Ultimate Wedding Planner: Fred Sirieix Interview
icymiofficial.com Fred Sirieix is one of the mentors on new BBC Two series, Ultimate Wedding Planner.
Eight aspiring wedding planners battle it out to become Ultimate Wedding Planner, as six brave couples agree to let them take control of the biggest day of their lives.
The planners are set to take over the design and guest experience for six real-life weddings. From table scaping, incredible floral centrepieces, hand crafted aisle runners, personalised set menus, and bespoke themed installation builds, to spectacular firework displays, acrobatics, choreographed dance troops or incredible light displays, each week the planners have just three days to make the couples’ wildest dreams a reality, supersizing their wedding day to transform it from ordinary to extraordinary.
With the couples’ ambitious wedding wish lists ranging from a 1950’s vintage Hollywood glamour wedding to a Caribbean infused autumnal fantasyland, a regal regency extravaganza, a sustainable farmyard festival, and a millionaire’s garden party, our eight wedding planner wannabes need to pull out all the stops to hit the couples’ brief, face the Truth Booth, and impress three demanding judges: hospitality expert Fred Sirieix, craft and business guru Sara Davies and wedding planner to the rich and famous, Raj Somaiya.
Will it be wedded bliss or a nuptial nightmare?
With exclusive mentoring from industry expert Raj up for grabs, and an ultimate prize package designed to help one of them launch their own wedding business, let the battle to be named Ultimate Wedding Planner commence!
What were your personal highlights from filming Ultimate Wedding Planner?
It was being a guest to these six wonderful weddings. They were all very different and showed the difference in ideas and how couples want to celebrate their union, and I really like that. Working with two pros like Raj and Sara as judges was great because we had the same vision and we experienced the same things, which allowed us to be a good team of judges. We could really trust and rely on each other when we needed it. Lastly, it was great to be working with all the wedding planners, to help and support them along the way. It was a great opportunity for them to learn from Sara, Raj and myself as experts and to get better at their job. It was also great, at the end, to judge who would be crowned the ultimate wedding planner.
Without spoilers, were there any moments that blew you away?
All of the weddings. At the end of the day, it was seeing the look on the faces of the couples and how happy they were. That blew me away every time.
Were there any mishaps?
From the very first wedding, when the planners said the wedding started at 11am and they were not ready in time. The planners’ sometimes inability to deliver on time could be frustrating.
How much did you have to intervene to help the planners?
There were a few interventions where I had to point out what was going wrong or I had to go behind the scenes and tell them they had forgotten something very important. At the end of the day, we had to remember that it was the wedding of a real-life couple, and we couldn’t disappoint them, so sometimes we did have to intervene. We still judged the planners on their performance and took what they had forgotten into consideration.
What’s your favourite aspect of a wedding?
My favourite aspect is the ceremony. I love the ceremony.
What did you enjoy most about being a judge?
I had to decide, along with the other judges, who was going to be the winner. And I think it’s important to have high standards, to have a clear vision, very very clear values and to make sure that the winner is a true professional who knows their job. Somebody that will represent the profession with pride and that people will look up to, that’s our responsibility. It’s a big responsibility because by choosing the winner we are setting the standard, and we are saying what good looks like.
Sum up Ultimate Wedding Planner in three words.
Fun, competition, tense.
Why should we watch Ultimate Wedding Planner?
It’s a very entertaining show. You can sit there with a cup of tea or a glass of wine and just watch it without worrying about the world. It's an interesting insight into couples who want different weddings and for the planners, whether they are capable to deliver it. There’s a lot to it and you get to understand and know the planners’ characters very well. It does it all, it makes you laugh and it makes you cry. You start to root for the competitors and guess who you think will win.
Do you have any tips for viewers planning their wedding?
Get a good wedding planner!
Ultimate Wedding Planner comes to BBC Two and BBC iPlayer from Tuesday 8 August.
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