The Future of the Wedding Sector

Professor Nicholas Hopkins, Law Commission

Nick Hopkins is Law Commissioner for England and Wales with responsibility for family law. He was appointed Commissioner in October 2015 and led the final stages of the Commission’s Scoping Paper on weddings law, Getting Married. He is the lead Commissioner for the current law reform project on weddings law.

Prior to appointment at the Commission he was an academic for over 20 years, and holds a Chair in Law at Reading University. He is an honorary bencher at Middle Temple.

The Future of the Wedding Sector

Hamish Shepherd, Bridebook

Having left a career in banking Hamish spearheaded the transition of his family home, ​Hedsor House​, into an award-winning wedding venue in 2008. Now credited as being one of the UK’s most prestigious wedding venues.

With a history steeped in ​royalty and revelry,​ Hedsor House has regularly welcomed Kings, Queens and royal children from nearby Windsor Castle throughout its fascinating 800-year history. Hedsor was the venue of choice for hundreds of highly glamorous and sensational weddings, including Royal Weddings (for members of the Saudi royal family) and celebrations for some of the most high-profile British high society figures, A-list movie stars and musicians.

At the same time as planning his own wedding Hamish became enamoured by a mission to make wedding planning easy and readily available for all, and more importantly, to make it as enjoyable as the day itself… and so ​Bridebook.co.uk​, the wedding planning app, was born.

One in three engaged couples in the UK are now using Bridebook.co.uk to plan their wedding, with over ​100,000 weddings planned​ in the first year since its launch, the​ comprehensive digital platform has taken the bridal industry by storm.

The Future of the Wedding Sector

Stuart Owens, UK Wedding Task Force

Stuart Owens is the Director of Artemis Venue Services, the owners and operators of multiple ‘exclusive use’ wedding venues. Stuart is also a founding Director of the Wedding Venues Support Group and Chair of the ‘opening up’ working group of the UK Wedding Taskforce. His expertise lies in providing wedding venue solutions that centre around property acquisition and development, operating multiple venues, sales and marketing, catering and customer service.

The Future of the Wedding Sector

Ben Cowell OBE, Historic Houses

Ben Cowell is the Director General of Historic Houses, which represents 1,500 independently owned country houses across the UK, many of them venues for weddings. Before he joined Historic Houses, Ben worked variously for the National Trust, English Heritage, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Judicaelle was previously a senior civil servant and has over 20 years of experience in policy design and implementation at BEIS, Defra, HM Treasury, as well as the Food Standards Agency. She holds an MBA (Distinction) from Imperial College, London.

The Future of the Wedding Sector

Mark Dawson, WVSG

The Future of the Wedding Sector

Emma Hardcastle, Hostology

Prior to Hostology, Emma conceived, developed and successfully launched several business platforms (SaaS) and innovative consumer services. She fulfilled senior roles at major publishing and digital brands Macmillan Publishers, AOL and Science Navigation Group, and steered innovative Startups Production Wizard, Screen Library and Pocket Issue.

During the pandemic, Emma and the Hostology Team have doubled down to focus on hosting 23 well-attended sessions through the Hostology COLLECTIVE to help venues navigate finding financial support, legal, HR and marketing advice.

The team work closely with the WVSG, ABWB and are involved with the UK Wedding Task Force. All this, alongside delivering important improvements to the platform for 2021!

The Team is Everything

Dr Cath Bishop, Olympian and Author

Dr Cath Bishop is an Olympian, former diplomat, business coach and consultant, and author of ‘The Long Win’, listed in the FT’s Top 10 Business Books 2020.

She competed in rowing at 3 Olympic Games, winning World Championships gold in 2003 and Olympic silver in Athens 2004. As a diplomat for the British Foreign Office for 12 years, Cath specialized in policy and negotiations on conflict issues, with postings to Bosnia and Iraq.

Cath now works as a business consultant, leadership coach and author, and teaches on Executive Education programmes at the Judge Business School, Cambridge. She is also an advisor and advocate of ‘The True Athlete Project’, a non-profit organisation working to create sporting environments that enable athletes to thrive and recently become Chair of ‘Love Rowing’, British Rowing’s Charitable Foundation aiming to bring rowing to more
communities around the UK.

Cath speaks at events globally on topics of leadership, high performing teams and cultural change. Her first book ‘The Long Win: the search for a better way to succeed’ was described by the Financial Times as ‘a deep and rewarding exploration of human motivation in sport, politics, business and our personal lives’.

The Team is Everything

Debbie Lewis, Functional Medicine

Debbie is one of the few fully certified IFM Practitioners in the UK and a Registered Nutritional Therapist with The British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine (BANT). She runs two private practice clinics in Hereford and London working with lifestyle-related disease and has a particular interest in women and children’s health

Debbie is also a qualified Social Worker, Life Coach, NLP Practitioner and a visiting lecturer at the University of Worcester.

The Team is Everything

Samantha Vaughan, Dewsall Court

Having spent her formative years in the throes of Manchester life – completing a degree in English and then Psychology, working in the television industry and teaching teenage gangsters in Mosside – Samantha was pulled back home to Dewsall Court in Herefordshire when her father sadly became ill.

After he passed away, she and her Mum, Jane, her husband and brother, set up Dewsall as a wedding and events business. Opening in 2010, just after the last big economic crash was interesting!

Things went well though and 5 years into running the business Samantha and team invested hugely in their party space, as well as bringing all of the catering in house. The gamble paid off and Dewsall has just celebrated its 10th year in business. Unfortunately the exciting plans for a big year were somewhat thwarted by the pandemic. The team are now looking ahead to what will be a better, if crowded 2021.

Samantha is also very proud of being part of the Hostology team, developing planning software for the wedding and events industry. Hostology is a game changer for Dewsall and for many other venues, and a wonderful way for the founding venues to ‘bake’ their collective knowledge and experience into a system which will help both their individual businesses as well as the industry as a whole: uniting couples, guests, venue and suppliers in one happy collaborative place!

The Team is Everything

Jade Hedley, Hostology

Bounce Back: Putting Your Best Foot Forward

Samantha Vaughan, Dewsall Court

Having spent her formative years in the throes of Manchester life – completing a degree in English and then Psychology, working in the television industry and teaching teenage gangsters in Mosside – Samantha was pulled back home to Dewsall Court in Herefordshire when her father sadly became ill.

After he passed away, she and her Mum, Jane, her husband and brother, set up Dewsall as a wedding and events business. Opening in 2010, just after the last big economic crash was interesting!

Things went well though and 5 years into running the business Samantha and team invested hugely in their party space, as well as bringing all of the catering in house. The gamble paid off and Dewsall has just celebrated its 10th year in business. Unfortunately, the exciting plans for a big year were somewhat thwarted by the pandemic. The team are now looking ahead to what will be a better if crowded 2021.

Samantha is also very proud of being part of the Hostology team, developing planning software for the wedding and events industry. Hostology is a game-changer for Dewsall and for many other venues, and a wonderful way for the founding venues to ‘bake’ their collective knowledge and experience into a system that will help both their individual businesses as well as the industry as a whole: uniting couples, guests, venue and suppliers in one happy collaborative place!

Bounce Back: Putting Your Best Foot Forward

Annabel Beeforth, Love My Dress

Annabel Beeforth is the Founder of Love My Dress®, a heart-led wedding media platform and directory, established in 2009.

She is also co-Founder of and Campaign Manager at What About Weddings, a community for the wedding industry that has been lobbying for support and awareness since the start of the lockdown.

Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband, two daughters and three dogs.

Bounce Back: Putting Your Best Foot Forward

Anna Winkworth, Thicket Priory

Anna Winkworth is the General Manager at Thicket Priory, she has a background in both corporate and boutique hospitality, from Marriott International to Michelin Starred Gastro Pubs.

Anna truly loves the world of food & drink, with a particular love for the world of weddings and events. Ask her to wait tables in a quiet restaurant and she’d be totally out of her comfort zone!

Bounce Back: Putting Your Best Foot Forward

Emma Hla, Coco Wedding Venues

Emma Hla is the founder and curator of Coco Wedding Venues – the UK’s original style-focused wedding venue directory and the first place to kick-start your planning.

We bring together couples and wedding venues who share a passion for style, originality, and quality.

Bounce Back: Putting Your Best Foot Forward

Kelly Chandler, Kelly Chandler Consulting

Kelly Chandler is the founder and chief consultant & trainer at Kelly Chandler Wedding Consulting.

Dedicated to helping unique locations to thrive in the modern wedding market, ownership and wedding planning teams to surpass customer expectation, grow sales and wedding bookings, often preserving heritage alongside.