Welcome to episode 12 of Season 2 of the Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast. This is the final episode of this season and for the finale, I am chatting to the very lovely Beth of Beth Haxby Cakes. Beth is a hugely talented cake designer and creates beautiful cakes and dessert tables for weddings in the UK. Beth has built up a business from scratch and her cakes are highly sought after for their elegant, delicate buttercream designs and for the care and attention she gives to her clients. I can always spot a Beth Haxby cake as she most definitely has a signature style which helps to attract her ideal client.

On this episode, Beth and I chat about the challenges of running a cake business, especially in the years following the pandemic. She also talks about how her business has evolved and rules she has in place to bring a form of work life balance to her life, to ensure that she has time to be a Mum to her young son. And since recording the podcast episode, Beth is now expecting her second child. Running your own business is very unique to each business owner and their wants and needs and that is the beauty of it as you can shape it to fit around you and your commitments. Beth is a great example of someone who is running her business on her terms and thriving. Success can mean so many different things to people, but clearly to Beth, a successful business for her is one that is profitable but one that also fits around her family commitments.

Beth shares her tips for how she’s grown her business, how she’s built connections within the wedding industry and how she’s become a preferred supplier in some wonderful British venues. If you’re a budding cake designer, and have an interest in branching into weddings, this episode will be really helpful to you.

Thank you to all of my guests that have taken part this season. And as always, my guests are open to being contacted so if you’d like to connect with Beth and see all her beautiful cakes, you can find her on Instagram @beth_haxby_cakes or on her website: https://bethhaxbycakes.com/.  As always, if you’d like to get in touch with me, my DM’s are always open on Instagram and if you have time, I’d be so grateful if you could rate and review the show.  And do subscribe if you would like to be kept posted on the next season going live!

Thank you so much, 

Vaani x

Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast
www.vaaniwadman.com
@vaani_wadman
@sugarplumbakeskingston

Welcome to episode 11 of Season 2 of the Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast, this is the penultimate episode of the season! And on this episode, my guest is the powerhouse that is the fabulous Faye Cornhill. If you are in the UK wedding industry, you will probably know of her already as she is such a well known figure and inspiration to the wedding creative community. But for those who aren’t familiar with her, Faye is a wedding photographer, a business coach, she is the founder of the Wedding Business Club and the author of ‘I Do’. This podcast episode was recorded earlier on in 2022 and on the recording Faye mentions an upcoming exciting project, which happens to be her charity: Lives in Focus which she co-founded with her  husband and launched this year.

Faye started The Wedding Business Club a few years ago to offer an educational hub and a community, where like-minded wedding creatives could come together to support each other and  learn from each other. During 2020 when the UK went through many lockdowns and spells of isolation, the Wedding Business Club was an invaluable virtual space to find comfort and advice. Faye herself was a huge support and a voice of reason and she recommended strategies that people could focus on to help keep their businesses strong and ride out the storm. Following on from those unprecedented times, The Club continues to grow in numbers and Faye continues to develop her offering to help support people new to business as well as those who are established. And she continues to inspire through how she lives her own life!

So yes, as you can tell from this introduction, Faye is very much a go-getter. She’s energetic, courageous, an unstoppable force and a much trusted and valued individual within the wedding industry. During the episode, Faye shares her knowledge and experience of running a wedding photography business and we talk about some of her strategies that she uses to keep her businesses organised and productive. We also talk about dealing with comparisonitis, imposter syndrome, how to work on your mindset to become stronger and believe in yourself, as well as facing your fears so that you can do the things that scare you. It's a jam-packed episode which I very much hope is of value to you.

I’m so grateful to Faye for coming on the podcast, I know her time is precious and it means a lot that she gave up her time to  to chat with me and generously share advice and talk openly about her experiences. If you would like to connect with Faye, you can find her on her website https://www.fayecornhillcoaching.co.uk/ and if you’re not following her already on Instagram, you can find her on @fayecornhill and do take a look at her charity too: Lives in Focus As always, if you’d like to get in touch with me, my DM’s are always open on Instagram and if you have time, I’d be so grateful if you could rate and review the show. 

Thank you so much! 

Vaani x

Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast
www.vaaniwadman.com
@vaani_wadman
@sugarplumbakeskingston

Welcome to episode 10 of Season 2 of the Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast. On this episode, I am chatting to the incredibly talented Elspeth Tull, the owner and founder of London-based Blume Studio. I feel like Elspeth exploded onto the scene with her floral heavy designs and signature style and not surprisingly has been named one of the UK’s best floral designers by both The Wed and Sheerluxe. I love her fresh and modern creations, her talent and skill are immense  and I can always spot her work as it’s so distinctive in colour and texture. 

Standing out in a very busy marketplace is no small achievement either and if you listen in to this episode, you’ll get an insight into Elspeth and understand how she steers clear of being influenced by social media content and stays true to herself and her creative process. For someone so new to business, Elspeth has certainly grown rapidly and has made savvy decisions that has enabled her to keep being visible and keep growing despite the pandemic. Through her work aligning with highly reputable brands, she in turn has boosted the credibility of her business and become a highly sought after floral designer. 

As I’ve worked on a few weddings with Elspeth, I’ve been able to see her florals first-hand and have experienced the beauty of her creations for myself. And those weddings have definitely been some of my favourites this year!

Elspeth is also recently engaged and is in the midst of planning her own wedding. So during the episode we also talk about the joys and challenges of planning your own wedding when you’re a when you’re a wedding creative yourself. It was really lovely to be able to hear her perspective as a supplier and a bride-to-be.

Honestly, Elspeth and I could have chatted all day and I feel like there were so many nuggets of great advice so I genuinely hope that you find this episode to be beneficial. Elspeth is full of energy and drive that I feel is infectious, and there are lots of takeaways for you to feel inspired by and things that you can also do for your own business. Do check out Elspeth’s amazing work on her website https://www.blumestudio.co.uk/ and if you’re not following her already on Instagram, you can find her on @theblumestudio. As always, if you’d like to get in touch with me, my DM’s are always open on Instagram and if you have time, I’d be so grateful if you could rate and review the show. 

Thank you so much! 

Vaani x

Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast
www.vaaniwadman.com
@vaani_wadman
@sugarplumbakeskingston

Welcome to episode 9 of Season 2 of the Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast. On this episode, I am chatting to the soulful Annabel Beeforth, who is the owner and founder of UK wedding blog, Love My Dress. During 2020, Annabel also established What About Weddings, a UK-based political campaign, with Jessie Westwood and Tamryn Settle to help support wedding suppliers with the challenges that the pandemic was causing for the UK wedding industry. Although the UK wedding industry has resumed work, the What About Weddings also brought people together and provided a community for wedding creatives. Annabel, Tamryn and Jessie have recognised how important it is to have a safe and supportive space for the wedding industry and are finding ways to evolve and keep supporting us.

It truly is an honour to have Annabel as a guest. She gave of herself tirelessly and selflessly during those difficult months and I am truly humbled to have her chat with me on the podcast. During this episode we talk about a range of topics. Including the responsibility Annabel feels as a wedding blog publisher to share content that’s meaningful and of value to her audience as well as holding onto her values of integrity and authenticity. She endeavours to shares beautiful stories in a considered, thoughtful way and is nurturing a platform that has longevity and fulfils a need for those seeking something away from the disposable culture that has become so prevalent.

Annabel talks about how aware she is of the busy world that she lives in and how she consciously chooses to go at her own pace and resists the temptation to follow trends being set by the massive social media  platforms.

 Annabel also shares her advice on what she in particular is looking for in weddings, shoot and editorial submissions. Oftentimes, wedding suppliers will be keen to grow their businesses by being featured on a wedding blog, and it's important to note that each and every wedding blog publisher will have their own requirements and needs. Ensuring you're well informed about the specialties of a wedding blog really helps to find success when you’re seeking publication.

I truly hope that you find this episode to be of value to you. And if you’d like to connect with Annabel, you can find her on Instagram through her personal account on @annabelbeeforth or @lovemydress or @whataboutweddings.  As always, if you’d like to get in touch with me, my DM’s are always open on Instagram and if you have time, I’d be so grateful if you could rate and review the show. 

Thank you so much! 

Vaani x

Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast
www.vaaniwadman.com
@vaani_wadman
@sugarplumbakeskingston

Welcome to Episode 8 of Season 2 of the Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast. I am hosting the lovely Katya Valentina, a UK based bridal hairstylist, who is known for her ability to craft effortless and beautiful bridal hairstyles. On this episode, Katya shares her story about how she started her business and the ways she grew her business through using social media. I love hearing the stories of fellow  wedding suppliers from different parts of the industry and learning about how we all serve couples in our own different ways - yet are still working within this same creative wedding industry. 

In the time that I've known Katya, she has become more and more in demand - she is someone who is very consistent with the content that she puts out there and I think this helps her potential clients identify if she's right for them as they know exactly what kind of hairstyles Katya creates. 

On this episode, Katya shares some great advice on how you can overcome imposter syndrome and also how to maintain your self worth and not get pulled down by comparisonitis. She also highly recommends saying ‘yes’ to opportunities that come your way as she believes this is what has opened so many doors for her. 

Following on from working on a wedding together, Katya and I connected online - she’s so lovely and easy to approach. So if you’d like to connect with Katya, you can find her on Instagram and and you can also find out more about Katya on her website https://www.katyavalentina.com/.  I really hope you enjoyed listening to this episode, my DM’s are always open on Instagram and if you have time, I’d be so grateful if you could rate and review the show. 

Thank you! 

Vaani x

Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast
www.vaaniwadman.com
@vaani_wadman
@sugarplumbakeskingston

Welcome to Episode 7 of Season 2 of the Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast. I’m thrilled to share this episode with you as I am hosting the very lovely Cristina Ilao, a dear friend of mine who is a UK-based fine art destination wedding photographer. Cristina left behind a secure and lucrative job as an accountant in the financial services sector to follow her dreams and last year, she took the leap to go full-time with her wedding photography. She shares her thoughts on what made her finally commit to leaving that secure job to become a full-time wedding creative and talks honestly about what this change in career has meant to her.

During the episode, Cristina shares some great advice to wedding suppliers on how she’s built up her luxury wedding business and how the connections she’s made with fellow wedding creatives have been so important to her. Cristina doesn’t shy away from being honest about  how she believes you should be looking at raising your online profile outside of Instagram. So often, wedding creatives will use social media, specifically Instagram, as their sole marketing tool and Cristina is someone who has grown her business by cleverly using other means but especially by nurturing her website. If you’re someone who’s working in weddings, on the side of a permanent employed job, I hope you find it inspiring listening to Cristina share her story. Maybe you too are feeling stuck in a dead-end corporate job and hearing Cristina's tale may  give you the courage to take the leap yourself. If you’d like to see Cristina’s beautiful work and also check out her blog, her website is: https://www.cristinailao.com or you can seek her out on Instagram - as she said, she's always open to making new friends and I'm sure she'd love to hear from you. 

Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast
www.vaaniwadman.com
@vaani_wadman
@sugarplumbakeskingston

Welcome to Episode 6 of Season 2 of the Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast. On this episode I am hosting Pierra Goff and I know  that the release of this episode has long been awaited for by Pierra’s fans. Pierra is a UK-based wedding photographer and burst onto the wedding scene a few years ago. Her business, Pierra G Photography, has grown rapidly and her style of romantic, dreamy photography has become highly sought after by couples having UK and destination weddings. Pierra has had her work featured in countless wedding blogs and along with Russell also offers workshops to budding photographers and videographers, looking to capture fresh content for their portfolios. 

During the episode you get an insight into what drives Pierra and how she’s channeled her passion and energy to grow her business so quickly. Pierra’s shares her tips and advice on how she’s attracting her ideal client and despite the changes to Instagram, how she’ll be continuing to use the app to connect with her audience and keep supporting fellow wedding suppliers.

If you would like to find Pierra online, her website is: https://pierragphotography.com/ and of course, you’ll find her on Instagram. And if you’re interested in learning from Pierra, do check out Milkshake Kisses to see the kind of workshops she puts together with Russell Kent Nicholls (Russell was my first guest ever on the podcast on Episode 2 of Season 1, and if you haven’t had a listen to that episode, you really should!).

Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast
www.vaaniwadman.com
@vaani_wadman
@sugarplumbakeskingston

Welcome to Episode 5 of Season 2 of the Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast. I know this is a long awaited episode for some of you as I am hosting the wonderful Suzanne Brady of Cove Cake Design. Suzanne is an inspiring business woman and cake designer, based in Dublin Ireland and through her consistency for her cake style and brand messaging, she has cultivated a luxury cake business with a high-class reputation. 

Suzanne has had her work published in Vogue, Brides and Martha Stewart Weddings - the kind of prestigious publications that many of us aspire to have our work featured in. And on this episode, Suzanne shares her story of how she started her business and has worked steadily to build it up while raising a family. Suzanne shares some great advice on ways that she looks after herself to maintain her wellbeing and her mindset. And she also shares tips on things you can do to grow and build a strong business and create a luxury brand for yourself.

If you would like to find Suzanne online, her website is: https://www.covecakedesign.ie/ and if you’re interested in trying out some of her amazing cake flavourways, you can also purchase her recipe e-books through Suzanne’s online shop. And if you’d like to connect with Suzanne, you can also find her on Instagram.

Thank you for listening!

Sugar Plum Bakes Wedding Business Podcast
www.vaaniwadman.com
@vaani_wadman
@sugarplumbakeskingston