originality of any Platform Content and, to the fullest extent permitted by law, all implied warranties, conditions or other terms of any kind are hereby excluded and we accept no liability for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of you or anyone else using or relying on the Platform Content.

14. Intellectual property rights

All intellectual property rights in and to the Bridebook Platform and Platform Content (including text, graphics, software, photographs and other images, videos, sound, trade marks and logos) are owned by and reserved to us or our licensors (for example photographers who have granted us a license to show their photographs). Except as expressly set out here, nothing in these Terms gives you any rights in respect of any intellectual property owned by us or our licensors and you acknowledge that you do not acquire any ownership rights by downloading Platform Content.

In the event you print off, copy or store pages from the Bridebook Platform (only as permitted by these Terms), you must ensure that any copyright, trade mark or other intellectual property right notices contained in the original content are reproduced.

We take the misappropriation of our intellectual property rights by any user or other third party seriously and will take steps to enforce our legal rights in the event we reasonably deem any such misappropriation has occurred through your use of the Services or otherwise on the Bridebook Platform.

15. Our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you

We’re not responsible for Wedding Services provided by Wedding Suppliers. We provide a digital platform via which you can connect with Wedding Suppliers and browse the profiles of, and Wedding Services provided by, Wedding Suppliers. To the extent that you can reserve Wedding Services via the Bridebook Platform, we act as a booking agent on behalf the Wedding Supplier in question when processing such reservations. In all circumstances, if you decide to make a booking of Wedding Services with any Wedding Suppliers who appear on the Bridebook Platform, you will book and enter into a contract with the relevant Wedding Supplier directly. We will not be a party to that contract and will have no responsibility for the acts or omissions of the Wedding Supplier or for the Wedding Services provided by them.

Our responsibility if we breach these Terms. If we fail to comply with these Terms, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these Terms or our failing to use reasonable care and skill, but we are not responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable. Loss or damage is foreseeable if either it is obvious that it will happen or if, at the time you accepted these Terms, both we and you knew it might happen because it is something we have discussed prior to your use of the Bridebook Platform.

Our responsibility if we provide defective digital content. If defective digital content that we have supplied damages a device or digital content belonging to you, we will either repair the damage or pay you compensation. However, we will not be liable for damage that you could have avoided by following our advice to apply an update offered to you free of charge or for damage that was caused by you failing to correctly follow installation instructions or to have in place the minimum system requirements advised by us.

We are not responsible for business losses. The Bridebook Platform is for domestic and private use. If you use the Bridebook Platform for any commercial, business or resale purpose we will have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation or otherwise to the extent that such liability cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

16. Viruses and hacking

You must not misuse the Bridebook Platform by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Bridebook Platform, the server(s) on which the Bridebook Platform is stored or any server, computer or database connected to the Bridebook Platform. You must not attack the Bridebook Platform via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack.

By breaching this clause, you may be committing a criminal offence. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our website will cease immediately.

We use reasonable endeavours to ensure that the Bridebook Platform does not contain or disseminate any viruses or other malicious code. However, we do not guarantee that the Bridebook Platform will be free from bugs, viruses or malicious code and we will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, devices computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of the Bridebook Platform. We therefore recommend that you use your own virus protection software and scan regularly for the presence of viruses and other malicious code.

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Links on the Bridebook Platform to third party websites are provided solely for your convenience and should not be interpreted as approval by us of those linked websites or information that you may obtain from them. We have not reviewed any such third party websites and we do not control or take any responsibility for their content or availability. We do not endorse or make any representations about any such third party websites or any material found thereon or any results that may be obtained from your use of the same. If you decide to access any such third party website, you do so entirely at your own risk.

There are rules around linking to the Bridebook Platform. You may link to the homepage of the Bridebook Platform only, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it and, on condition that you do not replicate the home page of the Bridebook Platform. In linking to the Bridebook Platform you must not:

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link from a website that is not owned by you.

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We may transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms to another organisation. We will always tell you in writing if this happens. You will not transfer your rights or your obligations under these Terms to another person or entity unless we give our prior written consent.

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20 Things to Do After You Get Engaged: The Complete Step-by-Step Guide

You’re engaged, congratulations! You’re about to embark on one of the most amazing journeys of your life – and you’ve got your soulmate by your side. You’re on this rollercoaster together, and we promise it’s going to be full of love, surprises and celebration. So enjoy the ride!

As the realisation of what’s to come sets in, you might be wondering what happens next. Where do you start? Who do you tell first? How do you tell them? When should you start planning your wedding? How do you start?

Because there are so many things to do, things can get overwhelming quite quickly. But don’t worry, we’re here to guide you in the right direction and help make the next couple of weeks a lot easier, with a checklist for making sure you have everything covered.

So, in this post, we’re going to outline a step-by-step guide for everything you should do after you get engaged, from the order you should tell your family and friends to when the right time is to start making those bookings.

The wedding planning video course: kickstart your wedding planning

Now that you’re engaged, it’s time to start planning your dream wedding, but where to start? In this video, Bridebook founder (and qualified wedding planner!) Hamish Shephard breaks down your wedding organisation into 5 easy steps so you can plan stress-free and kickstart your wedding to-do list.

Our 20-step guide for what you should do after getting engaged

Photo © Adam Harvey Photography | See their Bridebook profile

When you get engaged, everything is so exciting and feels like it goes so fast that it can be easy to get carried away. Did you do this? Did you do that? Before you know it, you’re not sure what you’ve done and what’s left to do. That’s where we come in. Below are 20 steps you can follow to make sure you remember everything after getting engaged.

1. Plan the perfect engagement announcement

Photo © Blooming Photography | See their Bridebook profile

It can be tempting to run to see your parents or pick up the phone and start yelling about your brand-new engagement. But before you do that, think about if you want to do something a little more creative, or figure out a way to get both of your families together in one room and blow them all away with the news.

For a little inspo, read our post on ideas for how to announce your engagement.

2. Tell your families

Photo © Andy Sidders Photography | See their Bridebook profile

Once you’ve figured out how you’re going to do it, you can get to the exciting part. You’re engaged to the love of your life – and it’s time to let everyone know! Just be prepared for lots of squeals, some hugs and maybe even a few tears – happy ones, of course.

3. Protect the ring

Photo © Bolla Bello Photography | See their Bridebook profile

Have you ever worn anything so precious… or expensive? So thoughtful, so sentimental, so valuable… Get your ring insured. ASAP. The average cost of an engagement ring is £1,978, which is an amount that very few can afford to lose. It’s unlikely that anything will happen to it, but you never know. Then you can stop worrying and start showing it off. And trust us, you’re going to want to show off that amazing new ring a lot.

4. Tell wider friends and family, starting with the A team

Photo © Tom Jeavons | See their Bridebook profile

After telling your immediate family, it’s time to start sharing the news with your mates and colleagues. We bet some of the first people you tell will end up being key players in your wedding party. They might be your maid of honour or your best man, if you have one. Make an event of it and ask them to be by your side at your wedding over a drink or a meal out. Then start thinking about who else you want involved. Our number one piece of advice is to choose the people you love – not the people you feel obligated to have. Don’t worry about upsetting anyone – it’s your special day. You should be surrounded by your favourite people in the world.

5. Have a manicure

Photo © Mike Plunkett Photography | See their Bridebook profile

With such a beautiful new ring to show off, you may want to do this sooner, but it’s especially important to make sure your nails are on point before you have your engagement photos done or you share the news on social media. There are going to be lots of close-ups of your ring finger, so having clean, shaped and polished nails will help those photos pop. Trust us.

6. Make the papers

Photo © The Snapper | See their Bridebook profile

It’s not for everyone, and it’s a little old-fashioned by today’s standards, but you might want to follow tradition by announcing your engagement in the local (or even national) newspaper. It’ll make your parents’ and grandparents’ days, as historically, engagement announcements included lots of details about the couple’s backgrounds, families and so on. Nowadays, though, it’s up to you what you include. If nothing else, it’ll make for a brilliant keepsake.

7. Shout about it on social media

Photo © LUX Wedding Photography | See their Bridebook profile

Now comes the time to scream your news from the 21st-century equivalent of the rooftops. If there was ever a time to share something on social media, it’s now. Whether you post a cute engagement selfie with your partner to your Instagram, update your Facebook relationship status or even make a cheeky TikTok, savour this moment and watch the likes roll in.

8. Enjoy the moment and don’t rush into it

Photo © Blue Lily Weddings | See their Bridebook profile

From the moment you got engaged, you no doubt mentally went into planning mode, thinking about venues, catering, wedding rings, the song you’ll have your first dance to… but, as hard as it might be, don’t feel the need to rush straight into it. Take a step back, breathe and enjoy the moment. Why not take a little trip away, just the two of you, and enjoy some time as an engaged couple? You’re about to embark on a busy year or more of hectic wedding planning, and taking time to enjoy your engagement is definitely worth it.

9. Plan your engagement party

Photo © Pocket Square Photography | See their Bridebook profile

It’s party time! Get a date in the diary to celebrate with everyone that matters. Just remember that anyone who’s invited to your engagement party is likely to expect an invitation to the wedding too… But that’s only according to tradition, which of course can be ignored. So, if you want a blow-out bash, go for it. Plus, if you anticipate having to fill your guest list with second cousins at your parents’ request, now’s the time to leave them off the list and party on down with your nearest and dearest.

10. Take some engagement photos

Photo © Photography Ninja | See their Bridebook profile

We’re sure you’ll want to remember this period in your lives forever so make sure to document it with an engagement photoshoot. It’s a great opportunity to get to know your photographer and get used to being in front of the camera. Think of it as a test run before your wedding – so get your smiles ready and be prepared for the jaw ache.

11. Get your engagement ring properly sized

Photo © Chloe Palmer Photography | See their Bridebook profile

Unless your partner got your ring size spot on, you may need to get your engagement ring resized so it fits nice and snug. You may choose to get it done much sooner if it’s particularly loose, but it’s a balancing act between wanting to wear it to show it off, having it for the engagement photos and announcements, and making sure it doesn’t slip off and get lost forever.

Depending on the jewellers you go to, it might take up to four weeks to get your ring resized. But, if you’re willing to pay a little more, you could get it done in as little as a couple of days.

12. Get your wedding planning sorted

Photo © Ellen Forster Photography | See their Bridebook profile

By now you’ve probably had plenty of thoughts about what you want from your wedding. So, start researching and making notes about what the perfect wedding is for you.

Here at Bridebook, we have a wide selection of tools and resources to help you plan your big day. From our budget planning tool to our easy-to-use app, we have everything you might need throughout your entire planning journey. Plus, we have loads of exclusive discounts from thousands of popular vendors that you won’t find anywhere else.

13. Visit wedding fairs

Photo © Michael Calders Photography | See their Bridebook profile

One of the best ways to get excited is by visiting wedding shows and fairs around the country. It offers you the opportunity to meet vendors, get some ideas and see what’s out there so you can get inspired and start making some decisions. One of our favourite shows is The National Wedding Show, but there are dozens throughout the year up and down the UK. Make sure you also check out local shows, which are a great way to meet vendors close to you.

14. Communicate, communicate, communicate

Photo © Stanhope Photo | See their Bridebook profile

You’ll likely have a ton of ideas bouncing around inside your head, which will all come together to form your ideal wedding. Don’t forget, your partner will also be doing the same. Remember to communicate all the time, so share your ideas, worries, thoughts, concerns, excitements and everything else. If you’re always open and honest with each other you’ll nail every step of your busy planning process.

15. Start thinking about the guest list

Photo © Benjamin Toms Photography | See their Bridebook profile

This step and the step afterwards may be interchangeable, so it’s whatever works for you. Think about whether you want a big wedding where you might invite more than 100 guests, or would be happier with an intimate ceremony that’s not quite as grandiose. You may want to put together a rough guest list (which you can do right here on Bridebook) and then think about your budget, or it might be easier to do it the other way around. Whatever works for you. But, now’s the time to think about whether you really want your second cousin once removed to be there, or if you’d rather keep things a little smaller and more affordable.

16. Work out your budget

Photo © Jake Timms Photography | See their Bridebook profile

In the UK, the average cost of a wedding is £19,184, which is enough for you to put on one heck of a party. But, that doesn’t mean your wedding will cost that much – depending on your guest list, venue, catering, attire and more, it could be much lower. Or even much higher.

The best way to work out how much your perfect wedding might cost is by using a budget calculator, which allows you to input all of your wedding-related costs to show you how much they’re likely to set you back. If it’s below what you were hoping for, great! If it’s higher, you can start thinking of some alternate choices or where you can make a few savings.

17. Work out what to do if you don’t have the budget you need

Photo © Lois Brown Photography | See their Bridebook profile

Once you’ve worked out your budget you’re in a position to see how it aligns with your finances. But what if it doesn’t, does that mean the wedding’s off? Absolutely not! One option is to make changes to your plans – for example, a registry office wedding is the cheapest you can have. Another option is to save money across the entire wedding – read our ultimate guide to saving money on your wedding for more information.

Another option is to ask your family for a little extra support. Only one-third of couples pay for their wedding themselves, which means two-thirds get help from family. There are unofficial rules about who traditionally pays for what, but you’ll no doubt be grateful for help in whatever way your family can.

Read our guide to asking your parents for wedding money for helpful tips on how to approach this tricky subject.

18. Think about dates

Photo © Duncan Edward Wedding Photography | See their Bridebook profile

Before you make any proper decisions about your wedding date, start by figuring out what’s going to work for your nearest and dearest. Are there any other weddings happening that year? Does anyone have a big holiday booked? You don’t want to commit to a date, only to find out your best friend can’t make it. If you already know where you want to get married, think about when it’ll look its best. Will it really shine in summer or is it the perfect location for a winter wedding?

Choosing the right date for your wedding can also be a huge money-saver. If you want to get married on a Saturday, like half of all couples did last year, it’ll cost you way more than if you were to get married midweek.

Once you know when you’d like to get married, browse our huge range of wedding venues to find your perfect venue.

19. Start asking friends and family for recommendations

Photo © Jon Warr Photography | See their Bridebook profile

There are more than likely a fair few people in your life who have planned a wedding, so ask them for advice on how they went about it. Ask them for recommended vendors, what they loved, what they wished they’d done differently… use them, their experience and their knowledge and make some notes. Also, getting referred to a specific vendor, like a DJ or wedding car hire company, is a great way to secure a cheeky discount.

Here at Bridebook, we also have plenty of expert guides, tips, tricks and real-life stories to help answer your questions, calm your concerns and help you throughout your planning journey.

20. Consider whether or not you want to hire a wedding planner

Photo © Emis Weddings | See their Bridebook profile

Before you make any bookings or get a quote from a single vendor, think about whether or not it would be beneficial for you to hire a wedding planner. Generally, a wedding planner will cost about 10% of your overall budget, but they can save you a lot of time, money and stress by doing a lot of the negotiating and legwork for you. But, to get the best value for money, you should hire a planner at the very start of your planning process. Decide if this is something you’d like to do early on, as tempting as it might be to dive right in and start securing bookings.

So… what comes next?

So, these are the first 20 steps you should take after getting engaged. After that, you might want to take another step back and enjoy a few weeks as an engaged couple. Or, more likely, the excitement of your future wedding will be too much to resist, and you’ll want to get stuck right in with the planning.

Enjoy what comes next – it’s going to be long, exciting and rewarding, and most likely a little expensive as well. But, you’ll have a wonderful wedding day at the end of it.

Start planning your wedding with Bridebook

Here at Bridebook, we have everything you could need to plan your perfect wedding. Sign up and start planning your big day today!