Behind the scenes with event planner to the stars . . .
JULIE REVEALS HOW SHE KEPT FANS AND PAPARAZZI AWAY FROM CELEBRITY WEDDINGS
WHILE the stars hit the headlines with their grandiose parties and weddings, the organisers of these lavish events are seldom seen.
Celebrity event planner Julie Perry prefers to remain working behind the scenes as she makes dreams come true.
Julie’s professional journey has taken her from working in music talent scouting in her home city of Manchester to becoming the brains behind Coleen and Wayne Rooney’s fairytale wedding
The Rooney’s five-day celebrations in Italy in 2008 featured a performance from their favourite band, Stereophonics, and a party for more than 100 guests on a super-yacht.
“That was projected all over the world, it was amazing,” said Julie, who founded the award-winning Julie Perry Events in 2010.
Julie and her team worked for a year on organising Coleen and Wayne’s nuptials, held in four different locations.
“Every day was a different theme,” she said.
“Coleen surprised Wayne with the Stereophonics. He got to sing with them and he was overjoyed.”
She added: “It was a year in the making.”
Julie has pulled off weddings without interruption from fans or paparazzi, with the details of the nuptials kept so under wraps not even the guests know where they’re going.
“I’ve done a wedding with a chartered aircraft and the pilot told people they were going to Malaga in Spain, but it was in Italy,” she said.
Manchester United player Phil Jones had a star turn from his favourite singer Craig David on his wedding day.
The defender married Kaya Hall at St Mary’s Church in Nether Alderley in 2017 and his bride wanted to surprise him.
Phil, 28, shared pictures from the day on Instagram this week, saying: “My wedding surprise from my wife when @craigdavid turned up and shut the place down.”
“He was awestruck and all the guests went wild,” remembered Julie.
Julie created a Narnia theme winter wonderland for Julie and Phil Neville’s end of year millennium wedding in December 1999 with guests including David and Victoria Beckham.
The dazzling reception for the former United star and his bride, complete with an ice rink, was held at Manchester’s Midland Hotel.
Julie has brought in singing superstars Dionne Warwick and Emeli Sande for her events and Pixie Lott performed at a 16th birthday
We don’t do the ‘no’ word, not if you can send rockets to the moon
Event planner Julie Perry
party. For the same party, Julie granted the birthday girl’s wish of delivering each invitation by helicopter.
She organised one of the UK’s first gay weddings in 2014 with two dogs for bridesmaids and she and her team sourced diamond encrusted dog leads for the pampered pooches.
“It was really good fun and very extravagant,” she said. “That’s always been our ethos. “What I love is getting what people want. They’re putting their trust in you to turn their dreams into a reality.”
Julie is planning Love Island star Olivia Attwood and her Blackburn Rovers footballer fiance Bradley Dack’s wedding and has appeared in her reality TV show Olivia Meets Her Match about her life in Manchester.
“They are delightful,” she said about the couple.
Julie’s career started with a passion for music and from the age of 18 she worked in A&R.
Her first event, a charity ball, was attended by 500 people and it led to three more bookings.
For the past three years the single mum to two sons has organised ITV’s star-studded Soccer Aid for UNICEF.
“From the really intimate to the extravagant, we’ve done events for two people and 20,000,” the motherof-two added.
“The event for two was a proposal and they had a high profile artist sing a song in the middle of dinner.”
“You don’t look at it like a job. It’s the start of their journey.
“We always say we don’t do the ‘no’ word, not if you can send rockets to the moon.”
She added: “We are all so excited about unrestricted events being allowed from June and can now start planning to get back to doing what we are best at.”