I think it’s widely accepted now that you should have the freedom and flexibility to create your own unique wedding but is this always a good thing?

I mean it sounds good to me. Your perfect wedding, just as you want it. But does it always turn out that way? Unfortunately not. We’ve been offering weddings here at Brook Farm since 2011 so believe me, we’ve seen a lot. The good, the bad and the ugly! Yep, it does happen.

So what do you need to know to keep your wedding on track….

By all means get busy googling, check out Pinterest, Instagram and wherever else you want. But you need to do some checks before you book your suppliers.

It is very easy for a company to have an all singing and all dancing website but can they deliver what you want or are they just paying you lip service? It’s very easy to say yes and tell you they can do whatever you ask but have you seen them in action? This is important guys!!!

We’ve had bars that take your booking and your money but then disappear, caterers that haven’t delivered and the bride and groom have then taken them to the small claims court and then there are the suppliers that do turn up but are USELESS and JUST DON’T CARE. This is serious agg that you do not want.

Now it’s not to say there aren’t great new suppliers out there because of course there are and we’ve had some lovely new suppliers here recently. You just need to do your research.

Seeing your suppliers in action is a fantastic way of checking them out. Word of mouth recommendations are great too. If you find a supplier that you love but have literally just discovered them, how should you proceed?

Meet with them, chat, ask them to give examples of what they’ve done before. Ask them what is challenging for them and how they deal with it. EXPERIENCE is key and you need some proof! It’s basically a friendly interview and that’s ok, this is your wedding day after all.

And what about the recommended suppliers that come with your venue? Ask your venue what the deal is with their list. Do suppliers pay the venue to be on the list or give a % fee to them? This is how the vast majority of venue’s recommended supplier lists work. This is absolutely NOT how we work here at Brook Farm Cuffley. We’re sick of seeing bad suppliers so for us to have added a supplier to our preferred supplier list, it means we think they’re fantastic. And that’s it. There are no financial deals between us and our suppliers. We prefer them as we’ve seen them do their thing and want to share this with you guys. Tried and tested on your behalf.

Finally, if you have a lot going on and you have decided to have lots of lovely suppliers it would be a wise move to book some on the day management to coordinate everything. You don’t want to be stressing about things on your wedding day or getting involved with the management of things and even the most relaxed, laid back wedding needs someone to manage it but that’s a whole new blog post.

So it looks like you can have your wedding, your way just as long as you do your homework!