AI Do: Part One - Finding Your Dream Venue in Minutes using Artificial Intelligence

Forget endless scrolling and spreadsheet nightmares! This episode dives deep into the world Artificial Intelligence and how it can revolutionise your wedding venue search. Discover how to leverage the power of AI to find your perfect Cornish wedding venue in record time. From personalised recommendations to virtual tours, we'll uncover the secrets to stress-free venue hunting. Get ready to be amazed as we explore how Artificial Intelligence can transform your wedding planning journey.

Bonus: We'll share our top tips for using AI effectively and reveal some hilarious AI fails along the way!

Tune in and get ready to say "AI do" to your dream venue!

#AIwedding #Cornwallwedding #weddingplanning #weddingvenue #AI #technology #bridetobe #groomtobe #GeminiAI

Transcript

 Did you know the average couple spends over  200 hours planning their wedding? And with the majority of couples planning their wedding on a weekend, that takes up around 17 weekends of your mere 52 in a year. I don't know about you, but I can think of plenty of other things I'd rather be doing on a weekend other than creating spreadsheets, researching suppliers, and other boring wedding admin. 

So what if I told you there is something that could help you save a significant portion of that time, making your wedding planning a breeze. Ever heard of a little something called AI? Of course you have,  haven't you? 

Well, as you ponder whether you've been hiding under a rock for the last year, here's the pasties and prosecco jingle. 

Hey Cornish cuties, are you getting hitched in this beautiful county and feeling a tad overwhelmed? Well, don't fret. I'm Francesca, owner of the stunning Manhay Farm, and this is Pastiz Prosecco, your one stop shop for all things wedding planning in Cornwall.  We'll be bringing you the best local suppliers, stress free.

Busting tips, real bride stories, and enough fun to make you forget about those pesky spreadsheets. Because at Manhey Farm, we believe your wedding should be a joyful celebration of your love story and a chance to create lasting memories with family and friends. So grab a glass of Prosecco, pop in those earbuds, and get ready to plan the most unique wedding you've ever had. 

So before we get stuck in, I must apologise if I sound a little bit more nasally than usual. I'm just getting over a nasty bug. I blame this atrocious weather we've been having here in Cornwall. One moment it's gorgeous and sunny and the next day it's just Drops 10 degrees and starts raining. What's up with that?

But anyway, I'm not here to talk about global warming. I'll leave that to Greta. We are here to talk artificial intelligence, which will make your wedding planning a breeze. If you have or haven't heard of this technology, I'm here to say that if you're planning a wedding, you need AI in your life. Why?

Well, those 17 weekends taken up by wedding planning can be reduced to to just nine weekends. Bold statement? Well, I'll own it. And I'll tell you why. But first let's get back to basics. And without boring you with some geeky explanation of coding, after all, we're not here to get a computer science degree.

We're here to make wedding planning easier. Here's a little introduction to AI.  Firstly, there are three main artificial intelligence language models that you can choose from that will become your wedding planning sidekick. The popular ChatGPT,  Google Gemini, and the relatively unknown but approachable Claude.

For as long as it's the right doesn't really matter which you choose. But for those that are interested in the strengths and weaknesses of each, chat GPT strengths is its ability to understand and generate human like texts, making it ideal for customer service, writing assistance, and many other applications.

But it does have occasional inaccuracies in context specific tasks like understanding complex relationships and this can lead to awkward table plans when it places your boisterous best man next to your boss, or worse, your well to do 90 year old gran. Ah, you filthy peasant! Do you know who I am? Claude excels at reasoning and generating detailed responses, which is beneficial for academic and technical writing.

But it's a little bit more serious and may take banter quite literally.  Whereas Claude Google Gemini is strong in its multi modal capabilities. It processes images, videos, and texts simultaneously. So it's perfect when you want to share Pinterest images for inspiration with your AI wedding planning champ.

However, it can't analyze pictures with humans and it is the grade C student when it comes to text only tasks when compared to the other two A star performers. Whichever you choose, think of these AI models as a giant library filled with books on everything from wedding trends to budgeting tips. This data that it pulls from the internet It can be text, images, numbers, anything that helps AI learn and understand the world of weddings better.

AI will analyze all this information and figure out patterns and connections, which makes it very smart to make predictions and complete tasks that we ask of it.  The more content we put out there or input directly into an AI platform. The smarter it gets. AI is trained on the data on the internet, and according to exploding topics, the amount of data in the digital universe is estimated to be 147 zettabytes by the end of 2024.

Now, one zettabyte is 1 billion terabytes still don't comprehend  me neither, so I Googled it. And it led me down this Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole that blew my mind.  So my iPhone 13 pro apparently has one terabyte of RAM.  I have all sorts of crap in there. About a hundred apps I never use, videos that have been filmed in the inside of my pocket, and about a hundred thousand photos that I probably will never look at again.

But yet my memory never seems to get filled. So, one terabyte In itself is like a huge amount of data. So just imagine 1 billion of those iPhones completely maxed out of storage. And that equals one zettabyte. So 147  billion iPhone 13 pros is the approximate size of the data on the internet, mind blown. I then went on to see if I could find out about how much of that data was wedding related.

And I found out there is 1. 13 billion. Billion websites on the internet, which probably would have been an easier demonstration of how much content is on the web than I've just previously subjected you to. But hey, you never know when you'll be tested on terabytes and zettabytes. Quiz Show fans, you are welcome. 

So, I digress. There are 1. 13 billion websites out there, so I searched to find out how many of those websites were wedding related. And could I find the answer?  Could I heck.  So I concluded that there was probably more than enough wedding content out there on the internet to make AI really, really smart on anything wedding planning related. 

AI has analyzed millions of articles on wedding trends, average cost of suppliers, popular wedding venues to help you plan your dream wedding based on your unique style. Budget likes or dislikes,  but how you ask, well, here is just a taste of how AI can be your wedding planning superhero.  So in this episode, we're going to focus on finding your dream venue.

So if you're feeling overwhelmed by endless venue options, AI can take your preferences like your budget, your style, guest count, and recommend the Perfect spots you might have missed out on like a super powered matchmaker for wedding venues And then we're going to touch on checking availability and finding the perfect wedding date with ease So, how do you get started? 

Whichever AI platform you use, I want you to treat it like you would when engaging with a human wedding planner. That means giving it some background on you as a couple and what your dream wedding would look like. It also means treating AI with respect and being polite.  You know, it just protects you in the future when the film iRobot becomes a reality and bots take over the world, and you'd rather have your bot say some good things about you.

when it comes to judgment day.  Now, all jokes aside, your AI will rely on you providing as much information as possible to help understand your vision and offer the best suggestions for your wedding planning. So start by introducing yourself, provide your and your fiance's name, what type of venue you'd like to get married in.

Which region or town you'd like to get married in and your ceremony preference, whether it's legal ceremony or celebrant led, your wedding budget, and maybe your preferred wedding date, if you have one in mind. So for example, I would introduce myself, I'd say, Hi, my name's Francesca and my fiance's name is Chris.

We'd like to get married in a barn venue in Cornwall with a celebrant led ceremony. We have 20 grand for a budget. The date we would like to get married is the 24th of May 2025. It may feel a little bit weird, but just click submit and you've just introduced yourself to your new wedding planning bestie. 

Now, when I tried this on Google's Gemini AI platform, I was grinning from ear to ear  as it immediately responded. With a cute congratulations on my engagement and then offered me three research options that would help guide me.  The first option it gave me was to do some venue research that will fit my budget or I could focus on my guest list numbers.

And how this will affect my budget. Or the third and final suggestion was that we could explore styles and themes together. So I thought it was logical to start with a venue search first. So I thanked ai, remember politeness first, and asked it to suggest some barn venues and Cornwall that I might like.

So I began to type. Thank you. Nice to meet you, and thank you for your help. Let's start. With some venue research please.  I then proceeded to punch the air with delight, as AI returned its results by listing some barn venues in Cornwall with website links. And there was Manhay Farm, right at the top, followed by Nankaro, Trevena.

The Barnett Pengelly and Chi Praise, Chi Praise,  Chi Praise, really sorry guys, lovely venue but cannot pronounce it. Maybe you'd like to educate me. As a marketer though I had fallen in love with Gemini in an instant but as an acting bride I was impressed with the ease and speed of these results.  I just have to click and explore these website links right in front of me. 

But,  as a lazy bride to be, I thought I'd test whether it could give me a summary of each of these venues and list the benefits and cons of each venue without even having to go in and explore these websites myself. And this is what it returned. Manhe  Farm.  Prose offers a variety of spaces for ceremonies and receptions, including a rustic barn and outdoor options, provides flexibility for different wedding styles.

Cons can be quite popular, so booking well in advance is essential. Excellent.  Uh, Nangaro Farm, pros, stunning countryside location with beautiful views, offers a relaxed and intimate atmosphere,  cons, maybe more limited in terms of capacity compared to other venues. Trevena Farm, pros, pros. Unique setting with a blend of rustic charm and modern amenities offers both indoor and outdoor spaces.

The cons can be slightly pricier than other options due to its exclusivity.  The barn at Pengelly, its pros came up, elegant and stylish barn with a contemporary feel offers excellent catering options and dedicated wedding planning support. The cons is that it may be less rustic  To other barn venues, which is really true,  um, and the  chi praise wedding barn. 

Again, please someone educate me how I pronounce that. Prose, breathtaking coastal views and a truly unique setting offers a relaxed and informal atmosphere. The cons, it may be more challenging to access for guests. Especially if they're not familiar with the area. Trust me, I'm not making up these results.

You have to try this for yourself and I'm super curious to see whether your results are different from mine because it could be due to our different personal algorithms or, you know, different AI platforms. I'd love to hear your results. So do get in touch with me after the show when you've tested this yourself.

And do you agree? Are those the pros and cons of these venues?  Let's hear it. Anyway, as you can hear, I was getting more and more excited with the results. So I was glad that AI followed up with a prompt to help me get back on focus with the wedding planning tasks ahead. And Gemini asked me whether I would like to focus on a specific region of Cornwall or do you, or did I have any preferences regarding the size of the venue or the type of atmosphere I was looking for?

So I answered.  I didn't have a preference to where I'd get married in Cornwall, but I'd like 70 guests for the ceremony, and then about 100 guests in total for the evening. And this is where I encountered my first hiccup. Gemini couldn't find the maximum capacities for each venue, so  unfortunately I'd have to do the research for myself and update the chat with Gemini accordingly. 

Although, as a business owner, it probably would have been a good competitor research task for me to do, but I just couldn't be arsed, so I moved on. Other prompts you could give your AI planning friend for venue hunting is finding venues with a theme in mind, for example,  what are some unique wedding venue ideas in the UK for business?

Game of Thrones themed wedding or what is the weirdest wedding venue in the UK? Now, I couldn't resist typing that one in and it turns out it's a Boeing 747 that allows you to have cocktails in the cockpit. Amazing.  Now, Gemini sensing my complete lack of  focus asked me whether I'd like to explore more unconventional wedding venues or return to the original Cornish barn search.

And then it added rather swiftly that understanding my guest numbers was crucial to ensure the venue can accommodate both the ceremony and evening reception. It then asked me again to provide the capacity details for each option that I clearly ignored.  Was this Gemini telling me off in a passive aggressive manner or was I just Paranoid about my ADD.

Nevertheless, I decided to comply with Gemini the Dictator. And with all the information at hand, Gemini then produced a helpful table with each venue, detailing its venue name, location, capacity for the ceremony, capacity for the reception, the pros and the cons.  Brilliant, saving my time creating yet another spreadsheet.

Now, not all venues are created equal, and display their availability calendar proudly on their website, like manhayfarm does. So when I asked it to check availability for my chosen date, this was something it couldn't do. It did, however, give me a list of venue's contact numbers, but As I have telephobia, I told Gemini I didn't want to speak on the telephone and could it provide me with a list of email addresses and craft me an email to send to each venue. 

Unfortunately, it couldn't give me email addresses for all venues because most had contact forms on their websites, but it did craft me a general email that I could happily copy and paste into contact forms. And it read like this.  Dear Venue Name, My fiancé and I are planning our wedding for the 24th of May 2025, and are interested in your venue as a potential location.

We're hoping to have 70 guests for the ceremony, and approximately 100 guests for the evening reception. We would be grateful if you could let us know if your venue is available for this date, and provide us with information regarding capacity, pricing, etc. We look forward to hearing from you soon. Thank you, Francesca and Chris.

Perfect. A beautifully written email. And this email will probably take a good 15 minutes of thought and construction. But it was produced in a nanosecond by AI. Another great time saver by Gemini.  Unfortunately, if you are planning to get married in 2025, like our example, you will find that many venues, just like ours, are either fully booked or have very limited availability.

So your wedding date may not be available. I understand your preferred date may have some significance to you and your boo, but don't panic. AI might just be the friend you need to work through this disappointment with and choose an alternative date that you are both happy with.  Some of the prompts you could consider asking is, what are some creative and meaningful wedding date ideas? 

Gemini's suggestion to this was to pick another meaningful date like an anniversary, a birthday, which is exactly what we chose to do in the end. We got married on my husband's birthday, so he could never forget our wedding anniversary, which was a little bit evil of me, but He agreed.  Or maybe, if you didn't want to go down that route, it could be your parent's birthday.

I am sure they would be delighted that someone else will be responsible for you now and would like to celebrate this fact.  It could be a date connected to numerology or an angel number, astrology, or just as practical as the closest date the venue has to you. to your preferred date.  One thing though you might want to check with AI is that your date doesn't clash with any major events that are going on in your local area.

I know from working in sales and marketing for resorts for many years that That if there is any availability left in a hotel over a major event date, your guests will be paying up to triple the price for the same bed if their stay was outside of these dates. Or they will face a very expensive taxi trip home, or worse, be stranded at the venue till 4am because they haven't pre booked and there are no cabs left.

I was actually devastated to leave my cousin's New Year's Eve wedding before the strike of midnight because I hadn't pre booked a ride back to my very, very expensive hotel box room in town. So a simple prompt such as, are there any major events taking place in Cornwall in May 2025 can avoid some major headaches.

Guess declining your RSVP or getting your friends and family in debt before they've even witnessed you both saying I do. For those that are interested the results that came up of the major events in Cornwall in May are Obby Ost Day, whatever the hell that is. Helston Flora Day, which is celebrated on the 8th of May, where the streets of Helston get closed down, so good shout Gemini.

St. Ives Food and Drink Festival. Now, St. Ives is overcrowded at the best of times, but having a wedding in St. Ives over these dates is not the best idea. There's the English National Surfing Championships, which are often held in May at Fischl Beach. So, Check these dates out if you're planning to get married in Newquay, uh, Tunes in the Dunes, a popular and huge beach festival, and that's usually held in May on Perenboth Beach. 

Um, yeah, don't have a wedding here during this time unless you want to be photo bombed by pissed up teenagers.  Now, Gemini also lists the various bank holidays and school holidays, which is really useful if you wanted to choose dates to include your guests children. Or maybe use it as an excuse not to include your guest children.

You do you. Um, another prompt you could consider is asking AI what are the busiest wedding months in Cornwall? And the result was it was June, July and August.  The AI reasoning for this was that the weather is typically at its best. 

If AI only knew.  Making it ideal for outdoor ceremonies and receptions. However,  You have to consider  booking a wedding in some holidays that's going to push the prices of accommodation through the roof for your wedding guests. So keep that in mind too. So there you have it. I hope this gives you some inspiration on how to use AI to search for your perfect wedding venue and wedding date.

Have some fun with it. I'd love to hear from you about your results results when using AI. So send us a message on your podcast player or email me at Info at WeddingCornwall. co. uk, that's info at WeddingCornwall. co. uk. You never know, your story could be featured on future episodes. And remember, while AI can be a fantastic tool, it is essential to balance it with the human touch.

So let's AI be your trusty wedding planning sidekick but don't forget to inject your own personality and love into your special day.  Part two of planning your wedding using AI will be out very soon so also don't forget to hit that subscribe button to get alerted when it's released and leave me a review if you enjoyed this episode.

Your support means the world to me. Until next time. Happy planning.