Tag: bridebook business

9th October 2020: CMA News Update

I (Hamish Shephard, CEO & Founder of Bridebook) would like to share a very important update on the CMA guidance on refunds for wedding venues and suppliers. Details of the CMA’s agreement with Bijou Weddings have been released and the outcome gives extremely valuable insight on what is deemed as fair and reasonable by the CMA. Here is the key information:

THE CMA concluded the fair and reasonable amount Bijou could retain was up to 37.2% from weddings affected by COVID from 24th March 2020:

• The CMA allowed retained costs to include proportions of planning costs, staff costs, venue repair and renewal, and cleaning or gardening amongst others.
• This gives much further clarity to the CMA’s most recent guidance of 7th September, which has been regularly misinterpreted as a directive for full refunds.

The CMA’s breakdown is explained here: 

The CEO of the CMA, Andrea Coscelli, confirmed the CMA’s confidence in the Bijou settlement as a benchmark for the industry in September. “It is good news that Bijou has agreed to offer fairer levels of refunds to its customers, and we encourage other firms in the industry to follow suit“

Another key part of the Bijou agreement was that the CMA confirmed that “Bijou will not have to give refunds to people who have already received, or are going to receive, their money back through their insurance.” This again puts pressure on the insurers to honour and payout on their insurance contracts.

We know discussion on refunds has been an incredibly tense and challenging topic for wedding businesses and couples over recent months, and hope this insight aids in reaching fair and amicable outcomes for both parties. 

At Bridebook, we strongly encourage that the optimal outcome for all parties is postponement, rather than cancellation, in the majority of cases. This allows couples and businesses to not forgo incurred costs, for businesses to retain this future business, and all parties to enjoy the celebration at a later date. 

We believe this insight into the CMA’s opinion will help give ongoing business confidence to wedding companies, give existing couples increasing confidence in their venue and suppliers, and adds needed pressure on the insurers.

I know these times are incredibly tough. The rollercoaster seems to never end, and the end is not yet in sight. But stay strong. We will get there.

2021 and 2022 will be incredibly busy wedding years. The COVID backlog of weddings will ensure the rapid recovery of our industry, the reflourishing of our wonderful businesses and the joy of hundreds of thousands of couples. Bridebook and I are dedicated to ensuring everyone gets there. This week, I have been on BBC News live and BBC Radio 4 live fighting for our industry and will continue to do so. 

If I or the Bridebook team can help you in any way or you’d like to discuss anything further, please email business@bridebook.co.uk.

The latest official guidance from the CMA can always be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cma-covid-19-response#updates-from-the-cma

Stay strong,

Hamish Shephard

7th September 2020: CMA News Update

Wedding professionals, particularly venues, have been one of the most hard hit and under supported groups of businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic. Our industry, usually so full of joy and love, has been plagued by financial and emotional stress as weddings are postponed and cancelled. And sadly, the majority of venues are still sitting empty through our industry’s peak season

On 7th September 2020, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) updated their guidance on refunds and cancellations of wedding services due to the pandemic. The outcomes of this for wedding venue professionals are:

• There will likely be an increase in requests for historic refunds / settlements from previous couples 
• The CMA want the venue to split the consumed costs with the couple, so be aware of this 
• We expect venues will be having even more difficult discussions with couples, as they have the CMA guidance on their side

As always, we recommend that venues remain firm and fair: do the absolute best for your couples whilst protecting your business. Also, do remember that whilst these guidelines are presented by the CMA to encourage reasonable and fair behaviour, the final determination of individual scenarios would only be given by a judge via a court escalation. For more information on this please read Explanation of CMA Guidance on Weddings & Refunds.

This guidance may not be what we wanted to read, but now more than ever, we must hold our heads high and continue to support each other. We must look to the brighter future to get through the ongoing difficult times we face.

How can you support influencing CMA advice, as a venue?

When the CMA first released their guidance on business refunds due to the pandemic, the  Association of British Wedding Businesses’ Venues Committee members were impacted as venue owners, along with much of the wider industry with customer refund claims and threats of action from the CMA. They considered the guidance to be unbalanced and unfair, so formed the Wedding Venues Support Group (WVSG) to mount a legal challenge on the CMA. Over 170 venues have joined the Company and pledged over £60,000, used to instruct solicitors and deliver Target One, outlined in this flyer. 

In light of the new CMA guidance, the WVSG are continuing their mission and are asking more venues to join this industry wide wedding venue initiative, as a united front. You can join as a member and pledge to support their fund HERE. New members will receive the full benefits of Target One legal advice and defences, and their subscriptions will be used to fund (for the benefit of all Members) Target Two, a Wedding Industry Standard Contract based on Counsel’s expert opinion, designed to be authoritative and CMA proof. If you have any questions, please email the team at info@wvsg.org. 

Keep looking ahead – the future is brighter!

Keeping your head up and pushing to fill the diary with bookings for 2022 and beyond is the only way to keep afloat through these tricky times. The new CMA guidelines mean venues may need to issue a higher number of refunds, so continuing to bring in new revenue to support your cash flow is crucial. The end of 2021 and 2022 are going to be the busiest years for weddings in history, so now is the time to be securing that business as early as possible. After all, the pandemic has not stopped couples getting engaged; Bridebook has seen 17,500 new couples sign up since the beginning of August, which is up 15% YOY! 

The Government update of 9th September limits social gatherings, indoors and outdoors, to 6 people only. Whilst this may feel like a step back, the good news is that this does not include weddings, which can go ahead with receptions of 30 people. Venues have been battling huge challenges of couples wanting refunds, only to go and host bigger receptions at home or in the pub. Couples who wanted refunds are already starting to request receptions for 30, now that their plans have been made ‘illegal’. Venues need to use this update to their maximum advantage, and market all availability for 30 person receptions to keep revenue coming in. 

There are many ways to support your revenue stream to get through the storm. We highly recommend optimising your Terms & Conditions to promote a healthy cash flow. For example, securing upfront deposits & booking fees for future weddings will be much easier than trying to find the equivalent cost savings this year. 

Secondly, make sure you take the time to review your Pricing Strategy. Pricing is your single biggest lever for revenue growth as a venue, so ensure you are being dynamic. For example, you should have very different prices for your Saturday in August, than a Tuesday in February – you need to be thinking how you can use your dynamic pricing to support your sales. Hamish Shephard, Bridebook CEO & Founder will be hosting a virtual Masterclass on creating a pricing strategy and using it to recover your business, so watch this space! 

Finally, in order to be securing those new bookings, you need to get your venue in front of couples. This is not the time to drop your venue marketing – quite the opposite! Make sure you keep up your social media, website content and keep any online profiles up to date. If you are a VenuePro member, make sure you keep your Account Manager informed of any Special Offers you are promoting so we can push them to our community. If you are not a VenuePro member and would like to see how we can boost your marketing, please leave your details HERE. For advice on how to make the most of your social platforms, how to build content, the benefits of video tours and more, see our articles & videos here. 

We are stronger together.

Our community is like no other; we are so lucky to be surrounded by genuinely caring, fun and resilient individuals in the wedding industry. Whilst coronavirus has caused terrible times for our industry, the one positive has been wedding venues coming closer together, which continues to be crucial during these turbulent times. The UK Wedding Venues Slack Group has been an incredible source of support for its 1000+ members, and we invite any venue who is not yet a member to join. A recent survey showed that 87% members would recommend the group to a friend, so what are you waiting for! We have been uplifted seeing venues coming together in all sorts of ways; whether it is to offer advice on a tricky situation, share personal experiences or just to jump on a video call with a glass of wine to de-stress. 

Whilst the updated CMA guidelines are not what our industry was hoping for, we urge our venue community to not feel defeated. By working together, continuing to push for support from the Government and maintaining a view for the future, we will get through this.

Excerpts and links to relevant guidelines for wedding venues – updated Tuesday 21st July 2020

Government update Friday 17th July: From 1 August, small wedding receptions will be able to take place – this means sit-down meals for no more than 30 people and subject to COVID-19 Secure guidance.

Original article – published Thursday 16th July

On 23rd June, the Prime Minister announced that lockdown guidelines would be relaxed beginning on 4th July to enable weddings to restart at a restricted level. Further guidance was issued on 24th and June 29th June to provide additional clarity, and instructions for NHS Test & Trace support was issued on 2 July.

We are thrilled about the great news that our industry is finally able to host weddings again, and these guidelines represent a starting point from which we can begin working again. Below are a few links to Government guidance for your review. The guidelines are filled with recommendations on re-opening protocols and restrictions that will vary in relevance to each of our industries and individual businesses. We encourage you to read the Government guidelines thoroughly to identify how they apply to you.

• Prime Minister’s statement to the House on COVID-19 (published 23 June 2020)
• Guidance: Coronavirus outbreak FAQs: what you can and can’t do after 4 July (updated 24 June 2020)
• COVID-19: Guidance for small marriages and civil partnerships (published 28 June 2020)
• Maintaining records of staff, customers and visitors to support NHS Test and Trace (Published 2 July 2020)

Key details from guidelines:

Prime Minister’s statement to the House on COVID-19 (published 23 June 2020)

See excerpts (and please read the full linked document):

• Social distancing: “Where it is possible to keep 2 metres apart people should. But where it is not, we will advise people to keep a social distance of ‘one metre plus’ meaning they should remain one metre apart, while taking mitigations to reduce the risk of transmission.”
• Business risk reduction: “We are today publishing guidance on how businesses can reduce the risk by taking certain steps to protect workers and customers. These include, for instance avoiding face-to-face seating by changing office layouts, reducing the number of people in enclosed spaces, improving ventilation, using protective screens and face coverings, closing non-essential social spaces, providing hand sanitiser and changing shift patterns so that staff work in set teams.”
• Gatherings: “We advise that from 4 July, two households of any size should be able to meet in any setting inside or out. We are not recommending meetings of multiple households indoors because of the risk of creating greater chains of transmission. Outside, the guidance remains that people from several households can meet in groups of up to six.”
• Hospitality: “All hospitality indoors will be limited to table-service, and our guidance will encourage minimal staff and customer contact.”
• Track & Trace: “We will ask businesses to help NHS Test and Trace respond to any local outbreaks by collecting contact details from customers.”

Guidance: Coronavirus outbreak FAQs: what you can and can’t do after 4 July (updated 24 June 2020)

See excerpts (and please read the full linked document):

• 1.17 Can weddings go ahead?

Yes, from 4 July, weddings and civil partnerships will be allowed to take place. You should only invite close friends and family, up to a maximum of 30 people. The wedding exception is for wedding ceremonies only. Large wedding receptions or parties should of course not be taking place. Wedding celebrations can only happen when people follow the guidance of six people outdoors, support bubbles, or two households indoors or outdoors. It is critical for these guidelines to be observed to keep you and your family and friends as safe as possible.

• 1.25 Can I gather in larger groups for any reason?

You should only be gathering in groups of up to two households (including your support bubble). It is against the law to gather in groups of more than 30 people, except for the limited circumstances to be set out in law. You should observe the guidelines for meeting people wherever possible, and limit your social interaction to your own household or one other (or, outdoors, also a group of up to six people), to help to control the virus.

COVID-19: Guidance for small marriages and civil partnerships (published 28 June 2020)

See excerpts (and please read the full linked document):

• COVID-19 secure environment: “legally-valid ceremonies or formations are strongly advised to go ahead only where they can be done in a COVID-19 secure environment. It is also advised that the ceremonies are kept as short as reasonably possible and limited as far as reasonably possible to the parts of the ceremonies that are required in order for the marriage or civil partnership to be legally binding. No more than 30 people should attend a marriage or civil partnership, where this can be safely accommodated with social distancing in a COVID-19 secure venue.”
• Receptions: “Any receptions that typically follow or accompany marriages or civil partnerships are strongly advised not to take place at this time. Small celebrations should only take place if following social distancing guidelines – i.e. in groups of up to two households indoors, or up to 6 people from different households outdoors.”
• Venue decision-making: “Venue managers will have discretion over when they consider it safe to open, and the officiant should also be content that it is safe to proceed. The venue should decide to remain closed or not proceed with the marriage or civil partnership if they are not able to safely adhere to the guidelines outlined below. Where the legislation requires that a venue does not open at this time then it must remain closed.”

Maintaining records of staff, customers and visitors to support NHS Test and Trace (Published 2 July 2020)

See excerpts (and please read the full linked document):

• The following information should be collected by the venue, where possible:
  • Staff
    • the names of staff who work at the premises
    • a contact phone number for each member of staff
    • the dates and times that staff are at work
  • Customers and visitors
    • the name of the customer or visitor. If there is more than one person, then you can record the name of the ‘lead member’ of the group and the number of people in the group
    • a contact phone number for each customer or visitor, or for the lead member of a group of people
    • date of visit, arrival time and, where possible, departure time
    • if a customer will interact with only one member of staff (e.g. a hairdresser), the name of the assigned staff member should be recorded alongside the name of the customer
• No additional data should be collected for this purpose.
• To support NHS Test and Trace, you should hold records for 21 days.

For more business advice we’ve collated all of our COVID-19 resources for wedding professionals to help you easily find the support you need. If you have any questions at all or need any help then please do reach out to anyone in the Bridebook team.

At present, venues are still unable to host in-person show rounds. Creating and hosting virtual video tours should be your No.1 priority to continue generating revenue during COVID-19.

Bridebook’s amazing product team have built Video Tours to increase the exposure of your virtual tour capabilities. These tools are available exclusively for VenuePro members.

Your new Video Tours tools:

1. Get real-time video tour enquiries from prospective couples using Bridebook. Activate ‘Enable LIVE Video Tours‘ in your profile and we will let searching couples know that you’re ready (and raring) to host a live showround.

2. Help couples get the feel for your venue and team by adding a pre-recorded video to your profile. We have built a dedicated ‘Video Tours’ section on your profile, so couples can easily find it. Please note you may only upload in a Vimeo or Youtube format.

Not sure how to make video tours work for your venue? Not to worry! Hamish Shephard, CEO of Bridebook and Owner of Hedsor House, shares his advice on why venues should be offering video tours and how best to do them here. Hedsor House have been using video tours for two years and have seen huge revenue generating success…

Over the last three weeks, Bridebook has seen an 8% YoY increase on engaged couples signing up to the app. There is new business is out there, waiting for you. Virtual tours are crucial for bringing your venue new business during lockdown.

Please note that as Bridebook introduces more & more high tech features such as these, we are unable to support old web browsers, most notably Internet Explorer 11. We always recommend using Google Chrome for the best experience with Bridebook Business.

Exclusive use North Cornwall wedding venue Pengenna Manor, a private 800-year-old manor house set in over 300 stunning acres specialising in rustic barn and marquee weddings, launched a new service at the end of March to try and keep the business rolling during these uncertain times – a virtual video tour of the entire venue. Grace from Bridebook spoke to Richard, the proprietor, about his experience and the successes so far.

Having to cancel several pre-booked viewing appointments once the shutdown was announced on the 23rd March got owner Richard Blewett thinking about how to try and keep new bookings coming in during the crisis. He realised the perfect solution would be to shoot a series of individual tour videos of the whole venue, and although there was nothing new in that idea, he knew what couples always love when visiting the Manor is the personal touch.

“They love being given the personal tour by the owner himself and I have underestimated in the past the power of personality” says Richard, “so I decided that I had to somewhat step out of my comfort zone where I’d rather feature the Manor than myself and step in front of the camera!”

Introducing the video tour himself from in front of the camera, and wrapping it up at the end, lets couples see who is guiding them around, helping them connect to what is being shown and described. You don’t need to spend big to make it great either! “I wasn’t aiming for a super glossy professional look, I wanted it to be as personal as possible so I just filmed and edited each video on my mobile, just as if I was taking someone around with me… it’s just the same as taking couples on a FaceTime or Skype tour but without the signal drop-outs!” said Richard.

Showing your personality through a video tour is crucial. Bridebook’s data from the UK Wedding Report 2020 shows that it is the team at the venue that is the single biggest deciding factor when it comes to booking!

The tour is broken down in to a series of 8 bite size videos, each one showcasing a different area of the venue to allow couples to dip in and out as they wish. Richard leads you around the entire venue step by step, featuring everything the couple would see if they visited in person, sparing no detail, ensuring they have the full experience. The introduction is quick and to the point (about 30 seconds in length) and the longest video is about 20 minutes. He concludes the short series with another 30 second video, where couples are offered the chance for a live video chat with him afterwards to answer any follow up questions. The videos have now been viewed over 270 times and four brand new bookings have been achieved in the last three weeks directly because of them.

Richard says: “Since we finished and launched the tour on the website at the end of March it’s been really popular with new couples looking to view who can’t visit us right now, and also our existing couples can use it to help them plan their wedding, and share it with their family and friends. One of our booked couples got in touch to thank me, saying that their parents who have yet to visit loved it, and their grandma now watches it every day, helping her to get through isolation!”

As the year progresses Richard plans to re-film and issue updates on certain sections as the seasons change and the stunning grounds at Pengenna burst into life. This is a fantastic example of proactive marketing during these unprecedented times, proving exactly how much they pay off, too! For more on this topic, read Hamish Shephard’s advice on why you should be offering virtual tours and how best to do them.

While couples stuck at home and showrounds are off the cards, it’s essential to focus on what you can do to sell your venue and get future bookings. Sharing reviews from your real weddings is one of the most effective ways to continue generating interest from new prospects and secure future bookings during the pandemic. Bridebook have pulled together some advice to demonstrate why your reviews matter and encourage you to share your hard-earned feedback.

Why your reviews are so important

While anyone can get a good photographer and fill their website with beautiful pictures, it’s what your real couples say about you that will have the biggest impact and make you stand out from the crowd. With couples currently unable to meet you and your team and experience the showround in person, they will be relying much more on trusted reviews to narrow down their search for the perfect venue. Your couple content will therefore be more valuable now than ever in providing a real and authentic insight into your wedding venue.

Need more convincing? Read the opinions of four award-winning UK wedding venues who share their thoughts on the power of reviews

How to use your reviews

Be proud of the special days that you and your team have created and be sure to share, share, share! The more widely accessible you can make this content, the more couples will be able to envisage their dream day with you. We’ve written an article giving tips on the best channels to share your content during the pandemic, so have a read for some inspiration and make sure you’re covering all the bases.

For more information on how to make the most of your reviews, Bridebook CEO Hamish Shephard shares his thoughts in this short Bridebook Business Live video:

Next Steps for you and your team

1. Ask – do you have a process in place for asking your couples for reviews? Why not create an email template ready to send after each wedding – send a link to the Bridebook reviews page where your couples can leave you a review directly: bridebook.co.uk/reviews. Also consider whether you have any reviews on paper that you could manually add to your online collection.
2. Share – start making those reviews visible as soon as possible, update your Bridebook testimonials and share across your marketing channels. 
3. Promote – you worked hard for this feedback so continue to use over again and reach as wide an audience as possible. Share on social media, add to your email signature, create testimonial videos, the opportunities are endless!
4. Collaborate – connect with the suppliers you know and create a network for yourself. Couples will talk to a lot of other suppliers on their journey, and if they mention you it will give the couples extra confidence. Similarly by reciprocating the favour and recommending suppliers to your couples you will establish trust in your business.
5. Learn – get feedback not only from those who book you, but follow up with those who don’t – find out why and what you could change.

For more business advice and support do have a look at the information available in our COVID-19 resources for wedding professionals. If you have any questions at all or need any help then please do reach out to anyone in the Bridebook team. You can also join the UK Wedding Venue Slack group to chat with others who are in the same boat, and if you have any thoughts or tips yourself then please do share – we are in this together!

The CEO and founder of Bridebook.co.uk sends out an urgent call to support and save our community and industry amidst the coronavirus pandemic

This is an opportunity for professionals, businesses and staff within the UK wedding industry as well as couples, families and wedding guests to highlight the insensitive and uncooperative behaviour of wedding insurers amidst the mass wedding cancellations due to COVID-19. Join us in asking for support from the British Government to ensure these insurance providers cover their responsibilities during this crisis.

Signatures: 4010 – 1st May 2020 – 11am

Goal: 50,000 signatures

SIGN THE PETITION

Or visit: https://bit.ly/SaveWeddings

View all signatures here.

Who we are:

The UK Wedding Industry is one that thrives on celebrating one of life’s happiest moments.  Working fastidiously behind the scenes to ensure that every couple’s wedding day runs smoothly and exactly as they had hoped, our remarkable community hosts over 20 million wedding guests and 252,000 weddings every year in the UK, worth over £10 billion to Britain’s economy.  

The industry is comprised of 139,000 businesses, mostly small, local or family-run, and combined we account for over 500,000 jobs in the UK. We are the caring, entrepreneurial, local small businesses that bring these weddings to life. From cake-makers to caterers, dressmakers to DJs, venues to violinists, florists to photographers, and so many more. We spend our days bringing joy and celebration to the entire population.

How COVID affects our industry:

The COVID-19 crisis and related government regulations have essentially wiped out the peak wedding season for 2020, from April through September, in which 80% of UK weddings take place. As a result, 36% of all 2020 weddings will not take place this year, and 56% (141,000 weddings, representing £5.6 billion) will be significantly impacted. Heartbreakingly, couples throughout the nation are scrambling to cancel and postpone one of the most significant and long-awaited days of their lives, with damaging implications to the livelihood of the many professionals supporting these weddings.

The unsupportive role of wedding insurers:

30% of couples, approximately 76,000 in total, purchase wedding insurance each year to provide reassurance for the unimaginable circumstance that the wedding doesn’t take place.  Now that thousands of couples are in this exact predicament the wedding insurance industry is largely avoiding their financial responsibility. Different statements about coverage are being issued by each insurer, causing confusion and ultimately resulting in financial losses for couples, venues and suppliers.  

The insurers have instead focused on steering couples to pressure their venue and suppliers to postpone to later dates at no cost, rather than paying out to the couples. Rather than accepting the liability themselves, they are pushing the financial burden back onto the budget-stretched couples and small businesses who are, in-turn, cannibalising their own future business to assuage the situation. At the same time, the insurers of these small businesses have themselves turned their backs due to the crisis. To date, we have only seen uncollaborative behaviour by this goliath insurance industry against our severely impacted community of small businesses.

The impacts of mass cancellations and postponements to the industry:

The wedding industry has effectively been brought to its knees having made huge sacrifices to help couples who haven’t purchased wedding insurance, while being pressured further to also cover those who have. The no-cost “in-kind” postponements that insurers are encouraging, in lieu of paying the couples, are detrimental to the livelihood of many wedding businesses across the country. This proposed ‘solution’ removes valuable future dates from suppliers’ calendars thus only exacerbating the impact of the crisis.

Our industry is also largely unable to secure new business for the foreseeable future due to venues being closed for viewings and registrars not taking any new bookings. This is to the further detriment of the extreme cash flow challenges that many businesses are experiencing within the wedding community.  

Whilst many hospitality businesses will be able to spring back to life instantly post-crisis, the wedding industry will take significantly longer to recover due to protracted lead times in arranging a wedding and the legal requirements of giving notice. Already, in the short time that the UK has been dealing with cancellations due to coronavirus, many businesses have been forced to close their doors permanently, and we can expect more to come if our industry is left to absorb the financial losses of the cancellations on its own. 

What we ask of the wedding insurers:

We implore wedding insurers to join the rest of the country during these incredibly tough times and act with more responsibility and empathy. We ask the insurance providers to understand that couples and venues are being forced, through no fault or choice of their own, to cancel weddings, and to recognise that their policies have been purchased specifically to address this challenge.

This is the time to step in and be supportive, not to step away. If wedding insurers financially support the third of couples who have wedding insurance, it would not only give the couples the reassurance and peace of mind that they deserve, but it could give the industry the lifeblood and capacity to survive. 

What we ask of the British Government:

We ask the British Government to recognise the severity of the situation that the small businesses of the wedding industry are currently facing, and to stand with us. It is reprehensible that, in the face of a global crisis where our community is being forced to shut down business completely and cancel hundreds of thousands of weddings, the wedding insurers are not accepting their share of the financial responsibility. We are therefore asking for your help during this crisis, so that we can be there for our nation when they need us afterwards.

Why the UK needs our wedding community intact, especially following the pandemic:

Each wedding that takes place in the UK is an ecosystem in itself. From guests staying in local B&Bs and buying new outfits, to couples booking honeymoons and families finding gifts, to students waitering and caterers keeping supply-chains humming, to florists blooming, stationers printing, venues bustling and dancefloors jumping. And all in the name of love and celebration. 

The world needs love and celebration more now than ever before, and I know our whole industry cannot wait to get everyone back on those dancefloors and smiling again. Weddings are joyous occasions, packed with friends and family, and filled with embraces. And in this awful crisis today it is those happy moments that we miss the most. 

We don’t want to lose such treasured local businesses. We want to be here to celebrate with you, together, when all of this is over. As the future of the wedding industry hangs in the balance, our community needs the wedding insurers to understand the role they have to play and to start honouring their policies, helping couples and the industry recover from this disaster.

A vital contributor to both the British economy and the wellbeing of our nation, our industry hopes that you can support us through the challenging weeks ahead. 

For your valued time reading this letter, we are truly grateful. 

See you all on the dancefloor,

Hamish Shephard

Founder of Bridebook

Partner of family-run wedding venue, Hedsor House

On behalf of the UK Wedding Professional Community

I, the undersigned, support the UK Wedding Professional Community Open Letter.

SIGN THE PETITION

Or visit: https://bit.ly/SaveWeddings

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Follow Bridebook Business on Facebook and Instagram to stay up-to-date on the developments of this petition. 

About Bridebook:

Bridebook supports the UK Wedding Industry with free insights, reports and tools to market their businesses. We are a proud member of this wonderful and cherished community.

Thousands of couples use Bridebook’s top-rated wedding app every day which offers a suite of free planning tools and the most extensive marketplace of local venues and suppliers in the UK. Bridebook was featured as Apple’s #1 Favourite App for 2019.

Businesses can learn more:https://business.bridebook.co.uk/

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Share the open letter and petition:

We encourage you to share these links with colleagues, staff, friends and wedding couples and post on your social media so we can gain more signatures and support. Thank you for helping to support our industry! 

Read the open letter:/article/coronavirus-wedding-industry-crisis-open-letter

Sign the petition:https://bit.ly/SaveWeddings

With couples now at home and spending more time browsing online, it’s the perfect time to maximise the impact of your content and keep engagement levels with your venue high.

With the ever-evolving COVID-19 situation not only providing enhanced opportunities to connect with your audience, but also demanding a more considered and sensitive approach, the Bridebook team have put together a 3-part series of articles with our top tips on content creation during this time. While part 1 covered what type of content you should be creating, and part 2 gave advice on where you should share it, here in part 3 we look at how to build and implement your overall strategy.

How do I approach and implement my overall content strategy?

Research

There’s no point producing content for the sake of it – you need to be thinking about providing value. Do some keyword research to see what couples are typing into the search engines right now – get a view on their pain points and topics of interest. Keeping an eye on the news and joining discussions in the UK Wedding Venue Slack group will keep you in the loop with industry updates – this awareness is super important to ensuring your content is relevant and engaging. 

Think holistically

Take a step back and think about the wider plan for your content. This overall view will ensure you cover all of the most important and relevant topics, that you don’t repeat yourself and that you can prioritise the most important content. Set aside a chunk of time at the start of the week or even month to plan your content, saving yourself time in the long run and making the process feel manageable. Advanced planning will also ensure you’re able to maximise on important milestones, for example you might create a content campaign in preparation for when lockdown is lifted and you’re able to open your doors to couples again. 

Be SMART

Set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely for each piece of content. This approach will ensure that your time is well spent on valuable content, that the message is clear throughout, that you don’t waste any time on topics that are no longer relevant, and that you maximise the impact on the audience. It also enables you to take learnings from previous content performance and use this to improve your approach going forward. 

Consider your audience

Every time you start a new piece of content think ‘who is this for?’ – put yourself in their shoes and adapt your style accordingly. The tone and language throughout should reflect how you would communicate the message in person. 

Your audience should also inform which channel you choose to share each piece of content on. Important updates are most likely best shared directly in email, social media might be the best channel for inspiring potential prospects and collaborations could be a great opportunity to share advice and establish yourself as an industry expert. 

We hope these tips, along with part 1 & part 2, provide guidance for how to approach your content strategy over the coming weeks. For more business advice we’ve collated all of our COVID-19 resources for wedding professionals to help you easily find the support you need. If you have any questions at all or need any help then please do reach out to anyone in the Bridebook team. You can also join the UK Wedding Venue Slack group to chat with others who are in the same boat, and if you have any thoughts or tips yourself then please do share – we are in this together!

With couples now at home and spending more time browsing online, it’s the perfect time to maximise the impact of your content and keep engagement levels with your venue high.

With the ever-evolving COVID-19 situation not only providing enhanced opportunities to connect with your audience, but also demanding a more considered and sensitive approach, the Bridebook team have put together a 3-part series of articles with our top tips on content creation during this time. While part 1 covered what type of content you should be creating, here in part 2 we look at where you should share it. Be sure to read part 3 for how to build and implement your overall strategy. 

Where should I be sharing my content during the pandemic?

Blogs 

The value of blogging for business growth is well-documented. That value could be even greater now with couples spending more time online, while your industry experience puts you in a great position to create the most relevant, wanted and engaging content. Share your expertise through blog posts to improve SEO and drive organic traffic to your site, while also establishing yourself as an industry leader.

Collaborations/guest posts

A great way to increase your exposure is to work with other brands or businesses and share one another’s content. Reach out to brands that you align with, contact wedding blogs you follow, email your suppliers and find out if there are any opportunities for you to work on content together or share something you have expertise on. This is an easy way to be seen by a whole new audience.

Bridebook are currently collaborating with venues to ensure that the most helpful tips and advice are accessible to all during this difficult time. If you do have any particular experience or expertise that you’d like to share then let us know by contacting grace@bridebook.co.uk – we’d love to work together to make a difference!

Bridebook 

With the most relevant and engaged audience for wedding businesses, keeping your Bridebook profile up to date will ensure you maximise interest from your ideal couples. It’s a good idea to regularly maintain all of your online marketing platforms and be sure that they reflect your brand as business as you want them to. Update your profile here.

Social media

Facebook and Instagram have seen a 40% increase in activity since isolation rules were brought in, so make sure you’re seen on these platforms. A great opportunity to get creative and engage informally with your couples, read our article on your social media strategy and social media content for our top tips.

Email

Everyone’s inboxes are overflowing with covid content at the moment, so don’t add to the noise by sending generic news updates. Your email list is your most direct and targeted audience, so nurture these valuable contacts by keeping them in the loop with the most important and relevant information. Valuable email content will ensure you avoid the trash!

Your website

While blog posts, emails and social media are all important ways of increasing your exposure, if you are ultimately driving traffic to your website then your website has to sell your venue! Make sure it reflects you entirely as a brand and gives couples a real feel for what their wedding with you could be like. Show off your reviews, link to your collaborations, highlight your virtual showround – make your website content as engaging and unforgettable as possible. And if you think it needs a complete overhaul, now is the time to do it!

We hope these tips, along with part 1 & part 3, provide guidance for how to approach your content strategy over the coming weeks. For more business advice we’ve collated all of our COVID-19 resources for wedding professionals to help you easily find the support you need. If you have any questions at all or need any help then please do reach out to anyone in the Bridebook team. You can also join the UK Wedding Venue Slack group to chat with others who are in the same boat, and if you have any thoughts or tips yourself then please do share – we are in this together!

With couples now at home and spending more time browsing online, it’s the perfect time to maximise the impact of your content and keep engagement levels with your venue high.

With the ever-evolving COVID-19 situation not only providing enhanced opportunities to connect with your audience, but also demanding a more considered and sensitive approach, the Bridebook team have put together a 3-part series of articles with our top tips on content creation during this time. Here in part 1 we cover what type of content you should be creating, while part 2 gives advice on where you should share it, and part 3 how to build and implement your overall strategy.

What content should I be sharing during the pandemic?

Important messages, news & updates 

Show care for your couples by keeping them in the loop with your most important news and updates, such as changes to any of your policies that may impact them. While times are still uncertain, be as transparent as possible on your plan of action over this period including any extensions to your closed dates and how you’re handling postponements. Bridebook is supporting this by enabling you to add a Covid Status to your venue profile and quickly communicate your most important updates with couples.

For new couples, important updates might include any special offers that you’ve introduced, such as mid-week discounts, or your plan to conduct video showrounds and online consultations. Do you have any refurbishment plans? This is a great example of positive news that could become an intriguing and engaging series for potential clients to follow.

Help and advice 

What everyone wants right now is advice on how to handle the challenges that covid has thrown at us. If you have any tips on how to navigate a specific problem then share it – this type of content will no doubt be well received by suppliers and couples alike. As well as joining discussions in the UK Wedding Venue Slack group, why not also use your blog and social media channels to share your valuable thoughts?

We’ve written a series of articles specifically for couples which you can find in the ‘Couple Management’ section of our covid information and resources for wedding professionals – please do feel free to share any that you think could be helpful. Supporting your couples in these difficult times will build valuable relationships.

Inspiration 

Make sure you don’t neglect new prospects by continuing to create inspirational content. As well as sharing your best photos, this is a great chance to have fun and get creative with video content – have a read of our reasons to ‘go live’ in our social media article for some ideas.

We also highly recommend recording a virtual showround to help couples envisage their wedding with you – Bridebook CEO Hamish Shephard gives his advice on creating your virtual venue tour in part 3 of his covid advice video series here.

Reviews and recommendations 

There is no better way for couples to get a real insight into how their wedding could be at your venue than through reading your reviews, so be sure to share this content. We’ve written a whole article about the importance of sharing your reviews during this time, including a video from Bridebook CEO Hamish Shephard. Sharing feedback from your real weddings is a highly effective way to sell your venue without a showround.

We hope these tips, along with part 2 & part 3, provide guidance for how to approach your content strategy over the coming weeks. For more business advice we’ve collated all of our COVID-19 resources for wedding professionals to help you easily find the support you need. If you have any questions at all or need any help then please do reach out to anyone in the Bridebook team. You can also join the UK Wedding Venue Slack group to chat with others who are in the same boat, and if you have any thoughts or tips yourself then please do share – we are in this together!

With all the chaos you have been facing over the past couple of weeks, we’re sure that updating your website has probably not been at the forefront of your mind. However, it is important to ensure that your website communicates how you are operating during the coronavirus pandemic, and reassures your future business prospects. 

To help you get started, we have shared some quick tips on effectively updating your website to support your business during COVID-19. 

1. Your home page – can you add a pop-up?

If you are able to add a pop-up to your homepage, this is a really great option. It won’t distract from your beautiful website, but it will quickly assure your visitors that you are handling the situation appropriately. 

You’ll need to decide what angle you want to take with your copy. You could create a ‘status update’ to reassure prospective couples, for example: “We are absolutely still taking bookings for late 2020 / 2021, please get in touch and we can arrange a virtual show round / video meeting”. 

On the other hand, this would be a great place to communicate with your booked couples, and simply reassure that you are following Government advice. For example: “At [VENUE NAME] we are closely monitoring the situation and are following all Government guidelines. If you have booked a wedding with us, we will get in touch if this is likely to affect you.” 

Bridebook has also built a COVID-19 status update tool that you can use on your profile – update your status HERE. 

2. Your weddings page – what are you offering?

Revise your copy on your dedicated wedding pages to assure couples that you’re still open for business. Make sure you are offering a variety of options for different couple needs at this time: 

• Couples who have booked you already: Add a line to reassure your booked couples that you will be here to support them and help to reschedule their events as smoothly as possible. 
• Couples who are having to find a new venue: Some couples may have sadly lost their venue booking. You could add some empathetic copy, showing you are here to support any couples who are looking for a new venue.
• Couples who are looking for a wedding venue: If you have late availability, you could attract some couples looking for a last minute wedding on this page. Do you have an elopement package, for example?

3. Your enquiry / contact page – set expectations and reassure.

Whilst it is still crucial to be replying to new business enquiries as efficiently as possible, there may be an understandable delay at the moment, due to dealing with postponements etc. 

We’d recommend adding a short line or two in your ‘contact us’ page, to set expectations on your reply time. Do remember to keep it as friendly and enthusiastic as possible – their wedding enquiry is still very important to you, you are just spinning lots of plates handling COVID 19 repercussions so may not reply as efficiently as usual. 

For example, use cheerful phrases such as “Huge congratulations on your engagement, we are so pleased you are considering [VENUE NAME] for your special day” and set expectations with: “Due to recent world events / repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic, our team’s response time is slightly delayed. Please allow us 48 hours to get back to you”.

4. FAQs – get ahead of the COVID questions!

Whether you have a pre-existing FAQ page or haven’t yet created one, we strongly recommend creating a ‘COVID-19’ section. This will allow you to get ahead of the questions you’ll be asked frequently by couples, for example: “Are you open?”, “How can I view the venue?”, “Can I still book with you?”.

An effective FAQ section will ideally provide you and your team a little more time to handle the influx of calls and emails coming your way, and allow you to prioritise the urgent postponements.

We know this is the most difficult time in our industry any of us have had to face. If you need any support from Bridebook on website copy advice, please don’t hesitate to message us in the UK Wedding Venues Slack group and we will be happy to help. Have a read through our founder, Hamish Shephard’s advice for handling postponements.

With social media providing a means of escape from reality for many, it’s no surprise that isolation has been linked to increased use of the most popular apps (and a few new ones). Any attention that you can focus on your social media channels now could be hugely beneficial long term. Bridebook have put together a 2-part series of tips to help you and your team best use social media during this time. While part 1 focuses on your overall strategy, here in part 2 we cover the type of content you should be sharing.

1. Get creative

Social media is not the same as your website – content here is much more temporary so it doesn’t have to be perfect! This is a great opportunity to do something different and innovative, stand out and interrupt feeds. Perhaps you could have fun with quizzes or polls, encouraging couples to get their friends involved? Or partner up with another brand or supplier and create a competition/giveaway – “tag your partner for a chance to win…”, “comment and share to enter…”, “caption this…”? Whatever you do, be yourself, don’t overthink and try to have a bit of fun with it!

2. Go Live

Live video enables you to connect with your audience in a much more genuine way and, with everyone in isolation, face-to-face communication is a really engaging means of interacting. Why not try answering couple questions on an Instagram live or offer online check-ins to potential clients? Or how about sharing your latest news, such as a ‘refurbishment underway’? If you’re not keen on recording live, then short videos of pre-recorded content can be easily shared on Instagram or Facebook, and will help couples feel like they’re getting to know you and your team.

3. Inspire

With Engagement Season ending just a few weeks ago, a large percentage of couples will be in the early stages of wedding planning. Share inspiring content to capture your audience’s imagination, post your best photos and react to any couple engagement to nurture new relationships. 

Help couples envisage their wedding with you by recording a showround and sharing it with your audience. Bridebook CEO Hamish Shephard gives his advice on creating your virtual venue tour in part 3 of his covid advice video series here.

4. Share Advice

With Couples

As a wedding venue, you will know the difficulties that some couples are currently facing better than anyone, and social media is an easy way to show you care by reaching out and engaging. We’ve written a series of articles for couples which you can find in the Couple Management section here, so please do feel free to share any that you think could be helpful.

As a wedding venue, you will know the difficulties that some couples are currently facing better than anyone, and social media is an easy way to show you care by reaching out and engaging. We’ve written a series of articles for couples which you can find in the Couple Management section here, so please do feel free to share any that you think could be helpful.

With Suppliers

Any tips or advice that you’ve picked up so far could help someone else going through the same. Coming together as a community and supporting one another in these difficult times will build valuable relationships. Use your social media channels to help and educate and you will no doubt see this reciprocated.

If you do have any particular experience or expertise that you’d like to share then let us know by contacting grace@bridebook.co.uk. We are collaborating with venues to ensure these messages reach as wide an audience as possible.

We hope these tips provide guidance for how best to approach your social media content over the coming weeks and beyond. If you haven’t already, be sure to read part 1 of this series for more social media advice. 

For more business advice and support do have a look at the information available in our COVID-19 resources for wedding professionals. If you have any questions at all or need any help then please do reach out to anyone in the Bridebook team. You can also join the UK Wedding Venue Slack group to chat with others who are in the same boat, and if you have any thoughts or tips yourself then please do share – we are in this together!

With social media providing a means of escape from reality for many, it’s no surprise that isolation has been linked to increased use of the most popular apps (and a few new ones). Any attention that you can focus on your social media channels now could be hugely beneficial long term. Bridebook have put together a 2-part series of tips to help you and your team best use social media during this time. Here in part 1 we focus on your overall strategy, while part 2 explores the type of content you should be sharing. 

1. Be Present

While no doubt a stressful and busy time for your business, it’s important to try and maintain your social media presence. Since people have been spending more time at home, Facebook and Instagram have seen a 40% increase in activity. This is a great chance for you to reach a wider audience and engage with your couple community. If you didn’t use social media before then perhaps now is the perfect time to start!

2. Be Positive

Whether reaching out to those who are having to change plans or connecting with newly-engaged couples, the best strategy across your platforms is to be positive. Focusing on what you can do rather than what you can’t, will both calm anxious couples and give potential new prospects confidence in your team.

3. Prioritise

If you’re short on time with a million other things to do, prioritise which social media channels you want to focus on, considering which give you the best engagement and the most enquiries. Don’t be inclined to spread your efforts too thin – while it’s sensible to claim profiles across channels, there’s a great deal more value in one nurtured and engaged audience.

4. Consistency is key

An organic and engaged social media following is not just about what you share but when. Whether you decide to post daily, twice weekly or just once a week, make a schedule and stick to it. If you can set aside a bit of time early in the week to plan your next few posts, it will feel much more manageable and sustainable. There are plenty of tools out there to help too, for example Later lets you schedule up to 30 Instagram posts per month for free. Any upfront effort is worth it, as regular posts will undoubtedly give you the best results.

We hope these tips provide guidance for how best to approach your social media strategy over the coming weeks and beyond. Be sure to read part 2 of this series for advice on social media content. 

For more business advice and support do have a look at the information available in our COVID-19 resources for wedding professionals. If you have any questions at all or need any help then please do reach out to anyone in the Bridebook team. You can also join the UK Wedding Venue Slack group to chat with others who are in the same boat, and if you have any thoughts or tips yourself then please do share – we are in this together!

Curated by Hamish Shephard, Bridebook CEO & owner of Hedsor House, this video series covers some of the most challenging issues that you and your wedding venue might be facing now and over the coming weeks as the Covid-19 situation evolves. 

Part 1 – Intro

Hamish introduces his educational video series, giving his thoughts on the situation so far and an overview of the topics that he’ll be covering over the coming weeks.

Part 2 – Postponements & Cancellations

In this video, Hamish sheds some light on how best to approach one of the most challenging situations – postponements and cancellations. Advice includes what you need to take into consideration to make the best decisions, financial implications, when you should consider moving weddings to, insurance policies and communicating with your couples.

For more information have a read of our article What to remember when postponing weddings, in order to protect your business.

Part 3 – Virtual Venue Tours

In part 3 of this educational video series, Hamish shares his thoughts on virtual tours and why you should consider creating one for your venue. Highlights include Hamish’s own experience at Hedsor House, the best ways to create a virtual tour and his recommended next steps.

For more information have a read of our article Why wedding venues should be offering virtual tours, and how best to do them.

Part 4 – Getting New Wedding Bookings

In part 4, Hamish dives into how to increase couples’ confidence to make a booking with you during this difficult time. There are 3 key things you need to think about – watch the video to find out what these are.

Part 5 – Coming soon…

To get all the latest updates subscribe to our Bridebook Business Youtube channel where we’ll continue to share our educational videos.

We have a wealth of additional information to support you in our COVID-19 Resources for Wedding Professionals hub. If you need any further help then please do reach out to anyone in the Bridebook team. We also recommend joining  the UK Wedding Venue Slack group where +700 wedding venues are discussing the fast evolving Covid-19 situation and sharing helpful tips and advice. If you have any thoughts or tips yourself then please do join in and share – we are in this together!

There have been some brilliant, thought-provoking conversations happening over on our UK Wedding Venues Slack Group. One of the most popular topics people have asked for advice on is virtual tours. Hamish Shephard, Founder of Bridebook & Hedsor House created an educational video on why all venues should be offering virtual tours through the coronavirus pandemic, and how best to create them – here’s a summary of his advice. 

Why are we encouraging virtual tours?

Over the last few years here at Hedsor House, we have been doing some amazing things with video tours and have seen great success. To give you an idea of how well they work for us at Hedsor, over the last 10 days we have booked 3 new weddings for 2021 using virtual tours! 

Video tours are going to become extremely important for your venue over the coming months, as couples are not going to be able to come to your venue for showrounds. The absolute best way to get ourselves out of the sticky situation we are all in, with not being able to host weddings in the immediate future, is to keep bringing in new business for next year and beyond. You do not want to get through this storm, and then find you have to weather another one due to an empty calendar with no new revenue!

Our experience with virtual tours, and why we love them!

A lot of people think virtual tours will not be an effective sales tool, and that you need to be IN the venue to get a proper feel for it. Believe it or not, I used to be one of these people! Due to our incredibly busy summers at Hedsor, a couple of years ago the team came up with an idea (that I thought was bad at first – they soon proved me wrong) to put a touch screen TV in one of Hedsor’s outbuildings, to host virtual tours.

So, if a couple wants to do a show round when we have an event in the main house, they are still able to enjoy the drive up to the house and are then taken down the hill to a gorgeous room in our old stable block, where they are taken through a virtual show round. We have sold A LOT of weddings this way. We also have many couples from other countries wanting to book with us, so we do a Zoom screen share and take them through the same virtual tour. 

Why do virtual tours work so well?

A lot of people think that show rounds are the couple coming to look at the fabric of the building, just to see what it looks like. However, our Bridebook data consistently shows that the number one deciding factor when booking a venue is the team. The couple want to know that you are genuinely nice people, that they can trust you and have confidence you are there to give them the greatest day of their lives. 

This is where being able to talk someone through your venue tour with genuine enthusiasm and excitement, really helps the couple to have confidence in you – even if they can’t physically come to your venue and meet you. 

Since we are in lock-down, perhaps it’s easier than ever to be doing virtual show rounds – if you have a quiet day you could be doing them back to back! All you need is your laptop / phone. The tours can be as long or short as you and the couple want them to be. There also isn’t that intensity when someone doesn’t turn up – I know this is often the bane of our lives in the industry! Luckily, should this happen on a virtual tour, you can jump straight back into other work at home. Though I am sure this won’t be the case – I hope!

What are the best ways to create a virtual tour?

There are a few different ways you can create a virtual tour, depending on budget, whether you have access to your venue and of course, how confident you are with technology! 

• The absolute best way is to offer a 360 virtual tour – Matterport is a great software for this, however will cost you £1000 or more and takes some time. Your venue will need dressing, and this likely be possible to do right now if you haven’t done it already. 

• The next best option, is to do a live ‘facetime’ tour when you’re on a video call with a couple. You’ll only be able to do this in the short term if you are based at your venue. 
  • You walking round the venue, being able to talk into the camera and show the best bits of each room off is a much more natural interaction. This may take a little longer, but will be much more personal. 
  • Do make sure you have a good internet connection if you’re doing this live with a couple! 

• Simply walking round the venue with an iPhone is great too, especially if you have access to a recent model. If you have an iPhone 11, use the ‘wide angle’ lens, and take a video tour from your point of view!
  • If you can get someone to be your cameraman and follow you on the tour and record this is great, as it will be much more interactive than just a voiceover
  • It doesn’t have to be perfect! You can retake clips if you need to
  • You can edit this on a free software like iMovie for example, which is incredibly simple to use and knit multiple videos together into one.
  • Put some music over the time / speed up boring bits if you need to (e.g. walking up lots of stairs!)

• The most basic option for creating a virtual tour is simply putting a slideshow of photos together. You can do this on Powerpoint, or iMovie again, Google Slides etc.
  • Just drag and drop photos!
  • Do this in your ‘tour order’ – you’re doing to be talking to them through these photos, so start outside the front door and work your way through your usual tour.
  • You can either record your slideshow as a video and then add a voiceover of you talking them through it
  • If the couple want to do it live on a video call, you can send them the slideshow / share your screen and take them through the virtual tour

Recommended next steps

• Record one of these videos, in the manner that most suits you. Whether it’s walking round your venue with your phone, or a photo slideshow, it will be hugely impactful in securing new business during these strange times

• Upload this onto your Bridebook profile as a video, and let us know. We will do our best to promote it to our couples and support you as much as we can.

• When new couples enquire and interact with your venue over the coming weeks (even if they have only requested a brochure), ensure you ask if they have 15 minutes or less in the next few days, and let them know you’d love to take them through a virtual tour.

Virtual tours really do work and you WILL be able to create a fantastic one. Whilst we are all stuck at home, let’s step outside the box, get creative and secure some amazing sales for 2021 and beyond! Video tours may be something you actually want to keep doing after lock-down is over, we use it very frequently at Hedsor and get lots of bookings as a direct result. Millennials are our new target audience, and they want instant access to everything – whether it’s real estate, fashion…and wedding venue tours!

Virtual tours give couples not only a taste of your venue, but of you and your team’s sparkling personalities. Hopefully this has provided inspiration and helps, we very much look forward to seeing all your wonderful videos. Have a watch of the video I made 8 years ago for Hedsor, using iMovie, here! I have also linked to some great video examples below. GOOD LUCK!

360 videos: 

• Tankardstown House 360 tour 
• Hedsor 360 wedding video

Guided tours:

• Lillibrooke Manor introduction
• Bradley Jadir (filmmaker) showing guided tours

Slideshow videos:

• Hedsor House

Don’t have a 360 tour yet? We’d love to offer you £100 credit, on Bridebook. Click here to claim your discount! 

Our surveys show that 22% of couples use 360 tours when finding their dream venue.

We hope this advice has provided you with the confidence you need to create your own virtual tour. If you have any questions for the Bridebook team, please feel free to message us on the UK Wedding Venue Slack group. Have a browse through our other educational articles created to support wedding venues during the pandemic, for example how best to handle postponements. Stay strong everyone – we will get through this together!

We fully understand the impact that COVID-19 is having on the wedding industry and on you, our wedding professionals. That’s why all of us at Bridebook HQ are pulling together to provide you with as much support as possible. We’ve created a series of educational articles and videos to help you and your team navigate these challenging times and hopefully bring some positivity along the way. Make sure you bookmark this guide which we will be continually updating with relevant advice and support.

Recent Updates

• 9th Nov: Parliament debates Weddings – briefing notes and an email template to send to your MP. Take action in support of our industry now: ABWB supporting documentation.

• 9th Nov: Parliament debates weddings – summary, main highlights & video recording
• 9th Nov: vaccine update – the news on a new vaccine gives some much-needed hope to the wedding industry.
• 6th Nov: Law Commission Q&A – the Law Commission discussed their provisional proposal in Getting Married: A Consultation Paper on Weddings Law in a public Q&A session. Read the highlights and answers to questions asked here.
• 3rd Nov: Law Commission private consultation – Hamish Shephard shares his summary
• 1st Nov: A Million Moments – The #WhatAboutWeddings Campaign Film
• 10th Oct: Wedding venues – the route through COVID
• 9th Oct: CMA Guidance – news update
• 29th Sept: Post quarantine wedding trends
• 11th Sept: Sell your business back to success: why getting 2022 bookings now will secure your future success
• 16th July: COVID-Friendly Wedding Protocols for Venues

Bridebook product releases

• 30th Oct: Bridebook launches 360 Tours & Enquiry widget – see the details here.

Bridebook Partnerships

Take advantage of our latest partnerships.

• Get £100 discount off £360 tours

The Association of British Wedding Businesses Articles

The Association of British Wedding Businesses is an association that aims to support members of the British wedding industry during COVID-19. Here’s their latest news and supportive resources.

• 2nd Nov: Parliament debate Weddings
• 14th Oct: Letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer
• 9th Oct: Venue Committee Update
• 8th Oct: ABWB Weddings Manifesto

Industry News & Resources

Your home for wedding industry news.

• 1st Nov: A Million Moments – The #WhatAboutWeddings Campaign Film
• COVID 15 minutes saliva tests
• Furlough Scheme Extended
• CMA Guidance Challenged By Wedding Venue Support Group

Bridebook Articles

Business Advice & Support 

Providing guidance based on the latest updates and Government advice, these articles will help you make informed business decisions throughout this period of uncertainty.

• Wedding Venues: The Route Through COVID
• An open letter to the British Government on behalf of the UK Wedding Professional Community
• How Bridebook is responding to COVID-19 and its impact on the Wedding Industry
• Wedding venue show rounds – what now?
• Bridebook Product Update – Video Tours
• Do’s & Don’ts of COVID-19 for Wedding Venues
• What to remember when postponing weddings, in order to protect your business
• Productivity hacks for remote working
• Why wedding venues should be offering virtual tours, and how best to do them
• A venue’s experience of creating a virtual tour for the first time
• How to Make the Most of Social Media during the Pandemic Part 1 – Your Strategy
• How to Make the Most of Social Media during the Pandemic Part 2 – Your Content
• Content advice for wedding professionals during the pandemic Part 1 – What type of content should you be creating?
• Content advice for wedding professionals during the pandemic Part 2 – Where should you be sharing your content?
• Content advice for wedding professionals during the pandemic Part 3 – How to build and implement your content strategy
• Why reviews are more important than ever during the covid crisis
• How should you be updating your website during the pandemic?

Take Action

The actions you can take to support the industry you love:

• Join the UK Wedding Venue Slack group where +1000 wedding venues are discussing the fast evolving COVID-19 situation and sharing helpful tips and advice.
• Join The Association of British Wedding Businesses – Bridebook recognise an opportunity to create a larger industry-wide network of professionals from which we can all benefit from the exchange of ideas, advice and information. Click here to join us as a founding member.
• The CEO and founder of Bridebook.co.uk sends out an urgent call to support and save our community and industry amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Click here to sign the petition.
• Read the letter: An open letter to the British Government on behalf of the UK Wedding Professional Community

Covid Advice Video Series

Curated by Hamish Shephard, Bridebook CEO & owner of Hedsor House, this video series covers some of the most challenging issues that you and your wedding venue might be facing now and over the coming weeks. 

• COVID Advice Series for Wedding Venues Part 1 – Intro
• COVID Advice Series for Wedding Venues Part 2 – Postponements & Cancellations
• COVID Advice Series for Wedding Venues Part 3 – Virtual Venue Tours
• COVID Advice Series for Wedding Venues Part 4 – Getting new wedding bookings

Looking After You & Your Team 

The health and wellbeing of you and your team is paramount. Have a read of our top tips and advice, from how to work effectively as a remote team to fun ideas for quarantine!

• 6 ways wedding professionals can look after their mental health and wellbeing during coronavirus  
• Working from home best practices
• 9 tips for wedding professionals on how to work remotely with children
• Fun things to do in quarantine part 1
• Fun things to do in quarantine part 2
• Fun things to do in quarantine part 3 

Couple Management 

Are your couples looking for advice? We’ve written a series of articles for couples below. Please do feel free to share these directly!

• Covid-19 Wedding Advice for Couples from Bridebook CEO, Hamish Shephard
• How will Coronavirus Affect My Wedding? A 7 Step Guide to Dealing with the Outbreak
• How you can plan a wedding whilst being remote
• Why having a weekday wedding can be the best decision you make

If you need any further help then please do reach out to anyone in the Bridebook team at business@bridebook.co.uk.

Don’t forget, you can also join the UK Wedding Venue Slack group where +1000 wedding venues are discussing the fast evolving COVID-19 situation and sharing helpful tips and advice. If you have any thoughts or tips yourself then please do join in and share – we are in this together!

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, sadly there are many couples that need to reschedule their special day. However, the good news is that chances are, they still want to get married! It is crucial to do everything you can to work with your couples to postpone, instead of cancelling. Whilst still not convenient for either parties, this will protect your revenue and cash flow. 

Bridebook are in a fortunate position to have a view on both sides of handling postponements; our UK Wedding Venues Slack group has over 700 active members and our Facebook group is 7000 couples strong! Hamish Shephard, Founder of Bridebook & Hedsor House, has put together some advice to consider when postponing weddings, in order to protect your business.

Think about how many weddings you are doing a year

If it is only a small handful, then hopefully moving these weddings won’t be too difficult and you can accommodate them. However, if you are doing a larger number (more than 40-50 per year) and weddings are a core / the core part of your business, it becomes paramount to focus on protecting your business as a top priority.

Work out the financial impact postponements will have on your business

Think about how both the best and worst case scenarios will impact your business model. You  must be extremely aware of the financial impacts that could be coming your way. It has been alarming to see some venues being overly generous (as lovely as that is!) and allowing couples to reschedule their wedding to any day in the future, even their peak summer 2021 dates. 

This is extremely dangerous, as you are essentially ‘giving away’ your prime dates for next year at no extra cost, which will create a significant cash flow issue. You would usually be getting double this revenue, as you would sell those dates easily. Be very cautious of this and study your financial model carefully.

When should you be moving weddings to?

We highly recommend trying your best to not move your couples further than a year out from now.  For example, if we take September 2020 as the very earliest to be pushing weddings back to, you can then offer couples an 8 month window between September 2020 and March / April 2021 to reschedule their wedding in. Hopefully, you will likely have more flexibility with available dates during this time frame, too. This time period allows you to keep all wedding bookings within a year and therefore, help manage your cash flow.

If you allow postponements beyond March, you will be treading into dates you usually have no problems booking / busier dates for your venue. You must be very cautious of protecting your business here. Whilst it may make discussions with couples much easier to allow them to re-book their wedding whenever they wish, your number one priority to your team, your suppliers and indeed, your couples, is to ensure your business is protected and still standing in a year’s time.

Be hyper aware of wedding insurance policies

Discussions on our UK Wedding Venues Slack group and Facebook group for couples are showing that wedding insurers are not being hugely reliable, and are acting defensively. Understandably, this has been a huge shock for their businesses as well, however it is very important you are aware of the situation surrounding insurance. 

Wedding insurers’ first reaction has been trying to push the weight back onto the venues, rather than allowing claims or payouts. We have seen challenges coming from all 4 main wedding insurers in the UK – the most popular one has even taken down their website! There is a huge amount of doubt over whether insurers will actually pay out, therefore you must tread with caution and not rely on the fact that your couples have insurance.

If a couple have wedding insurance, there are very different liabilities to their wedding if it has been affected due to a government shutdown, or due to your or their choice to postpone / cancel. There are two possible implications: 

1. If you are cancelling / postponing their wedding due to the current circumstances, the liability could fall solely on you. You must know your contract. 
2. If you have to move their wedding in the next few weeks due to the government shutdown, the situation is very different, as you have been forced to close by the government.

Sadly, it is highly likely that even if the insurer does have to pay out to your couple, they will ask them to see your contract. They will be looking to find holes in the contract, to see if the payout can fall on yourself, before they even pay out to the couple. The insurance companies are under a huge amount of strain in this climate, so will be looking to find loopholes in your contract – please ensure you review them thoroughly.

What is the best possible scenario?

The ideal situation for all venues at this time is for couples to happily agree to postpone their wedding to a date that suits them, and protects your business. The way a postponement should work, ideally, is that the couple agrees to ‘cancel’ their wedding and you are able to re-issue their existing contract as a new booking, but with a new agreed date. All that is changing in their new contract is the date, do make sure not to change anything else. Again, this is not something you HAVE to offer your couples, but it is the best possible scenario for both sides.

Communicate clearly with your couples, with empathy

This is a hugely emotional time for couples having to postpone their wedding, so don’t forget to simply talk to them. Show them you’re still committed to giving them their dream wedding day, and that their best shot at getting this is moving the wedding to a mutually agreeable new date. Do let them know that you are working together with them, but that you are a business too and must protect it. 

If couples are still holding onto their original date and you feel its best for them to postpone, we highly recommend discussing the fact that even if weddings return to semi-normal in the coming weeks, there will still be other implications to affect their perfect day. For example, elderly guests and those coming from abroad may not make it, their honeymoon may be affected and registrars may still be limiting numbers of people in a ceremony.

This truly is the toughest few weeks we have ever faced in this industry. Once again, KEEP GOING! There is light at the end of the tunnel and we will get there by supporting each other. Bridebook are here to help as much as we can, so keep an eye on the UK Wedding Venues Slack group for further supportive content.

While times are tough and work stressful, it’s more important than ever to try and be positive, find effective ways to switch off and give your mind a break. Bridebook have put together a series of fun activities to give you some inspiration for your downtime – following on from part 1 and part 2, here are our recommendations for this week… 

1. Learn a Language

With easy to access online courses there’s no reason why you can’t use your free time to learn a new language. Brush up on your skills and maybe by the end of isolation you’ll be able to put them into practice! Our favourite is Duolingo – not only is it free but it makes learning a language fun!

2. Brush up on your Painting

Whether or not you think you’re the next Picasso, art can be incredibly therapeutic and a very effective way to distract your mind from work. Buy some paints and try your hand at a still life, sketch the view from your window, sit around the table with your family and draw the person opposite you, buy a Paint by Numbers… Have a go – you’ll be surprised at how quickly time flies!

3. Play a Game

Sometimes nothing beats a good old board game. Dust off the scrabble board, dig out the chess set, shake up the Boggle letters and get your household round the table for some quality time. As well as the classics, our current favourites are Articulate! and Chameleon – now’s a great time to invest in some new board games and keep the whole family entertained.

4. Compete in a Pub Quiz

Don’t let that general knowledge go to waste and join in with a pub quiz from the comfort of your sofa. Why not get the household together and do it as a team? Try the Big Drop Living Room Pub Quiz on Tuesday evenings at 7.30pm!

These are just a few ideas to try and bring some lightness to your day. For more ideas take a look at part 1 and part 2 of our series! If you have any other ideas we’d love for you to share them – you can join the UK Wedding Venue Slack group here where there’s a #feel-good-fun channel for all things positive. And of course if you have any questions at all or need any help then please do reach out to anyone in the Bridebook team.