About us
Our Philosophy
Our Clients
Our Brides
Our credentials (excuse us while we brag a little…)
Our team
Meet the faces behind Guides for Brides:
Director – Alison Hargreaves
Having started Guides for Brides in 1995, Alison is passionate about ensuring Guides for Brides is the primary source of information for all couples planning a wedding in the UK. A driving force within the business she takes a strong interest in current trends and changes in the wedding industry to ensure that brides and businesses can be kept totally up to date with what is new for this year. alison@guidesforbrides.co.uk
Sales Manager – John Maddaford
John is responsible for managing our Sales Team as well as looking after a large client base of his own. John has worked for Guides for Brides since 2004, and has a wealth of knowledge about all areas of the business. john@guidesforbrides.co.uk
Senior Account Manager- Elaine Rough
Elaine joined us in January 2012 after 15 years of sales & customer service in the print trade. As well as day to day sales in the office, she is also responsible for the larger national accounts. Elaine also represents the company at many of the National Shows that we attend. elaine@guidesforbrides.co.uk
Marketing Manager – Dawn Jolleys
Dawn joined the Guides for Brides team in 2015 after taking time out of her marketing career to raise a family. Combining her passion for marketing and her broad commercial experience, Dawn is on board to strengthen the Guides for Brides brand and develop new and exciting partnerships. In her spare time Dawn runs around being a mummy, as well as looking after her horse and dog. dawn@guidesforbrides.co.uk
Account Manager – Ali Moore
Ali joined Guides for Brides in late 2010 having previously excelled in sales and customer service roles. As well as working in Internet and Wedding Fair sales, Ali likes to interact with clients via Facebook and Twitter. ali@guidesforbrides.co.uk
Account Manager – Christine King
Christine first joined Guides for Brides in 2004. With over 18 years of sales and customer service experience, Christine returned in April 2015. Passionate about customer care and customer relationships, as well as shopping, swimming and the colour pink! christine@guidesforbrides.co.uk
Account Manager- Amy Jaremchuk
Amy has worked at Guides for Brides for the last 3 years, with a short career break in Gran Canaria. Amy sells across all Guides for Brides products, and especially enjoys attending our own Wedding Fairs and exhibiting at the UK and National Wedding Shows. amy@guidesforbrides.co.uk
Account Manager – Denise Huff
Denise joined Guides for Brides in 2009, with over 19 years of sales experience under her belt. With a short break, Denise returned back in 2013 and is part of our Internet and Guide sales team. Denise has a great personality, works great as a team and works even harder to build good relationships with her clients. In her spare time, Denise enjoys holidays, scuba diving, snorkelling and chilling in the sun. denise@guidesforbrides.co.uk
Wedding Fair Co-ordinator and Administrator – Jackie Melotti
Jackie is responsible for all of the administration relating to our Wedding Fairs; liaising with venues and clients, putting floor plans together and much, much more. With Jackie, speed and accuracy is always a priority and fitting in as much as she can within her part-time hours is always her goal. jackie@guidesforbrides.co.uk
Accounts – Trudi D’Angeli
Trudi is our longest serving member of staff and has been with Guides for Brides on and off for many years in various administration roles before undergoing an extensive training programme to enable her to take on full responsibility of accountancy within Guides for Brides. trudi@guidesforbrides.co.uk
Social Media and Digital Marketing – Jess Lancaster
Jess is our Social Media and Digital Marketing Intern. Joining in September 2014 fresh from Bristol University, she has a passion for weddings, writing and social media. Her day to day role ranges from tweeting the latest wedding gossip, putting together inspirational Pinterest boards, to writing editorial content for the website, and we are delighted to have such a great talent choosing to start their career with us. jess@guidesforbrides.co.uk
Social Media Intern – Poppy Deacon
Poppy joined the Guides for Brides team in January 2016 as the Social Media intern for part of her gap year before she goes to university in September. She is passionate about social media and blogging and loves to keep up to date with the latest wedding trends. Her role includes posting daily inspiration to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest as well as writing for the blog. poppy@guidesforbrides.co.uk
Our story
Guides for Brides originally launched as locally printed wedding guides, listing every local wedding business, supported by relevant advertising and distributed by a wide network of supporters within the industry, from venues and bridal shops to wedding fairs and networking events. Although these original guides still thrive and provide an essential part of the marketing mix for many local wedding businesses, Guide for Brides was quick to switch it’s attention to the internet and was a very early adopter of this new technology, launching an online version in 1998 and securing many important domain names such as www.weddinginformation.co.uk in the process.
Our biggest obstacle in the switch from print media to on-line media was taking our team of loyal and enthusiastic staff with us, despite having no previous knowledge or experience of the internet between them. We have continued to train our team in all that is important in the digital era – particularly the importance of Social Media – and many of this training will be shared with our clients at the first UK Wedding Industry Conference on 5th February 2015 where we aim to pass on much that we have learnt, to our customers.
Our offices
Our office is open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, however our website and social media are active 24/7 and there is usually at least one of us available via Twitter, Facebook, our Forum or email to answer queries outside normal office hours.
Thank you for taking the time to find out a little more about Guides for Brides. If there is anything we haven’t answered here our Director, Alison Hargreaves, would be pleased to hear from you by email or by telephone: 01235 770078.
.
