EXPERT HELP, WHEN AND WHERE IT’S NEEDED
Expert input without the extra overhead
Guides for Brides is a leading UK trusted resource for couples planning their weddings. The business was founded 30 years ago by CEO Alison Hargreaves, who published a series of regional print guides that matched brides with local venues and suppliers. The business has evolved and expanded into a comprehensive online platform that connects couples with relevant venues and suppliers, and offers a range of advertising solutions across several specialist websites to support our clients' businesses. These core activities are supported by wedding fairs, planning tools and The Wedding Podcast, as well as industry-focused activities such as the UK Wedding Conference event for wedding industry professionals to learn and connect, and the Annual Guides for Brides Customer Service Awards.
To help the Guides for Brides team expand their capability without the overheads of growing their in-house team, Versantus steps in to fill the gaps whenever needed. With a smaller but highly experienced technical team already in place, GfB can rely on us to provide specialist skills that would be difficult and costly to recruit for full-time, like project management, marketing strategy, and front-end development to complement their strong back-end expertise. By taking on the extras, we free up GfB’s team to spend more time strengthening their customer relationships, knowing that the technical side is covered. It’s a setup that scales up and down as needed without the hassle and cost of permanent hires.
As Alison Hargreaves, CEO and founder of Guides for Brides explains:
Maintaining a cutting-edge website is essential for our online advertising business, but building and maintaining an in-house development team is simply not feasible. Versantus provides the expert support of a full-service agency without the overhead
Alison, CEO and founder of Guides for Brides
Our relationship with Guides for Brides is built on consistent collaboration and easy access to the right support when it’s needed. There’s a regular rhythm to it — our development lead meets weekly with GfB’s senior web developer to work through ideas, sense-check technical decisions, and help troubleshoot anything tricky. At the same time, we’re always on hand for ad-hoc input, whether that’s a quick dive into a code issue or jumping in to support a specific project sprint. Matt, our MD, stays closely connected with the GfB leadership team too, feeding into technical roadmaps, helping shape strategic marketing plans, and keeping an eye on what’s coming up next. This gives GfB a flexible, long-term setup that balances day-to-day support with high-level thinking, so that GfB always has the right people involved at the right time.
"Versantus has become an invaluable partner in our online success, ensuring our website remains competitive and delivers the best possible user experience. Their collaboration with our in-house developer allows us to leverage their expertise while maintaining flexibility and control. We highly recommend Versantus to any business that relies on a strong online presence." — Alison, CEO and Founder of Guides for Brides.
Designing for impact and enquiries
One of the core measures of success for the Guides for Brides website is how effectively it drives enquiries from visitors to wedding venues and suppliers. These interactions are key to GfB’s revenue model, helping retain existing customers and attract new ones by demonstrating real value. We worked closely with the team to give the site a visual refresh, updating the design to feel more modern while staying true to their established branding. From there, we focused on the sections of the site that matter most, the bits that directly influence whether someone enquires or drops off. We reorganised the primary navigation into a more structured and user-focused format with clear, intuitive ‘buckets’, enabling people to quickly recognise the section most relevant to them and make confident, informed decisions.
A targeted, thoughtful rethink of the search experience improved how results are filtered and displayed to help people quickly find what they need. We also introduced a prefilled enquiry message to make getting in touch quicker and more inviting, and added smart prompts to effortlessly add on enquiries to other relevant suppliers during the process, encouraging users to make multiple enquiries without extra effort. The goal was simple; make it easier for people to find what they want and reach out. The result, more enquiries per visitor, stronger value for listed venues, and a solid case for enhanced listing packages.
"Although we knew it was necessary, we were cautious about updating our website, as our clients were comfortable with the existing design. Versantus expertly addressed this by proposing a modern redesign that still felt familiar and user-friendly. Their collaborative approach and support throughout the process ensured a seamless transition and ultimately, a website that our clients fully embraced. The result is a website that is not only visually appealing but also highly effective in generating leads." — Alison, CEO and Founder of Guides for Brides.
Putting AI to work behind the scenes
We’ve supported the Guides for Brides team on many focused projects over the years, and more recently, we’ve helped them make the most of AI tools to reduce manual work, sharpen SEO, and move development along faster. One area of focus has been image management, where AI is used to categorise photos, generate relevant alt text, and tag images with contextual details like season and colour palette, all of which improves content quality and accessibility while saving hours of manual input. In addition, we supported the development of a dedicated companion website aimed at wedding business professionals, using AI for rapid prototyping and development to streamline its setup. To address SEO risks linked to outdated free listings, we used an AI agent designed for strategically planning and executing detailed content tasks, helping surface and reduce stale content before it starts to impact search performance.
Using AI in these areas has allowed us to deliver high-impact features far more quickly and affordably than would be possible through traditional methods alone. Just as importantly, it means we can tackle the kinds of labour-intensive jobs (like bulk image tagging or managing listing data at scale) that would otherwise eat into the team’s time or fall by the wayside entirely. The result is a smoother editorial workflow, sharper SEO performance, and more time for the GfB team to focus on work that really needs a human touch.
Future plans
Looking ahead, our collaboration with Guides for Brides continues to evolve, with new projects already underway and more on the horizon. We’ll be joining them again at the upcoming GfB wedding fair to talk all things SEO, helping suppliers make the most of their listings and visibility. Behind the scenes, we’re working with the team to revitalise other key areas of the site, ensuring content remains fresh, relevant, and valuable for both users and search engines. As always, we’ll maintain a strategic, data-led approach to guide decision-making and prioritise changes that deliver real results. And with AI already delivering strong returns, we’re exploring even more ways to use it, making tasks faster, smarter, and more scalable without adding to the team’s workload.
