Cork woman raises a ‘TOAST’ to new wedding business

WEDDING content has been given a new, modern twist by Glanmire woman Pamela Kiely, a social media and digital marketing coach.

Two years ago, Pamela launched PK Marketing, specialising in social media management, content creation and paid advertising on social media.

However, earlier this year Pamela also launched TOAST, which was inspired by being asked to film social media content for her friend’s upcoming wedding - and interest in it is going from strength to strength.

“My best friend asked me to be her bridesmaid. It was to be my first time being a bridesmaid,” says Pamela.

“She was so excited and asked me to take clips for her Instagram and I said ‘not a bother!’ But then I thought, who would do this for me at my wedding?”

Around the start of the year, Pamela started to see on TikTok various wedding content creators in other countries that created social media content for weddings. So she decided to research this business area and discovered that there did not appear to be anyone in Ireland providing this service.

I presumed it was already a thing in Ireland, but very strangely, I couldn’t find anybody. There was one girl in Northern Ireland, I found an article about her saying she was the first in Northern Ireland.

To start off the footwork for the business, Pamela turned to Instagram and asked via her story if anyone was getting married soon and told them she had an idea.

Afterwards, she was approached by Audrey from Upstyle Junky, who is a hairstylist that works with brides. Audrey loved the idea and guided Pamela towards a couple whose wedding was in March and who did not have a videographer.

Pamela said: “Photographers and videographers have their place, we are not in the space to replace them. We are a different add on to it.

“You get all the content the next day, it’s raw and real with candid shots on the phone, from someone you can trust to get the good angles!”

TOAST is currently run by Pamela herself, but in time, she hopes to expand the business to include more people to help capture content in weddings all over Ireland.

Pamela is hard-orking and holds herself and her work to a high standard.

There is a level of standard that I know performs well on social media. I aim for that, and then above and beyond after that.

At the beginning of this business, Pamela was eager to launch her new venture. Mel, from Madhouse, a graphic designer that Pamela works with, encouraged Pamela to wait to allow time to think of a suitable name and logo for the business.

“Mel rang me on a Friday and said ‘TOAST’ and I said ‘sounds like bread’. I thought about it for the weekend and I thought, a toast to the happy couple!

“Mel is a genius, it had to be one word to make it memorable.”

On the day of the launch, Pamela released a video on Instagram announcing TOAST. She also announced a competition to celebrate the launch, the prize being that Pamela would capture your wedding for social media free of charge.

Afterwards, Mel and Pamela hosted a live chat to discuss the company.

“I put all of that up, did the live with Mel, and then I had to teach a class for the Social Business Academy. 

After the class I looked at my phone and it had blown up with support and potential clients.

TOAST was off to a fantastic start.

“There was an overwhelming shower of support.”

Pamela has been approached by many eager brides to help them capture their special days, some brides are booking far in advance.

“Someone contacted me to book me for next December. I thought they meant December, 2023, but they meant December, 2024! I know that people book far in advance for weddings, but I was shocked when it happened.”

Through her work on social media, Pamela is well connected with Ciara Lynch, a fellow Irish digital marketer who is based in London.

“We were talking about running businesses, how it is so hard and how we wished we had someone to teach us all this stuff, so we actually started a second business called Social Business Academy.”

The academy teaches others how to set up and grow their social media business.

“We help people through various stages of their business. It is a ten-week course, where we teach them the ins and outs of the different services, they can offer pricing and how to work with clients and freelancers”.

TOAST can be found on Instagram via @toast_weddingcontent.

Pamela has a degree in Business Information Systems and a masters in Digital Marketing, both attained at Munster Technological University.