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Today I am delighted to show you another lovely wedding from the talented Isabel Smith of Isabel Smith Wedding Design.

Laura and Mark

Laura and Mark’s stunning wedding took place in a marquee in the perfectly landscaped gardens of their home in South Bucks.  Having had the house licensed, they legally married in an intimate ceremony with only 6 guests in their dining room before heading outside for a larger, mixed faith ceremony outside.

Guests enjoyed modern canapés and oodles of champagne before heading to the marquee for a family-style, Moroccan influenced dinner including tzatziki, babaganoush and yummy chicken tagine.

Entertainment included The New Hot Cross Club jazz trio, 100 Chinese lanterns and a fireworks display before guests boogied to a DJ.

Photo credit:  Bibi Basch

Marquee – White Canvas

Furniture and Decoration – Great Hire and Themes Inc

Catering – Melissa Webb

Videographer – Marco Windham

Flowers – Scarlet and Violet

Live Music – The New Hot Cross Club via Sternberg Clarke

Fireworks – Alchemy Fireworks

DJ - Orange Discos

Today we introduce another in our UKAWP Member Wedding Showcase series. This time I am pleased to introduce you Isabel Smith Wedding Design

Jules and Charlie

Jules and Charlie aimed to combine their country upbringings with their modern lives by creating a ‘London restaurant in a barn’ – Jules’ words, not my own.  But it worked, making use of monochrome and stressing throughout the importance of excellent service to the caterer.

The whole wedding took place in the high street in Hurley village, Berkshire with the girls getting ready at a friend’s house and the boys at the local hotel.  The ceremony took place at the church and the reception and a dry hire venue, Monks Barn.

Decorations came from a number of suppliers, with some great lighting and a Capri tent outside for shade.  Guests sipped Pimms and champagne before dining on beautifully presented Lobster terrine, traditional lamb and sticky toffee pudding.  A fantastic cover band entertained the guests well into the night.

Today is the second in our installment of showcase weddings from members of the UKAWP. Today’s showcase is from UKAWP Full Member Simone Butterfield of Dimples Events. Take it away Simone!

It was clear from my initial consultation with Katharine & Peter that their wedding day was going to test every skill I had as a Wedding Planner.  Their dream wedding day involved extending their property and leaving the first floor open plan to host their wedding reception for 70 guests.  “OK, so it’s not every day that your clients believe they can build their wedding venue as cheap as they can hire it, but we will give it a go!”  It was certainly going to be interesting.

With 4 months till the big day and nothing of importance booked, we had a wedding to plan and reception to build…….There was a back up plan for every eventuality and we had to ensure that no matter what happened, Katharine & Peter were getting married on their chosen date.  Every meeting we had started with a progress update on the building and finished with a climb up the scaffolding!

Most weddings are well catered for at your chosen venue but when you are getting married at home – there is so much more to consider.  Even a marquee wedding seems easy in comparison!  I had many sleepless nights, followed by calls to Peter in the morning regarding “what if”.  We had to consider the fire regulations, the fire exits, and the entertainment license and more importantly what would we do if the 6ft round tables would not fit up the staircase, would the staircase be finished?  “Don’t worry, that’s easy – we’ll just take the windows out” replied Peter!

It was an experience I shall never forget, extremely hard work, yet the end results were amazing.

Katharine & Peter had a clear vision of their wedding design.  A chocolate brown theme with white and silver.  Crisp, clear, no fuss, no frills, simple, elegant and chic.

The room for the wedding venue was assembled the day before with lots of help from reliable friends and family.  Katharine and her mother had set to work the day before lining the 2 walls of breeze blocks – they managed to drop lining paper from floor to ceiling and drape muslin over the top.  They worked tirelessly throughout the day and transformed the room.  The house was buzzing with craftsmen from the moment the scaffolding had been fixed until an hour before the guests arrived.  Electricians were setting up spot lights, luxury washroom facilities were being delivered and under cover canopies installed to keep the guests dry from the showers of rain!

With the help of “perfect table plan” we were able to accurately use the room measurements to assess how much space each table would occupy.  Setting up our table plan was made an easy task with the use of this software.  Had we not used this, it would have been unbearable.  We had even considered drawing out templates of the tables on the floor to judge the space!

Once the tables were delivered and all in place, we were able to fix 3 glass orbs above each table.  Each carefully hung with a tea light burning inside.  Every table was dressed in crisp white linen with a simple centre piece.  A mirror box with hydrangeas and lots of lush green leaves.  Each table setting was even a leaf that had been beautifully written on by Peter’s mother, finished with silver ribbon.  Each chair had been carefully covered and dressed with a luxury organza bow in rich chocolate to match the bridesmaids’ dresses.

With the room dressed and the bridal party arriving at the church, it was my cue to leave the venue and head for the church.  It was also time for helping hands to make their way home – the rest was down to me.  One small problem, no-one wanted to go home, they all wanted to be given a job, just so that they could stay and see the finished result!

As the guests arrived at the reception, Katharine & Peter had been whisked off to a secret location for some exclusive shots with their photographer.  (Katharine even had a bespoke pair of pink Wellingtons made just for the muddy trek!)  The wedding guests were desperate to sneak upstairs and have a look at the transformation, but we were under strict instruction to keep them occupied!  Every guest was asked to write a short message upon a notelet and hang it from the branches of a twisted will tree which had been dressed with white phalanopsis orchids.  As the bride and groom returned and made their way upstairs it was the moment we had all been waiting for.  It was so deeply rewarding to hear the gasps of amazement as the guests took in the beauty of the room.

With the wedding breakfast in full swing and the evening preparations being made, the next obstacle was to ensure the smooth room transformation for the first dance.  Katharine and Peter needed a space to be cleared to ensure that they could wow their guests with their choreographed first dance.

Not only did Katharine and Peter leave their guests amazed by their first dance, they were all speechless at their wedding day achievements.  What seemed a straightforward “can you help me with my wedding preparations?” turned into an experience that I shall never forget.  Despite the exhaustion, hard work and many sleepless nights, this was one wedding to remember and definitely one to tell the grandchildren about!

Many thanks to Simone for telling us all about this fabulous wedding! If you are a UKAWP member and would like on of your weddings featured please contact us.

Photocredits: Amanda Harrison

Today we begin our series of showcase weddings from members of the UKAWP. Today’s showcase is from director Kelly Chandler of The Bespoke Wedding Company and features an extraordinary wedding which took place in London last year.

“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).

It was important that elements of the couple’s joint and separate heritage was injected into the day and also that it was a celebration of places that they just loved during their various travels. So was born a multi-themed event that ‘took place’ in Russia, Morocco, Asia and Italy as well as more than a dash of America and the UK! We played about with the timings too and everything took place between 11am and 7pm to allow families to fully enjoy.

It was clear from the start that lots of theming was needed and many separate areas required and that we had to find a different location that would never have been used for a wedding before. I started to work on many options and came across a very large event space by the name of SEOne London, a nightclub and party venue which quickly became the absolutely perfect space for the event.

Then the work really begun; transforming a very large venue, typically used for late night clubbers and not elegant wedding guests, built directly underneath London Bridge. It certainly was a team effort as we hired a draping/dressing company, arranged carpeting, heating, lighting and sound technicians, furniture companies, not to mention the usual caterers, florists and entertainment.

As guests arrived, flaming torches marked the way into Russia. Fully decked out in red draping with hammer and sickle emblems, amber lighting and projections of Russian Bears onto the walls, it was very much the real thing. A hammer and sickle ice sculpture was in place as a Gorbachev look-a-like mingled with guests and the caterers served blinis, caviar and Bloody Marys. Guests were invited to sign a guest book and view photos mounted onto boards of the couple’s actual wedding day. 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 Artful Splodgers team came in and installed all range of toys, games and party fun to make sure that the young ones enjoyed to the max and were well taken care of by their team.

As guests made their way through to lunch, they were greeted by an elegant reception room; this was probably the most conventional part of the day where the couple actually wanted an almost traditional white marquee effect and a clean, stylish dining setting; so we built a marquee inside the brick built nightclub area. White was the backdrop with some black detailing and a stunning purple wash set off the dramatic floral centerpieces, pink phaelanopsis place setting flowers and stationery. Guests were invited to start off the dining by eating their edible menu card! Lunch was lovingly prepared by Italian Secrets and the Italian theme continued with a talented operatic performance by The Three Waiters; it left guests waving their napkins in the air!
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.”

Many thanks to Kelly today’s utterly different showcase wedding. If you are a UKAWP member and would like to see one of your weddings feautred here please contact us.

Photo credits: PR Photography