{"id":132627,"date":"2020-10-08T14:10:34","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T13:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=132627"},"modified":"2020-10-08T14:10:34","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T13:10:34","slug":"wedding-blogger-spotlight-claire-gould-the-english-wedding-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/wedding-blogger-spotlight-claire-gould-the-english-wedding-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"Wedding Blogger Spotlight: Claire Gould, The English Wedding Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since the fateful November morning when wedding calligrapher Claire Gould found herself with some free time and decided to buy a domain name, The English Wedding Blog<\/a> has found faithful readers and supportive photographers and vendors across the wedding scene. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In love with the happiness of the industry, Claire is devoted to helping couples plan their dream wedding. As big days were delayed by the pandemic this year, the blogger shares what advice she\u2019d give to those who\u2019ve had to rethink and reorganise their upcoming nuptials and whether she believes marriage will continue to be a constant in the future.<\/p>\n

What keeps you passionate about wedding blogging?<\/span><\/strong>
\nThere\u2019s a lot of love in weddings (obvs!) and it spills over into my life, I think! I love the happiness of it all, and I\u2019m fiercely proud of the UK wedding industry. I love my role of matchmaking couples with their dream wedding suppliers, and that\u2019s the best thing about this job. Right now, with weddings being postponed and the industry suffering so badly, it\u2019s even more important to me to keep blogging and support everyone as much as I possibly can \u2013 and in a positive and uplifting way!<\/p>\n

\"Claire<\/p>\n

What originally got you into writing about it?<\/span><\/strong>
\nI have my own wedding business: I write calligraphy when I\u2019m not blogging. So, one November morning when I had no wedding orders to write with my dippy ink pens, I decided to buy a domain name. Things snowballed from there! The support I\u2019ve had from the very beginning from photographers and other vendors has been amazing. My blog has a life of its own now!<\/p>\n

How have you had to change your approach to blogging, or your content, during the COVID-19 crisis?<\/span><\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve had to plan way in advance, with the knowledge that there won\u2019t be many weddings this year, so finding content isn\u2019t going to be easy. I\u2019ve been filling my editorial calendar like a demon (we\u2019ve daily posts scheduled now until October, already!) and I now consider my main job role to be \u2018emailer\u2019.<\/p>\n

What are the main pieces of advice you\u2019d give to couples whose big day has been delayed by lockdown?<\/span><\/strong>
\nI\u2019d just give them a hug. It must be the worst thing, to have such a big, happy (and expensive) event postponed. But that\u2019s the key: postpone, don\u2019t cancel. Think what\u2019s important to you: getting married as soon as you can, or having everyone there to see you get married. A wedding is a party: it\u2019s perfectly fine to get married quietly with a couple of witnesses, and celebrate with a massive wedding (if that\u2019s your thing) months later.<\/p>\n

Weirdest\/coolest\/most unusual wedding theme you\u2019ve seen?<\/span><\/strong>
\nSurprise weddings are my favourite. I\u2019ve featured a few which started out as christenings, then the bride nipped out for a moment and came back into the church with a bunch of flowers and a new dress. The reactions are AMAZING. One time the groom stayed in jeans, and he still looked cool as anything. I love intimate weddings, with close family \u2013 the atmosphere just has a zing you don\u2019t see in massive celebrations. Having said that \u2013 the Asian weddings we\u2019ve featured, and the Jewish weddings, have the most incredible party atmosphere every single time. It\u2019s all about the joy, and no matter what \u2019theme\u2019 you choose, ultimately it comes down to off-the-scale happiness, captured beautifully by brilliant photographers!<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the most you\u2019ve seen someone spend on their wedding day, and the least?<\/span><\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t like to ask for specifics when it comes to wedding budgets. We\u2019ve featured village hall celebrations, and massive country estate weddings. One had a helicopter \u2013 I remember, because a photographer who\u2019s a friend was so excited he got to ride in it with the bride and groom! Creativity is more important than budget for me \u2013 and being yourselves. We\u2019ve featured some super stylish registry office and pub weddings which are easily as perfect as the big country hotel ones!<\/p>\n

Have you noticed interest in getting married waning or becoming more popular with couples again since you started blogging?<\/span><\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s a constant. People will always want to get married \u2013 it\u2019s the hows and wheres that change. We see more elopements now (which I love!) and lots of barn weddings. Styles change but folks will always fall in love and want to share it with the world. And weddings are super happy occasions full of fun and love and laughter \u2013 they look brilliant and make for amazing blog content!<\/p>\n

How do you collaborate with brands and which kind of brands do you really like working with?<\/span><\/strong>
\nI work with UK wedding photographers, planners and stylists, florists, venues, cake designers and stationers\u2026 all wedding brands and small businesses. It\u2019s those little independent business owners I love working with most: they\u2019re absolutely passionate about what they do, and it\u2019s really exciting to work together. They\u2019re also really lovely humans and creative souls. I\u2019d rather work with small brands for a smaller advertising fee than with corporates for big money \u2013 my heart and soul is with the little guys!<\/p>\n

For PRs looking to work with you and your blog\/website, how would you prefer they approach you and with what kind of content?<\/span><\/strong>
\nOur content has to be unique, inspiring and visually powerful. Wedding blogs are driven by beautiful imagery: that\u2019s key to any feature we publish. And rather than focusing on products, we have a lifestyle focus: so, collaborations with a bunch of wedding businesses (photoshoots for example) are a great way to start! I\u2019m easily swayed by gorgeous photography, though \u2013 send me photos of amazing bouquets or modern wedding cake designs and I\u2019m all yours!<\/p>\n

What other blogs do you check out regularly (whether wedding-related or not)?<\/span><\/strong>
\nI have quite eclectic taste! So \u2013 I\u2019ve been a blogger for a LONG time and I\u2019ve always loved reading Wonky Words<\/a> \u2013 Scarlet\u2019s posts are genius. I love the Calligraphy Masters vlog<\/a> as well. Oh, and Master of Malt<\/a> (I\u2019m a whisky girl). Rebel Recipes<\/a> is another fave. Most of the people I follow are wedding photographers, and I read too many of their blogs to name! The best are sprinkled with personal stories as well as work stuff \u2013 my favourite thing is finding out people\u2019s weird habits and guilty pleasures. Oh, and seeing photos of their cats!<\/p>\n

\"Reach-the-right-influencers-with-the-Vuelio-media-database\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As big days were delayed by the pandemic this year, Claire Gould shares what advice she\u2019d give to those who\u2019ve had to reorganise their upcoming nuptials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":312,"featured_media":132634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,4038,6980],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/312"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132627"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132630,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132627\/revisions\/132630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}