Monday 25 January 2027 | King's Place, London
Sustainable Wedding Summit 2027
A day of doing, not a day of sitting. One day to work on your business, with people who know what they’re talking about in the room and time set aside to get things done.
Let’s be honest about how January usually goes. The engagement season has just done its work, enquiries are landing, and last year’s problems are catching up: the pricing you never revisited, the marketing that doesn’t quite tell your story, the finances that run you rather than the other way round. Good intentions to sort those out usually last until the first enquiry email lands.
The Summit is built to break that cycle. Not by inspiring you and leaving you to it, but by giving you a day to actually work on your business. You bring your actual numbers and your actual challenges, you work on them with expert guidance and a room full of people facing the same things, and you leave with work done, not notes to file.
This year’s theme is profit, underpinned by purpose. Because a business that can’t pay its own way can’t afford to operate responsibly. Financial stability isn’t a distraction from sustainability, it’s what makes it possible.
Workshops Giving you the time to do the work
Funding your sustainable wedding business: a practical workshop
With Lucy Kebbell, The WIP
Whether you’re a celebrant, photographer, planner, stylist or venue, funding can feel out of reach if grant applications and pitching are new to you. This hands-on, 90-minute workshop takes the mystery out of it. You’ll get a clear picture of the funding options available, from grants and competitions to accelerators and capital funding for projects like implementing renewable energy or training. You’ll learn where to find opportunities and how to apply. Bring your laptop and one project or challenge you’d like to fund, and you’ll start building your application during the session.
Key takeaways
- Know your options. Understand which funding routes suit your business and your project, and where to keep finding new opportunities.
- Write with confidence. Learn what funders look for and how to shape your idea around clear outcomes.
- Leave with a plan. Walk away with a shortlist of funders, a draft application outline and a rough budget, plus a QR code to templates and resources.
Where are you losing money before the booking even happens?
With Pamela Rae Welsh
Generating enquiries is only part of the challenge. What happens between that first expression of interest and a confirmed booking can have a significant impact on revenue and profitability.
This practical workshop explores the customer journey, from initial enquiry through to conversion, looking at how communication, pricing, follow-up and booking processes influence purchasing decisions. Participants will identify where potential business is being lost and explore practical changes that could improve conversion without increasing their marketing spend.
Workshop outcome:
- Attendees will map their existing enquiry-to-booking journey and identify three opportunities to improve conversion and profitability.
Diversification Workshop – Finding your next income stream
With Kelly Chandler
Your next income stream might already be sitting in your skills and your existing assets. Together we’ll identify a diversification that’s sustainable, raises your profitability and doesn’t mean starting from scratch.
Facilitated by Kelly Chandler, wedding business consultant and rural diversification expert, the workshop draws on real experience of what’s worked, what hasn’t and why, and the group works together to help each other not just spot the opportunity but take the first steps towards it.
Round TablesThe state of the industry, written by the people in it
The morning round tables are the heart of the Summit, and this year they have a job to do. In small sector groups, venues with venues, florists with florists and farmers, planners with planners and stylists, you’ll take an honest look at the challenges of 2026. But this isn’t a session for rehashing hard times. The focus is forward: what we’ve experienced, the great examples of things done well, and the practical mitigations that worked, so we can move into 2027 with solutions rather than scars.
Expect a changing climate and a changing industry to be part of the conversation, because they’re part of all of our conversations now. The point of sitting together is to collaborate, share knowledge and work out how we move forward as an industry, together.
And it matters beyond the day: the round tables feed into a state of the industry report, so the challenges and the solutions your table names will shape what the whole industry hears next. Facilitated by SWA ambassadors, who know these conversations well, in groups small enough that everyone gets a voice.
Who should attend?
- Business owners. Strategy, pricing and the big decisions that never get made during the season
- Marketing teams. Content that converts and stories that reflect what your business stands for
- Ops and admin. The systems and processes that hold everything together
- Freelancers. If you run a wedding or events business, in whatever form, this day is for you
Workshops work best when the right people are in them, so bring whoever actually does the thing. One business, several people, everyone working on their bit of the picture.
Finance panel
Money is the theme of the day, so it’s on the stage too. Our morning finance panel brings together people who deal in the realities of small business finances, setting up the conversations the sector round tables pick up straight afterwards. Full line-up to be announced. It’s in progress, and it’s going to a fantastic way to kick off the day.
More workshops coming...
More workshop are in the planning, including a finance panel conversation you won’t want to miss, money foundations for small businesses, and protecting your energy. Book your place now and choose your sessions when the full programme drops.
This is the day where you stop meaning to sort your business out and actually start. Bring your numbers, bring your challenges, and bring a pen that works.
Building a Community
Member Breakfast
If you’re a member, join us for breakfast before the main programme starts. An energy building hour before the doors open properly: coffee, pastries and conversations with the people you’ll spend the day with.
Members can bring guests too, so if you know someone who’s been thinking about joining the Alliance, this is a lovely way to show them what the community is like.
After Party
After a day of working on your business, you’ve earned it.
The day ends with an after party: time to decompress, celebrate what you got done, and connect properly with the people you’ve met. Some of the best collaborations come from the connections you make when you’re enjoying yourself at the end of a long day.
Partner Showcase
Alongside the workshops sits a partner showcase: a carefully chosen group of businesses that can help you be a more sustainable business, from finance and insurance to sustainable materials, tech and everything in between. These are vetted businesses, ones we know and rate, and the showcase is built for proper conversations rather than a quick glance at a leaflet. Dedicated networking time is built into the day, so you’ll actually get to talk.
Tickets
Tickets include access to all workshops and panels as well as catering throughout the day.
- Members: £126 (two per business)
- Standard: £180
Places are limited, because the workshops and round tables need small groups to work properly.
The Sustainable Wedding Alliance Summit is a brilliant event - a unique opportunity to meet likeminded suppliers, hear from leading voices in the industry and supercharge your sustainability journey. It's inspiring, friendly and authentic - I'd highly recommend it!
– Jemima Jewell Photography