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Where to say ‘I do’ in the UK? Wales is the cheapest area to get married in the UK!

Other than a house, your wedding is probably the most expensive thing you’ll spend money on. From photography to the venue hire, every aspect of a wedding costs money, and it’s all designed to make your special day one to remember.

At Bark.com we have lots of wedding service professionals from across the country offering their services, so we wanted to see just how much the price of a wedding varies depending on where in the UK you get married.

Analysing internal data from 16 sectors across the wedding industry over the past year, we wanted to reveal which regions in the UK are the cheapest and most expensive to get married in. Here’s what we found…

Wales is the cheapest region for weddings with an average total spend of £11,926, followed by the East of England at £12,625 and Yorkshire & Humber at £13,651. Surprisingly, the most expensive region in the UK to have a wedding in is not London, but the East Midlands, at £22,180!

Here are our full findings:

Region

(Lowest – Highest price)

 Average cost

(Using all 16 sectors)
Wales £11,926
East of England £12,625
Yorkshire & Humber £13,651
Northern Ireland £13,772
South East £13,821
North West £13,957
Scotland £15,522
South West £16,600
North East £17,010
London £17,480
West Midlands £18,866
East Midlands £22,180

Sectors analysed in our research include wedding hair stylists, wedding planners, ceremony and reception venues, catering, flowers, DJs, wedding cakes, makeup, videography, photography, car hire, entertainment, music, musicians, photobooths, stationery and decorations. Our data and final averages do not include costs for clothing, jewellery and officiants.

Our research found that the highest supplier cost of a wedding in the UK is the catering (no surprise there), which costs on average £6,567, followed by the venue at £1,950 and music bands at £1,000. The cheapest service is hairstyling, which only costs £160 on average.

Bark.com co-founder, Kai Feller, said,

“It’s no secret that weddings can cost a lot of money, so with all the data available from our site, we wanted to help engaged couples by breaking down the average cost of weddings based on their location.

“It’s fascinating to see that weddings in Wales are over £10,000 cheaper than those in the East Midlands! However, these prices are the averages, so naturally there will be cheaper options for the more expensive regions. We hope our findings will help advise those who have been deliberating on where to have their wedding.”

Heart-warming ‘63 Up’ documentary inspires £50k family request

Bark.com helps to connect buyers and sellers across the globe and most of the time, we’re pretty successful.

Every once in a while, we do get a request that we need a bit of help with.

A family are looking for a videographer to record their sons’ childhood, who are aged two, three and seven, to create a documentary that they can gift them when they are all 18 years old.

The job role comes with a £50,000 salary, free accommodation in the family’s guest house, which is situated on their property and healthcare. The job will involve being on-call and 3 days a week of filming and editing. It’s a big commitment, but also a fantastic opportunity for someone who is creative and loves to work on long-lead projects.

Here’s the request in full:

Hi!

I am wondering whether you can help.

My husband and I have three young sons aged two, three and seven. We love watching documentaries, especially ones about children and growing up. We always watch the Secret Lives of Four Year Olds and sat down last week to watch 63 Up, which sparked an idea.

It occurred to us that having a professional documentary-style movie would be a fantastic way to celebrate our little family. We’d love to do it ourselves but as a couple, we decided that we want to be part of the story, instead of constantly watching the kids through our phone screens.

That’s where we want your help. We want to find a videographer to work on an on-call basis, 3 days a week (filming and editing however they see fit in that time) to create a sort of digital scrapbook of our kids’ childhood to give them when they turn 18, which we hope will fill them with joy and nostalgia. We want the videos to be sorted into yearly ‘chapters’, if that makes sense.

We know this is a huge ask, because essentially we’re asking someone to come and live, share and shoot our lives for years. But we hope there will be someone out there who will see this is a fun project and unmissable opportunity. I can’t imagine many come around like this?

We’re offering £50,000 a year plus accommodation in our guest house and healthcare benefits for the right candidate. We’d like videos to be as candid as possible, but we don’t want a stranger to be filming our kids, so we are asking for potential candidates to spend a few days with us as a family to make sure that they’re the right fit. Naturally, we will want to do some background checks and to see some examples of applicants’ work.

Do you think you could help us find the right person for our little family?

Many thanks,

*name removed as requested*

If you think you’re the right person for the job, please sign up your services in videography here. Then simply get in touch with us and we’ll connect you with the family.

We have many professionals within the creative industry including wedding videographers, general, corporate and wedding photography, so if you have the skills but don’t think you’d be a suitable match for this job, please sign up to Bark.com anyway to receive instant jobs from customers who want your services!

Average cost of attending school prom increases by 31% to over $530 in the US in just three years

After buying the tickets, finding the perfect dress or suit, and paying for hair and make-up, prom season can be very costly for parents – but do you know just how much it costs?

If you were to solely consider what makes up the event, such as venue hire and catering, a ticket alone would have set you back approximately $70 in 2016. However parents are looking at an average price of $82.50 per ticket for this year’s celebrations.

Breaking this down into services; ticket prices should cover:

  • Catering – which on average has risen from $40 per head in 2016 to $49 in 2019
  • Venue hire – the average price for a venue has crept up by $63 every year from $441 to $631
  • DJ – A DJ for this type of event used to set you back $400 and is now likely to cost around $600 instead
  • Photography – a couple of hours of photography for a prom has risen massively from $175 to $295

On top of the tickets, prom-goers are going to want to be looking and feeling their best when celebrating with their friends. Data from Bark.com sellers has given insight on how much you might need to spend to get your child prom-ready.

Finding the perfect suit or dress for your teenager has increased by either $12 or $35 respectively. If a manicure is on their mind, the price of nail artistry has risen from $30 to $45 and the average price of hair styling has also increased by $25, to $90 for a classic prom ‘updo’.

At least getting them to the prom in style has jumped up by 50%. Sharing a limousine with eight friends, on average, would work out to be $25 back in 2016, where the same journey would now cost $37.50.

Service Cost in 2016 Cost in 2019
Catering $40 $49
Venue $441 $631
DJ $400 $600
Photography $175 $295
Prom Dress $175 $210
Suit $65 $77
Manicure $30 $45
Make Up $40 $65
Hair $65 $90
Limousine Hire

(split between 8 customers – the average amount of prom-goers according to Bark.com’s sellers)

 $25 $37.50

Kai Feller, Bark.com co-founder, said,

“Nowadays there’s a massive social pressure to ensure that we are looking our best, so it’s not surprising to see the cost of proms to be well into the hundreds.

“Of course, the price of services are bound to increase over time, but maybe we’re witnessing a trend where sellers are treating proms the same as weddings, and hike prices up to account for the big day.”

Average cost of attending school prom increases by 33% to over £390 in the UK in just three years

After buying the tickets, finding the perfect dress or suit, and paying for hair and make-up, prom season can be very costly for parents – but do you know just how much it costs?

If you were to solely consider what makes up the event, such as venue hire and catering, a ticket alone would have set you back approximately £39.50 in 2016. However parents are looking at an average price of £52.50 per ticket for this year’s celebrations.

Breaking this down into services; ticket prices should cover:

  • Catering – which on average has risen from £35 per head in 2016 to £46 in 2019
  • Venue hire – the average price for a venue has crept up by £50 every year from £350 to £500
  • DJ – A DJ for this type of event used to set you back £200 and is now likely to cost around £270 instead
  • Photography – a couple of hours of photography for a prom has risen from £150 to £200

On top of the tickets, prom-goers are going to want to be looking and feeling their best when celebrating with their friends. Data from Bark.com sellers has given insight on how much you might need to spend to get your child prom-ready.

Finding the perfect suit or dress for your teenager has increased by either £10 or £30 respectively. If a manicure is on their mind, the price of nail artistry has risen from £25 to £35 and the average price of hair styling has also increased by £20, to £70 for a classic prom ‘updo’.

At least getting them to the prom in style has only crept up slightly. Sharing a limousine with eight friends, on average, would work out to be £22 back in 2016, where the same journey would now cost £25.

Service Cost in 2016 Cost in 2019
Catering £35 £46
Venue £350 £500
DJ £200 £270
Photography £150 £200
Prom Dress £130 £160
Suit £50 £60
Manicure £25 £35
Make Up £30 £50
Hair £50 £70
Limousine Hire

(split between 8 passengers)

 £22 £25

Kai Feller, Bark.com co-founder, said,

“Nowadays there’s a massive social pressure to ensure that we are looking our best, so it’s not surprising to see the cost of proms to be well into the hundreds.

“Of course, the price of services are bound to increase over time, but maybe we’re witnessing a trend where sellers are treating proms the same as weddings, and hike prices up to account for the big day.”

Who keeps the pet? Rise in pet custody battles during divorce

New insight into divorce trends has shown that pets are now being brought into divorce custody proceedings, similarly to children.

We recently surveyed the lawyers on our site about new divorce trends they’ve noticed within the last five years, and interestingly the main trend that came out of our research was that there’s an increasing number of people having custody battles over their pets – like with children.

The majority (85%) of the lawyers answered that they have seen a rise in this since 2014. A quarter (26%) say that families consider pets like children and two thirds (62%) think that the rise in pet custody battles is because people are more emotionally attached to their pets today.

In the same survey, more than half (52%) have seen a ‘significant increase’ in the number of clients writing pet custody agreements into prenuptial contracts as well, with a third (34%) say there’s been a general increase in prenuptial agreements in the UK. According to the survey results, women receive full custody of the pet in three out of five cases and less than a tenth (8%) result in joint custody. However, a tenth (11%) of the time, the couple decide to re-home the pet altogether when a decision can’t be reached.

Pets are usually treated as personal property in law and are subsequently awarded to the person who bought the pet, however 77% of the lawyers surveyed said this is being challenged more and more by clients.

Kai Feller, Bark.com co-founder, said,

“I don’t think this new trend is particularly surprising, pets become a part of the family and if that family splits, a disagreement about who the pet stays with is a very likely outcome.

“It’s clear from our survey results that there are ‘trends’ in divorce proceedings, just like with anything else in life and while 20 years ago the main dispute may have been over a house, pets are starting to take centre stage in legal battles.”

Cleaners’ confessions – the weirdest things found at work

We recently asked 2,011 of our Bark.com cleaners about the weirdest things they have found whilst in a client’s home and the results were certainly interesting!

In addition to the weirdest things they have found, cleaners were also asked what is the weirdest thing they have been requested to clean and what is the most awkward situation they’ve been in at work.

Ten of the weirdest items cleaners have found in a client’s house:

  1. A cardboard box full of ashes
  2. A collection of Voodoo dolls full of pins
  3. A clean chicken carcass under a pile of magazines
  4. A jewellery box full of ladies fingernails
  5. 5ft plaster cast statue of a penis
  6. A sexual dollhouse brothel
  7. A real elephant’s foot
  8. A jar of dead moths
  9. A replica farm in the living room complete with real grass and watering holes
  10. A 10-inch wooden dildo

Cleaners also revealed the weirdest things they had been asked to clean:

  1. A large stone statue of a very well-endowed man
  2. A client’s grandmother
  3. Miniature dolls posed in sexual positions (presumably for the dollhouse brothel)
  4. The soiled area of a recently deceased person (could be smelt 200 feet away)
  5. A taxidermy pigeon collection
  6. A client’s dentures
  7. A collection of moss covered rocks in the living room
  8. A fridge full of maggots
  9. Nazi memorabilia  
  10. A plastic fairground pig

A handful of respondents admitted that nothing really shocks them anymore, with others describing some of their most awkward encounters. Such as:

  1. Arriving and seeing the client running around naked inside through the glass door
  2. Being asked to dress up in a maids outfit
  3. Being forced to wear a webcam
  4. Letting themselves into what they thought was an empty home to find the occupant in the bath
  5. A customer bursting in to use the toilet whilst the cleaner is cleaning the shower
  6. Cleaning the TV and accidentally switching it on to show a pornographic film with the client in the same room
  7. Walking in on the client having sex
  8. Being asked to clean items outside of the house for neighbours to witness
  9. Arriving to find the clients drunk and giving each other piggybacks around the house
  10. Cleaning a bedroom and finding a used condom on the floor, to which the client came in and cleaned it up, apologising profusely

Kai Feller, Bark.com co-founder, said,

“It’s interesting to see the sorts of things people have in their houses, cleaners get a unique and intimate insight into the lives of others, I doubt there’s ever a dull day on the job!

“I hope member of the public will have a newfound respect for cleaners after seeing the results of our research – it’s obvious that they have to put up with the most weird and wonderful requests on a daily basis.”

You can hire a cleaner here, or to sign up as a cleaner click here.

Marvel Martial Arts bootcamp launches after surge in demand from women

It’s no secret that Marvel films have been dominating the box office in recent years, breaking multiple records with its most recent release ‘Avengers: Endgame’. So it’s no surprise that the blockbuster films have been impacting trends in the real world.

After analysing our data, we spotted that there’s been a 151% increase in demand from women signing up for martial arts classes through our site since the release of Captain Marvel in early March – which is a HUGE spike in demand. Aside from Martial Arts, there has also seen a sizeable increase in women looking for personal training (73%) since March 2019.

So, to celebrate this new trend and to cater to the growing demand, we’ve decided to team up with one of our martial arts tutors to deliver a bespoke bootcamp, where women who are fans of Marvel can learn fight sequences performed by Captain Marvel and Black Widow, in a one-off free session in London.

For Superhero fans out there, the Marvel Martial Arts (MMA) bootcamp we’re hosting will be in London on the week commencing the 20th May. We’re expecting a very high demand for the class, so participants will be selected at random the week prior to the event. If you’re interested please don’t hesitate to register your place using the below form.

Kai Feller, Bark.com co-founder, said,

“In recent years we’ve seen a steady increase in the number of women looking for fitness and combat training. However, since the release of the Captain Marvel film in March, the number of women booking onto martials arts training has surged.

“I’m sure this free bootcamp is going to prove very popular, if our data is anything to go by! I’m excited to see how the participants get on, especially with some of the more challenging fight sequences. The professional we’ve teamed up with is very experienced and talented, I hope it inspires and empowers the women who join us!”

 

Fitted wardrobes, loft conversions & ensuites – the home improvements that could add thousands to the value of your home

If you’re interested in selling your home, you’re probably wondering how to boost its value, with house prices across Britain increasing at the slowest rate since late 2012*. But with the number of renovation options available, at a range of different costs, home improvements can be a bit of minefield.

That’s why we’ve teamed up with a panel of our builders, interior decorators, plumbers, gardeners, home staging experts, estate agents and property surveyors to outline the best renovations/additions that help homeowners secure the highest possible asking price for their home, along with how much each improvement costs on average.  

Through analysing cost data from our home improvement experts and average valuations from our property surveyors and estate agents, Bark.com has revealed that members of the public could add £130,900 by spending just £70,200 on the below renovations:

  1. Ensuite bathroom – costs £2,000, adds £5,000 to your home on average
  2. Open fireplace – costs £1,500, adds £3,000 to your home on average
  3. Garage – costs £13,000, adds £25,000 to your home on average
  4. Modern fitted kitchen – costs £5,000, adds £10,000 to your home on average
  5. Loft conversion – costs £20,000, adds £43,000 to your home on average
  6. Conservatory – costs £11,000, adds £15,000 to your home on average
  7. Bedroom extension – costs £10,000, adds £19,000 to your home on average
  8. Underfloor heating – costs £4,000, adds £6,000 to your home on average
  9. Fitted wardrobes – costs £3,000, adds £4,000 to your home on average
  10. Jacuzzi bath – costs £700, adds £900 to your home on average

According to the experts, the most valuable addition is an ensuite bathroom, costing on average £2,000, yet increasing the value of a property by £5,000. If a homeowner was willing to do extensive building work, a loft conversion yields the highest return on average.

Kai Feller, co-founder of Bark.com, said:

“Selling a house can be a complicated process, especially when it comes to trying to please potential buyers. However, there are several steps homeowners can take to add as much value to a property as possible.

“We’ve been monitoring the demand of our home improvement service providers and decided to do some research into the effect these services have on house prices. Some of these changes are small, such as adding an ensuite or a fitted wardrobe, but research has shown that they really do make a huge difference to potential buyers.”

*https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/housepriceindex/february2019

Electricians revealed as the highest-earning self-employed pros in the UK

There are pros and cons to going solo, however over the last few years more and more people have made the switch to self-employed work.

With hundreds of thousands of self-employed pros using Bark.com, we’re in a unique position to find out which professional is the highest paid in the UK, when self-employed, and how it compares to their employed counterpart’s salary.

Surveying 20,000 professionals across 11 key sectors from our platform, we asked service providers about their earnings to find out the UK salary average for each service. In addition to information on their earnings, self-employed professionals were asked about their lifestyle and work-homelife balance. The research took a few months to collect due to the magnitude of the project. but allowed for a wealth of data for us to draw our conclusions from.

When results were processed it was obvious across all sectors that those who are self-employed have the potential to earn far more than their employed counterparts, and in some cases more than double.

Interestingly, electricians top the list of the highest earning self-employed pros, and independent cleaners can earn close to £30k a year, three times the amount of employed cleaners!

Here are the highest paid self-employed service providers in the UK:

1. Electricians £51,200

Employed salary £27,287

2. Counsellors £45,111

Employed salary £24,544

3. Landscape gardeners £40,140

Employed salary £19,143

4. Make-up artists £38,918

Employed salary £20,952

5. Graphic designers £38,760

Employed salary £22,012

6. Photographers £36,823

Employed salary £20,812

7. Plumbers £36,359

Employed salary £23,788

8. Tutors £34,147

Employed salary £22,630

9. Painter and decorators £33,075

Employed salary £21,405

10. Personal trainers £33,029

Employed salary £19,494

11. Cleaners £29,584

Employed salary £10,573

Despite a massive 90% of respondents stating that their workload is much more now that they are self-employed, more than two-thirds (68%) of professionals stated that they have been far more successful in keeping a healthy home and work balance. Nearly three quarters (73%) of respondents felt that their increased stress levels are worth it for the monetary increase.

Kai Feller, Bark.com co-founder, said,

“At Bark we work with thousands of self-employed sole traders, and thought it would be interesting to see how much they earn a year. We picked the top 11 most popular self-employed sectors in the UK, and you can see why so many people decide to go self-employed – a good living can be made from all of the professions.

“The survey took a good couple of months, but was well worth the wait, because the results speak for themselves – being self-employed results in a much higher income. We were expecting them to earn more, but almost double on average is a huge increase. That being said being self-employed comes with a lot more work, responsibility and pressure more often than not, it’s definitely not a career choice to be taken lightly.”

Turns out that going self-employed might be more beneficial than you thought!

*https://www.payscale.com/

Father posts request for hypnotist to make son support Arsenal, can you help?

At Bark, we cater to the needs of millions of people around the world. From tutors and accountants to plumbers and builders, we’ve got professionals for everyone. However, every now and then we get a slightly more bespoke request that maybe our current providers aren’t used to dealing with. Last week we had one of those.

We’ve pasted a screenshot of the request below. To sum it up, a dad from London is looking for a hypnotist to try and help him persuade his son to support Arsenal, after becoming a Spurs fan in the last six months.

Here’s the request:

After speaking to the dad, he’s asked us if we can make a public appeal to see if we can find the right person for this. If you think you’ve got the skills to make this boy switch to the red side of North London, please get in touch at: team@bark.com