INTERVIEW WITH A WEDDING PLANNER

I am delighted to share with you an interview with

Alison Tinlin of Plans and Presents. Contrary to popular belief, hiring an wedding or event planner is no longer a luxury favoured by the rich and famous. Please read on to find out what Alison has to say.

Please tell us about yourself

My name is Alison Tinlin, owner of Plans and Presents, a Glasgow based wedding and event planning company, providing expert and superior service to all those who need assistance to plan the wedding (or indeed any event) of their dreams! Plans and Presents is based in Glasgow, where I live with my husband and two children, but I cover the whole of the UK.

What does Plans and Presents do?
Plans and Presents was established in April 2009. I help plan and co-ordinate Weddings and Personal Events, all over the country. My job is basically to work with clients, and provide as much, or as little help as they need with their Wedding or Event. That might be as simple as helping someone find a venue, or a supplier they are having particular difficulty sourcing, through to Full Co-ordination, or anything else in between.

Why did you decide to establish your own business?
I’m a huge organiser at heart – I love to have everything in order! In my previous job in nursing, I had to make sure that I worked to very exacting deadlines and being organised was, literally, a matter of life and death. The skills of time management, crisis intervention, a good ear, and the ability to listen and act on peoples needs are great transferable skills.I am also a total people person, I like nothing better than a good chat, so the beauty of this career is that it is all about the client, and what they need, and add to that the fact I absolutely adore Weddings and parties, and it is just a dream job.
For my clients, I give 150% in everything I do, and I believe that by doing that I provide a superior service.

Please talk us through the process
For someone considering my service, I would meet them first for a Free Initial Consultation. We would discuss their thoughts and ideas for the day, and how much involvement they wish me to have in it. The client would get full information of what would be included in the service they are interested in and payment schedule would be advised. From that point if a person was happy with booking me a Deposit would be taken and work commenced, however much or little that is.

Tell us how your service can help clients on a budget
I would love to change peoples' preconceptions of my job, and I have found that the media has a big part to play in putting out a wrong impression.From my experience, it appears that the public are still wary of my title - they believe that a planner/co-ordinator will be expensive and controlling. In fact, this is far from the truth, I pride myself on the fact that my job is all about giving the clients the best possible personal service whilst, ensuring at all times they "retain ownership", and control of their day, whilst simultaneously ensuring they save as much money as possible and have their dream, stress free and wonderful event. The truth is that a Wedding Planner is there to work with anyone, on any budget, researching hard to find the best suppliers available to them within the budget they have, and securing great discounts with the many wonderful Scottish Wedding Suppliers that they have built up solid relationships with.

What part of your job do you enjoy most ?
This can be split in two different catagories. In my normal business day, every single time I am able to help someone, whether if its by a simple phone call, or a tweet, or any other medium then that makes it worthwhile, that way you feel you have made a difference to someones life. In an Event or Wedding setting, the bit that most definetely stands out, and which I really love is when I look at a client, and they smile and I know in my heart that they are totally relaxed and reassured that everything is going the way it is supposed to - because I have done my job well.

What does the future hold for Plans and Presents?
I want to get my name out properly in the Scottish and UK market.Over the last year and a half , I have been building my name up within the UK Bridal Industry. I have been featured in Brides Magazine and the Scottish Wedding Directory, and was recently nominated for a Mumpreneur award.To be recently named No.1 on the UK Wedding Tweeter's list was huge for me, and I am thrilled and honoured to be in that position, and to continue to hold that position after 7 weeks feels like a massive achievement. I have also just been shortlisted for a Golden Twit award that I am immensely proud of, to get down to that level from the many thousnad of entrants feels crazy to me.I want to build on that, and take Plans and Presents to bigger and better things. I will do that by being the best I can be and by providing a superior service.


To contact Alison, please check out her website at Plans and Presents – you can also catch up with me on facebook or twitter – or you can follow my blog