Meet the Wedding Ideas team
Rachel Southwood - Founder, Publisher
Quite simply, Rachel is the glue that keeps us all together: we just don’t work without her. The inspiration behind Wedding Ideas and there at its inception, our Mummy Giraffe keeps a watchful eye over all her herd. And like any protective mother, she feeds us up with a delicious supply of deadline treats; administers little pearls of wisdom; is ever-ready with a hug, and occasionally, puts us to bed when we’ve had too much to drink.
She has the true knack and wonderful gift of putting everyone she meets at their ease, and her day-to-day schedule reads like a distinguished list of the ‘Who’s Who’ in the world of weddings.
She finds the time to write some cracking destination features, and keeps the magazine on a course set for dizzying heights and stardom. And my Lord, can that woman apply false eyelashes! Rachel is the face of Wedding Ideas.
Rachel Morgan - Editor
Married herself in 2009, Rachel is Wedding Ideas' head honcho. The magazine's chief engineer, Rachel dictates and directs the magazine's content, commissions the features, manages the editorial team, liaises between each department, represents the magazines at events and meetings all over the UK and is heavily involved with every decision that we make as a magazine and as a company. She is on the committee of the BIS and is always being asked for comment and opinion from the world's press. Not always about weddings, either.
As calm as the Caribbean Sea, Rach is the best contact for fashion and features. Along with James, she has an unhealthy interest in cheese.
Jade Pearson - Deputy Editor
Don’t be fooled by her 'butter wouldn't melt' exterior. We're fast learning that for our Cameron Diaz lookalike, it's merely a façade…
Jade was BORN to work at Wedding Ideas. And not just because she looks like an angel and can tell dirty jokes like a little demon, but because she gets Wedding Ideas. With a sound background in creative writing, a passion for new ideas and a natural artistic flair, Jade makes life easier for both the editorial and art team, and, of course, editor Rachel. Known for her (very) strong opinions, you would want Jade on your side in a pub brawl, take it from us.
With her very itchy feet, Jade loves a good press trip but is your main contact for product-led pages, anything to do with fashion (especially bridesmaids) and features in general.
Sophie Grabham - Details Editor
Sophie will be sitting in Sandra's chair while she's on maternity leave, and while she's there we've asked her to do all of what Sandra did. Aren't we mean?
Raven-haired smiley Sophie hot footed it to the herd from Cardiff Uni with an English Language and Communication degree under her arm - very handy. She loves shopping (this alone would have got her the job) and is a self-confessed geek when it comes to presentation and organisation. If you want to be featured in the UK's best Wedding Ideas, it's Sophie that you'll need to be nice to. It's not difficult, she's really very lovely.
Sandra Dodson - Editorial Assistant
Sandra is an old (well, young) faithful, who knows Wedding Ideas magazine inside out and back to front. She's the first port of call for any question that anyone has about anything (wedding related or not), which makes her the perfect editorial assistant. She's also front of house for PRs, product and image call-ins, and she deftly organises our awards and shows, earning her the ultimate accolade of 'control freak'.
Sandra really could organise a booze-up in a brewery, and she'd be the last one on the dance floor at the end of the night. Guaranteed.
Alice Rimes - Features Writer
Cute, quirky and fun, Alice joined the herd to make our readers' dreams come true. You might think it's a trifle unfair of us to put that responsibility on her (young) shoulders, but in her role as Features Writer, she gets to call brides up, write about their big days, chat to photographers and compile the 40+ pages of weddings that we regularly feature. All day long.
When she's not thinking about weddings, she likes cycling, vintage clothes, twitter (@AliceisCool), baking cakes (lucky us) and Johnny Depp. Although she probably thinks about weddings during the baking and cycling too.
Andy Allen - Art Director
Longest-serving Giraffe Andy is the most popular team member, mostly because of his unique take on life and his wicked sense of humour.
With a design background, Andy came to us via DJing - quite a local superstar he was too. Since hanging up his headphones and demolishing his decks, he now heads up the design side of the magazine, concentrating on the front cover, directing our photoshoots and all of our marketing material. In his spare time he designs the features with Colin and Ben. At his absolute best at the National Wedding Shows, where he really comes into his own. Northern monkey.
Colin Avis - Senior Designer
Colin's love of heavy metal, tattoos and, erm, Spain keeps us amused through deadline after deadline. With the unenviable task of managing the advertising team, their clients and their clients' copy, Colin copes amazingly well under pressure.
Responsible for designing and setting 100s of adverts every issue as well as his fair share of the features, we tip our hats to the superior skills of Mr Avis, without whom we simply couldn't cope. Talk to him if you've got any kind of copy or ad design query.
Ben Melville - Designer
We've known Ben a very long time. So long, he's grown a beard. David Baddiel lookalike, professional printer assassin, Ben is a gentle and fun guy (not to be confused with fungi) who has so many ideas we can't keep up.
Tasked with designing the magazine alongside Andy and Colin, Ben also turns his hand to web content one week out of four. Don't ask us which week, that's what ical is for. So lovely he sometimes makes us cry, Ben professes to have the show bug. This scares us…
Pippa Ward - Advertising Sales Manager
Pippa heads up the commercial arm of Wedding Ideas, tirelessly tracking down clients for their friendship and money. In that order.
Concentrating mostly on the fashion section of the magazine, Pippa has been responsible for an incredible growth in sales and clients in her time at the top of the team. She also dabbles in TV presenting, and looks more than a little bit like Cat Deeley. Apparently.
Sitting on the senior management team with Rachel and Judes, Pippa is also a key business decision maker. Sugary sweet and ever-popular, Pippa also answers to the name 'Baby Doll'. She'll deny it, but we've seen her.
Martha Wall - Senior Sales Executive, Display
Martha is Pippa's right hand woman. Toned and often tanned, Martha loves the gym and girly chats and develops brilliant relationships with her many clients - mostly display advertisers (they're the ones with the big ads running throughout the magazine).
Smiley, tactile and feline-esque in looks, Martha's your contact if you would like to advertise in Wedding Ideas with something more than a classified advert. Or if you'd like to chat about cheesy Chinese crackers - the ones in the flat box from County Stores. Yes, really.
Lucinda Watkins - Advertising Sales Executive, Classified
Lu is our baby Giraffe. Working solely on the classified section of the magazine, with clients too numerous to mention here, Lucinda is everyone's mate, especially if they have a bottle of chilled rosé in their hand. You'll find her on twitter @Lucinda_WIMAG. Lucinda has (what she would call) a healthy obsession with Michael Bublé and speeds around in a little black car that makes her look even younger than her tender years. You'll spot her by the pink fluffy dice hanging from her rear-view mirror.
Fun-loving and fearless and a real sweetie, Lucinda loves hair and make-up, false lashes and fashion. Can't think why she ever wanted to work on a wedding magazine...
Linda Weller - Advertising Sales Executive, Bridal Retail
Linda is responsible for looking after our bridal retail section of the magazine. Coming to us with an intimate knowledge of online advertising, two kids and some pets, Linda is the one who reminds us how lucky we are to work at the UK's best Wedding Ideas. Like we need reminding.
We tell her that she got the job because she 'loves selling' (that's what she said at her interview) but actually we employed her because she's simply one of the nicest people you could care to meet. FACT
Judith Kassapian - Financial Manager
(Better known as Judes), is our fierce but fair financial manager who has the prickly job of paying us as well as collecting the money from everyone in order to do that. When not doing payroll or credit control, Judes is busy liaising with key suppliers, including our distributors, doing print orders, looking after our auditing, management accounts and working with our accountant to get the figures looking good and more importantly accurate. It's a tricky job, but she's brilliant and one of the most popular members of the team. And not just cos she pays us, either!
James Payne - Online Manager
What can we say about Mr Payne? Webmaster, internet guru, design god... James manages and maintains everything that leaves Giraffe HQ with a .com on it.
Responsible for most of the IT (because he's the only one who can, poor chap), purchasing of all of our computers and maintaining our servers and systems, James always puts a brave face on it, even when dealing with the worst kind of incompetents. Namely the rest of us. James is your man for everything related to weddingideasmag.com as well as our enewsletters. Oh, and he knows quite a lot about cricket, guitars and fishing, too.
Richard Presley - Online Content Co-ordinator
R-Pres (we gave him that name, still not sure he likes it) comes to us from Swansea via some software company - he told us what he did there and we could hear words but they made no sense to us. He has an ICT qualification under his belt, loves Jiu-Jitsu and used to have seven hamsters. And for these reasons alone, he's the perfect person to work with Rachel and James developing the content of our website.
Want to know more? He's our tallest giraffe (and that's no mean feat, we can tell you), cooks a mean Sunday roast. His star sign is Cancer.
Charlotte Peters - Public Relations Manager
Like a mother/sister/aunt rolled into one, Charlotte's remit is to get the brand that IS Wedding Ideas out there. Far out. Rather than us telling her what to do, she tells us what we should be doing, then does it.
Bringing a plethora of ideas and enthusiasm to the table, Charlotte is the one with the claims to fame. If you meet her, ask her. We're talking top-half-of-the-alphabet list. Marketing is her speciality. With a capital M.