The Judging Process


We ask that when filling in your application form, care is taken to remove the name and address of you and your business. This ensures the integrity of the ‘blind judging’ process. Each application is judged on its content alone, along with any photos and videos submitted. The decision to have this process in place was to allow applicants to use their passion and evidence of their commitment to their job to persuade judges, rather than outside factors such as websites and blogs, which can be paid for. Blog entries can be submitted, so long as they do not mention the company name or details which can allude to a specific company.

Each judge is given the entries to read and mark according to the judging criteria, they will award marks for each answer and tally these up for an overall score. The sum total of the judges scores are averaged and that is the final score for a business. This determines who is a finalist.


People’s Choice


The People’s Choice Award is our only public vote award, and this is where we ask members of the public to make the choice of winner. All finalists are eligible to win, and the winning selection is based on the highest number of votes. People can only vote once per person, and immediate members of the entering business may not vote for themselves.


Peer’s Choice

This was a new award for 2014. Each attending finalist will be given a ballot at the start of the evening at the Award Ceremony and asked to cast a vote for a peer finalist before the end of the starter course. During the evening the ballots will be counted and at the end of the evening the winner will be announced. Each finalist company will only receive one vote, and are encouraged to keep their choice private. Who votes for who will not be published, just the number of winning votes and the winning business.


Overall High Scorer

This award is presented to the business that scores the highest average score in the blind judging process.


Contribution to the Wedding Industry

This is the only award not judged by the independent panel. South Coast Events read the submitted entries and use set criteria to decide who has made a notable contribution to their county’s wedding industry through their work.