The Wedding Social Co

Where creativity, work ethic, and ambition come to collaborate. Designed for wedding vendors to get it done, and have a damn good time doing it.

Newcastle’s newest and hottest co-working building is here and is completely dedicated to wedding vendors. That’s right, a dedicated, collaborative co-working space for photographers, videographers, DJs, musicians, hair & make-up artists, and anyone else offering wedding services.

Officially opening in August this year, The Wedding Social Co is the baby of the three local creatives; Sam & Bonnie from Silent Shout Entertainment and Kayla from The Roaming Eagle & Boozy Suzie Caravan Bars.

Sam and Kayla had met whilst working out of The Wedding Collective, a co-working space in Carrington. When it had decided to close its doors, the pair saw an opportunity to create their own unique space that encouraged wedding vendors in all forms to come together and create a one-of-a-kind co-working community.

“Kayla and I were working out of the Wedding Collective and that was coming to an end and we had an opportunity to create a new co-working space. It almost was that at the Wedding Collective, as it was a collaborative space, but it wasn’t a full-time work environment for everyone involved and we really wanted to create that. To get people away from home and by themselves and into a positive environment,” Sam said.

Bonnie, Sam’s partner and social media guru for Silent Shout Entertainment shares how she saw the impact working at home was having on Sam’s day-to-day life.

“I’ve not had much exposure to the wedding industry, but for me, the motivation was seeing how Sam balanced work and personal life. No one has any real idea how much time these guys spend on their work. We were here in the space yesterday, and Kayla had a few meetings with couples, and they went on for hours,” Bonnie explained.

“Some people think we just rock up on the day, do ten hours work get paid thousands of dollars, go home and don’t do any more work. Really, our average workweek can be upwards of 80 hours,” Kayla said.

For those working in the wedding industry, and even freelance creatives in general, working from home tends to be the go-to which isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Sometimes it can be incredibly lonely and demotivating, which can often have an effect on your work. By working in a space where creatives can collaborate in a community space it can really help with looking after your mental health.

Once the decision was made to go ahead with creating The Wedding Social Co, they found a space and spent a long six weeks of renovating to bring the building to life. Decking it out with a private meeting room, private offices, hot desks, even a pool table for vendors to take some time to chill out and finishing it off by styling it up to add a lil extra fun to the space.

The new hub based in Mayfield encourages like-minded vendors looking for a place to getting work done, feel comfortable and be inspired. With having a dedicated space, you could really be motivated and ultimately boost your overall productivity.

“As soon as people come in here to check it out, they see the value in it. Even if one person just spends one day here, they say they just get so much work done. It’s also such a good feeling to finish the day, go home and not take it home with you,” Sam said.

The three founders of the Wedding Social Co are excited about the future of the Wedding Social Co and have big plans for the space to be utilised by the wedding community for events as well as weekly table talks for vendors to catch-up and talk all things weddings biz.

“We’re keen to utilise this space for events. We’ve told everyone that if they have an idea, then let’s do something; that’s what the space is for. Again, it’s that community that we’re trying to create. It’s not just our space, it’s all of our offices. If someone wants to do something, then they absolutely can,” Sam said.

Alongside Silent Shout Entertainment and Roaming Eagle & Boozy Suzie Caravan Bars, there are currently ten other vendors:

• Little Black Bow Photography
• Barefoot & Bearded
• HTM Creative Designs
• James White Photography
• Morelife Films
• Creative Booth
• Benedict Sutton Photography

Interested? The Wedding Social Co might be able to tempt you a lil more…

“Imagine booking your client meetings in the space, they walk in and the first thing they see is a bunch of Newcastle's coolest wedding vendors working away, you've earnt instant street cred! Greet your couple and take them through the double barn doors to the back space where you might find one of us taking a break, playing pool (yes, there's really a pool table). Make your clients a coffee with the espresso machine and head into the private meeting room where you can impress them even more with your good looks and undeniable charm, maybe even have a cheese board.”

With so many different vendors under the one roof, it’s been really helpful for them to pass potential work around and even learning new and different ways to create a better work/life balance.

“I’ve actually learnt a lot from looking at how some of the other guys work, and I’ve been able to save a lot of time out of my day. Just having other people to talk to about this kind of stuff has been really useful,” Sam said.