Wedding Inspiration at Waddesdon Manor – Insights and Images

Today’s post is dedicated to a now well-established and well-talked about wedding showcase that I’m proud to produce on behalf of the venue’s in-house team.  Wedding Inspiration at Waddesdon Manor returned for the 4th time this spring and I’m sharing with you some images, insights and some of the key ingredients to this highly successful show. I’m passionate about more venues benefitting from creating similar to suit their own unique location to really put their best foot forward and drive the right wedding business to them.

Insight #1.

The spirit of collaboration – this is a core principle which runs throughout the veins of Wedding Inspiration and really makes all the difference. Wedding professional partners who are part of the show enjoy and thrive on collaborating with each other creatively to produce their best results just as they do on a wedding day (or should do). This is most successfully shown in the beautifully styled dining tables which are the work of often 5 or 6 different professionals working to brief or theme.   As the planner/stylist, I strongly believe our role is to guide and set an overall design but give lots of opportunity for contributors to come up with their own ideas and put them forward for consideration – there is often a lot of communication that goes on before a final theme is set but it’s worth it to get it just right and this really shows off the venue spaces beautifully.

Insight #2.

Your USP – there are so many fabulous features at the venues that make up Waddesdon Manor and we want to highlight them all but one very key element that they do incredibly well is their food and wine. The obvious connection to the Rothschild family vineyards make their team’s wine knowledge exemplary and their team of chefs have always been exceptionally talented and keen to make bespoke menus, long before ‘bespoke’ menus were ever a thing in mainstream weddings!  So this we showcase heavily at Wedding Inspiration with canapé tastings where couples can meet and chat to the chef, wine tastings to discuss options with the Waddesdon wine expert as well as cocktail making sessions by an expert external mixologist. What do you do exceptionally well in your location that you can showcase?

Insight #3.

Your dream team  – Just as it’s vital to have a spirit of collaboration within the wedding professionals team, it’s really key to take a long term business view and to seek to work with professionals you want to support and have as part of your recommended supplier list.   The relationship works when wedding professionals are keen to invest their time and products into making a beautiful and appealing contribution to the show and the return is a place on the venues’ recommended list & the events team’s efforts at personally recommending.  My experience is that those who truly invest their heart and soul, get great returns from their efforts.  There is no room for average or half-hearted or short-sighted in wedding shows these days for the increasingly discerning client base.

Insight #4.

Make it memorable!

We create a lot of fun and a genuinely exciting wedding planning day out. Yes, inevitably you will get some visitors who will never turn to customers. But, alongside them, you’ll get many perfect-fit couples who love being indulged in the sights, sounds and smells the wedding showcase offers. They’ll fall in love with the location and how it’s brought to life  – and they’ll want their very own part of it for their day.  And we’re all happy with that …

For more on this topic, have a look at our Top Ten Tips post on hosting your venue’s wedding showcase.

Photo credits:

Kate Nielen // Stuart Bebb // Mark Sisley

For details of the clever and talented preferred suppliers of Waddesdon Manor, whose work is featured via the photos in this blog have a look here:
https://weddingsatwaddesdon.co.uk/dairy/#recommended-suppliers
https://weddingsatwaddesdon.co.uk/five-arrows-hotel/#recommended-suppliers