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Stronger together

Stronger together

Speechless

I’ve been quiet for a while. I haven’t really known what to say or do. Things are so hard to comprehend. It’s overwhelming. It’s scary. And it’s pretty much unbelievable.

What a year! Brexit, floods, Caroline Flack, storms and now a pandemic virus. Events that are happening now are completely unprecedented and will change our lives forever.  I keep thinking about how strong my grandparents must have been to live through the war.

Brave little fish

I read a book to my youngest yesterday called ‘Swimmy’ by Leo Lionni (originally published in 1963) and the message really hit home to me. It is a beautiful children’s picture book about a brave little fish that is left all on his own after his school of fish are all eaten. He has to find his own way around the ocean, meeting lots of amazing other creatures on the way. He meets new friends but they are too scared to come out of hiding to explore the wonderful world around them. ‘Swimmy shows his friends how–with ingenuity and team work–they can overcome any danger.’

Be kind

I hope that one thing to come out of this horrible year is that everyone is just a little bit kinder to everyone. To support one another. To keep it local and to help those in our community. Everyone is going to be affected by this and we need to stick together. We need to be more like Swimmy.

Come together

It is encouraging to see how companies are thinking outside of the box and diversifying. Adapting. Getting creative. Seeing what opportunities are now available to them. Taking a change of direction.

Technology, virtual solutions and social media are resources that our grandparents didn’t have in the war. Yes, they can be dangerous tools if used in the wrong way, but they are also amazing to bring people together, keep them talking and help them not feel so alone or lost.

Wonderful wedding suppliers

The wedding industry is getting hit hard. Everyone’s business is being affected. It got me thinking about what I could do to help the wonderful local wedding suppliers near me.

Stronger (virtually) together

So I’m offering my blog as a vehicle to local wedding businesses whilst this crazy scene plays out.

  • Please let me know if you’d like to place a free banner advert on the blog.
  • Or whilst your work load is possibly reduced, maybe you’d like to write a guest blog giving top tips from your part of the wedding industry – this would get shared across all my social media.
  • Or you’d like to submit a real wedding or styled shoot that you’ve been involved in.
  • Or perhaps you’d like to be involved in my next shoot (the April one has been postponed) and could start thinking about what you could produce.
  • Or you need help with virtual marketing, ideas on how to diversify or adapt to the current environment, or any other suggestions that you think I may be able to help you.

On hold

Wedding planning will (and should) still go on – it’ll be good to look forward to an amazing celebration when all of this is passed. 

 

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Marketing advice: how to start a company blog

Marketing advice: how to start a company blog

As featured on Bride magazine, wedding marketing advice for wedding suppliers on how to start a blog on your website.

company blog on your website

One of the best ways to enhance your rankings and get your website in front of your target audience is to generate regular new content for your website (which Google loves) and one way to achieve this is by having a company blog on your website. Here are some top tips on how to start and maintain a good company blog.

 

what do you want to achieve?

Firstly, you need to decide on your objectives. Why do you want to write a blog? What do you want it to achieve? How will you measure its success? Start with these big questions and always bring everything back to the answers. If what you’re doing doesn’t fulfil the answer then you need to question whether it is worth doing at all.

choose your niche

Don’t go too broad. Think about your expertise and stick to what you know. Be a content creator, a journalist in your own field, reporting on your area of knowledge as you see it.

pick your audience

Think about their age, education, interests, location, gender and occupation. Who do they follow on social media? Visualise them. What problems do they have? How will you be able to help them with their sticking points?

plan your blogging schedule

Think about how regularly you will blog and try to stick to the same time/day for each post. It is worth the effort to plan your content in advance so you’re not struggling to think of something to write each time. Have a calendar for the year and mark out any special events on it (national, local, industry, your company). Then think of themes for the quarter/month/week so that you can ensure all promotions are consistent at the same time.

pick a topic and title

Will your post answer a problem or provide new insight? Will you be able to solve the issues of your target audience?

plan & organise

Think about what type of posts you will write:

  • how to / tutorials
  • lists
  • resources / links
  • checklists / to do
  • interview / q&a with customers on why they chose your services, what they liked
  • real stories
  • news (awards, milestones, birthdays)
  • mood boards
  • guest posts
  • blog series / weekly theme
  • diary / day in the life of
  • personal experience
  • inspiration
  • relevant celebrity news / cultural topics / tv shows / films
  • reviews
  • info graphics
  • podcast
  • video (tour of workplace)

 

 

 

think of your introduction

You need to grab your audience’s interest straight away and outline what the post will cover.

research

Read around your subject and add in your own stance on the topic.

write for your audience

Think about the length of your post. Discussion posts are usually around 300 words to get people commenting; blogs for sharing on social media are often around 500-1000 words; to get more traffic to your website you’re looking at posts of 2000 words plus. Break up content with headlines.

make the appearance appealing

We buy with our eyes and an image speaks a thousand words so think carefully about the images, font, formatting, tags and meta data that you use in the post.

call to action

Make sure you think about what you want your audience to do with this post once they’ve read it. What is your ‘call to action’? Do you want them to share, comment, sign up for something, buy etc?

SEO and mobile

You need to consider the keywords you use throughout the post (what are your audience searching for on Google?) and how your post will appear on different devices. Install the YOAST plugin to your website to help with keyword and search engine optimisation. It also gives tips on how to make each post have good readability.

tag visuals

Make it easy for people to share images (pin it, tweet it, like it) and therefore ensure you’ve tagged the visuals so they always point back to your site.

hit publish

As well as publishing on your own site, consider pushing your content to other providers (via plugins) for a wider reach.

promote your blog posts

If you don’t promote your content then no one will know it is there! So, the promotional side of things is as important as the content itself. Social media is an amazing way of spreading the word without spending a penny on marketing. There are lots of scheduling tools to help to do this in a timely manner.

Think about what your audience read. What social media do they use? You need to tell people what, where and when you’ve written new content. Consider networking/groups in social media for extra coverage.

link to social media

As well as making your content pin able etc, make sure your social media channels all link to your blog and vice versa. Plus include links in your email signature.

link in bios of social media

Change the links in Instagram and Twitter bios to the latest blog post or consider having a ‘landing page of links’ (such as LinkTree etc) so that you can include that link in bios.

hashtags

It is really important that when you’re promoting your blog to try to attract views from non-followers too. Think about hashtags that your audience would use. Don’t go for hashtags which are too popular or broad as your stuff will get lost. Likewise, don’t go for hashtags that are rarely used as no one will be looking at them.

review your content

Check what has worked, which posts have been the most successful (traffic/likes/comments/sales etc). Also check which posts haven’t worked and consider why so that you can amend for future posts.

repeat

Learn from your successes/failures and repeat what has worked well.

 

 

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Wedding trends in the Cotswolds

Wedding trends in the Cotswolds

Insight in to weddings

Looking at current wedding trends can provide valuable insight for those working in the wedding industry (such as venues, planners or suppliers) as well as couples wedding planning. Trends can give an idea of popular thinking, areas of growth, ways to save money and how to differentiate and personalise away from these common elements.

Wedding revenue

The wedding industry is a year round business, although it does have seasonal fluctuations with the main wedding season of April-October in the UK. It is currently worth around £10 billion each year in the UK and the market is refreshed 100% every year with new customers.

Value of weddings

Brexit could have a huge affect on prices including importing flowers and labour. Plus a possible recession could mean reduced wedding budgets as inflation rates increase.

A weak value of the British pound may mean that it is less likely for UK couples to travel aboard for a destination wedding. However it may make the UK an attractive destination wedding location for non UK couples. The recent royal weddings have also boosted the wedding industry and tourism. So wedding suppliers may be able to capitalise on these changes.

Number of weddings declining

Since 1972, the number of marriages in England and Wales has shown a steady decline. In 2012, the number of marriages in England and Wales increased by 5.3% on the previous year. However in 2013, the number of marriages in England and Wales decreased by 8.6% which was the first decline since 2009.

In 2014, the number of marriages between opposite sex couples increased by 2.7% from 2013 but dipped again in 2015. There were also 4,850 marriages between same sex couples in 2014 and 6,493 in 2015. The introduction of marriages of same sex couples since 29 March 2014 showed an increase in marriages compared with separate civil ceremonies.

Average age increasing

By contrast the average age of marriages in England and Wales continues to rise overall year on year since the 1970s. Among opposite sex couples, more women than men married at ages under 30; on average, men tend to form relationships with women younger than themselves. Among same sex couples, more women than men married at ages under 50.

For marriages of opposite sex couples, the average age for men marrying in 2015 was 37.5 years, while for women it was 35.1 years. The average age at marriage for same sex couples in 2015 was slightly higher at 40.6 years for men and 37.0 years for women. An aging population means more older couples are marrying/remarrying aged 65 to 69.

Increase in ceremonies in civil approved venues

In 1995, the law was changed to allow marriages to be conducted in other civil approved venues (other than religious venue or a registry office). Now 40% of ceremonies are carried out in these type of venues. The number of civil approved venues continues to rise and more couples chose to marry in this type of premise.

Going forwards the type of ceremony in England and Wales could include legal outdoor ceremonies. There has been lots of talk around the government trying to help couples getting married to keep wedding costs down with a view to the end of austerity. This proposed change is already the case in Scotland where ceremonies can be legally held outdoors, not just by a religious leader or registrants but also for humanists to conduct legally binding ceremonies. 

Saturdays most popular day to get married

The weekend continues to be the most popular (and therefore most expensive) day of the week to get married. Whilst Wednesday is the least popular day. Couples are looking at alternative under utilised week day weddings to open up possibilities and potentially lower the cost of venue hire. However this would mean that guests would need to take time off work to attend.

August most popular month to get married

Whilst British weather isn’t guaranteed in summer months, it doesn’t stop August, July, September and May being the most popular months to get married in England and Wales.
January, February, November and March are least popular months to tie the knot. Winter and Christmas weddings are on the increase as are those near bank holidays and school holidays such as Easter and October half terms.

Number of couples cohabiting prior to marriage increasing

With the main market of the millennial generation getting married, the number of couples cohabiting prior to marriage continues to increase each year. With 87.7% of weddings of opposite sex couples in 2015 and 95.2% of wedding of same sex couples in 2015.

Average cost of wedding increasing

The average cost of a wedding is currently over £27,000 outside of London (with the average cost of a wedding in London over £38,000). An incredible 4% of weddings in the southeast cost more than £100,000. This often does not include the average cost of a honeymoon at £3,704.

Wedding budget costs have seen an outstanding 35% increase in the last 10 years. However there is an deeper distinction of wedding extremes with budgets being at very ends of the spectrum such as lavish celebrity style wedding versus diy weddings with more homemade elements.

Weddings in the Cotswolds

Located in a beautiful part of the UK with stunning lush countryside, an abundance of barns, manor houses, hotels and beautiful backdrops to tie the knot. It’s no wonder that every year 20,106 of couples getting married in England choose to say ‘I do’ in the Cotswolds, with 3,269 weddings in Oxfordshire each year.

 

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Wedding marketing advice published

Wedding marketing advice published

Marketing article featured on Bride magazine

As well as writing an award winning wedding blog, I’m also a wedding marketing specialist, with 17 years experience in a number of industries.

During my career I’ve obtained my CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing and worked in various marketing roles for 13 years before starting my own business. I’ve also obtained my Diploma in Wedding and Event Planning with the UK Academy of Wedding & Event Planners.

Hanami Dream was founded in 2014, which combines my marketing skills and photo shoot experience along with my passion and knowledge of the wedding industry and local market. My marketing background gives me the insight and experience to help local wedding businesses with their marketing strategy and promotional plans.

So I’m proud to have one of my wedding marketing advice articles published on Bride magazine to help wedding suppliers to start and maintain a good company blog.

Keep an eye out for more posts where I share marketing advice for venues and wedding industry professionals from small, local, independent wedding businesses in and around Witney, Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds. 

 

 

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Hanami Dream in the press

Hanami Dream in the press

So pleased with the press coverage that Hanami Dream has been receiving recently.

Did you see page 14 of the Oxford Mail on the 19th Janauary 2019? You might have spotted a certain wedding blogger and UK Blog Awards #UKBA19 wedding judge in there!

Plus the Witney Gazette covered the article online too.

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“We would love to work with you again very soon”

“We would love to work with you again very soon”

Bride in the orchard | Journey to the Centre of the Earth | modern ethereal winter styled bridal shoot by Hanami Dream | agate | marble | airplants | tulle | pale blue | gold | Oxleaze Barn | Gloucestershire | October 2017 | Photography by Squib Photography www.squibphotography.co.uk

“Many thanks to you Nicola for working tirelessly and pulling [the shoot] off so successfully.

Thank you so much for all your amazing hard work on the photo shoot, we can’t wait to see the photos as the Barn looked so lovely.

…we would love to work with you again very soon.”

Katherine, Oxleaze Barn – October 2017