The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Council have purchased Stopford’s Ceremony Planner. The planner, released in January 2017, helps to reduce pressures on registrars whilst allowing couples to plan their wedding in the comfort of their own home.
The Borough, located in West London, has an estimated population of nearly 180,000 people and the council’s register office can be found in Hammersmith’s Town Hall. The online Ceremony Planner will help the council’s registration service to effectively and efficiently manage upcoming wedding ceremonies remotely. It allows celebrants to plan every aspect of their big day and ask questions of registrars without having to call the office or contact centre.
Using the online planner, couples can submit vows, readings, personal promises and music for approval from a registrar, working chronologically through a visual colour-coded list of ceremony choices. Their preparation progress is monitored through a percentage bar displayed on the ceremony dashboard and any due tasks are highlighted in orange, with overdue tasks highlighted in red.
The planner allows integrated payments, meaning celebrants can be prompted of and pay for wedding related fees online without the need for manual reminders. The planner also has the ability for registrars at Hammersmith and Fulham to add on extra features to market to couples such as ordering extra confetti.
The Ceremony Planner’s FAQ page can be updated by registrars and so will provide up-to-date information, giving celebrants a way to answer common questions about their upcoming ceremony. In the event that the celebrant has a question that isn’t answered by the FAQ, users can submit a question through the Ceremony Planner’s Ask the Registrar feature instead.
Stopford look forward to working closely with the Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council and discussions are already underway on how best to customise the system to fit the requirements of the service.