Wedding planning with Jane Dyus Hinch
Weddings without the hitch
Ever since she was a little girl, Jane Dayus-Hinch has been obsessed with weddings.
So it is little surprise that she should become one of the country’s top wedding planners, helping brides-to-be and their grooms to organise their perfect day.
Her love of weddings stemmed from the disappointment of realising that real princesses didn’t wear ballgowns, sashes or diamonds during the day. It was when she was four and was asked to present Princess Margaret with a bouquet when the Queen’s sister visited Rubery Owen – a manufacturing company in the Black Country – that it all began.
Jane’s mother was PA to the managing director and was thrilled that her young daughter had been given the honour.
But things did not go quite as planned.
“We were all waiting for the cortege and I was excited to see the princess,” Jane recalls. “I was desperately looking around the room for the ‘princess’ – but there was just a lady wearing a hat and coat.
“There was no tiara, no ballgown with a sash, no sparkles or diamonds. My mother realised that to a four-year-old this was not the princess I had imagined and she promised me that she would show me one very soon if I would just hand over the flowers.”
Luckily, a wedding took place at the church opposite her home in Wednesbury, West Midlands, soon afterwards and her mother took her to see the bride in all her finery.
“From then on I was captivated. I read books, drew pictures of brides and I wanted to know everything about weddings,” says the wedding etiquette expert.
It wasn’t until 1985 that Jane finally realised her dream career and trained as a wedding planner in the USA. She started her own business two years later after marrying in Lichfield Cathedral, a day shared with 250 guests.
“It was only on the wedding day that I realised that you can be the best wedding planner in the world, but on the day you are the bride and can do nothing else but socialise, relax and enjoy,” she says. “That’s when you need someone to be able to direct, instruct and check.”
Since those early beginnings, Jane, who also trained as a Toastmaster, has planned countless weddings for between 12 and 1,800 guests, including high security celebrity nuptials.
But it was an interview on breakfast television that saw Jane’s fortunes rapidly change. She was talent-spotted for a television show pilot called Wedding SOS and was then asked to film 13 episodes in New York and Toronto with couples whose wedding plans were in serious trouble.
“I had no idea what I was taking on,” she admits, “but it was a huge challenge and it was doing what I love most, so I went.”
Jane spent six months in Canada, which meant leaving behind her family behind.
Six years on, a further four series have been aired and Jane’s reputation continues to grow at home and in Canada, so much so that she was a commentator for Canadian TV company Global at the royal wedding of William and Kate.
Despite her growing profile abroad, her wedding planning business in the UK continues to thrive and Jane also runs workshops regularly so that brides-to-be can plan their wedding.
“The bride has probably never organised anything on this scale before, and it is such an expensive day, it has to be right – and you only get one opportunity to make it all come together,” says Jane, whose hobby is riding her Heritage Softail Classic Harley Davidson. (“Never judge a book by its cover,” she giggles.)
She has also developed an app – The Number 1 Wedding Planning app – and has designed a wedding wall planner that can be bought from her website.
If you would like more details about Jane Dayus-Hinch wedding planning, visit www.janedayus-hinch.com or email her at janedh@hotmail.co.uk



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