The Coco Story

Written by Emma Hla
Feature Image by Horseshoe Photography.

Goodness… I’m excited.

I guess I should firstly say welcome to The Coco Wedding Venues Blog!

I think to kick things off it would probably be appropriate to introduce who I am and what I’m doing here in this beautiful world of weddings…

So folks… Ready…? Then I shall begin…

i said yes!

Coco Wedding Venues was founded in 2013 by me, Emma Hla. I have been on my own personal wedding journey for the last year and if I’m honest I stumbled at the first hurdle… the wedding venue search. My fiancé (now husband!) and I found it very hard to find the perfect venue that suited us as a couple.

 

Coco Wedding Venues, Mark and Emma, Brighton Engagement Shoot.Images by Horseshoe Photography.

Now we were on a tight deadline… Engaged in November 2012 we knew we had a small window of opportunity to lock down the venue before the madness of Christmas swept us away into a frenzy of mulled wine and tinsel. We had also planned an adventurous month long train ride around Europe in the January, so, to prevent me from having a meltdown fairly early on in the planning stage, we started the venue search pretty much the day after that sparkly diamond ring made its way onto my finger!

Our natural first step was to search the internet, but the wedding venue websites we came across didn’t excite and inspire us. I’m obsessed with style, stories and of course the pretty but nothing seemed to capture this for me.

The functionality of these search tools also frustrated me… This process should be fun and inspiring non?

Blogs on the other-hand are full of inspiration and there are plenty of beautiful wedding blogs out there! Oh ho yes. But, there wasn’t one that focused purely on that first step of the journey…

I wanted to merge the functionality of a venue search tool with the stylish wedding inspiration found on my beloved blogs.

So Coco Wedding Venues (CWV) was founded…

 

Coco Wedding Venues Brand Logos

The Mission

So what does Coco Wedding Venues want to achieve?

Well our mission is to personally handpick an exclusive selection of venues for the discerning Bride and Groom to be. Each venue must be visited so that we know we are recommending only the best. Each venue must have something unique, beautiful and that little something extra to offer. Whether that’s beautiful grounds, a fabulous in-house team or stories steeped in history.

The style

When designing the initial idea behind Coco I wanted to think about who our ideal visitors would be… Current, design-inspired, creative, stylish, unique and cool – Yep I’m aiming for all of the above!

It is important to me that the look and feel of our venue search tool embodies these elements and feels different from the moment you land on the homepage.

You will be able to search for wedding venues using the usual regional and type-of-venue filters in a simple search tool, however to reflect your own personal wedding style you can also explore six style categories.

We will call these The Coco Style Categories… and here they are! Ta da!

 

Coco Wedding Venues Style Categories Icons.

 

The Style of your wedding is such an important element to think about, even before you start the hunt for the venue… and yes girls, even before you think about the dress!

If you know for sure that you are a Boho bride then you will find gorgeous and inspiring venues for your personal style by clicking through to the Bohemian Beats category, or if you’re confused by the whole thing our simple way of exploring our style categories will soon clarify your own wedding style and will inspire the whole look and vibe of your day!

How easy does that sound?

Plus it’s all very pretty.

We are currently working hard on the website and it will be with you very soon, but, in the meantime, The Blog aims to bring our Wedding Venues Directory to life – we will be able to proudly showcase our beautiful venues, talk about inspiration for our Coco Style Categories and of course share Real Brides experiences and weddings at our very own venues! Ummm… You might also find the occasional post about my own personal style and loves. It all counts right?

Over the next few posts I’ll be introducing our six Coco Style Categories in a little more detail, basically my own interpretation of the wedding styles with some delicious imagery to boot!

 

Coco Wedding Venues, Mark and Emma, Brighton Engagement Shoot.Images by Horseshoe Photography.

So that’s it in a small (ish) nutshell…

Like the idea? Have you had trouble on the wedding venue journey? Have you got a perfect wedding venue recommendation?

Do let me know lovelies…

Oh… and if you want to know more about my own love story you can read about it here on the gorgeous pages of Rock My Wedding!

Lots of love…

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