As one of Togather’s co-founders and an ex-journalist, Hugo pairs his event expertise with his experience building a business from scratch to contribute to event trends and guides. He is no stranger to the front lines of events, having assisted with load-in and load-out at many of Togather’s early events, and now attends as many of Togather’s public events as possible.
Matthew Shaw
Founder and Creative Director at Sauveur
First things first, what are the first steps you think a recently engaged couple should take when it comes to planning their wedding?
Oh great question. Firstly and perhaps most importantly, make sure you take your time and relax.
There's a tendency for people to just launch right into their wedding planning at 100 miles an hour and not fully appreciate those first moments of being engaged, and there's simply no need to take things too fast.
So firstly, don't think about your wedding and enjoy the engagement, and then when you're ready to start planning the first key areas is approximate size, you definitely need to get a rough idea on how many guests. This provides a steer on pretty much everything else you're going to do. You shouldn't be too optimistic about this; you need to be realistic about how many people you're able to have attending in regard to your estimated budget.
Next, you should discuss the levels of potential family engagement and I'm not just saying financial involvement, but some people's family will want to be - whether asked or not - highly involved both logistically and emotionally in the planning process. I've often been surprised by just how much some parents want to take high levels of control. Be open and transparent about this early, and draw your lines in the sand; it will make everything easier down the line.
Finally, have a chat at beginning about what's really important to you as a couple when it comes to look, feel and style of the wedding, and the suppliers that you want to prioritise. What sort of venue do you want? How important are flowers, or an amazing DJ to you? I've seen a lot of couples who are about to book, for example, a very expensive photographer they've found on Instagram, but clearly doesn't work with the wider budget, and then lose their ability to stretch the budget in other areas. You've got to suss out what's important to you at the start.
Which suppliers do you think are the most important to get right to make sure that it's going to be a great day?
Well for the majority of weddings or parties, your catering really is always going to be your bedrock.
Your caterer will really be the one that guides you on a lot of the planning, from the setup, to the staffing, to the timings. They're the ones that are exposed to the majority of different elements of your day and you'll want to make sure they're both experienced at what they do and know they're great to work with. And that's even before we start talking about great food and good service!
Make sure that you're working with someone who's food you really enjoy, but is also on the same wavelength as you for the kind of wedding you want. They need to be flexible, and ready to get involved.
And what are the key attributes to look for in a caterer?
My personal view is that you want to be looking for someone that is flexible on their offering and willing to get stuck in, but also willing to step away from the usual mould.
Everyone should be looking to create a wedding in their own image - and if food is central to your identity, it should be a big part of that.
It can get frustrating quite quickly to work with a caterer that's always saying 'Oh but this is just how we do it.' And it's like, well, but we don't want to do it that way. We want to do it this way.
The best caterers are the ones that are willing to be flexible and have a think about new and different and creative ways in which they can delivery their food - who will explore what they can offer.
So can you talk to me about why getting the food right is so important?
There definitely used to be an idea that food was secondary at wedding - that people didn't necessarily care - but that's definitely true any more. People fundamentally see high quality food as central to a good time.
I think that's reflected in the way that people live these days - they're taking far more interest in what they cook at home, what they cook at dinner parties, the restaurants they go to. The truth is if the food is bad, people will notice in a way they may not have done ten years ago - because we're exposed to good food so much. The quality of ingredients has risen, the creativity around dishes has gone to a new level - and such a huge part of your event is going to be set around the table, I don't understand why it wouldn't be one of the areas you put the most effort into.
Naturally everyone will have a different budget - and you don't necessarily need to be going for a crazy tasting menu - good simple food can be delicious.
So food aside, what are the biggest trends you're seeing in wedding planning at the moment?
So at Sauveur we will always do our best to step away from trends, because, as we were discussing previously, your wedding is a reflection of you. If you've gone on Pinterest and suddenly decided that you love this or that trend then you haven't reflected the true intentions of you, your partner, your family. Do your very best to think creatively about what best reflects you - and dedicate the time to that rather than researching trends.
Not trends as such, but one really positive development we've been seeing is couple truly blending their cultures at a wedding. Traditionally you'd often see the more dominant culture or family in the wedding saying 'We're going to have a church wedding', or 'the food will be traditional to our culture.'
Now we're seeing a lot more people wanting to pluck elements from each of their cultures and play around with it and and the results are really, really special. You land up getting a new hybrid wedding, where guest from each side kind of recognise customs and rituals or traditions that they know, but then are also introduced to new elements.
And I think you can have a lot of fun with how you explain that to the guests. For example, menus in two different languages that also explain the different rituals that are happening during dinner, and it'll give you an exciting wedding that no one's ever been to before.
So can you tell us a bit more about Sauveur's philosophy when it comes to events?
We absolutely do, and I don't shut up about it. Above anything else - we are people focused. So we start with people, and everything else follows afterwards.
And when we say people, that's of course the couple, but it's their family, their friends, their guests, but it's also our team and the people we work with, and our suppliers. I think ultimately, if you have a couple that have been looked after throughout the planning, as well as the suppliers at the event - the band, the photographers, the waiting staff - then the whole event will really sing, and everything will come together.
Of course design and aesthetic are important, but I think too often people start here and forget that ultimately, an event is designed to host people and give people a great time. You can have the most beautiful wedding in the world, but if you haven't thought through your guests and the experience they're going to have, ultimately there's no point. It will just fall down.
So that's what our ethos, philosophy and driving force is: to focus on the people across the board, and you will ultimately have the most unforgettable wedding or party or whatever event you're organising.
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