Meet Anna Wang: One of Sydney's most renowned Wedding Planners
She’s one of Sydney’s most renowned wedding planners and stylists and this week we got the chance to speak with the leading lady herself, Anna Wang. She chats to Mr Theodore about how she started in the world of weddings, how she helps couples design the wedding of their dreams, and also shares with us what Marriage Equality means to her both personally and professionally.
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So, who is Anna Wang? I am a dreamer that keeps looking for perfection and creative things that will allow me to create some amazing events for my clients. But at the same time I am grounded to the fact that I want to be hands on with my clients rather than just being a face of a business after “I’ve done my hard yard”, so to speak.
“Even though there are people that aren’t supportive of this (marriage equality), I feel that it’s just the beginning and society will be better when it’s fully embraced. ”
What are you most renowned for? Mostly being able to plan a wedding, whilst style it and have everything done in house so that it’s convenient for couples. Over the past few years I’m seeing a more and more couples looking for a simpler way to plan their wedding rather than spend copious amounts of hours to meet with multiple vendors, compare, and go again until they find the right one. By extension having a lot of the services and décor in house allows for the event to be constructed perfectly because it’s less moving parts and conversations with different vendors; too many chefs stirring the pot can ruin it.
How long have you been styling weddings? For the past 13 years I’ve been involved in creating various events and weddings where my team and I are involved with designing the look, the event, and construct the décor and designs internally.
Why did you start your own business? Everyone starts small, out of a passion to express creatively, but I sort of landed into it accidentally when one of my closest friends needed help for her small wedding. At that time there weren’t many options besides retail florists so the costs that came with a retail operation were high. We ended up doing everything DIY and it was such a wonderful experience to fulfil her dream.
One thing lead to another and word got out of the work that we did. The opportunity was there for me to create a business out of it and so when I found a bridesmaids dress retail space that was closing down, I turned it to a one-stop-shop business out in Liverpool, New South Wales.
What does a initial ‘wedding consult’ through to ‘on the day’ look like? Each consultation typically involves me getting to know the couple beyond the email communications that occur before they meet with me, and I find this to be so important to understand the intricacies of the couple, the visions they’ve set out to achieve, or aspects they like. This formulates a brief of the visual style of the event that I’ll set out to design. Yes I go through the rest of their wedding, seeing if I can assist or provide any tips, so it is quite a long initial meeting that is more akin to planning the couple’s wedding.
Once the visual brief and design is nutted out we work on the planning process of designing custom pieces (if that were the case), the floral structure that’ll act as their theme, and pull in all the other aspects of décor for the day that requires booking external services. Whilst the bulk of the décor has been amassed for simplicity and quality control, there are products that I don’t hold due to limited space! Space is always a problem with us.
As for the wedding day; that could involve being on site a few days prior to work on the first layers of the décor and infrastructure, such as marquee or truss work, and then the bulk of the work is constructed on the wedding day. Especially for couples that opted for fresh flowers we’ll have to assign our florist crew to create the pieces from the sample I make on the day. Yes I’m hands-on with the events because I don’t want to lose that touch and often I would re-jig designs on site.
What are some tips for couples on how to get the most out of their wedding planner/stylist? Choosing your stylist or wedding planner you’d have done your research on their work, so trust in them to create your vision. They’ll have their opinions as well and provide plenty of guidance, but ultimately it’s about your wedding, your celebration rather than their time-to-shine or what they want to do. So don’t forget about you.
If a couple has no idea where to even begin, what do you suggest they start with first? One of the initial conversations I have is “what experience would you like your guests to have when they walk in to your venue?” This would illicit keywords such as “ambient”, “romantically lit”, “flowers everywhere”, or even “minimalist but pretty”. And that’s a great start for me to consider the breath of the style and where the couple would be comfortable to take it to.
So definitely consider this as your starting point for the styling of your wedding, or any event for that matter. Everything stems from this – the lighting during the event, the floral designs, colour palette and other intricacies and furnishings.
On a personal note
Is there such thing as a ‘Perfect’ weddings? I find weddings end up being a true reflection of the couple that is having it, whether it’s simpler, over the top, amazingly created with spectacular details, or chilled. And that’s the perfect wedding to me, because it has to reflect the couple for who they are, for what their closest friends and family know them to be.
Where do you gain most of your inspiration from? Probably my husband, Bailey, who is a mix bag of computer technical, creative and sort of mad – so when I get a creative blank he is my go-to for coming up with new designs or bounce ideas with. Certainly I have team members that I generate ideas with as well but it’s a bit different having a husband that has been around for awhile and is creative, has been photographing weddings for a long time, and is OK for me to take frustrations out on.
I also look to architectural and interior designs that make use of lighting as a source, there are some really stunning works that are being done in those spaces that are screaming to be translated into the events and weddings.
In your eyes, how has the wedding industry changed since Marriage Equality? I feel that the conversation has been had and it is now in the open so society has warmed to allowing two souls to celebrate their love for each other. It’s a beautiful thing that we’re becoming more accepting of it, even though there are people that aren’t supportive of this, I feel that it’s just the beginning and society will be better when it’s fully embraced.
That of course is mimicked by the wedding industry’s division on whether we should advertise or voice our individual support for Marriage Equality. It’s a double-edged sword that could swing either way with the traditional clients as undoubtedly (and sadly) there will be clients/followers who won’t agree, and there will be those that are completely supportive. But at this point from conversations with industry peers it’s still being weighed upon.
We for one are completely supportive and look forward to sharing this with our followers, and those who believe it is the wrong thing for us to, well they are ultimately not the right fit for us as a business’ integrity of love between two souls, and us personally (Bailey and I).
Contact Anna Wang via the link below and allow her to help you plan your wedding.