Today we bring you the 3rd installment for our series of showcase weddings from members of the UKAWP. We must admit there has been a bit of a gap since Simone shared her showcase with us back in April and Kelly in February but we hope you can forgive us. Today’s showcase is from director Bernadette Chapman of Dream Occasions and features a mixed faith, dual venue wedding in May 2009.
At the end of 2007 I was hired by Daniel and Aniela to organise their wedding for Spring 2009. The wedding was never going to be typical with a civil ceremony, mixed faith blessing and afternoon tea in one venue, then cocktails and dinner at Aniela’s parent’s home. They were both clear on having a wedding that reflected their personalities and tastes, the end result was just breathtaking. The wedding is due to be featured in You and Your Wedding Spring 2010.
Daniel and Aniela
The first task at hand when hired was to find a suitable venue near Sudbury, Suffolk where we could hold the civil ceremony, Jewish/Christian blessing and an afternoon tea. We visited many venues from converted windmills to country manor houses, however we eventually choose a barn which seemed perfect with the lovely long aisle and dias for the registrars. We booked the registrars and started talking with the venue caterers about the afternoon tea requirements, however it soon become clear the caterers were not quite right for this wedding. So after much deliberation we cancelled the venue and went back to the drawing board and we are so glad we did as we found the stunning Mildenhall Barn in Suffolk. The owner was wonderful and understood what we were trying to achieve with the wedding. Even better was the local caterer who was able to create exactly what we required for the afternoon tea.
There was a lot to organize for the venue, I hired in white chairs for the ceremony, 3ft tables for the afternoon tea, linen and aisle runner. The grooms mother made some beautiful bunting which we tied up in the courtyard, the florists produced some stunning jugs filled with natural flowers to keep the natural country feel to the ceremony and tea.
The second element of the wedding to organize was the reception held at Aniela’s parent’s home in Suffolk, from our discussions we knew we didn’t want a traditional marquee. We investigated various options from Indian tents to yurts, eventually we agreed upon giant tipis.
Although an expert in marquee weddings this was the first tipi wedding I had organized and as a result I learnt a lot for future events. We had 2 tipis dedicated to dining, 1 for the bar and jukebox and the last was the stage and dance floor. Aniela and Daniel wanted a bright wedding and were happy to mix and match elements, i.e. no matching of napkin ribbon to the bridesmaid dress! This was a relief and I knew bright colours would be fabulous in the tipi, I realised however creating the ‘mix-match’ look is a lot harder to create because if styled incorrectly it could have gone terribly wrong.
One thing I was certain on was not using ivory linen within the tipis as the colour would be bland against the tipi canvas. I know this was one area Aniela and Daniel were unclear on but because we had such a strong relationship they were willing to trust me. The blue cloths on the day and purple napkins looked fabulous, any other colour would have paled into significance. The florist created bright displays of flowers with a mix of low and high, we hung origami birds from the tipi poles and outside in the garden. 
Instead of a table plan we hung guest names from a willow tree, in fact this blew over once so I know Nikki had to do this twice! There were so many design details that it is impossible to list them all but do look out for the wedding in You and Your Wedding in Mar/Apr 2010.
On the day because there was so much to organize with dual sites I hired Kelly from the Bespoke Wedding Co and Nikki from Jigsaw weddings to oversee the tipi site whilst my assistant and I were at Mildenhall for the ceremony. It was wonderful having staff I could trust in my absence.
If you are a UKAWP member and wish to have a wedding showcase, please let us know!
Photo Credit: The wonderful Kerry Morgan
We’re pleased to announce the date for our next wedding planners networking night. The event promises to be full of chatter, idea sharing and learning; formal speeches will be kept to an absolute minimum so that there will be plenty of time to network, make new friends and catch up with old ones. The event is open to trading wedding planners (UKAWP members or not) and students of UKAWP training courses but not other wedding suppliers. We’re delighted to be hosted by the beautiful 
“I knew that we had an exciting challenge on our hands as soon as we met the bride to be in spring 2007 and she shared her vision for a day that was so different and so un-wedding like, that it would be remembered forever. She commented that she was the last of a number of friends to be married and didn’t want to have to compete by doing something similar. So the idea was set that the wedding celebration would be a very personal and unique party (they had legally married the previous summer but not been able to share with all their friends and family).
As this was a family occasion there were some 40 children attending so we purpose built a light, bright crèche zone for them, decked out with balloons and rainbow lighting; the 
But that wasn’t the end of proceedings by any means! After speeches guests were invited to join their children in the circus zone as a glow performer lit up the room and led the way for a medley of jugglers, plate spinners, magicians, caricaturists and face painters to entertain and amaze; our team distributed party poppers, glow sticks and Chinese fortune sticks to add to the fun. After the children were well and truly charged up and the adults exhausted, it was time to chill out in the Moroccan afternoon tea zone kitted out in low cushioned seating, Moroccan backdrops, candles, lanterns, with incense burning and to Arabic chill-out sounds. Guests were treated to tutti frutti ice cream and Moroccan sweets to round the gluttony off as they took in the scene.
As the final photos were taken and the guests departed back to St Pauls on their coaches, it was time to reflect on the whirlwind that was months and days in the planning and 8 hours only in the happening. It was an amazing job for clients with incredible imagination as well as trust in ours which allowed us to deliver such a unique and wonderful event.”