The 2012 Wedding Industry Awards – A Hazy Recollection of Events……
This is very strange. In fact, this whole thing is very, very strange. I don’t really know what to say and to be quite honest I’m only penning this summary of the last 48 hrs events because I am a little tipsy and feel that my creative literary juices may be able to flow just ever so more freely as a result.
Basically, I have just won quite a big award for what I do (filming weddings), and have been recognised by a panel of industry experts as the best in my particular field in the whole entire land (well England at least). Over 2200 suppliers entered the awards and through each stage of the voting – from regional shortlist, regional winner and now national champion, I have remained victorious and here I stand with a most splendid trophy and a slightly embarrassed (although mega chuffed inside) look on my face.
In truth I can’t quite believe what has just happened, however, on my mantle piece, alongside an empty bottle of red wine, there is a nice award with my name on it. When I was presented with said award yesterday evening, my instinctive reaction was to shout out on stage “you have the wrong man – leave me alone” . I didn’t. I skulked onto the stage like a small child with a silly look on my face, kissed the nice lady from Sky News and have since spent the last day wondering what the hell has just happened.
Back in August 2011 when I managed to persuade a few of my amazing couples to vote for me, I was so sure that I would never be considered for such an honour that I did a rather silly thing. I told my wife that the winners would receive a prize of £10,000. Why? I haven’t got a clue! The idea of winning this thing was so far fetched that I thought I could afford to elaborate just slightly on the proceedings. As I won each stage, I talked down this mega non-existent prize, until eventually I came clean and admitted to my beloved that I had exaggerated the prize. I need not talk anymore about this slight twist of the truth.
Last night was all a bit of a blur. It was a complete epic event, full of gorgeous people at the uber-trendy Cafe de Paris in London’s West End, however, as a northerner I experienced two things that I didn’t expect. One was paying £5 for a miniature bottle of lager and secondly – a man employed to wash my hands for me in the toilet. WTF!!! (I must add here that before the bar started charging – we received plentiful amounts amounts of free alcohol courtesy of the fab organisers)
As the awards began I felt a feeling of dread in my stomach. As each category was announced, the nominees received a rapturous cheer from their supporters. Immediately I thought to myself – Who would cheer for me when my nomination was announced? I was stood alone with the missus and, as yet, we hadn’t yet managed to mingle with anyone. The thoughts of complete silence after my name was announced made me feel even more nauseous. I could either attempt to form a small group of fans around me by completing some super-fast networking, or I could leave the whooping up to my beloved. I opted for the latter. Eventually the ‘Best Wedding Videographer’ category came around and, to be fair, none of us received a decent cheer when our names were announced. I was quite relieved about this and absolutely ecstatic that my wife let out one solitary ‘whoop’ to the hundreds of onlookers.
From then on things really did go slightly hazy. Here’s my recollection of events………..
Nice Sky News Lady: “…tonight’s winner introduces new ideas and fresh concepts to their clients…….
Me: “Oh F***k, Lesley, I wrote that. Those words are on my web site…. I feel sick”
Nice Sky News Lady: “ He creates exciting wedding films for clients who don’t want traditional wedding videos….”
Me: “Oh F***k, it’s actually me, that’s it, I’m going to be sick!!!
Nice Sky News Lady: “Ladies and Gentleman…, tonight’s winner…….Philip White
By this point the pain in my chest was unbearable and my only thought was to get on and off the stage as quickly as possible before dying. According to reliable sources, all colour had drained from my face and I had a confused look about me. With hindsight, I would have loved to have high-fived the lovely Damian from the awards panel and maybe held my trophy aloft like the FA Cup. Maybe even throwing a few ‘Rock Hands’ in, or even holding my hand to my ear in the style of Hulk Hogan. This didn’t happen. I nervously shook hands with everyone and then couldn’t work out quickly enough whether you’re supposed to make actual mouth to face contact with someone when kissing them on the cheek to offer congratulations. I’ve just found out that according to Google, a simple false gesture of a kiss is sufficient, however I, on the spare of the moment, somewhat stupidly decided that I should lunge at Sky News’ Royal Correspondent with my lips puckered up and ready to go. I can then vaguely remember a photographer jumping in front of me followed by my inability to do something sensible with me face.
Following the stage incident, I decided that the best plan would be to hide for a while and get some colour back to my face. However, I was immediately invited by a kind lady to join her for champagne and press interviews. I am not the type of person to blow my own trumpet and to be honest I was dreading standing in front of a camera. I appreciate this is rather ironic considering I spend my days waving cameras in front of people’s faces, however if I could, at that moment found a cupboard to hide in, I would have willingly jumped in to it. With no cupboard and the media queue getting ever shorter, I decided to embrace the moment. I would no longer be nervous, or shy. I would become a TV God and would answer every question for the cameras with confidence and swagger. I quickly downed three glasses of champagne and found myself with a microphone in my face and a rather large lens peering at me. I have no real recollection of what was asked over the next few minutes apart from thinking to myself – Why am I speaking in this new silly voice? After watching about 20 seconds of mobile footage that my wife Lesley had filmed I also realised that I had also lost any control over my right arm, which for some reason was flailing around rather strangely with every question I answered. Although, initial plans were to paint the town red, the moment got the better of me and the night ended sat in our hotel with a Big Mac and strawberry milkshake.
All silliness aside, the 2012 Wedding Industry Awards were immense and I cannot congratulate Damian Bailey and his team for the the fantastic, uber-professional shindig that they put together. The awards in my opinion aren’t just about recognising the fantastic talent that’s out there in our industry, but more so It’s a game raiser. Everyone including myself, no matter what stage they reached in the awards must now be thinking – How can improve my product or service for next year? Personally, I feel so overwhelmed by winning. There are a million sensible business things that I know I now need to do to utilise my success however I think it’ll probably take a week or so before I can think straight about anything. I’m not really the type of person to shout about things from the roof tops and In truth I really just want to get back to work and produce some cool new films for my 2012 clients.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who helped me to achieve this. You are truly AWESOME
x
