that black & white cat weddings - our story

The Story behind the 'No Ordinary wedding'

Hi there. I’m Linzi – no ordinary wedding planner, designer & stylist here at ‘that black & white cat’. Creator of wedding gorgeousness and I confess that I am mad about all things wedding (oh and cats!).

Why 'No Ordinary Wedding'?

I really believe that embracing your personalities as a couple will create an original and unique wedding day. Because why would you want your wedding to be the same as your other friends? This can be the tiniest touch to a fully styled wedding. I want you to have a wedding day you’ll remember for the rest of your life. A wedding which is all about you!

Individual, quirky and alternative weddings are my specialty. My passion is being different and its taken me years to find it myself. I don’t want to be limited by any ceilings and I certainly reflect that in my weddings. Give me some crafty materials and I’m off!

Life before weddings

Please don’t fall asleep at this point but my career before becoming a wedding planner I was a chartered accountant within large corporate retail businesses. I spent over 15 years as a professional Head of Finance – budgeting, planning, negotiating, influencing, and, of course, using the obligatory spreadsheets. I know first hand what its like to be planning your wedding whilst working long intensive days in a professional career.

How I entered the wedding industry

I’m an organiser at heart (and a stationery addict!) and I bring this to every wedding to make sure everything is delivered on time and to perfection (Yes – I have lots of spreadsheets beind every wedding!). Of course, being an ex-accountant helps out with budget and payment tracking.

I trained with the UK Alliance of Wedding Planners (UKAWP) before I set up the business. I’m a big believer in their principle of not allowing commissions in the wedding industry – a planner should work to get our couples the best price possible and give any savings obtained direct to you. If you come on board with me, you agree one fee for my services and that’s it. Nice and simple!

multi award winning wedding planner

I never dreamed that within our first year we would receive the English Wedding Awards ‘Best Wedding Planner’ for the East Midlands and then also win best Specialist Service in the Wedding Awards 2017. Its been the most amazing journey and hard work, but seeing all our happy couples on their special days makes it all worthwhile.

Since then we’ve retained our ‘Best Wedding Planner’ award at the English Wedding Awards THREE TIMES!, and, we won ‘Best Overall Wedding Planner’ for 2017. Wowsers! Read more about it here.

I’ve also been featured in HELLO! magazine, BBC online, County Wedding Magazines and a number of wedding blogs. You can see them all at the bottom of the page – follow the links to see what was featured.

Meet the team

When you book your wedding with us, I’ll be your main contact throughout. However, I am fortunate to have a great support team working with me to deliver your wedding day. Check them out below!

We only do about ten weddings a year so they get our full attention (it takes a lot of hours to plan a wedding!) and we never have more than one wedding on the same day. Once our capacity is booked up, it’s gone! So don’t take too long to decide as I hate to tell couples that we are already booked on their date.

Linzi

Owner, Wedding Planner & Creator of Wedding Gorgeousness

Seb

Owner, Chief Tech Guy and Lifter of Wedding Props

Tori

Wedding Planning assistant & social media

Sooty

Chief assistant to the creator of wedding gorgeousness

Betty

Chief Mouser to the Creator of Wedding Gorgeousness

Charlie

Our newest assistant - still finding his paws!

Shout out to Seb!

Seb is my partner and rock – in fact, he’s pretty awesome! I can’t thank him enough for supporting me on my journey to create what you see here today. With over 20 years of audio visual experience working in theatre, television and entertainment, he is often there to assist on the more technical delivery aspects. He also helps with on the day support if I need an extra pair of hands.

Sooty, Betty and Charley are our three cats and I love them to bits. They occasionally help out and if you want to meet them just let me know (though I can’t always guarantee they’ll appear!).

Unconventional Wedding - A blog & Directory for alternative weddings

I’m also the proud owner of Unconventional Wedding – Blog & Supplier Directory. I love sharing the very best unique and quirky wedding days, writing advice blogs such as how to choose your wedding photographer, or, just shouting about the very best wedding suppliers.

Random fun facts

Here you go!

I’m a trained classical violinist & have traveled Europe with an orchestra when i was younger
I’ve walked the Inca Trail in Peru
I am a stationery addict
I’m mad about our cats (see more pictures below)
I LOVE alpacas!

If you want to know more about me (the ‘no ordinary wedding planner’) I’ve written a blog which you can read by clicking here.