I completely forgot about the Blog!

Looking back at what I’ve done over this past 12 months – it reads like a book – so I will try and update more often, giving less to read…..

so just this time – grab a coffee -

One of the longest (and most time consuming) projects has been the creation and development of my wedding planning App that is now available to download from itunes (The No;1 wedding planner App).

I have been working with Godfrey Smith and it has taken me 20 months to formulate over 300 pages of information and cross-referencing to be able to replace a ‘brides file’ with a desktop, portable all-inclusive data base of everything I think a Bride will need to be able to plan their wedding.

I have made it simple and easy to use – and I hope it will be a pleasure to input all information.

We are now currently working on ‘plan your marquee wedding’ and ‘plan your destination wedding’, which I hope to launch in the Spring of 2012.

All this work will go towards the final pages/draft of my Wedding Planning book – which I have now decided to self-publish as the last four years of trying to find the ‘right’ publisher has been a hard, very costly and time consuming task, with a lot of disappointment resulting from endless meetings.

Last October saw the launch of Sparkling Gold Cuvee, (also available from my website) and I’m pleased to say that this has been well received in hotels, venues and Brides purchasing and I shall now take this to bigger wholesalers and distributors.

When I was invited to be one of the VIP reporting guests for Global and ET Canada at the Royal Wedding I was thrilled and delighted to accept!

I was based at the purpose built world media village at Canada Gate (how appropriate) which is opposite Buckingham Palace. There were anchors and reporters and TV personalities from all over the world and were based in each of the small pods. I was positioned next to Dame Edna (Aus) and Piers Morgan (US) and was part of the team with Dawna Friesen and Cheryl Hickey. Debbie Travis was also there with Alex Blomberg (security) it made for an interesting mix of styles and personalities.

To be sitting there watching and hearing it all live and happening around me, was surreal! I was on cloud 9 to be a wedding planner at the Royal Wedding, what a treat!

I saw Jane Seymour, Philip Schofield, Barbara Walters (with the biggest entourage), Eve Pollard, Elizabeth Emmanuel, I think it would have been more interesting to have had cameras in there at times…!

At the ‘fly past’ the whole temporary scaffolding structure shook, the cameras, and equipment rattled and to see it on the monitors, but to hear and feel the effect of made it all very real.

All the (private) weddings I have done this year have been a real pleasure to do. My Brides have been very well

organized and bear no resemblance to the Brides on Wedding SOS! We have had no disasters, very little stress and the only challenge I had -was trying to keep several ice sculptures from melting too quickly in the summer heat! One memorable moment was when a Bride gave me a Royal Doulton statue called ‘thank you’, as she said that she couldn’t thank me enough. They are my two favourite words in the world. So much so that my house is called ‘TY House’, as I had the keys on Thanksgiving Day and it means home in the welsh language.

On a personal note, my Son turned 18, and has gone off to University and there is a definite lack of noise, kids, washing and shopping! I miss him dearly. My other love – Oscar (my little shadow -a ShihTzu) turned 8 in September and is a delight and I adore him more than ever!

I have changed my car, no longer the Jaguar XF but have gone for something very different for me, a white 4 x 4 Ford Kuga with all the trimmings, its fun, and suits my needs far more.

My garden has blossomed after two years of hard work planting and the finishing touch of a wrought iron swing seat was a birthday present to myself! I still haven’t managed to get my two Muskoka chairs, but where there’s a will…..

I’m writing this at Pearson Airport, Toronto as I have another three hours to wait before my next flight as I have just been for a week to Edmonton – a place I have never been to before. It’s a 4-hour internal flight going east. I did’Plan Your Wedding in a Day’ workshop (see Facebook location and details of) and a number of tv and radio interviews advertising the Bridalfantasy Bridal Conference. I also did a one-day wedding fair where I had a line up of Brides and Planners of over two hours. My Wedding Wall Planners were a huge hit – and I’m so pleased that Brides embrace this concept of making your wedding ‘visual’ and delegating tasks.

Two weeks ago I was making a personal appearance at the National Bridal Show in Toronto (third year) – so I’ve been doing more than my fair share of flying and sitting at airports. I’m not planning anymore flights at the moment as I know there will be the onslaught of the January and February wedding shows soon.

October is one of my favourite months of the year. I’m hoping that the weather is kind as the weddings I have will suit a dry day with lots of leaves in the photographs. One of my Brides is actually having pumpkins as centerpieces – not seen that before – we will have to see…

My December Bride is hoping for snow – she wants a white wedding and has had a beautiful fur trimmed cape made. She will look stunning with a muff and her Bridesmaids are in red. She has ordered her wedding stationery from my new collection and I have been very impressed with the results of the new designs and the wider choice of fonts and monograms.

I’ve made a new connection with an American linen supplier who has just introduced some fabulous chair covers and I’m hoping to bring a few to the UK to put a ‘toe in the water’ as table linens did not capture any Brides imaginations when I showcased them.

Check out ‘Ride to the Wall’ (RTTW) and I will be riding with over 10,000+ bikes to the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas. This is where my friends and other bikers pay their respects to the Fallen service men and women. Its an amazing day.

I have a pile of wedding magazines and books I have to read and catch up with – all new trends and ideas that I have to stay ‘on the ball’ and know what’s hot – and what’s not! I will pass on what I know to you – my readers…. So as they say –

Watch This Space.

One tip - always put a date for the R.S.V.P otherwise people will forget and will not know when you need a response by – and then you will have to telephone guests to ascertain whether they are attending the wedding or not.

The first wedding fair this year I attended was on the 9th January, and every weekend since there have been so many for Brides to attend. I flew to Canada to make personal appearances at the Sudbury Wedding Fair (with Bill McElree) and I also appeared at the National Wedding Show in Toronto at the Direct Energy Centre. They were both extremely well attended and I appeared on the catwalks to give ‘hints and tips’ to Brides.  I was wearing a new brand of clothing – ‘Condici‘  as I like to promote Mother of the Bride fashions as it is very hard for some Mums to find their perfect outfit for the special day.

I was seated on the SEARS stand promoting the Gift Bridal Registry and the first 75 Brides were given one of my WEDDING WALL PLANNERS (see my shop for details) as a Thank You for registering.  I signed autographs and had a lot of photos taken (which are all on my facebook pages)

I was invited by CBC News Toronto to appear on their evening news show to commentate on the forthcoming Royal Wedding.  But it was only 3 minutes long – so they invited me back again the following week to do another 6 minutes.

The Canadians are very interested in William and Kates wedding and I hope to do more in the lead up to the wedding for the news channel – View it now

I met with my book publisher again, this is moving slower than a slug pace, but perseverance will out, and we will get there one day. How anyone gets a book published is amazing! There are 3 books they would like me to do:  Plan Your Wedding with JDH, So you want to be a Wedding Planner and my Autobiography – not sure about the last one – but a lot of writing non the less…..

Jennifer Reece-Maxwell excelled herself again and organised two events for me to attend. One for wedding planners, a three hour informative session where Wedding Planners could ask questions and I would give expertise and knowledge and a few hilarious tales as well – of disasters and encounters along the way! and another for couples who are getting married in Toronto in the next few months.  This is the second year we have done this and hope to do more later in the year. See More

An interesting development took place at the beginning of February where I was asked to manage and take over a new venue called ‘Whiston Hall‘ .  Its a 9 bedroom property 3 miles from Alton Towers.  It has a golf course and planning permission for 40 bedrooms and a spa.  The new owners are developers and need someone to manage the functions and events and all the weddings that are already booked there. I have now interviewed all the couples and found out what all their problems are and I will have my work cut out over the next few months to say the least.!  watch this space

I am hoping to now move my WEDDING ACADEMY to WHISTON HALL over the next few weeks to be able to run all the courses from there.

So prospective Wedding Planners will be able to attend the day overview course, the intermediate course or the residential course.  All details will be posted on the website in the next 3 weeks.

Brides will also be able to attend ‘Plan Your Wedding in A Day’ course from March onwards.  Again, look at the calendar for future dates

I have been co-hosting monthly with Joanne Malin on Radio WM 95.6FM.  On 10th February we talked about Mother of the Bride fashions with another lady representing John Lewis. Next month (10th March 10.30 am) we are talking about making speeches.

Back in Toronto I met with Lou Berkovits and enjoyed a new experience of doing radio advertisements. Armed with headset, microphone, soundproofed studio and a variation of one liners, I recorded them for his Sunday morning Real Estate radio show – Listen now.

This is all in four weeks – add in family life with teenage son, aged Mother and a little Shih Tzu that follows me round as a shadow, I juggle it all.  With a house to run, and the upkeep of, plus trying to at least see the gym once or twice a week, getting up at 6am and dropping back into bed at midnight seems like the only option at the moment.  I would dearly like a social life and I do try to see friends and family whenever I can, just keeping track on Facebook seems to be the only contact sometimes.

I try and TWEET and update my FACEBOOK pages as much as I can, and now I am adding in this BLOG to keep a track of all the developments that are going on.

I am hoping that my  PLAN YOUR WEDDING ON AN APP will soon be finished.  Its taken 10 months and there has been a lot of work and thought put into this huge project. It will change wedding planning as we know it.  When it is finalised – YOU will be the first to know!!!

On a weekly basis I have been writing for a few magazines and newspapers.  A 3 page supplement in the HALESOWEN NEWS entitled the ROYAL WEDDING has been a favourite of mine. Yesterday I was interviewed by the EXPRESS & STAR for my comments (not sure when this will be published)

The pilot for the TV show MIXED BLESSINGS has taken a new twist,  We have a new Production Company looking at the project. Please keep your fingers crossed for this one as I would dearly like to be able to help more couples and show how Wedding Planners make all the difference at a wedding.

So with more WEDDING FAIRS to attend, and WHISTON HALL to manage, the next month is also going to be busy!!  See the calendar for the dates of the shows

Brides have their Bride files and all the contracts have to be reviewed and the suppliers and vendors have to be re-contacted and reaffirmed. January is usually a very busy month with Wedding Fairs and Shows and there should also be dress fittings – to see if the Bride has gained any weight over Christmas.

Depending on when the wedding is – there is certainly a countdown to the date – whether April or October. Things do get missed so I do recommend my WEDDING WALL PLANNER to all my Brides so that they can write on, wipe off everything they are doing, and everyone in the Bridal party can see what needs to be done- and when.

To obtain a WEDDING WALL PLANNER order online through my SHOP

If you need any help with your wedding, or need to engage a wedding planner please don’t hesitate to contact me at contact@janedayus-hinch.com