A conversation with Sophie Callahan, Wedding Co-ordinator, and James Devereux, Sales Manager
The Harlow Grand is a 4-star country house hotel with a dedicated events wing and a wedding programme that, until recently, was running on a patchwork of spreadsheets, email chains, and printed brochures. We sat down with Sophie Callahan, their wedding co-ordinator, and James Devereux, their sales manager, to find out what changed when they found a better way to manage both sides of the wedding journey.
Two problems, one solution
The Harlow Grand’s challenge wasn’t just one thing — it was two distinct problems that happened to share the same root cause: no single place where all the important information lived.
Before booking — the sales process
Enquiries were managed across email threads, phone calls, and manually updated PDFs. Couples would go quiet after viewings. Details discussed in person would need to be repeated weeks later. Printed brochures became outdated the moment prices or packages changed.
After booking — the planning process
Once a couple signed, their information was scattered across notes, emails, and separate documents. Quotes, menu choices, timelines, and special requests all lived in different places — creating risk of things being missed as the wedding day approached.
James sums it up: “We were brilliant at the personal touch — the show-rounds, the tasting evenings, the relationship with the couple. But behind the scenes, we were managing everything manually. It worked, mostly. But it wasn’t scalable, and it left room for things to slip.”
Winning more bookings
The first shift James noticed was in how couples engaged during the sales process. With a professional, always-current digital presentation — rather than PDFs and printed brochures — couples could explore packages, see what was included, and compare options at their own pace.
“Couples were arriving at follow-up calls already informed. Instead of going back over the basics, we were talking about upgrades and personal touches. That changes the whole dynamic of the conversation.”
— James Devereux, Sales Manager
↑ 34% Increase in booking conversion rate
↑ 18% Average booking value vs prior year
€ 7k+ Saved annually on printed brochures and materials
The result was a meaningful improvement in both how many enquiries converted to bookings and what those bookings were worth. When couples could clearly see and compare what each package included, upselling felt natural — they were choosing, not being sold to.
The brochure cost nobody wanted to look at
One of the more surprising outcomes was what happened to the print budget. The Harlow Grand had been producing seasonal brochures, printed package guides, and menu cards for show-rounds and wedding fairs — a cost that had always been accepted without much scrutiny.
“When we added it up properly — design, print runs, reprints every time something changed, postage — it was significant,” James says. “And the frustrating part was that half of it was out of date before it left the door.”
With a digital presentation that updates instantly across every active enquiry, that problem disappears entirely. Sophie adds: “We used to have couples turning up to their second viewing with the wrong pricing because they’d kept hold of an old brochure. That just doesn’t happen anymore.”
Keeping every wedding on track after the booking
Where Sophie has felt the biggest difference is in what happens once a couple says yes. Previously, all the detail that made each wedding unique — the specific quote agreed, the menu selections, the room layout preferences, the timeline — had to be tracked manually.
“Every couple’s wedding is different, and there’s so much detail involved. Having it all stored in one place — their quote, their choices, their notes — means nothing gets missed. I’m not digging through emails the week before to check what they asked for six months ago.”
— Sophie Callahan, Wedding Co-ordinator
The platform acts as a living record for each wedding: from the initial quote through to the final confirmed details. As changes are made — a menu swap, a timing adjustment, an added extra — everything is updated in one place, visible to both the team and the couple.
“It gives couples confidence,” Sophie says. “They can see their wedding taking shape. It’s not just sitting in our inbox somewhere — it’s all there, organised, ready.”
What they’d tell other venues
For James, the message is straightforward: the couple’s experience of a venue starts the moment they enquire, not the moment they walk through the door. “If the sales process is disorganised or slow, you lose people before they’ve even seen the room. And if the planning process after booking is stressful, that affects how the whole day feels — even if the day itself goes perfectly.”
Sophie agrees. “Couples are trusting you with one of the most important days of their lives. They need to feel like you’ve got it handled. This gives them that confidence — and honestly, it gives me that confidence too.”
