Episode 01: Introduction to All Things Weddings
In this episode we say welcome to All Things Weddings, the newest podcast to help you navigate your wedding planning journey. Hear more about Hannah & Scott, learn how they got started in weddings, why they love weddings so much and how they can help you plan your perfect wedding.
Full Episode Transcript:
Scott
Hello! Welcome to All Things Weddings I’m Scott the photographer behind Scott Carney Photography.
Hannah
And I’m Hannah the wedding planner behind Hannah Rachael Weddings. We’re here to help you navigate your wedding planning, to freely share tips, insights and behind the scenes so you hopefully feel less overwhelmed and stress free while planning your gorgeous wedding.
Scott
Hannah, how has your week been? What have you been up to?
Hannah
Erm it’s been quite a quiet week. Just catch ups with couples, so I offer an initial consultation with all of my couples when they book. So, it’s just been going through initial plans with them, having zooms. Nice little catch ups and updating function sheets because if I don’t know what’s going on the we’re in trouble! (Hannah laughs)
Scott
Yeah, the planner needs to be organised.
Hannah
Yeah, definitely.
Scott
That’s for sure.
Hannah
What about you?
Scott
Err yeah, it’s been quite chilled. I didn’t shoot a wedding in December or January so it’s been nice to have that time like where I can be a bit more like on top of things almost.
Hannah
Yep. Get all your admin done.
Scott
Yeah, so update the website and blog about 20 weddings because it was like, like every year I’m like, I’ve even said it this year, like I’ll definitely like blog a bit more, like you know keep on top of it and do it at the right time, but yeah I just forget and do them all in January.
Hannah
Yeah, I’ve been blogging this month, so I know exactly the pain.
Scott
Yeah, it’s been good though. It’s nice, I obviously message my couples for the year in January which is nice to just be like hey it’s this year like how are you getting on and do you have any questions? And things like that, so it’s been nice hearing from them because obviously I think people are even more excited when it’s that year.
Hannah
Definitely
Scott
Be like we’re getting married this year. So, yeah that’s been good to chat to them and yeah a few more enquiries. I think I had an open day at a venue and then, so like, January I think people start to really, especially if they are getting married this year or next year, I feel like they think oh it’s only a year now or it’s less than a year.
Hannah
Things really ramp up, don’t they?
Scott
Yeah, it’s quite a busy season for booking and stuff which is nice. So, yeah do you want to talk a bit about how you go into weddings then? Why weddings?
Hannah
Yeah, course. So I have been that person who has been obsessed with weddings from a very young age. Erm, I was one of them, I’ve always been a creative so in school I took every art, design class I possible could. I picked up textiles, did everything. And erm, I begged my local bridal shop to take me on and let me come and make tea and coffee for them on a Saturday and just watch fittings and get to be immersed in that industry. And since then, I went on and did fashion design and Uni, specialized in bridalwear. Then I use to go back to the seamstress’s house and sit on her sofa and just stitch on appliques and butterflies onto wedding dresses so I’ve kind of been obsessed with the industry for quite a few years now. And then after uni I wasn’t too well, I did a few retail jobs, worked in a bridal shop but nothing really fueled me like weddings did so I then I got into the events side of things. So, I knew I wanted to be in wedding events, so I volunteered at a local hotel where I did everything sort of admin and fell in love with it all again. Erm, then me and my partner moved to the Lake District, and I got offered an event assistant role there and learnt pretty much everything I could possibly know now. (Hannah laughs) It was the best experience I could have possibly had. So, I did everything from duty manager to serving breakfast, cleaning rooms, everything. So, it was the perfect opportunity for me to sort of get ready and set up.
Scott
Did they do weddings; did they have weddings there?
Hannah
Yeah, they did weddings, corporate events, birthday parties, christenings, like you name it we did it. So, it was just the perfect experience to learn absolutely everything I possibly could. How to cloth a table, how to serve breakfast, there wasn’t anything that we didn’t do. So, it set me up perfectly.
Scott
Nice. Yeah, the Lakes is like, I don’t know just such a great place, isn’t it? Like, I love like I do a few weddings there a year. It’s not like too far away from where we are is it but yeah, it’s so nice. Like, I feel like you get so many, such a different vast array of people that go to The Lakes.
Hannah
Definitely.
Scott
People just go up there like every weekend because they love it. People like Americans who come to see it even, things like that. It’s just very iconic.
Hannah
Yeah, if you’re outdoorsy yeah definitely it’s the perfect place. It’s so beautiful as well for weddings, you’ve got so many fantastic venues up there. Where have you shot at up there?
Scott Eeeerm Inn on the Lake.
Hannah
Yeah, nice.
Scott
I’ve been there a few times. Where else have I been? Ullswater hotel, I’ve been there a few times like a while back which is nice which is just on the lake.
Hannah
Have you done Hidden River Cabins?
Scott
Yes. It’s so nice.
Hannah
Yeah, it’s beautiful there, really good team as well. Really lovely up there.
Scott
It’s a great location. They’ve got a massive window which is like yeah amazing isn’t it. I had no interest in weddings.
Hannah
Really?
Scott
Yeah haha.
Hannah
Wow!
Scott
I enjoyed like going to weddings and whatever, but I don’t know I was never, I don’t know. I had like an interest in photography from like quite, relatively early like school kind of aged. Erm but never like anything serious really. Then I think in college I played in a couple of bands, I was never like great so like yeah a lot of my mates were a lot better than I was and I was, so yeah I was like always there so we’d like hang out and they was like oh we’ve got a gig so I was coming along and hang out with you but I wasn’t playing. So, I think I just lead to like oh I quite like photography, I’m here, they want photos anyway, it makes sense so I’ll just kind of you know start taking pictures. So that was my first like journey into photography if you like. I think I was just mostly on yeah like bands and then I joined the army after college. I think I was like, I was going to be a police man that was like my thing and then just I don’t know why I just didn’t really enjoy college that much. I love all the like hanging out with all my mate’s side of it.
Hannah
yeah.
Scott
But the education side just wasn’t really like jelling, just wasn’t for me so I was like right what else can I do? I wanted to join the police for whatever reason and but obviously I was only like seventeen and this point sixteen or seventeen. North Yorkshire where I was obviously were like their average age recruitment was a lot higher, they wanted you to have life experience, they weren’t recruiting and all that so for various reasons I think I literally just googled like I don’t know similar jobs to police or something random. And was like military police and I was like oh what’s that and like. So, I ended up joining that weirdly and did that for like 10 years.
Hannah
Oh wow.
Scott
But yeah I always like kept doing a little bit and obviously like in the army there’s like so many random events and so many like you know parades and sports and like again I’m not great at sport but I love it so I never really played but I’d go to watch or support so then it was like oh well you like photography would you like so do some photos so I’ve just always like done a little bit. I went out to Afghanistan and came back and had loads of time off just because of the way it works like you know you’re there for ages so I had loads of time off and everyone else was like at work, all my friends had normal jobs so I was like what am I going to do and I think I was like well I love festivals and live music so I’d go but I didn’t just want to go on my own or just you know try and rope people into go so I was like right I could do some photos I guess, is that a thing? So, I literally just emailed or like phoned even back then probably or something I don’t know I don’t think Instagram was a thing. Whatever the thing was like myspace or something I’d like get in touch with the, the event organiser and be like look I’ve got some time I’ll just come, can I come and shoot you know if you just give me a pass basically I’ll shoot and you can have the photos and that’s that kind of thing. So, I did a few like smaller like, a lot of the bigger festivals are like no it’s fine we’ve got like lots of media but the smaller ones and they were great. So yeah, and that was kind of, and I was like I’m really into this photography thing now how can I do more with this as I didn’t earn money then. Erm, I think a friend, I then shot a friend’s wedding reluctantly erm because they were like were not having anyone so can you shoot and I was like ok I don’t really do weddings but if you’re sure. And then yeah just like loved it and there was a lot of similarities with like festivals and weddings and the way I shoot now I think comes from that. Because I was like right, I don’t want to just shoot the band and sit in the pit for the first three songs and just do the same shots that like I look around me and there’s like fifty photographers all in there. So, I was like what’s happening in the crowd or what’s the story around that? So yeah so, I just sort of started shooting weddings that way and then kind of built from there. And then yeah love kind of grew for that like family stories almost and then yeah seeing that interaction and everything so yeah just started weddings there. And that was like 2015 I think so a good few years now.
Hannah
So a long time.
Scott
so yeah. And yeah, a good few years now and yeah I just don’t really look back and then I would definitely do more festival stuff again that would be the only thing but they kind of clash with wedding season but other than that I can’t imagine photographing anything other than weddings really.
Hannah
I think that’s the thing when you get into the niche of what you love you just throw yourself into it. You can’t see yourself doing anything else. A bit like me and weddings. I don’t, I do a couple of like parties or twenty firsts but weddings for me is, is the gold.
Scott
Yeah amazing. So, what, so this podcast then what are we, what is the aim of the podcast really? What we saying like whose it for? What are we hoping to achieve?
Hannah
I think for us it’s for anybody who is planning their wedding who’s a bit stressed, a bit overwhelmed. There’s so much involved in planning a wedding it is hard to know how to navigate it, which route to turn down, what to do when, what questions to ask and I think for us it’s just to share some of that insight that we have. That behind the scenes knowledge that you know you just don’t find out unless you would book us or work with us and it’s just sharing those tips freely so you can plan the day that you’re you know you want to look forward to.
Scott
Yeah one hundred percent I think we just, obviously we’ve both worked in the industry for a while now so I think we just want to bring some of the best suppliers like to talk about each aspect of the day really and hopefully there’s some there’s some useful tips in there for couples to take away. I’m getting married in May and yeah even for me and obviously I’ve liked worked in the industry for a while now I know a lot of people and even then, I’ve realised like a lot of the things where I might be like ah that’s annoying I’m doing myself and it’s quite like weirdly hard to plan a wedding.
Hannah
Definitely, it’s all the nitty gritty details as well. There’s a lot that goes into it that you just don’t think about, or you just don’t know. Like I speak to my couples all the time and they’re like we would have never thought about that.
Scott
Yeah that’s the thing I’d hate to like after the day to be like, I don’t think, well I’d like to think that most things are not going to be like the days ruined because of it.
Hannah
No.
Scott
Because you’re going to love it regardless of it hopefully, you’re getting married and everything but um but yeah I think it’s just little things I’d hate to look back and then be like ah I wish I’d known that.
Hannah
Yeah.
Scott
Because then I would have done it you know this way or that way, so hopefully we can yeah help with a few of those nuggets.
Hannah
I hope so.
Scott
So I think yeah were trying to put out like, well at least one episode a month maybe try and get two and we’ll have some where we just chat like this.
Hannah
Yes.
Scott
Which will be nice and the well have obviously like guests on which will be er which will be nice and we’ll talk about their specific area.
Hannah
To give you a bit of a broader insight into to weddings as a whole.
Scott
Yeah, I think it would be great to see from everyone’s point of view as well which is great. But anyway, were basically going to be on most major like platforms for podcasts, so if you listen on Apple or Spotify or Google podcasts.
Hannah
We’ll be there.
Scott
What’s the other one Google play? I don’t know anyway yeah, we’ll be on them so hopefully you can find us pretty easily there and Instagram as well I guess.
Hannah
Definitely.
Scott
For most of our like behind the scenes stuff. Erm so who’s our first guest Hannah?
Hannah
The wonderful Freya Raby Photography.
Scott
Woohoo.
Hannah
Is out first guests. We love Freya. She’s the best.
Scott
Check out the next episode. We’ll be chatting to Freya all things wedding photography and yeah if you’ve got any questions just drop us a message I guess on Instagram.
Hannah
Yeah, definitely.
Scott
Get in touch and if you want to hear about something specific just let us know.
Hannah
And we’ll answer them.
Scott
Thanks.