When you think of Wedding Planners, you probably get an image of a rather harassed and frantic looking, clipboard carrying, mobile phone juggling stress head in a designer frock. Debbie Payne, owner and founder of Wedding & Event Solutions is the exact opposite – a straight-talking, calm, organised and pro-active businesswoman with years of experience in the event planning game behind her.

“I’ve worked in this environment for years, long enough to know that the key to planning a successful event is to work closely with the client be it Bride or host – and let them input as much as possible. If the communication is there and adequate planning is in place, there should  

be no need for running around and panicking at the last minute”.
Debbie is still in the planning stage herself of setting up her business and will officially begin trading on 1st July 2009 from the Wansbeck Enterprise Centre, Ashington.

It has been a long process for Debbie to get to this stage, “I worked as a florist for 15 years before being made redundant and from this I moved on to the business management side and became a Project Manager at Northern Rock. I was made redundant again last year and at this       

point I knew it was the best time to start up my own business”.
Debbie, from Burradon, had heard from friends that Wansbeck was the place locally to start a business “I was aware that there was a lot of investment and opportunities in the area and wanted to see if I could benefit from this”.

Receiving help from Go Wansbeck was the first step for Debbie “Through Go Wansbeck and LEGI funding I was able to get started with important parts of setting up my business. I was put in touch with Luke Dunnett, Commercial Premises Coordinator with the Wansbeck Business Forum. We looked at a number of possibilities before he was able to locate the ideal premises for me; a 753 sq ft unit at the Wansbeck Enterprise Centre in Ashington which is perfect for what I have in mind for the business”.

The idea behind Wedding & Event Solutions is to offer the complete service for events and weddings. I have experience and can do a lot of the associated work in-house such as flowers, decorations, favours, table and chair dressings and so on, but if I do need to sub contract, I have a lot of contacts that I have built up over the years and know them to be worthy. It is important that I don’t let clients down”.
“If clients are after a more basic service, I am also happy to dip in and out as and when needed, depending on the level of control they want over the event. I try and accommodate my services to fit the needs of the customer”.

Debbie has bright hopes for the future, “Over the next few months I hope to get a number of projects off the ground. As well as securing new clients, I am working on putting together a non-profit magazine that business contacts can hand over to clients – hopefully a number of businesses in the area can benefit from referrals in this way. My website is about to go live and I am spending time developing the on-line shop facility as well as a forum for business profiles and business blogs and testimonials. By Christmas I also hope to have some workshops in place as well as organising some events to display such as Wedding Fairs”.

As well as thanking Luke for helping find a base for her business, Debbie would also like to acknowledge Alan Grieves of NBSL for his help and advice at the planning stage and also Liz Noble at the Wansbeck Enterprise Centre.

For details of products and services please contact Debbie on 0191 268 0218 or visit
www.we-solutions.co.uk