Musings on Wedding Industry Awards

I’ve been cyn­i­cal about wed­ding awards in the past. It’s the industry’s mutual back-slapping I don’t like. That’s just a per­sonal thing, and it’s not what I’m here for today. It was partly my crit­i­cism of exist­ing awards that led to me being asked to join the judg­ing panel for the 2012 Wed­ding Indus­try Awards — an inde­pen­dent awards event focused on reviews by brides and grooms; not by mates and fel­low wed­ding suppliers!

Wed­ding awards with integrity

The 2012 Wed­ding Indus­try Awards has hon­est inten­tions. The whole thing is based on integrity and gen­uine recog­ni­tion of good ser­vice, ded­i­ca­tion to cus­tomers and real reviews from real people.

Restor­ing my faith in people!

The first round of judg­ing is under­way. I’ve been priv­i­leged to read some of the votes and reviews — from “noth­ing was ever too much trou­ble” to the most sim­ple things like sup­pli­ers lis­ten­ing and show­ing an inter­est in the wed­ding. Most of the reviews were really long too — vot­ers really thought about what they wrote.

It’s lovely to know that brides and grooms take the time to review a sup­plier who does a won­der­ful job for them. The reviews I read were gen­uine, grate­ful — and reflected the sup­pli­ers who’d gone the extra mile for their clients. Who’d ever think that send­ing a card on the wed­ding day would make such a real impact on brides and grooms?

Mak­ing an impres­sion on brides and grooms

As wed­ding sup­pli­ers we really do make an impres­sion on peo­ple. And I don’t just mean the pho­tog­ra­phers who are there on the wed­ding day, or the cater­ers, chauf­feurs and toast­mas­ters who become part of the wed­ding itself. I’m talk­ing about the wed­ding sta­tion­ers, the florists and wed­ding plan­ners — no mat­ter what your role in the wed­ding indus­try, you can find your­self mak­ing real friends with the peo­ple you meet through your job. It’s a big thing: to relieve stress, make things eas­ier for brides and grooms, inspire and enthuse the whole wed­ding process.

More than a finan­cial investment

Brides and grooms invest in their wed­ding day. They invest finan­cially: £20k and beyond, if we believe the stats*. For some sup­pli­ers that’s all they see: the cou­ple, the money, the next wed­ding. The best wed­ding sup­pli­ers are those who appre­ci­ate the emo­tional invest­ment from brides and grooms.

It’s the lit­tle things that count

Because it’s the lit­tle things. You’ll stand out from the crowd as a wed­ding sup­plier by being there, by send­ing a lit­tle card, by fol­low­ing up after the wed­ding, by car­ing. From the reviews I’ve been read­ing this is what sets the best aside. The lit­tle things will make all the dif­fer­ence: to your brides and grooms, to the enjoy­ment you get from your busi­ness, to word of mouth and your reputation.

And to bring me back nicely to the sub­ject of wed­ding awards, this is why the 2012 Wed­ding Indus­try Awards means so much more — not just as a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the indus­try but as some­thing really inclu­sive where brides and grooms are the ones who’ve had a say in who gets an award.

I found it all very heart warm­ing being involved with the judg­ing process. Brides and grooms really invest so much in their wed­ding sup­pli­ers. I’m glad the indus­try is finally giv­ing some­thing back.

www.the-wedding-industry-awards.co.uk

*I don’t believe those stats, by the way.