Wedding Empires: The Podcast for People Building Wedding Businesses

There are a lot of wedding podcasts. Most of them are for couples: dress fittings, seating charts, how to tell your mum she can't invite her tennis club. Lovely, but not much use if you're the person running the business behind the wedding.

Wedding Empires is different. It's a podcast for the people building wedding businesses: planners, stylists, florists, venues, photographers, celebrants and everyone else whose livelihood depends on other people's big days. I co-host it, it's coming back in 2027, and I want to tell you what it's for and why we're bringing it back.

Why the wedding industry needs a business podcast

Wedding professionals are, overwhelmingly, creative people who ended up running small businesses. Very few of us were trained for the second part. You learn how to make a bouquet, plan a timeline or light a marquee. Nobody sits you down and explains cash flow in a seasonal business, how to hire your first assistant, or what to do when your best referral source retires.

Most of that knowledge lives in the heads of people who've been doing it for a while, and it usually gets shared over a drink at the end of an expo. A podcast is a way of making those conversations available to everyone, including the person who's just started and doesn't know anyone yet.

That's the gap Wedding Empires sets out to fill: honest conversations about the business of weddings, not the pretty side.

What we talk about

The conversations cover the things that actually decide whether a wedding business thrives or quietly burns out:

• Money: pricing, packages, cash flow through the off-season, and when to raise your rates.
• Sales: turning enquiries into bookings without feeling like a used-car salesperson.
• Marketing: what's actually working for wedding businesses, from SEO to referrals to social.
• Team: freelancers, first hires, and leading people who are working every weekend.
• Growth and exits: scaling, diversifying, and what it means to buy or sell a business.
• Resilience: burnout, boundaries and staying in love with the work.

If you've read my post on wedding industry leadership, you'll recognise the themes. The podcast is where those ideas get tested against other people's real experience.

The best business advice in weddings has always been shared over a drink after the expo. A podcast just lets everyone pull up a chair.

Why I co-host it

I came to weddings after roughly twenty years producing events and entertainment: Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, The Burlesque Ball, bringing Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School to Sydney, a theatre festival and radio. Radio taught me that a good conversation has a shape. Producing taught me that the audience's time is precious.

Then came Business in Heels, a network for women in business that grew to around 50 branches in nine countries before I sold it at the end of 2014. After that I grew a wedding planning business to a team of 18 planners, and in 2022 I bought The Wedding Academy, a 100% online school that has been teaching since 2004 and has had more than 11,000 students.

So I've sat on most sides of the table: creative, producer, founder, employer, buyer, educator. Co-hosting lets me bring all of that into the room while making space for other people's stories, which are frequently more useful than mine.

Why it's coming back in 2027

Podcasts take real time to do properly, and the last couple of years have been about building: The Wedding Academy, the eight-book Wedding Academy Handbook series, and my coaching work with wedding business owners.

That building is exactly why the show is returning. Writing the handbooks meant documenting how planning, styling, floristry, business and marketing actually work. Coaching means hearing, every week, the problems wedding business owners are really wrestling with. Both have given me a long list of conversations I want to have on air.

When Wedding Empires returns in 2027, expect the same honesty, more practical takeaways, and conversations that leave you with something to do on Monday morning.

What makes a good business conversation on air

Radio taught me that listeners can smell a sales pitch from a mile away. The conversations people actually finish are the ones with a few simple ingredients:

• A real problem. Not "how I became successful", but "here's the thing that nearly broke my business and what I changed".
• Specifics. How you structured your packages, what you said to the couple, what you'd do differently. Vague advice helps nobody.
• Honesty about trade-offs. Every decision in a wedding business costs something: time, money, weekends, relationships. Good conversations name the cost.
• Something to do next. Every episode should leave a listener with one action, even a small one.

Those are the standards we hold ourselves to as hosts, and the standards we look for in guests. It's also why the show isn't just for big studios. A solo celebrant who has worked out how to fill her midweek calendar has a story that thousands of people need to hear.

If you're building something in weddings, whether you're one person with a laptop or a team of twenty, this show is for you. The business side of weddings doesn't get talked about nearly enough, and that's exactly what we want to change.

How to get involved

There are three ways to be part of the next chapter:

1. Listen: keep an eye on the podcast page for the 2027 return.
2. Suggest a topic: tell us what you're struggling with. The best episodes start with a real question.
3. Be a guest: if you've built something in weddings and have a story worth sharing, get in touch through the podcast enquiry form. If you're not sure how to pitch, I've written a guide on pitching yourself as a podcast guest.

And if you can't wait until 2027 for business advice, the handbooks are a good place to start.

Discover Wedding Empires

FAQs

What is the Wedding Empires podcast about?

Wedding Empires is a podcast about the business side of weddings: pricing, sales, marketing, team, growth and resilience. It's made for wedding professionals rather than couples.

Who hosts Wedding Empires?

Jac Bowie co-hosts Wedding Empires. Jac is Owner and CEO of The Wedding Academy, a wedding business coach and author of the eight-book Wedding Academy Handbook series.

When is Wedding Empires coming back?

Wedding Empires returns in 2027. Updates will be posted on the podcast page at jacbowie.com.

How can I be a guest on Wedding Empires?

Send a podcast enquiry through the contact form at jacbowie.com with a short summary of who you are, what you've built and the story or lesson you'd share with wedding business owners.