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A Leighton Buzzard wedding planner with a big heart has received not one but two industry awards!

After winning the regional prize, Ann Beggs, 50, is a finalist at The Wedding Industry Awards (TWIA), which take place this evening at The Globe Theatre, London.

The talented businesswoman has also won a ‘best Wedding Planner’ accolade from Hitched, and having been a regional finalist in the 2020 TWIA, hopes she can be crowned champion of the Wedding Planner of the Year category tonight.

Ann Beggs

Ann told the LBO: “I feel really honoured if I’m honest. I have not been doing this very long, so for it to be my second time to make the nationals blows me away.

“I really hope it’s a testament to my time as a wedding planner.

“I’m excited to be there, exited to have fun and very, very honoured.”

LBO readers will recognise the busy businesswoman from her time running Ann’s Bridal Room – based on High Street and then Bridge Street – which she founded in 2006.

The marquee wedding at Stonor Park

However, after nearly a decade of running the shop, Ann found herself craving a new challenge.

She explained: “We went through a [fashion] phase where mums would have the pain of putting their girls into lace up backs, so they’d see if I could come and help at the wedding.

“I loved the buzz of being round them on the day! There was something really special about being the person who was the calming influence.”

With more and more requests, Ann believed she had what it took, confirmed when a friend’s daughter and-bride-to-be “didn’t have anything sorted” and Ann came to the rescue planning and coordinating the day.

Ann helps beautiful bride, Maddie.

“Bitten by the bug”, she handed over her shop in 2016, and following some preparation, launched Ann Nicholas Wedding Planning in January 2018.

The name is a nod to her husband, Nick, who “always believed” in her abilities.

Ann said: “Brides would sometimes find a dress elsewhere and ask if I could order it in for them – ‘cos we want to buy it from you’.

“That was when Nick started to say, ‘You’d be good for planning, because they are buying into you and your service’.”

Arranging table decorations for dinner

Two years on, and Ann has worked for clients including Colin Munro (Crystal from RuPaul’s Drag Race UK) and Martha Atack, sister of actress Emily Atack.

She’s planned weddings in lavish locations including The Lanesborough, and Goodwood House, and even has one on the cards for beautiful Barcelona.

Remembering a special day, Ann said: “I properly had a teary moment; it was my first big marquee wedding at Stonor Park.

“Everyone had gone in for dinner in a beautiful, sail tent marquee – it was a big job, a big budget 200-person wedding.

“I was sat on the steps at Stonor House with the photographer and videographer and burst into tears. They hugged me; they knew it was my first big marquee wedding and I couldn’t believe I’d done it.”

But it isn’t all sequins and tiaras, as Ann works 15 to 18 hours on the big day; as the first to arrive and the last one to leave, she’s usually clearing up and cleaning the toilets!

Ann is always on hand on the big day

Then there’s the technical side of things to consider, a mountain of spreadsheets in the run up to the wedding, and of course, spontaneous rescue missions on the day.

Ann laughed: “I did stop a bridesmaid from seriously knocking herself out…and there was a time when the bride’s niece [the flowergirl] was about to walk into the ceremony and decided to start screaming. The bride’s eyes went like saucers, so I scooped up the flowergirl up and ran off!”

Ann received her Hitched award based on the number of reviews and testimonials she has received, while she is touched to be in the finals of the TWIA, as her own couples voted for and recommended her.

Indeed, she was described by one couple as their “fairy godmother!”

She concluded: “You’re on a journey from start to finish and I love being the person who brings it all together, watching all the hard work that’s taken a year.

“I have made some really great friends with my couples; it’s been really special.”

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