PRIVACY POLICY AND NOTICE

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information.

At Your Story Events, we understand that sharing personal information requires trust. Whether you're exploring our website, enquiring about our wedding planning services or working with us to plan your celebration, we want you to feel confident that your information is handled with care and confidentiality.

We take our responsibilities under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, as amended, seriously. We are committed to handling your personal information lawfully, fairly and transparently, and to following guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent data protection regulator.

You can find out more about your data protection rights on the ICO website.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how and why we use it, when we may share it and the choices and rights available to you.

Our use of cookies and similar technologies is explained in Section 7. Where consent is required, we will ask for your permission before using non-essential cookies and tracking technologies.

1. Who we are

Your Story Events is the trading name under which I operate my wedding planning, wedding design and wedding day management business as a sole trader. I provide services across the UK, as well as support for selected celebrations and events.

For the purposes of applicable data protection law, I am the data controller responsible for deciding how and why your personal information is used.

Business contact details

Trading name: Your Story Events

Business owner: Melanie Revell-Leaman

Business email: Hello@yourstoryevents.co.uk

Website: https://www.yourstoryevents.co.uk/

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how I handle your personal information, please get in touch using the contact details above.

2. What personal information we collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with us and the services you use.

This may include:

Enquiries and prospective clients

When you contact us through our website, by email or through another channel, we may collect your name, email address, telephone number, wedding date, venue, location, approximate budget and details about the celebration you are planning.

Wedding planning and client information

If you work with us, we may collect information needed to plan and coordinate your wedding or event. This can include your preferences, design ideas, contracts, correspondence, supplier details, schedules, timelines and other arrangements relating to your celebration.

Guest information

Where necessary to deliver our services, we may handle information about your guests, such as names, contact details, seating arrangements, dietary requirements and accessibility needs.

Some information, including certain dietary or accessibility details, may reveal health information or other sensitive personal data. We will handle such information with particular care and only where we have an appropriate legal basis to do so.

Payments and financial records

We may collect and maintain information relating to proposals, invoices, payments and financial transactions as part of managing our business and fulfilling our legal and accounting obligations.

Newsletter and marketing information

If you subscribe to our newsletter, The Your Story Events Edit, we may collect your email address, subscription preferences and records of your consent or requests to unsubscribe.

Website and technical information

When you visit our website, we may collect technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device information and information about how you interact with our website. The information collected depends on the website technologies, cookies and analytics tools in use and your cookie preferences.

Supplier and professional contacts

We may collect business contact details and correspondence relating to venues, suppliers, industry professionals and other people we work with.

Please only share personal information that is relevant to your enquiry or event. Where possible, avoid sending sensitive information unless it is necessary for planning purposes.

3. How and why we use your information

We use personal information to run our business and provide our services. This includes using information to:

Respond to enquiries and discuss your wedding or event plans.
Prepare proposals, quotations and contracts.
Plan, design and coordinate weddings and celebrations.
Communicate with you and relevant venues, suppliers and other professionals involved in your event.
Manage bookings, invoices, payments and business records.
Send our newsletter and other marketing communications where permitted.
Understand how visitors use our website and improve our website and marketing activities.
Maintain the security of our systems and protect our business.
Meet our legal and regulatory obligations.
Establish, exercise or defend legal claims where necessary.

We aim to collect only the information we need and to use it for clear, legitimate purposes.

4. Our lawful bases for using your information

Data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for processing personal information. Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on the following:

Contract

We use information where it is necessary to take steps you request before entering into a contract or to fulfil our contractual responsibilities to you. For example, preparing a proposal or coordinating your wedding.

Legitimate interests

We may use information where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided these interests do not override your rights and freedoms. This may include managing professional relationships, responding to relevant business correspondence, improving our services and maintaining appropriate business records.

Consent

We rely on consent where required, such as for certain non-essential cookies and electronic marketing communications. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

Legal obligation

We may need to collect, retain or disclose information to comply with legal requirements, including applicable tax, accounting and other regulatory obligations.

Where we handle special-category personal data, such as information revealing a person's health, we will also ensure that an additional condition for processing under data protection law applies.

We will not use consent as a blanket justification for all processing. The lawful basis will depend on the purpose and circumstances.

5. Newsletter and marketing communications

We occasionally share wedding inspiration, planning advice, news and updates through The Your Story Events Edit and other marketing communications.

If you subscribe to our newsletter, we will use your contact details to send you these communications in accordance with applicable data protection and electronic marketing laws.

Enquiring about or booking our services does not automatically subscribe you to our newsletter.

We will only send marketing emails where we are legally permitted to do so. If we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

You can unsubscribe using the link included in our marketing emails or by contacting us directly. We will respect your preferences and keep any information reasonably necessary to ensure that you do not receive unwanted marketing.

We may also send service-related emails where necessary to respond to your enquiry, manage your booking or fulfil our contractual responsibilities. These are different from marketing communications.

6. How we share your information

We understand how personal your wedding plans can be. We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

However, providing our services may require us to share relevant information with trusted suppliers and service providers.

Depending on your requirements, these may include:

Wedding venues, caterers, florists, photographers, entertainers and other suppliers involved in your celebration.
Aisle Planner and other planning or project-management services.
Xero and relevant accounting or financial service providers.
Google services used for email, document storage and productivity.
Our website hosting, analytics, cookie management and newsletter providers.
Professional advisers, including accountants or legal advisers, where necessary.
Regulatory bodies, public authorities or other parties where disclosure is required by law or necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

We aim to share only the information that is relevant and necessary for the purpose.

For example, a caterer may need relevant dietary information, while a venue may need a schedule or guest numbers. We will not routinely share your entire planning file when only specific details are required.

Where a service provider processes personal information on our behalf, we take appropriate steps to ensure that suitable data protection arrangements are in place.

Some suppliers may act as independent data controllers for the information they receive. Their own privacy policies may then apply to their use of that information.

7. Cookies, analytics and website tracking

Our website is hosted on Wix and may use cookies and similar technologies to support website functionality, understand visitor behaviour and measure the effectiveness of our marketing.

Depending on the tools we have enabled, these technologies may include website analytics or advertising and tracking tools provided by third parties.

Cookies and similar technologies may collect information such as your device details, browsing activity and interactions with our website.

Where consent is legally required, we will ask for your permission before activating non-essential cookies or tracking technologies. You should be able to reject non-essential cookies as well as accept them, and change your preferences later.

You can manage your preferences through our website's cookie settings, where available.

For further information about the specific cookies and tracking technologies used, their purposes and how long they remain active, please refer to our COOKIE POLICY.

Please note that disabling certain essential cookies may affect how parts of the website function.

8. How we protect your information

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration or disclosure.

These measures may include password protection, access controls, secure cloud services and limiting access to people who need information to carry out their work.

We use third-party systems to help manage our business, including Aisle Planner, Xero, Google services and email. We take reasonable steps to use these services appropriately and to protect the information held within them.

However, no method of electronic storage or transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

If a personal data breach occurs, we will assess the circumstances and take appropriate action, including notifying the ICO and affected individuals where required by law.

9. How long we keep your information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, taking account of our legal, accounting and business requirements.

Different retention periods may apply to different types of information, including:

Enquiries that do not proceed to a booking: retained for a defined period to manage follow-up enquiries and business records, then deleted or anonymised when no longer needed.
Client contracts and wedding planning records: retained for an appropriate period following the event to manage our services, address queries and protect our legal interests.
Financial and accounting records: retained for the periods required by applicable tax and accounting rules.
Newsletter information: retained while you remain subscribed, with appropriate records kept to manage consent and unsubscribe requests.
Website analytics and cookie records: retained in accordance with the settings and retention periods of the relevant tools.

We will establish and follow appropriate retention periods for each category of information. When information is no longer required, we will securely delete it or anonymise it where appropriate.

10. International clients and transfers of information

We work with couples who may live outside the UK, including international clients planning weddings in the UK.

This may involve communicating with you across borders and sharing relevant event information with suppliers or service providers in other countries.

Some of the technology providers we use may store or access personal information outside the UK. Where personal information is transferred internationally, we will ensure that the transfer is permitted under applicable data protection law and that any required safeguards are in place.

If you would like further information about relevant international transfers and safeguards, please contact us using the details in Section 1.

11. Your data protection rights

You have rights under data protection law in relation to the personal information we hold about you. Depending on the circumstances, these may include the right to:

Access: request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
Rectification: ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
Erasure: ask us to delete your information in certain circumstances.
Restriction: ask us to restrict how we use your information in certain circumstances.
Objection: object to certain types of processing, including direct marketing.
Data portability: request certain information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format where the right applies.
Withdraw consent: withdraw consent where we rely on it to process your information.

These rights are subject to applicable legal conditions and exceptions. For example, we may need to retain certain information to meet legal obligations or establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

To exercise your rights, please contact us using the details in Section 1. We may need to verify your identity before responding.

We will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law.

12. Third-party websites and services

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, social media platforms or other services.

If you follow these links, your information may be collected or used in accordance with the relevant third party's own privacy practices. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or content of external websites.

We recommend reviewing their privacy information when visiting those websites or using their services.

13. Children's and guests' information

Our services are generally arranged by couples and other adults planning a wedding or event. However, we may occasionally receive information about children or other guests where it is necessary to coordinate an event.

Where we handle information about children or guests, we aim to collect only what is necessary, use it for the relevant planning purpose and take appropriate steps to protect it.

If you provide information about another person, please ensure that you have an appropriate reason to share it with us and that the person is given relevant privacy information where required.

14. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our business, the services we use or applicable legal requirements.

The latest version will be published on our website, together with the date it was last updated.

We encourage you to review this page periodically.

15. Contact us and making a complaint

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, how your personal information is used or how to exercise your data protection rights, please contact me using the business contact details in Section 1.

I will do my best to address any concerns you raise.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent data protection regulator, if you are concerned about how your personal information has been handled.

You can find further information at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.