Show notes:

This week I’m speaking to Daisy Bradley about the evolution of the wedding industry and the future of wedding venues, focusing on the operational challenges and marketing strategies that define success for venues like Post Barn. Daisy recounts her personal journey through the hospitality sector, and now the wedding industry. Daisy highlights the significance of fostering a strong team culture that prioritises client relationships, ensuring that every couple feels a personal connection to the venue and its staff.

Time stamps:

• 00:00 – Building Connections in Wedding Business
• 01:24 – The Journey to the Post Barn
• 11:33 – Embracing Change in the Wedding Industry
• 24:01 – Building Relationships with Suppliers
• 36:41 – The Changing Landscape of Wedding Planning
• 44:43 – Navigating Wedding Planning: The Evolving Landscape

Transcript:

Daisy
00:00:00.400 – 00:00:17.120
We keep trying to make sure they feel a connection to everyone in the team because one of the real challenges in the business is what happens when someone’s planning a wedding and then they leave. That’s why we always make sure that everyone knows everyone’s name because there’ll always be someone there by the end the time they get married.

Becca
00:00:18.240 – 00:01:02.080
I’m Becca Poutney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger, and you’re listening to the Wedding Pros who Are Ready to Grow podcast. I’m here to share with you actionable tips, strategies and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next next level.

If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you love, then you’re in the right place. Let’s get going with today’s episode. Today I’m chatting with Daisy Bradley, the venue director at the Post Barn in Berkshire.

With nearly 20 years of experience in the hospitality sector, she joined the post barn in 2022 and has helped the venue go from strength to strength. I can’t wait to hear more about her journey today. So Daisy, welcome to the podcast. Hello.

Daisy
00:01:02.080 – 00:01:03.120
Thanks for having me.

Becca
00:01:03.600 – 00:01:30.800
Absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for being here and coming to talk all about yourself and the venue.

I’m excited to hear more about what you have been up to, but before we get to your current career, as listeners to the podcast will know I always like to take people back. I think it’s interesting to hear who we’re listening to, why we should listen to them, the past experience they’ve had.

So pre Post Barn, what did your career look like? How did you end up in this wild world of weddings and events?

Daisy
00:01:30.930 – 00:02:13.310
Oh, in the wild, wild west, yeah. So I, I started as a kitchen porter when I was 14 and I’ve sort of been hospitality through and through since then.

I did history of art and history of architecture at university and kind of came out when actually I’d quite like to work in stately homes and I’d quite like to work in beautiful venues and kind of utilize the hospitality aspect and went into events and just loved weddings and kind of became weddings became my baby.

Pre Covid I was working for English Heritage and I was running concerts, festivals, filmings weddings all around the country in heritage properties which was amaz and then got made redundant in Covid and actually kind of ended up at Postbarn which has been amazing. It’s close to home and purpose built and I’ve really been able to get My teeth into it.

Becca
00:02:13.390 – 00:02:21.550
How did you end up then, at the Post Barn? Was it through connections? Was it through networking? Was it a job that got advertised? What led you in that direction?

Daisy
00:02:21.950 – 00:02:53.850
I mean, I’ve known of the companies for years that my family used to eat at the vineyard and we knew Donnington Hotel really well. And so when the job came up, I kind of went, ooh, that, that, that might be enough to persuade me to do it.

I was sort of on the cusp of setting up on my own versus getting a proper job and I had a. I came and had a few chats here and the.

The barn was just so beautiful and it really was an opportunity to make a difference and kind of look at what I can do for myself as well as the business.

Becca
00:02:54.250 – 00:03:07.470
Amazing. So in terms of hospitality, then, it’s a difficult industry. I know a lot of people do end up leaving it. You’ve been in it a long time.

What are some of the things that you’ve seen happen over the years? Some of the shifts, some of the challenges, some of the highs, some of the lows.

Daisy
00:03:07.470 – 00:03:58.330
Oh, I mean, you have to love it to be in it. You really have to live and breathe it.

And it’s really interesting watching kind of the Gen Zs come into the workforce because really, they kind of, a lot of them will do a year and then kind of go, oh, no, this definitely isn’t for me, because you kind of survive your first wedding season and then you’re in weddings forever. Or you kind of go, oh, actually, maybe I’m not going to do this and that for me.

There’s been such a culture shift since COVID as to how transient the industry is, how quickly people move on, how quickly people expect progression in a job. And that’s been a real challenge for us about how we kind of adapt and change that. But it’s. It.

You have to love weddings because if you don’t love it, it really comes across to your couples. And we have some brilliant people in the team that feel the same way that I feel about it. And that’s how I think we’ve. We’ve been so successful.

Becca
00:03:58.650 – 00:04:02.930
And are you a big team at the Post Barn or are you a small team? What does your team make up look like?

Daisy
00:04:02.930 – 00:04:30.070
We’re a little team. So Holly is our sales manager. She heads up our sales team and she’s fantastic.

She came from donning in our sister company and then went and kind of progressed and she’s just gone from strength to strength, and she has three in her team. From sales, Annabelle, Purdy and Chloe. And then we’ve got Kyle and Georgie who head up our operations.

And so really we’ve got Pete in the kitchen for chefs. We’re sort of 10 of us maximum.

Becca
00:04:30.150 – 00:04:43.490
So a nice small team. You can all work well together.

In terms of the venue itself, if people have never seen the Post Barn, come across the Post Barn, just give us a bit of a description about the venue and also maybe the types of people or the types of weddings. Wedding that you have there.

Daisy
00:04:43.490 – 00:05:41.630
Oh, of course. So we are a purpose built barn. We were built. We’re kind of the brainchild of our owners in.

In July 2021 we opened and we are light, airy, high tech, kind of thinks of every move through the wedding. So every bit of the building adapts to how a wedding day would run. So it really is a very clever building.

I think some of the tech is cleverer than I am, but I still give it a go and tend to press the wrong button at the wrong time. But we are very light and airy and I what kind of sets us apart from quite a few of the other barns.

We’re warm in the winter, we’re cool in the summer. We will play music in different zones. We have blinds that shut the building at the touch of a button. So it’s a very clever building.

But it’s been built in the grounds of Donington Hotel, so we actually have 113 bedroom property just across the golf course. So we have the luxury of being a standalone barn with all the amenities of a hotel.

Becca
00:05:41.840 – 00:05:52.480
So you have all the accommodation as well. So people can stay over there and then come over and have the wedding, which increasingly seems to be a real selling point.

People really want accommodation. Are you finding that yourself?

Daisy
00:05:52.960 – 00:06:17.340
And I think there’s a lot of gorgeous venues out there that only have sort of 22 bedrooms, 20, 25 bedrooms on site. And that’s really difficult. A lot of people come to us saying they want more accommodation, they want to host everybody if they can.

And we also have the luxury that we’re in Newbury, so there’s plenty of other hotels around if they need kind of different varying levels of accommodation. If not everyone can stay at Donington, they can do the before dinner, the morning after brunch and kind of extend the celebrations.

Becca
00:06:17.740 – 00:06:43.780
Now I really like to get into the nitty gritty on this podcast. I like to go beneath the surface layer of, you know, what we’re selling and actually talk business.

So in terms of the Post Barn as a venue, what are you looking at per year? How many weddings roughly are you looking to serve? What would you like to be doing? Because I think not all venues are created equal.

Some people want one a week, some people want three. Three a week, you know, And I assume it’s only one couple at a time.

Daisy
00:06:43.940 – 00:07:27.680
Yeah. So we are fully exclusive here. You won’t see another couple on your wedding day.

We started post Covid, so we didn’t have any postponements to deal with. So we had all the availability in the world, which was such a bonus for the business.

But we’re now kind of leveling out as to what we want this to look like. And I think that we kind of average two a week.

We definitely want to grow, but we want to grow in a way that doesn’t affect how we deliver that service to the couples.

That’s been always a real bugbear of mine is that if you go to somewhere that feels like a wedding farm, the couple don’t want it to feel like a wedding farm. So we’re really lucky that the hotel enables us to do that, that we can do four or five a week in the summer.

And the couples don’t necessarily know we’re doing that and they don’t feel that we’re doing that, which is nice.

Becca
00:07:28.080 – 00:07:53.120
Okay, so you, you’re looking at an average about two weddings a week. And in terms of what’s working for you right now?

Because again, I can talk about all the insights, I can talk about the marketing, but what’s great is to hear real life stories, to hear what’s actually going on. So when you look at your bookings, maybe from across the year of 2025 as a marketing stream, what is working for you?

Where do you think your couples are finding you? Is it word of mouth? Is it social media? Tell me what’s working.

Daisy
00:07:53.280 – 00:08:36.910
I mean, 2025 has been brutal for everyone in the wedding industry. Right. So for us, Instagram has been massive. We sadly got our Instagram hacked in January this year.

And a lot of what we’ve done this year is trying to rebuild that community, community that we had 5,000 followers and all of the history and all of the lovely couples that we posted all disappeared. So now we are back. We are up to 2,000 followers. But Instagram is, is our biggest referral, second to our website.

We’re finding a bit of a shift change with listing pages that not. They’re not necessarily bringing in what they previously brought in.

But Instagram and social media has been absolutely huge for us and we’re trying to invest as much time as we can into making sure we’re showing up and being as present as possible.

Becca
00:08:37.590 – 00:09:02.390
And the difficult thing with social media, as you’ve alluded to in your horrible story about being hacked, is that it’s so difficult when we’re building these businesses on borrowed land, because for all the things we love about them, actually they can be taken away in an instant. And you’re not the first person I’ve spoken to that’s had their account hacked and it’s all disappeared overnight.

What’s that taught you about how you market your business more holistically?

Daisy
00:09:03.120 – 00:09:44.780
Yeah. So I think we’re trying to make sure that we approach each social media kind of holistically, but also how they need to be treated differently.

So Instagram, for example, couples want to see quite curated imagery.

They don’t really want to see too much of the behind the scenes we found from when we’ve posted, whereas TikTok want to see the kind of raw bones of what we do, the nitty gritty, the behind the scenes. So we are making sure we kind of post everywhere we can. But also we’re not just relying on the post being on there, we’re saving everything we can.

We’re backing up. We’re kind of making sure that we’ve got our computer files are all filed by couple, by wedding, so that we can go back and pull on that information.

Because I think we just relied so much that it was just going to exist on social media forever, and then it disappeared.

Becca
00:09:44.940 – 00:10:03.500
Yeah. And that is a thing that I see all of the time, that people’s entire businesses are grown and built on a social media platform which we don’t own.

Like, ultimately they’re great places, but at any time, Facebook, Instagram, meta, whoever it is, can just go, nah, not anymore. Even if you don’t get hacked, they can just switch it off. They could turn it off tomorrow.

Daisy
00:10:03.580 – 00:10:07.640
We’re relying on the meta gods. You’re like, great, brilliant. Thanks, Elon. We’re doing great.

Becca
00:10:08.280 – 00:10:51.140
Yeah, well, that’s exactly it. So we need to make sure.

But I think when stuff like this happens or when we hear about it happening, it just gives us that reminder that our business is more than just a social media platform. Yes, it’s powerful. Yes.

There’s all sorts of things we can do, but actually things like our website and our SEO and our Google presence and our presence in the industry and our PR and all of those things, and doing podcasts and being on podcast. Exactly. All of it’s Important though, because we otherwise we’re leaving our fate in other people’s hands.

So just a reminder, as you mentioned, that to people, to make sure you’re not building your entire business on borrowed land. And also make sure you have two factor authentication on.

It doesn’t always help, but at least make sure it’s on so that you can give yourself the best protection and.

Daisy
00:10:51.300 – 00:11:06.610
Make sure your face is on your Instagram page because that’s what we really struggle with. When we tried to claim our page back, none of our faces were on there.

So make sure that you are doing every now and then an introduction post to who you are as a team so that if you do need to try and claim it back, your face exists.

Becca
00:11:07.160 – 00:11:26.600
That is a really good tip actually, for sure. Especially for someone like Avenue that may not have their face out there.

I mean, I’m always telling people to put their face on social media for marketing reasons, but actually you’re so right because they want you to upload a passport, verification, all of that kind of thing if your face isn’t there. That’s, that’s quite difficult to say. I look just like this Barn.

Daisy
00:11:26.680 – 00:11:30.440
Yeah, this is it. And that was, that was what, why we couldn’t get our account back. Basically.

Becca
00:11:30.920 – 00:11:56.690
Absolute. Just horrible. But let’s move on. Let’s not think about the bad things. I’m sure you’ve learned some good stuff through it as well.

So as we are now going into 2026, we’re putting 2025 behind us. It has been a tricky year for many in the industry.

What do you think are going to be some of the challenges that you’re going to face as a venue coming into 2026? What’s going on out there that you think this is going to be an interesting one?

Daisy
00:11:56.770 – 00:13:07.530
I think a lot of this, it comes from the rise of Gen Z, right? Gen Z’s are getting married and they are consuming wedding content, consuming weddings in a completely different way to how Millennial Gen X as well.

So we’re very much having to adapt our marketing. We’re having to make sure that everything is really easily accessible and it’s things that people talk about all the time.

But we’re going to get the online availability calendar, the online show round booking, because people don’t want necessarily the human connection immediately.

And that’s, that’s going to be our biggest challenge in 2026 is how the team adapts to kind of being light touch to start off with before they kind of delve into trying to build that Connection.

We, we really need to make sure we’re showing up a lot more on our social media, on, on blogging, how we adapt with AI in the industry, how we make sure that we’re appearing on all the searches. So that’s going to be kind of one of our biggest challenges.

I think we’re going to be in our busiest year, which is absolutely epic after 2025 to be going into our busiest year. But how do we keep showing up?

How do we keep making sure the couple is at the forefront of what we’re doing and how we show that we are humans behind the brand as well?

Becca
00:13:07.980 – 00:13:48.150
Yeah. And our business is so cyclical and it’s so difficult to keep up with that because we have a quiet year.

So we pour everything into marketing which then gives us a busy year, but then we’re so busy we neglect the marketing which then ends up in this quiet year. So you’re right, finding that balance of staying visible and staying ahead of the game whilst also serving all those weddings is a big one.

I think also what you say about technology is interesting because I think as an industry we’re all about heart and creativity and humanness.

And actually what I’m seeing is we all know that we need to do these systems and the automations, but it’s really hard for us to let go of that initial connection because actually we are people. People on the whole.

Daisy
00:13:48.390 – 00:14:13.090
Yeah. And I think I. There’s this thing at the moment, I really need to embrace it.

But the automatic reply that, you know, doesn’t come from a human and you have to kind of embrace that it’s not human. But I think if I got that, I’d be really offended by it. And actually if someone, if Gen Z got it, they’d be like, this is great.

I know that they’re responding immediately, they’re getting me information. Whereas it’s, it’s changing that mindset and it’s making sure that everyone in the company adapts to that mindset as well.

Becca
00:14:13.330 – 00:15:19.420
And also we, I think the thing is we forget that we do actually get emails that we know are automated all the time that we don’t dislike.

And so it’s getting that balance in our head because actually when we fill in a, you know, we buy something online, we get that automatic email receipt instantly and not only does that tell us like what we’ve bought, but actually it’s like a. Oh good, that’s actually gone through. Because what I find is that people fill in forms on websites and if they don’t get something back, they think it hasn’t worked.

And sometimes they’ll fill in that form three times like they didn’t, they didn’t get it.

So actually inquiries, we, we, we need that like it’s almost like that little moment of gratification, that little holding automated email for us to go, okay, they’ve got it and here’s what’s going to happen next. And then we can keep that humanness, we don’t ever want to lose that of then following up with that personalized reply.

And I think it’s that, that mindset of not pretending that our automated reply is us. I think when we try and pretend, that’s when it feels like a little bit out of alignment.

But everyone knows if you get an email back within 30 seconds of sending something, of course it’s automated. No one is like.

Daisy
00:15:21.180 – 00:15:41.349
It’S changing that mindset. And I think as well that a lot of people, kind of the old school sales thing was pick up the phone, talk to them on the phone.

Nobody wants to talk on the phone anymore. Like we need to not be talking on the phone, we need to be emailing, giving them the option that we are available to talk on the phone.

But if you ring them, they’re not gonna, they’re probably gonna end up going, I don’t want that venue, they’re hassling me.

Becca
00:15:41.750 – 00:16:22.050
Or just. They just don’t answer the phone. There’s a lot of people that don’t answer the phone unless they know the number that’s calling them for sure.

But that’s been a phenomenon for a long time.

We talk about Gen Z, but even going back over a decade ago when I used to work at the radio and we used to ring people to say they’d won prizes and they wouldn’t answer the phone or they would like because they just. Even then. And so we say, oh, people don’t like speaking on the phone now.

But actually I say people haven’t enjoyed speaking on the phone for at least a decade, so it’s time for us to catch up with. But interestingly, people do like talking on Zoom and they like talking on FaceTime.

It’s something about having that no face call that people do not like doing.

Daisy
00:16:22.130 – 00:16:24.200
That’s it. They want to know who they’re talking to, right?

Becca
00:16:24.750 – 00:17:02.820
Yeah. And to have that again, a bit of a human connection, even though we’re trying to avoid it in many ways.

I think the other thing that’s interesting when we talk about the wedding industry is almost that contradiction because we’re talking about how we need to embrace the automation and the technology and the automated responses and all that kind of thing.

And on the other hand, we’re also talking about how you don’t want the post barn to become a wedding farm and you don’t just want it to be numbers and you want it to be people. So how are you kind of juggling that conundrum?

What are you doing to make your clients feel like a person and feel special rather than just feeling like a number on a spreadsheet?

Daisy
00:17:02.820 – 00:18:46.260
I think a lot of it is we, when we do events, we like our menu tastings. We only have 15 couples in the room. We can’t have just a single couple in the barn because they would be lost. But we do it a lot more intimately.

So they sort of come in and they’re in grouped into kind of the months they’re getting married. And there’ll be 15 couples in one place.

And we make sure that we have the sales team, all the coordination team there on the day so that they’re going around and chatting to each couple and knowing them by name. And we try and make sure that everyone knows a fun fact about each couple.

So when they come, it’s a bit Devil’s Way of Prada, they’ll be like, oh, this is this couple. And, oh, they got engaged in a beach in Mauritius and it was amazing. And so we try and then reference that back to them.

When we send our first inquiry, we introduce every person by name in the email saying, we’re a small team. You’ll find one of us on the end of the email, one of us on the end of the phone. So they’re automatically feeling like.

Like we are people and they can talk to any one of us. So when they pick up the phone, they’re. Who am I speaking to? Oh, it’s Holly. Oh, great, Holly, lovely. I met with you.

Let’s go through and see how, how we get on with that.

We make sure that when they drop off the day before their wedding, that you’ve got someone from the operations team, someone from the sales team with them that will run through that, their entire running order, everything, making sure they’re dropping off and they feel completely comfortable before they go and have the night before their wedding.

And then on the day, they’ll have whoever planned the majority of the wedding with them, from the mom moment they arrive in the dressing room to the moment they’re married, and they’ll have already met anyone else that’s there on the day. So we keep trying to make sure they feel a connection to everyone in the team.

Because one of the real challenges in the business is what happens when someone’s planning a wedding and then they leave. That’s why we always make sure that everyone knows everyone’s name, because there’ll always be someone there by the end. The time they get married.

Becca
00:18:46.580 – 00:18:59.360
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s definitely something we’re seeing all of the time.

We know that turnover rates are high in hospitality, as we talked about earlier, and actually not having one person fully invested, where they think that’s the person that they’re going to have.

Daisy
00:18:59.520 – 00:18:59.920
Yeah.

Becca
00:18:59.920 – 00:19:23.870
Is really important. And I think, again, it’s getting that balance right, because other venues go the other way. So that it’s so vague.

You never know who you’re talking to, which doesn’t help either, because they do want a personal connection. But I like your idea of. Of getting them to know different members of the team.

How are you trying to bring your team more to the forefront in other areas? Are you getting them at the forefront of the marketing? Are they around and about? Will I see them if I go to Instagram or TikTok?

Daisy
00:19:24.500 – 00:19:53.180
You will they? I, I, we have sort of.

I tend to be doing the more serious advice thing and then Holly and, and the team are epic, but they will do their TikTok dances, they will put the Christmas trees up and, and it’s great. They have so much fun doing it. But Holly was sort of cartwheeling whilst doing the Christmas trees and then we’re skipping with the Christmas light.

So you will, you will see them. Most likely, you’ll see them more on TikTok, having a good time. We.

And then on Instagram, you’ll see them being a bit more about what we’re doing in the weddings and the professional side of things as well.

Becca
00:19:53.810 – 00:20:42.160
I love that because I do think it’s hard because as an individual business, it’s really easy to bring yourself to the front of your business, but actually when you’re in a team environment and there’s different faces and different staff turnover, that can be a bit of a challenge. I also really like what you said about your, like, little cheat sheet.

When people come for their menu tastings where you have little bits of information about them. I mean, that’s what we used to do in television and radio, right?

That’s, you know, when celebrities turn up because they want to feel like celebrities.

You were given photos, names, information about them that you almost were kind of memorizing or had hidden on a clipboard because the Whole point was that they wanted you to, they wanted to feel like you knew who they were.

And so we should be putting that same ethos because why should we be making celebrities feel like that compared to anyone else who’s spending thousands of pounds on a wedding? We should be having the same ethos for them as well.

Daisy
00:20:42.160 – 00:20:46.480
And they’re the guests of honor, right? Our couple are the guests of honor. They’re as important as a celebrity are.

Becca
00:20:46.640 – 00:21:08.190
Yeah.

And I also to say to people as well, like if you imagine that, I don’t know, Johnny Depp, David Beckham, someone like that books their wedding at your venue and comes for a tour, you will roll out the red carpet, you’ll go above and beyond. But actually that should be the level you’re doing for everyone. Because why, why is that person suddenly getting such a higher level of service?

Because their money is as good as anyone else’s money. Who’s paying for the same thing?

Daisy
00:21:08.350 – 00:21:25.450
I’ve always said that what someone shows you when you first meet them is likely to be who they are throughout the process. So from the moment you enter a venue and you have someone giving you a show round, do they make you feel important? Do they want to get to know you?

Do they invest in you? And. And therefore that’s really who you’re going to get throughout that process.

Becca
00:21:25.690 – 00:21:49.940
Now, one of the pushbacks I get all of the time when I talk about personalization and making sure you make people feel valued is we’re just short on time. We’ve got no time. We’re so busy. We’re so busy.

As you’re going into your business year, as your aim is to grow the business, how are you going to protect that value that you’re putting on your customers instead of just becoming a volume machine where you’re all so busy, those things slip.

Daisy
00:21:50.100 – 00:22:37.680
Yeah, a lot of it is pre planning that we will structure the planning meetings so that we look at the diary as a whole. So we look how many weddings or events we’ve got in that week, how many planning meetings therefore we can fit in.

We look at, we do planning meetings six months and two months. So everyone has a six month planning meeting and then they’ll do the two month planning meeting.

So we know that a six month planning meeting will take a bit longer.

A final planning meeting won’t take so much, but we make sure that we’re structuring so we’re not doing too many in a week, so that they’re still getting their notes back within 48 hours and that we’re looking at the year and going right. Well, we know that month is busy. Let’s get the planning meetings in early.

Or we know that that couple live in Dubai and they’re not going to be here until then. So let’s make sure their planning meeting is scheduled early and we’re not dropping in on them and saying, do you want a planning meeting next week?

We’re planning kind of months in advance where we can.

Becca
00:22:38.000 – 00:23:03.430
Okay.

So like all things basically being ahead of the game and planning because if you try and do it in the moment, that’s when we get overwhelmed and it just doesn’t work. Yeah. And setting those standards for the team as well, I guess is an important one too.

So that they know that that expectation is the same on their busiest day, on their quietest day, that they’re always at that level. As someone who manages people, how do you try and keep that culture going in your team?

Daisy
00:23:03.750 – 00:23:07.630
A lot of it is just communication. I think communication needs the breakdown of relationships.

Becca
00:23:07.630 – 00:23:07.870
Right.

Daisy
00:23:07.870 – 00:23:57.990
That you’ve got to make sure you are always talking that when they come into the office in the morning, Holly will be talking to the team saying, what are you working on today? Where are we going? Oh, had a show round last night. How were the couple? What did you learn from them?

And when we’re doing our sales meeting, we’re going through the show round and knowing everything we can about the couple, making sure that we’re touching base on it. And those meetings are non negotiable.

That every week we need to be running through the sales notes, every meet we need to be going through what events are coming up in the next two weeks. And then every week I look at the diary for the next month and make sure that we’ve got everything planned in.

So it’s just making sure that you’ve got. Even in your busiest times, there’s a couple of meetings or a couple of blocks in your time that are non negotiable.

That doesn’t matter how busy you are, they’re still going to happen. And that means you make sure everyone still gets that touch points, everyone still feels the love because you’re constantly making sure you show up.

Becca
00:23:58.390 – 00:24:26.400
Really, really important and so, so helpful.

Okay, let’s flip it on the other side of things because I know there’ll be a lot of people listening to this who aren’t working in venues and maybe they’re individual suppliers, photographers, cake makers. And the number one question they always have is I want to be a recommended supplier, a venue I’m sure you hear this all of the time.

So every venue has a different system. Every venue works very differently for your venue. How do you build relationships with suppliers? How do you make that happen for people?

Daisy
00:24:26.560 – 00:26:38.670
Yeah, we get it a lot and I do understand, we are very, very keen. We look after our suppliers. And I think when you speak to people in the industry, a lot of people will say, oh, the postman.

They make sure that they actually care about suppliers. And someone asked me whether that was a business and I said, no, it’s not a business decision. I just used to be that person.

I used to helicopter into venues and deliver and not know if I could get a glass of water, not know, like have to beg for a cup of tea. And I never want people to feel that way when they come to the venue. So all of our suppliers will get a soft drinks, tea, coffee, whatever they want.

We do a three course meal for anyone that’s here all day. We make sure that they’re briefed, we make sure they’ve got a space to go to, we really look after them.

And so a lot of suppliers ask us, we want to be on the postbarn list list.

But we ultimately, the only people we put on our list are people we’ve worked with repeatedly and we’ve had excellent feedback from not just our couples, but also from our team. And sometimes you, you, I understand sometimes a supplier will turn up on site and maybe have a bit of arrogance about that.

They know what they’re doing, even if they’ve never worked at our venue. And we’re very much kind of going, let us talk to you about how it works here. And they’re like, no, no, we know.

And that’s the sort of feedback we’ll get from someone going, well, they, they weren’t overly supportive of us trying to help guide them throughout the day.

So we, we review our supplier list once a year and it’s, it is rare that we add suppliers on and really ultimately it’s more about kind of keeping and maintaining the relationships we’ve got. We kind of have our internal family suppliers as well as our supplier list. And they’re people like Harrison and Green, Katy B, Chris Kemp, Club Kudo.

They’re people we work with all the time that, that if we need anything, they will be here and they will do it. If a couple is let down by their photographer, we’ll ring up Chris and say, chris, are you available next week?

And he’ll go, I’ll drop everything, I’ll be there. So it’s Very much about if you work closely with the venue, nurture that relationship.

Anyone that comes to us and asks, we’ve worked here once, we want to be on your list. To us that’s a little bit rude because we don’t know you enough.

We don’t know that you can consistently deliver that service to our couples and that they can trust us then therefore recommend you.

Becca
00:26:39.070 – 00:27:10.540
Yeah, that makes perfect sense.

And I guess the problem people have is that it then becomes a chicken and egg situation because they want to work at the post bond more but they, in order to be recommended by you, they need to have worked there. And so then you kind of go round in this spiral loop. How did you initially come up with the list that you’ve got?

Because you know there is new venues opening all the time and they’ll be looking for people and in some ways that’s the best time to get in with a place because you can be there from day one. So how did that happen? Like what, what did you do to grow those initial.

Daisy
00:27:11.660 – 00:28:27.950
We were really lucky because we have the sister company, Donington Hotel.

They, they’re established relationships there, they do a few weddings a year and then we also had the vineyard at the time and so we had relationships there. But ultimately we went out to. We tried to be as local as possible. When we first founded this list we were talking about the sustainability.

We’re quite an eco friendly building, how we approach things. So, so we looked at anyone within kind of a half hour hour radius.

We invited them all to do a styled shoot so that we could see what images they sent back, what standard they produced, what florals they produced, what cakes they produced. And we did a massive styled shoot when the barn was first built.

And therefore we then picked who was right from that list and who was, who wasn’t quite right.

And I joined a year after they did that process and I looked at a lot of suppliers on there that had, had done amazing stuff for this, the styled shoot. But ultimately they hadn’t worked with us within a year and a half in the business.

And I was going, well, if they haven’t worked with us in a year and a half, are they actually the right supplier? Let’s revisit this. And that’s really how we kind of built the list we’ve got now that we opened with.

What everyone recommended was right, what we experienced was right. And then we went actually what is right for the business? And let’s review that.

Becca
00:28:27.950 – 00:28:50.990
I think it’s important as well that you do review that list. Every year. I think this is somewhere where venues often go wrong. It gets neglected and it gets old and it goes out of date.

And, you know, they have people on the list that aren’t still in business and all that kind of thing.

So when you’re reviewing, you’re saying, okay, we don’t often add new people, but presumably you’re looking for certain things to see whether or not people stay as part of that family.

Daisy
00:28:51.230 – 00:29:35.890
Yeah, and we’ll, we’ll have a look. A lot of it is, are they posting us on social media? Are they interacting with us? Are they reposting anything we post?

Are we be listed on their website and we’ll do a check?

It’s quite a long process, which is why it is one of the things that falls by the wayside with, with venues in particular, because you have to go and you have to check their Instagrams, their tick tocks, their social media, their website. Are you listed? Are they sharing you? Are we sharing them enough? Are we crediting them enough as well?

So it, it’s, it’s worth the time to put in to, to do that. But it, it definitely is something that when you’re January, peak season, you’re thinking, oh, God, I need to do that. It.

Everyone kind of goes, you know what, that can wait till next year.

Becca
00:29:36.130 – 00:29:53.290
Yeah, absolutely.

But it is so important because actually you’re recommending people and if they’re not doing a good job or they’re going out of business or they’ve suddenly kind of gone stale, actually, that tarnishes the venue’s reputation because you’ve told your couples, we trust these people, and actually that’s gone.

Daisy
00:29:53.290 – 00:30:22.830
And when I do show rounds, I’m, I’m really clear with the couples that I say we don’t commission our suppliers. We, we recommend, we trust them and we trust that they’ll give you the best day possible.

And particularly people booking on a short lead time, I always say, look, whether you book us or another venue, go with their recommended suppliers because they, you won’t have to do any legwork with that supplier. If a supplier’s never worked at a venue, the day is going to be a lot harder for everyone to make sure it runs as smoothly as possible.

Whereas if you’re working with the dream team, you know that you could turn your back and that wedding would still run.

Becca
00:30:23.230 – 00:30:37.370
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s really, it comes down to relationship.

And I think this is where people fall down when they just send the cold email, how can I be on your list? Or, hey, I’ve been at your venue once, can you recommend me? Is completely neglecting that they don’t use your name.

Daisy
00:30:37.370 – 00:30:47.130
I’m like, hey postman team. Well look, if you knew us, you would know one person in the team. Well, exactly. Everywhere go on social media, just address it to somebody’s name.

Becca
00:30:47.850 – 00:31:25.760
And I think as well, people go on ChatGPT and just write some email that’s generic and that gets sent to everyone and it just, just doesn’t work. It’s.

We’re a relationship business and actually forging relationships does open up possibilities and I often say to people, okay, if you desperately want to work at a venue, you desperately want to work at the post barn.

And they’re stacked and they’ve got loads of photographers, be the first in reserve, be the best relationship builder you can go above and beyond despite not being recommended because if suddenly someone goes out of business, stops trading, you’d remove them from the list. You’re first to go on the list next. And so I think sometimes people forget that.

Daisy
00:31:26.320 – 00:31:51.440
And with, with photography especially like Chris Kemp delivers us an album, he’ll do two or three albums a year for us and it’s epic because that’s a really good showround tool for us that a real wedding album that they can flick through whilst we’re talking to them. Whereas for photographer that’s a really big tip.

If you want to get in at a venue, create them an album so that they can use that for show rounds and that’s an album of work from their venue. That’s massive. That’s. That’s brilliant for us.

Becca
00:31:51.590 – 00:32:22.570
Us, yeah. So thinking about going above and beyond and thinking about relationship building and what about.

You mentioned it a little bit, but what about the other way? What are you doing and being proactive in to make your venue a place where suppliers want to recommend?

Because actually I was reading some stats this week about the percentage of people that are choosing their suppliers based on other suppliers recommendations, not just the planner anymore across the board. So what are you doing proactively to be the venue that these people want to be working at and recommending?

Daisy
00:32:22.730 – 00:33:13.350
I think the feedback we get consistently, I mean we put stuff on social media and you’ll get a supplier that worked here once saying I can highly recommend that venue because of how they treated me. And it is just making sure that they’re treated like humans when they’re here, that we do the follow up.

We communicate in advance what time access is, how they can get in, where they can park afterwards. If we have the capacity, we’ll say, thank you so much. If they’ve gone above and beyond for us, we’ll make sure that they’re followed up.

We have a supplier tracker where we have every single wedding with every single supplier so that when we’re looking back, we can go, oh, when did that supplier work here? Let’s go in and check in with them.

And really, when we see a trend change that we’re getting someone here a lot more than we’ve ever had before, that’s when we’d start to look at. Oh, for the supplier review next year, that might be worthwhile because we’ve suddenly started to build a relationship with those people.

Becca
00:33:13.830 – 00:33:19.710
Yeah, really, really interesting to look at the data as well. You definitely track more than I’m sure a lot of other venues do as well.

Daisy
00:33:19.860 – 00:33:29.300
Well, I love a spreadsheet. I am the team. Hate me for it. But I want to track all the data. I want to analyze it. I want to know how we’re pacing, what are we doing.

That’s really my baby.

Becca
00:33:29.460 – 00:34:13.190
Yeah.

But I’m with you because I think data is important because it actually gives us real results and tells us real stuff rather than just what we’re thinking or feeling. Oh, that person’s nice. We should put them on our list to actually. Let’s actually look at the.

The information here and whether or not it’s going to serve our couples and whether or not there’s actually a worthwhile pursuing that relationship. Okay, let’s change tact a little bit because the other thing that I know is important to you is to continue your learning.

So I know you love listening to the podcast. I know that you attend wedding industry events. You got people coming to my conference in March, which is great. Why do you think that is important?

Why is it important? You’ve got a great venue, but why do you think it’s important to keep on learning and educating yourself and your team?

Daisy
00:34:13.430 – 00:35:09.970
I think because we, we. Anybody that approaches something saying that they’re perfect is not perfect. Nobody can be perfect. And things are constantly changing and evolving.

And I think when you’re in a venue or even a supplier, anything, you get quite insular with what you’re looking at. You’re quite blinkered because you’re only seeing what you’re being exposed to.

And I absolutely love the industry events and the networking and the conferences because it challenges to think outside the box. It allows us to see what other people are experiencing.

And I think a lot of it is make people not feel alone, that if they’re having a bad couple of months or a bad, a bad year, that a lot of people are probably in the same boat. And it, it reassures you that you’re doing all the right things, you’re showing up in all the right places.

But I, I would never, ever say that I know everything about the wedding industry because I don’t in any way, shape or form.

And I will constantly want to learn from other people and learn from other venues and other suppliers and experts in the industry to find out how we can do things better. Better.

Becca
00:35:10.050 – 00:36:06.460
I think that’s a really healthy attitude because you also come across people who’ve been around a long time and think they don’t need to do that anymore. They’ve reached a peak. But as we’ve said throughout this conversation, the wedding industry is cyclical and we’re always having to find new clients.

It’s not that we can live on this bank of repeat clients because we need new people all of the time and the people are changing and the generations are changing.

And I think whenever in any part of business, if you get to a point where you think, I don’t need to learn anything new anymore more, then that’s the time when you’re going to start going backwards because we all need to learn stuff. And you know, in the wedding industry, I mean, you’re, you’ve got a team, but you’re a small team.

We’re having to wear all the hats and so we’re having to do the social media and the marketing and the sales and the, you know, the delivery of the actual products on the day. And it’s impossible for us to keep up with all of those things at, on our own because our. Please, we’d just be drowning huge, hugely.

Daisy
00:36:06.460 – 00:36:39.880
And I think it’s really interesting that we are only marketing to them once. They’re only getting married once.

So when you’re marketing a wedding venue, you can actually reuse a lot of your imagery because you’re, you’ve got a different audience.

Yes, you have the nurturing of people that have got married in the previous couples, but ultimately you’re trying to market, to sell more weddings, to attract more couples. So you have to just keep showing up and, and nurturing everyone on your thing. But really it’s about new couples. How do you get new business?

How do you generate new business? What are you doing to get that?

Becca
00:36:40.520 – 00:37:08.210
Now the couples themselves. I’ve been talking on stage about how we’re seeing Gen Z. We are seeing a slightly different change in consumer behavior.

We’ve already talked about not liking to be on the phone. Have you seen any other shifts? Because one of the things people have been talking about is that length of time that people.

People are taking to either choose your venue or to suddenly get married. Are you seeing any trends? You love the data in the postpartum. Is that time shrinking? Is it growing? Are you. Yeah.

What are you actually seeing out there on the ground?

Daisy
00:37:08.530 – 00:37:51.600
We’ve seen a complete change in the last couple of years. Previously, people were booking 12 to 24 months out. Now they’re booking six, six to 12 months out.

That we sold a wedding last month for December 20th. Like, it. It’s crazy that we are. A lot of people are going, shorter lead times. It’s kind of. They’re kind of going, oh, let’s get engaged. Right.

Let’s just get married. Why are we going to waste time? What do we just. Let’s just do it. Which is a completely different attitude for us.

We’ve seen a massive change in our peak season that previously wedding venues were always busy in June, July, August. Those were your peak months. You couldn’t really do anything in those months other than that.

March, April, May for us is crazy that we have sold every Saturday, every weekend.

Becca
00:37:51.600 – 00:37:51.690
Like.

Daisy
00:37:51.840 – 00:38:16.960
Like it’s. It’s really taken off and now April is our busiest month of the year.

Consistently, when you look right up to 2027, we are nearly fully booked for April 2027. So we’ve seen that people. And I think that’s really. That if you’re going to pay to get married in peak season, you want it to be sunny.

Well, actually, why don’t we get married enough peak season and then the weather might be kind to us. We’ve seen a real change with it.

Becca
00:38:17.040 – 00:38:40.820
Yeah.

And I think the short lead time thing is really interesting because I actually think, again, it’s so different to what we’ve experienced for the last couple of decades in the industry that it feels scary. It feels scary to go into a year because before you could go into a year with pretty much the year was sorted.

And now because of those shorter lead times, we can go into a year and we’re not as booked as we want to be. But that doesn’t mean we won’t be.

Daisy
00:38:41.140 – 00:38:47.190
This is. You look at your gaps and you’re like, okay, well, realistically, will that sell? Well, five years ago, no, but now maybe we might.

Becca
00:38:47.740 – 00:38:57.180
Yeah, exactly. What about the gap?

Are you seeing any change in the way that people contact you or the gap between them touring and actually booking or are you seeing that that stayed the same?

Daisy
00:38:57.340 – 00:39:47.930
Interesting. Previously, I think people would view maybe three venues and be done.

We’re seeing a lot more people that either view one or two or they’re viewing eight or nine.

So by the time they’re eight or nine venues in, they’re totally burnt out and they, the, the partner definitely is just like just make a decision, like we just need to book something. But I, I, I don’t know.

When we went back to viewing multiple venues, that seems to be quite a recent change that you were last year they were viewing 2, 3 and making a decision. Now we’ve got people coming and they’re like, this is our 10th venue.

And it’s just, I don’t know, I don’t see how that process is then enjoyable for them.

That, that just becomes really stressful because they can’t remember which one it was and they just want someone to make it easier and they feel like they’re making a life changing decision and they have to make the right decision, but it’s causing them so much more stress, the process.

Becca
00:39:48.330 – 00:40:27.630
So true. And it’s interesting because we saw that shift in bridal shops first. So people were going to way too many bridal shops.

And it’s interesting that you’re now seeing that filter into the venue as well.

And I believe it’s partly to do with this social media culture that we’re living in and this striving for perfection and also this kind of fear of fomo. That’s what was happening in the wedding dress shops is they were scared that they’d pay for a dress and then find something else they liked more.

And so they then there’s zero commitment because they’re constantly in this state of what if I find something better? Whereas actually we just need to let go of that.

Because if you go somewhere and you fall in love with it, you don’t need to worry about something else being better, just go for the thing.

Daisy
00:40:27.870 – 00:40:41.470
And it’s all the Instagram culture, isn’t it? They see someone else get married somewhere different. They always was that.

And it’s happened to me as well that I look back and I’m like, oh, but I would have done that for my wedding Or I would have done that differently. And it’s a completely different experience now.

Becca
00:40:42.500 – 00:41:20.380
Yeah, but actually there is no such thing as the perfect venue, the perfect dress, the perfect anything.

And actually I think couples would do themselves a favor if they lessened their overwhelm a little bit and just went to three venues or two Venues or one venue, you know, once they’ve done their research.

So it’ll be interesting to see how that does shift, whether we see a swing back the other way or whether we end up with these couples who are just totally going everywhere and burning out. But that’s definitely difficult for you as a team as well, because that makes the sales process harder.

You know, if someone comes to you and says, oh, this is venue viewing 8, how are you dealing with her?

Daisy
00:41:20.780 – 00:42:00.410
I mean, I feel for them. My action when I. When we do them and they’re on venue viewing eight, it. You just feel a bit like, what do you want from us?

How would you want us to do this? Because quite often when you sit someone down, you can see if they’re a bit defeated when they first come to you. And that’s not personal to you.

They just might be exhausted from the whole process. So I always sort of talk to them and I say, where are you at with your wedding planning process? Are you at that?

This is super exciting and I want to go. Or are you at the. This is really overwhelming and I don’t really know where to start. And they’ll kind of go, give me a guise of where they are.

And then that’s how I give the show round, how I give the tour and how I talk to them. Because ultimately I sort of think I say to people, you can’t sell a wedding venue.

Becca
00:42:00.410 – 00:42:00.770
You.

Daisy
00:42:00.930 – 00:42:20.910
You have to make them feel it.

And if someone can’t feel themselves getting married with you, that they can’t feel you being their wedding photographer, if they can’t, it doesn’t feel right to them. You can’t ever that feeling.

So I think you’ve just got to try and adapt to who you’ve got sitting in front of you and not treat everyone that they’re blanket the same person.

Becca
00:42:21.230 – 00:42:45.890
Yeah, absolutely. And.

And it’s a bit, I’ve always said it’s a bit like when you go looking at houses, like there’s something, you know, the moment you walk in when it’s the right house, there’s something. It’s really hard to define, but the moment you go, it’s either a yes or a no.

And actually sometimes, you know, from a couple’s body language, the moment that they come in, that it’s going to be a no. And then it’s like, well, let’s just put everyone out there, Ministry, and keep this quick because, yeah, otherwise we’re flogging a dead horse.

Daisy
00:42:45.970 – 00:42:46.450
Yes.

Becca
00:42:46.930 – 00:43:27.710
Yeah. And it makes it difficult. But yeah, I think we are going to see more of it.

I think we need to be more intuitive and more considering where people are at because I think that we are seeing this shift where couples are under this huge amount of pressure that they’re putting on themselves to find perfection. And, you know, and we need to understand where they’re coming from. And also they’re overwhelmed.

I was just talking to someone, someone on, on the last podcast about this very fact that, you know, we look at this generation and we say, oh, they’re rude and they don’t reply to emails. But actually let’s see it from a different perspective and realize actually they’re just overwhelmed.

They’re stressed, they’re anxious, they’re panicky and they don’t actually want to say no.

Daisy
00:43:28.030 – 00:43:47.480
I totally get it. And I was, I thought, I never thought I’d be that person.

And then when you send out the inquiries and you get 15 long emails back giving you all the information, you’re like, I don’t even know where to start. Start. How do I even say? Oh, I don’t think so. And then you don’t want to send a one liner.

So then you have to put time and effort into it and then you don’t have the time to put it into it.

Becca
00:43:47.560 – 00:43:51.000
And then you just think, oh, well, I just won’t reply. Yeah, we’ve all done it.

Daisy
00:43:51.160 – 00:43:55.240
And then you wake up in the middle of the night four weeks later being like, oh God, I didn’t reply to those people.

Becca
00:43:55.800 – 00:44:24.810
Yeah, exactly. So we need to take it less personally. And the other, the other example I use on stage is say, sometimes I accidentally ghost my friends.

Like my friends will message me about going for coffee or let’s meet up or let’s go for a drink soon, send me some dates and, and then, you know, life happens and like three weeks later I’m up in the middle of the night thinking I never reply to them.

So I think, well, if we can ghost some of our closest friends, of course we can accidentally ghost a wedding venue that actually we have no relationship with whatsoever other than one quick tour around here.

Daisy
00:44:25.130 – 00:44:30.170
So if you’re following up and going, just wondering if you’re still considering our venue, why is anyone going to reply to that email?

Becca
00:44:30.570 – 00:44:45.450
Yeah, exactly. You’ve got to at least, at least make it worth replying to or at least engage them on a different level. Yeah.

Daisy, this has been a great conversation. I’d love to know where is the postpone going next? What are your big plans? What are your big visions for the next couple of years.

Daisy
00:44:45.450 – 00:45:22.280
Oh, well, we want to do, we want to do more. We definitely want to keep up with the trends. Ultimately I want to do more weddings but I want to make sure we’re maintaining that standard.

So we are probably going to be doing more styled shoots. We’re going to be kind of putting ourselves out there more. I’d like to look at adapting and little bit.

We’re going into our fifth year of business so I would like to do maybe a bit of a refresh or a bit of an expansion, have a look at what we can do with the space we’ve got around here and ultimately what we can do to make our couples experiences better with the team and development.

Becca
00:45:22.840 – 00:45:34.220
Love it. Loads and loads of great things on the horizon for you.

I’m sure if people want to find out more about you, they want to find out more about the Post Barn, where are the best places for them to go and I’ll share them all in the show notes.

Daisy
00:45:34.380 – 00:45:42.140
So Instagram is your first port of call for the postbar and we have got the lovely website and we are showing up on TikTok, but maybe not in the most professional manner.

Becca
00:45:42.460 – 00:46:18.260
Well, that’s even better because no one wants a professional TikTok. TikTok should be raw, authentic and fun.

So if you’re hitting that brief, to be honest, I want to go and see your team doing cartwheels while putting up Christmas trees. So You’ve sold your TikTok account to me because that’s where I’m going to be going next. You got to keep it real and keep it interesting.

And just remember, if you’re listening to to this, don’t send Daisy an email saying I’d like to be on your list. If you’re interested in the Post Barn, reach out, chat to her, build a relationship. But this isn’t your invitation to be on her list.

But I’m sure you’re happy to hear from people if they’ve enjoyed the conversation.

Daisy
00:46:18.500 – 00:46:20.900
Absolutely. No. It’d be fantastic to hear from people.

Becca
00:46:21.140 – 00:46:30.420
Now, Daisy, I always end my podcast with the same question, so I’m going to pose that to you now. And it’s this. What’s one thing you personally wish you’d known sooner in your business?

Daisy
00:46:30.420 – 00:46:53.130
I think it’s that perfection isn’t the end goal. I think we all start out fresh faced.

When you first come into this thinking that I’ll get to a point where I know it all and I will be the perfect venue and I’ll be the perfect manager and I’ll be the perfect person, but ultimately that really doesn’t exist. So we’re all human and let’s just continually strive to get to some semblance of perfection. But perfect isn’t the answer.

Becca
00:46:53.610 – 00:47:27.780
Love it. You know, someone I know wrote a book called Done is Better Than Perfect and I highly recommend it if anyone wants to buy a copy.

But no, seriously, I think the ethos is right. I think so often we put too much emphasis on this idea of one day we’ll get to the place we want to be. But actually it’s not like that.

It’s an evolution, an ever changing situation through our life, through our personal life, through our business life, and it’s all about just doing things a little bit better and a little bit differently every day. Daisy, it’s been so fun to talk to you. Thank you so much for your time and I look forward to seeing you very soon.

Daisy
00:47:27.780 – 00:47:29.220
Oh, thanks for having me, Becca.

Becca
00:47:29.790 – 00:47:52.030
What a great conversation.

I always like chatting with people and going deep underneath the sales pitch of the business to find out what’s actually going on out there, what’s going on at the heart of a venue, what are they seeing, what are the trends on the ground? I hope that you’ve enjoyed the conversation.

If you’re interested to find out more about the Post Barn, do go and check out Daisy and the team and maybe go and see their cartwheels over on TikTok. I’ll see you next time.