With this in mind, the office is temporarily closed to allow me some maternity leave from 2 December 2011. We plan to re-open our doors again in the summer of 2012.  Wish me luck, I am a tiny bit terrified!

We are thrilled that this wedding is featured in the current issue of Perfect Wedding  magazine. 

This is the wedding of an infectiously fun American/Persian couple based in Kuwait who decided to marry in the UK.

Not in London though; the bride had her heart set from a very early age on a classic (but with a twist) English country wedding and so to work we went. 

It had to be Oxfordshire and had to be a beautiful ivy-clad mansion house and well we just had to have a marquee.

Of course it wouldn’t have been an English wedding without rain which did mean that the outdoor ceremony (largely Persian in style, tradition and décor)  moved inside to the stunning Baronial Hall.

But it didn’t matter a jot as guests were able to enjoy some time outside enjoying drinks before heading into the most eye-poppingly colourful marquee design. 

Orange and lime green is not a colour palette that we immediately threw together but it worked beautifully from the pom pom lanterns to the matchbox favours and the bright sunny gerbera floral designs, to the carefully styled placement card table, not mentioning the tongue-in-cheek reference to Aladdin’s magic carpet in the design of the wedding cake.

Kay and Nima, we salute your boldness and we miss you!

Key Credits:

Flowers: Euphoric Flowers

Wedding cake: Zoe Clark Cakes

Photography: Pippa Mackenzie Photography

Marquee: Wings

Stationery: Dottie Creations

Venue: Weston Manor

Wedding Venues & Services magazine -   Oct/Nov/Dec 2011 issue – Real Wedding of Kelly and Jason

Perfect Wedding

We have worked closely with the team this year on a number of Wedding SOS and Hot Topic features. Below are two of our recent contributions:

For inspiration for your own wedding you might like to take a peek at our press pages and gallery which are full of images of recent weddings we have organised.

Happy planning!

Dear Blog, I know I’ve been very naughty and abandoned you for quite a few months now but well, there are just three words – wedding season madness!  OK, grovel over.

There is lots going on which I hope to share with you this autumn. First up I just had to post about the exciting pre-wedding photo shoot for our wedding coming up this weekend.

Captured by the super-creative and endlessly fun Pippa and Ian at  Pippa Mackenzie, they seem to have got right into the swing of things with a really joyous and quirky photo shoot to the theme of the film ‘Roman Holiday’. Inspired by their engagement in Rome plus Bella’s love of Renaissance art and Italian style in general, the wedding this weekend will contain more than a dash of Italy. More on that soon but for now enjoy some images from their special day in Brighton:

 We look forward to featuring the wedding itself on the blog soon!

This event, spearheaded by my alter-ego as Director of the UK Alliance of Wedding Planners was ambitious in its aims, to genuinely inspire and offer advice to brides in a wedding event with a difference. No hard sell, just pretty things, lovingly presented and teamed with practical information on how to really pull together your wedding day from those who do it everyday, we wedding planners. Some asked ‘how is that going to work – 20+ wedding planners all working on one event on one day?’. But it did work and it worked superbly.

To talk you through the event:

I spent much time in our registration area welcoming our visitors and talking them through what was on offer at The Wedding Sanctuary at Somerset House.  (this isn’t me at the desk, but another planner colleague)

 Check out our ‘plan’ of the event which I worked very hard on with designer Melanie of  Cranberry Blue Weddings who offers a bespoke table plan service.

Guests strolled into our inspiration zone.  Six tables including the photographed sweet treats station were individually and carefully designed to very unique styles and with much attention to detail by fellow wedding planners of UKAWP. Here are just a few images:  

  Next up was the fashion boudoir, beautifully styled with props from Vintage Style Hire

 I was particularly proud of our ‘advice zones’ which I worked hard on designing and planning. Our visitors loved having the opportunity to sit down and actually engage properly with our hand-picked collection of wedding suppliers.

 And finally our ‘talks zone’  not only looked but played the part, with three highly practical and useful talks on key areas of planning from members of the  UK Alliance of Wedding Planners

 For more images and further write- ups on the event you might like to take a look here

 A special thanks to Always Andri  and Isabel Smith Weddings for working tirelessly with me on this event.

Credits:

Photography: Julia Boggio Photography

Flowers: Amanda Austin Flowers

Stationery: Cutture  and With Love

Lighting and production: Wise Productions

Advice zone furniture: Velvet Living

Catering: Table Talk

Table top items: Well Dressed Tables and Just 4 Linen

Cake and candy station: Zoe Clark Cakes

Now champagne was very much on the minds of these wonderful clients, Kelly and Jason Robins, who made it the theme for their 3 day wedding celebration at the stunning Whatley Manor in Wiltshire. So let us talk you through the day - mosts guests travelled from afar to attend the wedding so made a lovely stay of it with casual dinner and drinks in the bar the night before. Kelly enjoyed getting ready in the spacious suite at Whatley Manor; her wedding dress is “good to go” here. And a little later the guests are awaiting her arrival. The Loggia provided a beautiful and rustic country setting for the couple to exchange their wedding vows.  

Here is one guest flashing her invitation to the wedding.

The Loggia was the perfect location to dress in a champagne style as climbing wisteria is a permanent feature. We added touches of white by way of pew/chair backs, rustic cream painted ‘reserved’ signs and then white French chateau chairs, naturally all things champage must be French!

The happy couple stroll across their lawns.

The seating plan was quite a creation. The idea was to create some kind of vine where guests could find their name and table; we also went with the idea of 10 green bottles hanging on the wall. So silver ice buckets filled with ice contained each of the bottles, with bespoke labels attached in Kelly and Jason’s stationery style with the name of the guest table such as ‘Krug’. Guests then located their personalised tag and worked their way back to the right bottle along the trellis which was wound in jasmine and light foliage to give a vine effect. Et voilà, their table name was found.  Best done before too much champagne we think!  

The dining room was filled again with lots of natural whites, foliage and grapes to create a calm, elegant and crisp setting for a veritable feast, with great wines of course.

And whilst the adults dined in style, the kids were having a party of their own. They made use of Whatley’s cinema for a movie afternoon complete with burgers, ice cream and popcorn! It went down a treat.

After dinner, the couple were keen to create a really contemporary and stylish bar area to continue the party. The bespoke marquee below contained lots of perspex, angular furniture, some mirrors, more champagne and as night fell lots of blue uplighting to create a cool and chilled area adjoining the thronging dancefloor inside.

Kelly and Jason celebrated their first full day as Mr and Mrs with a laid-back afternoon-long hog roast in the Loggia of Whatley Manor before waving off their guests.

Credits:

Venue: Whatley Manor

Flowers: Hybrid Flowers

Bar furniture: Velvet Living

Cake: Cakes 4 Fun

Marquee: Elegant Marquees

Ceremony and Dining chairs: Great Hire

Stationery: Emily&Jo

Photography: Helen Maybanks

Film: Gorgeous Film

Earlier in the month I prepared a round-up of The Bespoke Wedding Company news for 2010 which you can read here.

And for 2011,  I’m really looking forward to putting all the finishing touches to a huge range of weddings including our largest wedding to date – 500 guests. Eeek! And I’m aiming to dedicate  a little more time between the weddings and work on the UK Alliance of Wedding Planners to making this blog more informative and useful.

Whatever your plans for the new year, we wish you a joyful, healthy and contented 2011 and if you’re getting married, then enjoy every minute of the planning, it all goes so very fast.

THIS POST IS NOW FILLED. THANK YOU.

The details are below:  

Dates: mid January to mid February 2011 (4-5 weeks)

Days: Two days per week – must be two days of either Monday, Tuesday or Thursday.

Hours: 10am-5pm or thereabouts

Location: home-based office in East Horsley, Surrey – closest station is a 10 minute walk: Effingham Junction (40 minutes from London Waterloo); a car is a bonus but not essential.

Role: This is an opportunity to get to know the workings of a typical busy and experienced wedding planner’s small office but with a focus on a very specific IT/marketing project. It would suit somebody who has a passion for business and marketing as well as wedding planning itself; it may well suit a recent student of the UK Alliance of Wedding Planners. The candidate must have exceptional IT skills and be very confident in working with blogs, Twitter and other social media as well as have an ability to resize photos, prepare slide shows, work with an Ipad etc.  A confident, self motivated candidate with exceptional communication skills  is required. An eye for the luxurious and the creative is essential as is attention to the finer details.

Apply: Please apply in the first instance with a covering email about why you would be suitable and CV to weddings@thebespokeweddingco.com. If shortlisted you will be contacted and a suitable face to face or phone interview arranged asap.

Sue Lin and Marshall live in Hong Kong but were planning celebrations very typical of many of our clients, one here in the UK  where Sue Lin grew up and one in California, home for Marshall.

We were thrilled to bring the plans to life for them here in the UK and the wedding was planned with only two visits from the couple.

The couple wanted their wedding to be fun and personal and particularly British in its style (with touches of Chinese naturally to reflect their shared ancestry); we always like to work on what we call fusion weddings and also to have the chance to demonstrate the “Best of British” so were very pleased to work with them in delivering a classical, elegant, country house wedding.

Stoke Park Club was the venue for their blessing ceremony and reception. Sue Lin had her heart set on having their ceremony outside which we achieved, despite the intense heat!

As you can see the couple really used the good weather to get some great shots of them on the golf course and around the grounds.

The Fountain room decor was designed in soft pinks, ivory and delicate golds with a simple, yet stylish look; notice that the dining tables were named after classic British desserts with their top table, Sherry Triffle, being  their favourite.  The menu was very important to the couple and guests were given choices with their invitations to be sure that everyone did not feel restrained by one set menu.   Of course every fine country house affair must have some smooth jazz music and the incredibly talented Kevin Fitzsimmons Jazz Swing Band entertained the guests with his crooning between courses.

The evening was gotten underway with cake cutting on the terrace leading straight into a rousing firework display; guests partied hard into the night to wish the couple well. 

For more on this wedding you might like to look at the blog of Carmen Weddings who worked ‘on the day’ with the Bespoke team; thank you Carmen.

Credits:

Photos and Film: PR Weddings

Fireworks: Classic Fireworks

Cake:  Cakes 4 Fun

Flowers: Euphoric Flowers

Bespoke Wedding Company Promo from Gary Barr on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoy!  (and please don’t look too closely at my make up,  sadly there was little time for a full wedding planner make-over on such a busy wedding day!).

With huge thanks to the lovely Gorgeous Film Productions for making the movie.