Milton Keynes Wedding Fair

Come and see me if you are in the area?!

I will be on the 'All Things Bride and Beautiful' stand at the wedding fair in Central Milton Keynes on Saturday 4th October 2008

Wedding Fair website here

I would love to talk weddings with anyone who is near - so come and say hello - don't be shy!!

BTW - I will also be talking at the NEC wedding show on the 10/11/12 October - more details to follow!!

NEC wedding fair website

An amazing wedding day

I was lucky enough to coordinate a lovely wedding on Saturday at Packington Moor Farm in Litchfield, Staffs The venue is truly gorgeous. A modern feel inside a wonderfully converted barn. It has a civil ceremony license and a huge room for your wedding breakfast and reception. They also throw in a beautiful bridal cottage for your wedding night. Take a look at the website – even though it rained all day it was still the perfect venue. The staff were all friendly too and couldn’t do enough for me or the Bride and Groom. Highly recommended!

I also met an unbelievable artist called Laura Napier-Burrows. Now I have seen many ‘wedding singers’ in my career, but Laura was something else. If she had sold CDs at the wedding I would have bought one for myself without hesitation and then one for all my family and friends for Christmas! There are demos on her website, so visit now. She is also a lovely person as was her wonderful partner/sound technician. Based in the South of England, they travel - so book now!

And lastly to the couple – the Bride Karen looked gorgeous and Gareth made a very handsome Groom. A perfect couple who are both lucky to have wonderful families who were all having an amazing day. I love my job!

Venue Entertainment ideas

Marquee reception

Warm evenings filled with laughter and children running off their dinner in the gardens, must be a marquee wedding! Entertain your guests during the day with the sounds of a live guitar as your guests mingle in the grounds surrounding your marquee and throughout dinner. It would set the perfect atmosphere of carefree intimacy. Moving into the evening, continue your theme and hire a live band to play at your reception. They sound fantastic in marquees and guests can walk out and cool down just a few steps away from the dance floor! Being in a marquee you won’t even have to worry about hotel guests complaining about the noise!

Pick a Piñata!

Piñata’s originate from Spain and are papier-mâché shapes, filled with sweets and small gifts. They come in all shapes and sizes and are hung from a tree branch or sturdy door frame. Children are blindfolded, handed a stick, turned a couple of times on the spot and then positioned in front of the shape when they try and hit the piñata hoping to split it open. The person who breaks it open gets the biggest prize and then the other gifts are shared between everyone. They will love bashing the piñata with a stick, but please make sure they are supervised by an adult and preferably one who hasn’t enjoyed to much champagne!

You can’t always rely on the British weather so consider buying or hiring a small marquee (www.argos.co.uk) so these games can be played out of rain and wind if required!

At Last.....

A great hire company with plenty of choice!!

www.bonnefete-hire.co.uk

You can hire pieces seperately or in themed groups for example,

Vintage romance
Sweet Match

Take a look - theres a sale on at the moment too!!

Venue Entertainment ideas

Castle

A dramatic venue needs dramatic entertainment and a castle venue gives you an excellent choice of activities that would fit the bill! Bring back the history of the building by holding a jousting tournament. www.medievalworld.co.uk. Obviously these tournaments are performed by qualified actors and not your wedding guests! Ask your guests to choose a knight to support and cheer them on from the sidelines. After all the excitement, treat your guests to a traditional medieval feast and provide more actors to perform as court jesters, lute players and jugglers!

Uplifting Lanterns

Castle venues also provide a beautiful backdrop to photographs and weather permitting, in the evening a gorgeous new trend that is beginning to emerge in the wedding industry. www.skylanterns.com is a gorgeous idea to end your wedding celebration with. Make a wish as you send a lantern floating up into the night sky and ask your guests to do the same. Using the power of fire and heat, each lantern will float into the air and upwards until slowly disappearing.

Great new website

www.lovelyfavours.co.uk

Some great ideas on theming your weddings here including one of the most popular themes at the moment - vintage weddings.

You can buy individual pieces to contribute to the theme or buy a 'pack' of stationery,favors and decorations that include everything you need.

Other themes include vintage christmas wedding, nautical, baroque and exotic wedding too.

Really good ideas and some gorgeous looking products - Good Luck Lovely Favours!

Quick Theme Tips - Country

A long warm evening of friends and family laughing and having fun will be perfectly complimented with a country style wedding. Surround your guests with big bunches of dried flowers in wicker baskets which can be moved from ceremony venue to reception venue and add lavender and herbs to the arrangements to add the scent of summer. Dried flowers can also be used for table centres and displayed in old style milk jugs or decorated wooden crates.

These can be given away to guests at the end of the evening as lasting mementoes’ of your day. Carry the country theme over to the rest of your table decorations by wrapping coloured raffia around your napkins and using gingham cloth as table linen. Favours can be horse shoe shaped cookies with each guests named iced on to the front to double up as place names.

Don’t just provide a DJ or live band to entertain your guests, give them a barn dance teacher and band to dance to! www.hireaband.co.uk has plenty to choose from. Another great idea as a gift for your guests would be a CD of the music the band plays and instructions on one of the dances so they can dance their way home! Give your guests a place to relax and get their breath back by placing real hay bales around the dance floor draped in more gingham material.