At this year’s Midlands Agent Excellence Awards the new Most Innovative Agency Award went to Perfect Weddings and Honeymoons, an independent overseas wedding specialist based in Lichfield, Staffordshire.
Founder and managing director Helen Doyne, and marketing director Danny Waine, were on hand to pick up the award. “We are so proud of each other and the rest of the team,” said Danny. “It really makes worthwhile the evenings and night shifts we’ve spent trying to get the company off the ground.”
Perfect Weddings and Honeymoons caught the eye of our panel for its inventive marketing strategies, its distinctive products and drive for expansion. It covers everything from wedding-only arrangements to complete wedding and honeymoon packages and overseas civil partnership ceremonies for same-sex couples.
“We started offering honeymoons to same-sex couples just after the introduction of the civil partnership act,” Danny explained. “We are proud of this side of the business as we’ve been at the forefront of overseas civil partnerships from the beginning, long before anyone else caught on.”
Originally a “mainly local” business, over the past 12 months Perfect Weddings and Honeymoons’ online bookings have increased from 30% to 80% thanks to improvements made to the website. With an ever widening client base, the company also gets consistently good feedback and many word-of-mouth referrals.
To cope with the demand, Perfect Weddings and Honeymoons is now expanding to include a team of homeworkers. “Homeworking seemed to be the most obvious route for our business to take, and it allows us to be more flexible,” said Danny.
“We can nurture the homeworkers, train them to specialise in overseas weddings and offer a face-to-face consultation service for customers who are unable to reach our high- street premises in the Midlands”.
When asked how they would use their award for Most Innovative Agency, Danny said: “We’ve had lots of ideas about how we are going to publicise our Agent Excellence Award win, so if you see someone abseiling down the Sydney Harbour Bridge with the award in their hand, it’s probably us.”
Tips from the Perfect Weddings and Honeymoons team
- Don’t be afraid of arranging weddings abroad – they can be the most rewarding bookings. But make sure you book with a specialist.
- Make your wedding couple feel as if they are your one and only booking.
- Get involved in the wedding and help them with all the little details, including the wedding reception arrangements.
- Don’t assume gay couples only want to visit places popular with gay people.