BESPOKE WEDDINGS

After a successful fundraise with Funding Tree last year and subsequent growth since, specialist wedding planning service Bespoke Weddings Ltd is raising funds for a second time as it seeks to finance further growth and expansion.

Note to investors:

This loan is underwritten by Jeff Sills who has provided us with a personal net worth statement which exceeds the amounts outstanding on Funding Tree loans.

Business growth

Prior coming to Funding Tree in June the business only covered one UK region, bringing in around 73 bookings. One venue in particular, Shottle Hall, generated £42,120 for the business from 52 weddings in the time prior to the Funding Tree loan.

Since securing said loan from 31 Funding Tree investors in June 2015, Bespoke has been scaling the business in line with its long-term strategy to cover more UK regions.

As part of developing a network of venues and planners, the business hired a new divisional coordinator and four new regional coordinators. It also trained 18 new wedding planners and appointed a further 9 wedding venues in the East Midlands. Furthermore, the business created a new wedding website for all the Brides & Grooms.

This has enabled the business to increase bookings from 73 to a forecasted 180 a year, which the planners are on target to achieve.

Revenue Model

Under the name The Platinum Wedding service, Bespoke charges the Bride and Groom £500 for each booking plus a booking fee for the wedding suppliers, which is £185 (on average), plus ‘on the day’ wedding planning which is a minimum of £125.

Each wedding booking is bringing in around £810. Further revenue streams include the business offering ‘exclusive offers’ at venues, which brings in a commission of £500 per booking.

Looking ahead

Jeff Sills and his team are now targeting further growth opportunities in the Midlands and London/South East, followed by the South West and North of England.

To carry out expansion plans, the business is seeking a further loan of £25,100 over 36 months. This will be used to raise the number of venues in each region to 20.

With more wedding venues on his books, Jeff expects to increase the number of enquiries into the business to around 800 each month per region, with around 600 bookings expected per year.

Case study

The growing success of the business is evident from the following case study. In just 12 months The Platinum Wedding Service achieved the following for one of Bespoke’s wedding venues - Shottle Hall, Derbyshire:

52 Additional Wedding Bookings (an increase of over 50%)

Increase in Sales of over £300,000

Increase in Net Profit of £167,423

Increase in Net Profit of over £600%