Unconventional Weddings - The Story Behind The Business - Linzi Barford

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Unconventional Weddings - The Story Behind The Business - Linzi Barford

Unconventional Weddings - The Story Behind The Business - Linzi Barford

There are so many people claiming to be blazing a trail and doing something different but my guest today is doing this in bucket loads across both of her businesses!


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The latest in our Story Behind the Business series, I'm pleased to introduce you to Linzi Barford. Owner, Director, wedding planner, wedding blogger and general director of all things wedding!  

I first met Linzi shortly after she launched her wedding planning business That Black and White Cat. Describing herself as no ordinary wedding planner, individual, quirky and alternative weddings are not only her speciality but they are most definitely her passion.

Q. How would you describe your business in one sentence?

Something unique, something different, something ‘out of the box’, something quite frankly amazing!

Q. What inspired you to start your business?

The desire to turn my life away from the corporate, accounting world and do something more rewarding and fulfilling. I couldn’t have done it without my partner, Seb, as it was a leap of faith jumping in to the world of self-employment and leaving a regular 9-5 job behind.

Q. How would you describe your typical day?

After a brief social media catch up, the first couple of hours of the day are spent working on my wedding planning clients. I’ll be booking wedding suppliers to deliver their wedding day, finalising wedding designs or answering enquiries for new bookings.

Then I’ll catch up with my Unconventional Wedding team on the next exciting blog to be published, our blog schedule for the next few weeks and our social media plans.

The afternoon will be spent The Unconventional Wedding Festival. From finalising the arrangements for our experiences or workshops during the weekend, booking suppliers such as storm troopers, or, organising sleeping arrangements for the Alpacas, there is lots to finalise and confirm.

I also get interrupted throughout the day by Sooty, our black & white cat, who sleeps on my desk next to me when I’m working. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Alternative wedding blog - Unconventional Wedding

Q. What has been the best moment of your business so far?

The launch of Unconventional Wedding. I’m super proud to champion the creative, unique and quirky wedding suppliers who are listed on our Directory or appear in our blogs. They create such amazing inspiration and its an absolutely honour to be able to share it. I’m definitely feel as if I’ve found my niche!

Q. What are you most excited about in your business plans for the next few months?

The Unconventional Wedding Festival is on the 11-12 May at the stunning Stanford Hall, near Lutterworth, Leicestershire. We’ve got some amazing wedding suppliers to share with our visitors.  Its’ super hard to pull out just a few but I think my favourites are the alpacas, birds of prey, a London Route Master bus that turns into a wedding marquee, and, the stunning bridalwear on display.

Q. Which 3 business (or other) books would you recommend to other business owners?

This is where I confess that I’m not actually a huge business book reader. I have a couple oN my book shelf, but I never get past the first chapter! The one which has stood out for me recently, both for business and personally, is ‘Radical Self Love’ by Gala Darling. I’m also just about to start reading ‘Playing the Matrix’ by Mike Dooley (I’m a huge fan of his TUT adventurers club).

Q. If you could start your business all over again, what's the one thing you would do differently?

Build a better website! Looking back at my first website for ‘that black & white cat’ it was awful. I like the fact that we build our own websites which gives us lots of flexibility and its easier to make changes, but it could have been a lot lot better! When you move from corporate world to being self employed you don’t realise how much you have to learn and I’m super grateful to all the people who have supported me in my journey.  

unconventional weddings

Q. If you were conducting this interview, what one question would you ask?

If you were an animal, which animal would you be? Ah that’s too easy, it’s a cat of course!

Can we go for, what’s the thing you most value in the wedding industry? The awesome network of wedding suppliers that I have the privilege to meet, work with and showcase. Some of whom have become good friends and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thank you Linzi and I completely get what you mean about the fabulous industry we both work in. Such creativity and talent out there!

You can find out more about Linzi's wedding planning business here and head over to The Unconventional Wedding Festival and her blog The Unconventional Wedding.

Until next time,

Val

Read more in our Story Behind the Business series


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