... about La Vie Est Un Voyage
The owner / The business
Where does your passion for planning eco-weddings come from?
It comes from my love of hands-on creativity, caring for the environment, being passionate about planning memorable events and delighting people with the end-result. I've built on my experience coordinating special events which has confirmed my passion for planning unique weddings in an eco-friendly way.
How big is your company? Do you do everything by yourself?
La Vie Est Un Voyage is a sole trader company. To organise eco-weddings and events successfully, I will partner with a host of passionate, carefully selected suppliers. We’ll work together with the one objective being to make your wedding day as unique, sophisticated and memorable as it can be.
As an analogy, I would take the role of an orchestra conductor (wedding planner) and will lead every player (wedding suppliers) to play flawlessly together for the greatest pleasure of the audience (you and your guests).
Are you insured?
Absolutely. This is a must in the event planning industry.
How much experience do you have planning events and weddings?
I’ve built my event planning career on experience from eight years in corporate communications, which included project management, corporate event planning and running a dedicated event planning team.
Because I have a great interest in astute organisation, details, creativity and elegance, I’ve decided to apply my solid event planning experience to weddings and specialise in ethical and green celebrations.
The role of your green wedding planner
What do you do as a wedding planner?
In short, we provide peace of mind and the reassurance that you will have an amazing day. Well manage everything that needs to take place to deliver a sophisticated, memorable and eco-friendly, sustainable wedding. Please browse La Vie Est Un Voyage roadmap for further information on what well do from your first, free consultation up to your special day.
Does this mean that you take all the decisions?
No, it means that we collaborate very closely with you to deliver exactly the experience, day and special memories that you deserve. We'll work to your brief, wish list or special requirements. I can provide up to three tailored proposals, designed to meet your specific requests and wishes.
This could include a selection of venues, wedding favours, flowers, transport, music, entertainment or anything else you'd like. You will have plenty of options, so you choose what you need, we'll discuss the details and we'll bring it all together for you. We'll project-manage the key aspects of your special day, involve you in the important decisions and help reduce any of the stress that couples often face planning their own weddings! This will all help to bring your dream day to life.
We can do most things ourselves. Why would we need to use a wedding planner, and why do we need an eco-friendly wedding?
There are a number of benefits to hiring us as your wedding consultant; we will:
Take away the stress inherent to planning, which tends to grow as the day approaches. You’ll be able to relax and enjoy yourself while we sort out the details. Help you benefit from our network of wedding suppliers. This allows you to take advantage of the prices, reductions and offers exclusively granted to La Vie Est Un Voyage, which we will pass on to you directly. Bring creativity and innovative touches to make your wedding day unique, sophisticated and truly special. Bring your dream wedding to life. Provide expert management of the key aspects of your day; we have experience in planning, negotiation, problem-solving and ensuring everything happens perfectly. Help you minimise your carbon footprint; this does make a difference to the environment and supports local suppliers and communities. Offer carefully selected options for your eco-honeymoon overseas. Your honeymoon will be both memorable and could positively affect peoples’ lives in overseas communities. What are the differences between a traditional and an eco-wedding planner?
As well as planning and organising all the key aspects of your wedding, an eco-planner will also pay special attention to:
Carbon footprint. Waste level generated from special events. Choice of items selected (e.g. FairTrade). Choice of produce (in-season, local, ideally organic). Reuse (e.g. flowers used as a gift for elderly in hospitals). Reduce (e.g. tree-free invitations and cards). Recycle (e.g. bottles recycled). We achieve this though careful planning and an ethical perspective.
So, what sets you apart from other wedding planners?
Simply: passionately planning memorable weddings in a sustainable and ethical way, without compromising on style.
The result will look as sophisticated as a traditional wedding, but with a lower impact on the environment and a greater benefit in peoples’ lives.
How can I benefit from hiring an ethical wedding planner?
You can benefit in many ways. Imagine you are inviting guests to a musical celebration; in addition to greeting your guests, enjoying the evening and having a wonderful time, would you also conduct the orchestra to entertain your guests?
A wedding is a unique, exclusive, live show with no retakes. That’s why an ethical wedding planner will help save you time and money, reduce stress by taking care of the details, help reduce your wedding carbon footprint, and help people in need on your behalf.
Costs / Services
How much do your services cost?
Costs vary depending on your needs. As a rule of thumb, full wedding planning, which includes all aspects of wedding organisation, generally works out to be 10% of the total wedding budget.
For partial wedding planning, liaising with up to three wedding suppliers, research, negotiation and coordination, prices start from as little as £ 750.
If you'd prefer us to manage separate, discrete parts of your special day, we also provide several A La Carte options where you simply pay for the areas you'd like us to manage.
Do you organise overseas weddings?
We don't organise overseas weddings at the moment, but we can help you plan an eco-friendly, memorable honeymoon in France or Martinique (French Caribbean).
Where in the UK do your organise weddings?
La Vie Est Un Voyage mainly operates in the East Midlands, namely Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, which helps our clients benefit from the savoir-faire and expertise of local, independent green suppliers. If you’d like to hold your wedding elsewhere, we’d be delighted to have a chat to see if we can support you.
Can you help with organising post-wedding events?
Yes. We can prepare an itinerary with areas of interest and activities for your guests to enjoy at their leisure. Whether it’s a post-wedding family meal, activities for the kids, exploring a different part of the country or planning your honeymoon, we can help.
Apart from wedding planning, do you also organise other type of events?
Yes, we’re developing our corporate event planning activities.
Eco-friendly weddings / Eco-honeymoons
What does a typical eco-friendly wedding look like?
Just as each wedding is unique, so too are eco-friendly weddings.
Being eco-friendly involves thinking ahead and planning in a sustainable way. At first glance, a traditional wedding and the same wedding but with an eco-friendly twist, might look identical. However, when you look closer you can see the important differences:
Were the food miles attached to the menus? Was the food in season and locally produced? How was the wedding dress made? Which type of fabric was used? Was the labour force behind the making of the dress fairly paid? What happens to the flowers once the wedding is over? We’re all starting to think much more about these important details. Eco-weddings are about making the day of your wedding amazing, while ensuring that the way you choose to celebrate impacts on the world around us as little as possible.
At La Vie Est Un Voyage we love to plan weddings and events like there’s a tomorrow.
I perceive green wedding as being ‘shabby and cheap’, how can they be both sophisticated and eco-friendly?
This might be because you haven’t seen La Vie Est Un Voyage at work. It’s all down to vision, passion, creativity, resourcefulness and a good address book. Enough said.
What’s an eco-honeymoon?
Imagine spending your well-deserved honeymoon at a luxury hotel with green credentials, close to a special, breath-taking location. You might want to contribute to local communities, either financially or by taking part in community projects (for example introducing children to English for a couple of hours during your stay, finding out about local customs or helping with environmental projects like protecting a coral reef). It’s your eco-honeymoon and your choice; one thing that’s certain is that you and your beloved will have a compelling story to tell on your return.
Your wedding
I'm getting married in 12 months; how far in advance do you need to be involved?
The sooner, the better; without careful planning and budgeting, the to-do list tends to grow significantly the closer we get to your Big Day, and this can easily have a substantial impact on your wedding budget.
The best time to start planning is as soon as you’re starting to think about your wedding and have a date or time period in mind. For full planning, it’s best to involve us around 10 to 12 months ahead of your wedding date.
I want my no-fuss wedding planned in five months. Can you help?
Yes. In this case, planning would concentrate on understanding what is most important to you. As we get closer, I will lay down a ‘military plan’ to get the basics right and secure the suppliers that are key for you (e.g. photographer, catering, venue) and bring everything together to make it happen on your behalf, with style.
I’m not really into eco-wedding stuff but could you still help?
Yes, indeed. We’ll respect your views and help plan your wedding or special event, as long your requirements don’t contradict our business ethos and values. The best way to find out how we can help is to get in touch with us.
Green wedding suppliers / Green credentials
How can I benefit from hiring an ethical wedding planner?
You can benefit in many ways. Imagine you are inviting guests to a musical celebration; in addition to greeting your guests, enjoying the evening and having a wonderful time, would you also conduct the orchestra to entertain your guests?
A wedding is a unique, exclusive, live show with no retakes. That’s why an ethical wedding planner will help save you time and money, reduce stress by taking care of the details, help reduce your wedding carbon footprint, and help people in need on your behalf.
How do you ensure your suppliers have green credentials?
Our criteria for selecting green suppliers include:
The provenance of materials. How their products are manufactured and distributed. Their efforts to operate their business in a sustainable way. Of course there will be a different set of specific criteria that can be applied to different categories (e.g. florists – local, UK grown, in-season or FairTrade flowers). What are your green credentials?
My home-based business with a vitual office located in the city of Derby. This helps reduce my carbon footprint; less petrol, no air con, reduced energy usage and my home-office is south-facing with excellent daylight… a blessing! Buying local and organic produce as far as possible. I’m a regular customer of Abel & Cole, the online organic food retailer. Use of public transport whenever possible (useful when going to London for events or to meet green suppliers). Establishment of criteria for selecting green wedding/event/business suppliers. Do you receive commission from your wedding suppliers?
No. La Vie Est Un Voyage’s ethics policy is to pass on to our clients any discounts, offers or special pricing granted by our wedding suppliers.
And, the final one...
Why should weddings be eco-friendly?
Because we want to live and party like there’s a tomorrow Because life is a journey Because La Vie Est Un Voyage 
