Morning my lovers! I'd like to introduce you this morning to Sarah Haywood, luxury wedding planner, Author of the hugely popular, The Wedding Bible, and more recently, designer of 'Ultimate Wedding App', a nifty little wedding App that I think you might like to know more about.
Now you might well have already downloaded your own wedding planning App, or it may be something that you're not that particular interested in. Hear me out on this one. Having spent time with Sarah getting to know more about the App she has designed with all her expertise and passion for weddings, I'm really keen to share some information with you about it because as a wedding planning product, it really does stand out from any other comparable {and usually always advert riddled} Apps on the market today…
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright © 2012, Sarah Haywood
The Ultimate Wedding App is a premium, multi-platform wedding planning smartphone app for Android™, Blackberry®, iPhone® and Nokia. Packed with functionality it includes a Budget Tracker, Wedding Planner, Wedding Checklist, Guest Manager, Supplier Directory and a Wedding Event Schedule. It is fully customizable and with room for notes.
Developed by the UK’s leading, luxury wedding planner and top-selling bridal author Sarah Haywood, it contains her exclusive and expert content, top tips and checklists providing comprehensive and indispensable advice on every element of planning your big day.
I got chatting with Sarah about what led her to design the app and more importantly, why my readers should buy it.
The Ultimate Wedding App, compatible with Adroid™, Blackberry®, iPhone® and Nokia…
What inspired you to design the app?
When mobile phone apps were launched I recognized an opportunity for a great addition to our portfolio of products and services: it was more a case of why wouldn’t we invest in smartphone apps?
Two years ago I was proud to be the first wedding planner globally to develop apps which we did with our free ‘Wedding Countdown’ and ‘Bow Tie Tutor’ iPhone® apps (as a Brit, to have beaten the US planners too, it is thrilling!). But we started slowly with simple apps and got to grips with the technology and its limitations as well as its capabilities. We waited to develop this premium wedding planning app until we were sure the technology was there to deliver the functionality users would require – and not just on iPhone®, but on other mobile phone platforms too.
It has been a huge financial investment (and a steep learning curve!) but I have confidence in today’s savvy and sophisticated brides and grooms-to-be. Importantly, I also know our luxury wedding planning service is only accessible to the privileged few, but via the books I have written, and the apps I've now develoed, we can offer some of the expertise and experience I have accumulated over the last decade to every couple – who ever they are and regardless of their budget.
This is hugely important to me, as what I know for sure is that beautiful, well-planned and managed weddings do not need to break the bank. But few people have the expertise or the time to acquire it when they get engaged – so if I can offer a few pointers and in an affordable way I will continue to do so. I also know that there is no right or wrong way to plan a wedding: so take my advice, leave it or cherry-pick what is relevant to you and your wedding – but be informed, it’s crucial.
Via my books I have had small part in planning tens of thousands of weddings: it’s humbling, thrilling, exciting and a huge privilege. Then last year I was fortunate to receive a lot of media attention across the world during the build up to the Royal Wedding – and then as CNN’s wedding expert for the day of the Royal nuptials. Via the apps we can now build on that exposure and truly establish ourselves as a global wedding brand: to do that it is important that some element of what we do accessible to the majority.
Why should my readers download the app?
It’s risk free, very affordable and a guarantee you’ll leave nothing to chance. Even if you choose to use just the Budget Tracker or Guest Manager or only use it to create a Wedding Day Schedule (which you can email to everyone who needs it direct from the app) it’s useful.
On top of that the advice itself is pertinent (we divide the Wedding Planner down into the key elements of wedding planning with a top tip for each and with checklist). We also update it regularly to ensure that as new devices get to market the app will still function. We are about to release an update with the facility to export your guest list via email direct from the app. One of things I love about apps is that when you release improved functionality such as this, everyone who already has the app is alerted to it and gets the update free of charge.
I am also still the only UK wedding planner with a wedding planning App. I hope that couples here will want to get behind it and support me in my efforts to capitalize on the profile of the UK wedding industry and the ‘Brit Glam Wedding’ appeal we now have abroad following the Royal wedding. For too long we have followed the US and it’s time we upped our game!
What makes the app different from other wedding planning apps?
It is one of only a handful of wedding planning apps actually devised and with content by someone who actually plans weddings – and it is the only UK wedding app that applies to. Second, as far as I can ascertain, it is the only wedding planning App with no advertising: the content is honest, impartial, practical advice. There is no ‘recommending’ favorite suppliers or telling you I love something because I have been paid to.
There are numerous free to download wedding planning apps, but they have more limited practical functionality (certainly nothing as detailed as the Ultimate Wedding App is available – presumably because the more functionality, the more it costs to develop!) and their purpose is largely a vehicle to generate advertising income. Indeed we do not accept advertising across any of our products or services (neither do I work on commissions when planning clients’ weddings).
I like it that way. Remaining impartial means I know I am offering honest, sound advice…
How much does the app cost?
I’m all yours digitally for £2.99! It’s phenomenal value when you consider that for the price of a cappuccino – you’ve a decade’s tried and tested wedding planning know how in the palm of your hand 24/7. The developers advised we charge a lot more in line with other premium apps and to reflect the complexity of the Apps functionality and the huge development costs: but weddings are a niche and limited market and I want it out there now available to as many couples as possible – and I know from experience it is they who will spread the word. I’m taking a bit of a risk, but I am willing to wait longer to recoup the costs as I do not see the value of devoting significant time to a project that only a very few would benefit from.
The Sun chose it as their ‘App of the Week’, we’ve had favorable reviews from among others the Guardian, Yahoo and the FT – and my favorite was from Android UK News who took the trouble to properly check us out and said compared with the price of personally securing my services it is a ‘steal’!
I hope that Love My Dress readers find this feature and indeed the App we have worked so hard to develop a useful one.
Happy Wedding Planning!
Sarah Haywood
♥ ♥ ♥
Download a copy of Ultimate Wedding App here for just £2.99.
If you'd like to learn more about the app, you can see a video of Sarah talking through it's various features on this Wedding Planning YouTube Channel. You can of course visit Ultimate Wedding App website for further information too.
You can also follow Sarah Haywood on Facebook and Twitter.
Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
