Entrepreneurial Alumni

Charlotte Wrigley-Clark

Charlotte Wrigley-Clark

Posted 01 June 2016

New York Program

September 2004 Intake


Charlotte Wrigley-Clark, formerly just Wrigley, (New York, September 2004) is a graduate of Manchester Metropolitan University. Charlotte runs her own Luxury Wedding Planning & Event Design company based in London, Beauchamp Events
(http://www.beauchampevents.com/). This follows on from spending over 10 years in marketing & events, and was a "natural progression" for her. Charlotte describes how she has so much fun running events, "that it often doesn't seem like work". Read on to see how she put her plans into action, and also her involvement in the UK Government initiative Creative Britain.

Describe your business and your role within it.
At Beauchamp Events, we plan elegant, stylish, glamorous and fun celebrations. We are passionate about delivering exceptional events. From weddings in London, the UK and beyond to fabulous special occasion celebrations. Every event is unique and we strive to ensure all our celebrations are world-class. My role is to work with our clients to get to know their style, vision and likes and dislikes. From this I plan the wedding or celebration to reflect the client's personality and co-ordinate every element of the event. I also run the company so multi-tasking is my speciality.

How did you get into this line of business?
I always wanted to have my own company so having spent 10+ years working in marketing & events, it was a natural progression for me. I had my first glimpse into running events as part of my internship year on Mountbatten and have continued to build on this over my career. I have had so much fun travelling all over the world running events, it often doesn't seem like work.

How did you go about setting it up and getting established?
To start with I came up with the idea and then put together my business plan. From this I put together my brand plan and once I had these in place, I worked with a design agency to visualize my brand and bring it to life. My business mainly comes from referrals so I did a soft brand launch and have gradually built from there.

What else is in the pipeline?
At the moment, I am concentrating on running and building Beauchamp Events. We are launching a new blog soon so putting together an editorial calendar for this and finding guest bloggers is top of my agenda.

What has been the proudest moment in your working life thus far?
Working on Creative Britain – an initiative to help young people discover and develop their talents in the creative industries. I worked closely with the UK government and a range of high profile businesses in the media sector to organize a series of events aimed at providing opportunity for young people to develop creative talents and provide a more structured pathway into creative careers. The events series helped to open up the world of music, television and fashion and promote the creative industries and the important role they play in shaping how the rest of the world perceives the UK. At the closing event, I was personally thanked by Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport.

What has been your biggest mistake/learning experience?
Setting up my IT systems was definitely a learning curve!

Any words of advice/wisdom would you impart to others thinking of setting up their own business?
I would say go for it. It sounds a bit cheesy but it is always the things you don't do, you regret. Pick something you are passionate about and the rest will follow.