Family affair – mother and daughter set up second family business

What’s better than a family run business? How about two family run businesses! That’s what mother and daughter Julie Duffy and Natalie Davies, have achieved. Since 2018 they’ve been customers at Churchill Square Business Centre in Kings Hill as part of the successful DBS Contracts, which carries out office strip outs ahead of refurbishment. But since 2019 they’ve completely diversified to run Rose & Grace Ceremonies, offering their services as wedding celebrants to modern couples in Kent who want to create a truly personal and unforgettable experience. We caught up with Natalie between her two businesses to find out how they’ve found time to develop a second, successful family run business.

How did Rose and Grace Ceremonies come about?

My mum became a wedding celebrant in about 2016, and it was inspiring to see what she was doing. She had said to me a few times, ‘I think you would really enjoy this’ – especially because I’d always been into weddings. Then my sister got married in France and asked if both my mum and I would write and deliver her wedding ceremony, which we did. And that was it – I realised I did love it.

So I trained with the online Academy of Modern Celebrancy, which went into the whole business of writing and delivering ceremonies with lots of practical assessments, for example I had to write a ceremony and deliver it over a video call to my assessor. But it also taught you about running your own business as a celebrant, for example how to market yourself.

Mum and I are both independent wedding celebrants, but we came together to form Rose and Grace so that we could market ourselves together, for example using the same website and the same social media platforms. We chose Rose and Grace Ceremonies because Rose and Grace are my daughter’s middle names.

What is your role as a wedding celebrant?

The beauty of being an independent celebrant is that you can write every ceremony from scratch. It can be completely bespoke and tailored to the couple. We can include readings, prayers that they like, any traditions that are important to them or their families that they would like to incorporate.

Unlike a registrar who doesn’t meet the couple until their big day, we get to know the couple and learn their journey from when they met through to becoming engaged to be married. We have a structured questionnaire for them to fill out in their own time before we meet face to face to plan their ceremony from start to finish, including the music, who would they like to be involved and just what kind of feel would they like their ceremony to have? Would they like it to be quite light hearted and humorous or romantic? Do they want their guests to cry or laugh? And then we write a ceremony that is personal and reflects their personalities and who they are as a couple.

How did you get your business off the ground?

Styled wedding shoots really helped me in the beginning. They’re quite a big thing in the industry to promote services such as a venue, photographer, florist. I probably did 10 to 15 different styled wedding shoots in my first couple of years. They were also a great networking opportunity – I got to know a lot of people in the industry very quickly.

We promoted ourselves through our website, social media and in the celebrant directory. Word of mouth took off quite quickly – having a celebrant led wedding has become increasingly popular since COVID. I had a whole host of weddings booked for 2020, which were nearly all postponed until 2021. But it meant that the business just took off really quickly and we’ve been busy ever since.

What do you like most about being a wedding celebrant?

I love the fact that every couple has their own story to tell, so it’s almost like reading a new book each time you meet a couple and then retelling it in your own words. And it’s just a lovely, positive job to do because you are helping a couple with the happiest day of their lives – it’s just joyful.

My favourite moment is probably that initial feedback from the couple when they’ve read the first draft of their ceremony. It can be a bit nerve wracking, but because I pour my heart and soul into every ceremony that I write, I’m usually quite confident that there’ll be a good response. What my couples usually say is that they’re surprised at how well I’ve understood them and the spirit of their relationship.

And I also love being there on the day.

What are the more unusual requests that you get from couples?

There was one where an owl delivered the rings. It went brilliantly, but I was glad that it was the groom who had the glove on – the owl flew straight down and landed on him.

But sometimes it’s more a matter of rethinking traditions so that they work for the couple. The thought of walking down the aisle and having all eyes on her was ruining the whole anticipation of the wedding for one bride, but she didn’t want to take that moment away from her father. So we changed it so that she greeted all her guests with her fiancé – which is something the bride normally misses out on – and then she walked down the aisle with her father. But it wasn’t the big reveal that she had been dreading as everyone had already seen her – and the dress – so that took the pressure off.

How do you combine your work as a wedding celebrant with working for the other family business?

DBS Contracts was set up by my dad about 35 years ago. We now have my husband, my sister, my brother, my mum, my husband and myself all working in the business. I think it works because our family dynamic is really easy going.

Often my dad, my brother and my husband, who run the projects, are visiting sites in London. My mum only works in the office on a Thursday and Friday and my sister and I do three to four days each a week. I’m in the office Monday to Thursdays as the HR and sustainability director.

I’ve probably done nearly 100 weddings since 2021, which considering it’s meant to be my very part-time job is a lot. But being a celebrant is quite flexible; if you’re lucky enough like I am to have another job, then being a celebrant is something that you can then build around, you can work it around your other job, around your family.

You’ve been at Churchill Business Centre since 2018, what has your experience been?

Churchill Square has been the perfect business location for us. We are in building 80 so we benefit from having the wonderful team at reception who are always ready to help when needed and we were able to move to a larger office in August 2022 within the same building to accommodate the growing size of our own team.

A feature of the square that we find particularly useful is the availability of meeting rooms to hire, not only for larger DBS meetings but also as a private space when Mum or I need to conduct a ceremony consultation over video call. Furthermore, the largest of the meeting rooms is used every Thursday lunchtime for Pilates, taught by Claire Stone, which Mum and I conveniently pop downstairs to take part in each week!

Finally, I have to say that, since my sister, who also works for DBS, and I both have children at school in Kings Hill, the location of Churchill Square makes school drop-offs and pick-ups a lot easier to manage!

What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs launching their own business?

You’ve got to be organised, motivated and have a plan. As a business owner, you’re wearing all the hats and unless you get to a stage in your business where you can afford to employ other people to take on certain responsibilities, it’s all down to you. So you’ve got to schedule in the other activities like the social media content and the networking, as well as doing the actual job itself.