Well, we’ve been talking about them for long enough and now we can show you images from the first of our four Mix & Mingle evenings 2013. Cheshire was first, last week, and here is a super write up of the night by the two wonderful members who organised it all, Andrea Swift of Fabulous Day and Alison Forster of Perfect Ally. Over to you ladies…..

On Wednesday 25^th September the Northern contingent of the UKAWP held their annual mix and mingle, but this one was a bit different! For the first time we were allowed to extend the invites beyond planners and to our colleagues in the wedding industry as a whole. And we were overwhelmed by the response.

Alison and I originally envisaged a small, intimate affair, glass of wine, few nibbles, but what transpired was something quite different, but then as planners what would you expect, we just couldn’t help ourselves!

So we decided we would set the benchmark for the UKAWP and create an evening that planners and suppliers wouldn’t want to miss! And they didn’t, on the evening over 50 planners and suppliers joined us.

Alison had found us the perfect venue, the stunning Colshaw Hall which had recently hosted Olympic gold medalist (and Strictly star) Victoria Pendleton’s wedding and been featured in Hello! magazine.

We had lots of entertainment planned: the list grew by the day and on the evening we enjoyed the Live Piano Experience who played two fabulous sets on their duelling pianos, The Best Singing Waiters who were a very late addition and did a great job of surprising everyone! John Holt a close up magician, who made one of the guest’s face hurt from laughing so much, and we had a Jolly Good vintage photo booth complete with old fashioned camera and lots of props!

Making the room look beautiful were stunning floral arrangements from SpringBank and Ian Lloyd plus some lovely linen from Perfect Weddings.

Of course we had to keep all these lovely suppliers fed and watered and we were delighted when Colshaw’s caterer’s Barrett’s offered to supply welcome drinks, canapés and mini desserts –they certainly spoilt us!

We had invited a very talented cake maker Beth Mottershead and had asked her to make a few cakes to give to guests; well we couldn’t possibly have prepared ourselves for the masterpiece she created (see top collage)! She took it upon herself to recreate Colshaw’s stunning horse logo and wow, we had guests who thought it was made out of marble they couldn’t believe it was a cake! Plus it tasted delicious too.

To set the scene outside we invited along People to Places who brought along one of their gorgeous cars.

And to capture all of the evening’s events, including Alison’s and my speech (we were brave!) we had the amazing Caroline White photographer and friend.

We had a couple of special guests, the ever lovely Julia from BridesUpNorth  who is always so supportive, plus Duane and Dawn from County Brides Magazine who brought along lots of magazines for suppliers to take away with them.

Alison and I were delighted by the response from suppliers and planners on the evening, everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and did lots of mixing and mingling, we are already being asked when the next one is!

Here are just a few of the messages we received: –

“We had an AMAZING time at the UKAWP mix and Mingle event tonight hosted by @perfectally and @afabday” Emma Christopher –Planner

“Lovely evening tonight at the beautiful and very homely Colshaw Hall thank you ladies xx” Perfect Weddings Venue dressers

“Thanks for a great night, lovely to meet old and new friends” Lace Bridal Boutique

“Loved last night’s mix and mingle event at beautiful Colshaw Hall, thanks so much @afabday and @PerfectAlly for a fab night” Katy Lunsford Photographer

Huge thanks to Colshaw Hall and all the suppliers who contributed to such a great evening. See you all next year!