Nikita Thorne

About Nikita

Nikita is the Head of Strategy at Guides for Brides. She has worked in the wedding industry for over 4 years now, joining Guides for Brides at the start of 2020. Nikita is a wedding industry expert having been heavily involved in the work of the UK Weddings Taskforce alongside Guides for Brides director, Alison Hargreaves, during the pandemic. She often jokes that she knew she was becoming a bit of a "wedding nerd" when she started to recognise wedding venues in news articles or TV shows such as Bridgerton from obscure things such as the floor tiles!

She has been billed as an expert speaker at events such as The National Wedding Show, The Hotel Marketing Conference, The MIA's Wedding Conference and RSVP's Symposium (formally Bridelux). She has also been invited by Oxford Brookes University to guest lecture to students in their Event Management programme about the wedding sector. On top of that, Nikita has been quoted in Hello! Magazine and Yahoo! Life as well as her research projects featured in publications like the Mail Online.

Nikita is a well-known face for brides and grooms in the UK. Not only is she a regular face on the Guides for Brides TikTok, but she also regularly attends and speaks at industry exhibitions about budgeting for your wedding day, as well as being the host of Guides for Brides - The Wedding Podcast since its inception in 2021.

Nikita's Experience as a Bride

In October 2023, Nikita and her husband tied the knot at a lovely Cotswolds boutique hotel venue and pub. Nikita spent 15 months planning her wedding using resources like Guides for Brides and drew on her extensive wedding industry knowledge to plan it to perfection. Of course, the big day was wonderful!

Now, as a newlywed, Nikita is using her first-hand wedding planning experience to improve the Guides for Brides website, write useful content for wedding couples and help them to navigate the wedding planning journey. She knows all the ups and downs of wedding planning, from the stress to the excitement and all of the logistical challenges that can arise from pulling together a once in a lifetime day.

For wedding venues and those running their own wedding businesses, she offers a fresh perspective to help advise them from the consumer perspective. This in turn helps them to improve their sales and marketing efforts, reaching the right clients for them and increasing sales of their wedding services.

Nikita's Experience and Role at Guides for Brides

Nikita joined Guides for Brides as the Marketing Executive in 2020. Despite this being an incredibly challenging year for the wedding sector, Nikita used this year to develop her industry knowledge and in particular her understanding of UK wedding laws as well as her understanding of what is required for the different cultural and religious weddings that take place across the UK. She also worked closely with Alison to regularly deliver live updates that demystified the rules for couples and businesses after each new covid announcement. Her role in this task was to manage the community engagement, plan the update content and rigorously fact check to ensure what we told couples and businesses during this time was as accurate as possible. In 2021 she was promoted to Marketing Manager. She is creatively and commercially driven, and over this year she developed her team to use a data-driven approach to come up with new ideas for couples and support wedding businesses.

In 2022, she was promoted to Head of Strategy and now works even more closely with our Director to ensure that Guides for Brides is consistently moving forward to support our wedding couples as well as the venues and suppliers that we represent.

Education and Background

Nikita graduated from the University of Reading with a first class degree in BA (Hons) English Literature and Film & Theatre in 2018. Following her graduation, Nikita interned in a marketing agency and discovered her love for working with small and medium sized businesses. She even had a client that created wedding stationery for which she used to research and write blogs as well as schedule social media posts.

After 6 months of interning, she jetted off on a working holiday to explore Australia and New Zealand, stopping in Dubai, Cape Town and Los Angeles on the way. She spent 6 months in Australia, 3 of which were spent in Brisbane working as the Content Producer at a Recruitment Marketing and SaaS development company. Upon her return in December 2019, she immediately looked for a new role to start in 2020. She jumped at the opportunity to join Guides for Brides and learn more about the Wedding Industry.

Get to know Nikita

What is your favourite wedding trend at the moment?

I LOVE the "pearlcore" trend. Pearls are totally timeless and traditional for brides to wear on their wedding day and I am so pleased that they are in style while I am planning my wedding. I also adore the wedding newspaper trend right now and picked this as one of the elements for my wedding.

Where would your dream Honeymoon location be?

This may be a bit controversial, but my partner and I actually love the idea of a winter honeymoon and that is exactly why we've chosen to head to Finland a few months after our wedding. Think Northern Lights, warm open fires, hot chocolate and plenty of snow - just perfect!

What is your perfect wedding venue style?

I always thought I'd end up choosing a country house wedding venue for my wedding day. I have always been attracted to the countryside and love the idea of wedding photos in a manicured garden or a ceremony in an old chapel on the grounds. When we booked our wedding venue, my husband and I surprised ourselves. We actually went in a totally different direction. We chose a boutique hotel and pub wedding venue in The Cotswolds. We fell in love with the exposed honey-coloured stone and the intimate feel - perfect for an Autumn wedding.

What is your favourite thing to write about for Guides for Brides?

I love writing the Real Weddings. Being able to talk about a couple's real story and showcase the amazing work of their wedding suppliers is my idea of heaven!

How to contact Nikita

You can get in touch with Nikita via email at nikita@guidesforbrides.co.uk or connect with her on LinkedIn.