Inspired by how elite sports clubs scout talent, we use data-driven verification to showcase up to just 16 exceptional, budget-friendly, local wedding professionals per category per county, with twice a year updates.

The Wedding Shortlist helps engaged couples make more confident, informed choices when selecting wedding professionals —  reducing wedding planning stress, saving time and staying on budget. Plus, every couple who registers is entered into our £500 quarterly prize draw for three years.

Free listings for the top eight wedding professionals per category per county and just £90 for six months for the next eight. No paid prioritisation and all listings are shuffled every page load for equal visibility.

Reviews rarely tell the full story and paid prominence can be misleading. With over 40% of reviews on major platforms estimated to be fake or incentivized – and most people unsure how to spot them – it’s harder than ever to know who’s truly delivering exceptional service.

Plus on most directories the businesses you see at the top haven’t earned their high ranking through quality or value – they’ve simply paid more to appear there. That means many of the most experienced and exceptional wedding professionals are randomly placed, and are harder to identify, further down all too often overwhelmingly long lists.

As an absolute minimum our verified wedding professionals must have at least three years’ full-time wedding experience and either be a preferred venue supplier and/or have 25+ five-star Google reviews and/or have been a wedding award finalist in the UK in the past 5 years.

In addition we carefully assess wedding professionals against further quality benchmarks – including but not limited to – social media engagement, portfolio strength and price alignment with industry averages. A 75%+ overall score is required to be offered a coveted place on The Wedding Shortlist.