Continuing our write up on the mix and mingle events, we are delighted to give you a quick overview of the London cruise which took place on the 2nd October. Thank you to UKAWP members Liz of Elizabeth Jane Events and Dominique and Angelique from Stylish Events who organised the event for us. I shall leave Liz to tell you about the evening.

Following 2012’s hugely successful Mix & Mingle evening, we knew there was a tremendous challenge ahead to ensure this year’s Mix & Mingle evening was as good, if not even better.

We decided upon a cruise on the Thames to make the most of the last few days of the summery weather, whilst also providing something a little different and we have the London Eye Barracuda to thank for hosting and sponsoring our evening. The London Eye Barracuda took us on a two hour cruise along the Thames and also provided guests with plenty of fine wines throughout the evening.

On boarding the boat guests were served a selection of fabulously potent cocktails prepared by On The Rocks – a mobile bar hire business that specialises in stylish cocktail bars, cocktail bartenders and hospitality staff for all types of events. Mojitos and Cosmopolitans were free flowing all evening and enjoyed by everyone and some literally went free flowing out the glasses when the boat had to ride another boat’s bow wave.

To accompany the fine wines and stylish cocktails, exquisite canapés by Food by Dish were served. Guests tucked into sumptuous mini lobster burgers, seared tuna with a sashimi dip and wild mushroom palmiers. Food by Dish is one of London’s leading contemporary caterers with over 25 years of experience in the catering field.

Fabulous florist, Ruari McCulloch, from Pinstripes & Peonies provided some beautiful looking bridal bouquets with a wonderful aroma to decorate the mirrored tables. Ruari offers stunning floral designs and is well known for his ‘can do’ attitude and outstanding customer service.

Sternberg Clarke, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of entertainment in the corporate and wedding industry, kindly provided us with some great entertainment, which lightened the atmosphere – Georgia Mason & Michael Baker from Georgia and The Fables sang for us throughout the evening and Femi, a caricaturist, drew some amusing portraits of some guests.

Angelique from Stylish Events has her own nail business, I Love Nails, and kindly provided guests with some creative and fun nail art designs throughout the evening. I was disappointed that none of the male guests participated.

Guests were treated to some sweet delights by Velvet Couture who provided a candy station and popcorn for the evening. As you can imagine this went down incredibly well!

Throughout the evening raffle tickets were sold to raise money for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. Prizes were generously donated by Sandals, the luxury Caribbean all inclusive vacation company. Two lucky planners including Angelique Franklin from Stylish Events won places on a Sandals Dedicated Wedding Familiarisation Trip to the Caribbean in 2014 and four other planners won places on the Chairman of Sandal’s luxury yacht ‘Lady Sandals’ for a wedding showcase event in Brighton, where dinner and drinks would be provided, along with a tour of the yacht.

The directors of the UKAWP, Bernadette Chapman and Sandy Moretta, gave a general update on the UKAWP and also proudly awarded Kelly Chandler, UKAWP supreme member, with an outstanding contribution award for her years of dedication in her role as a director for the UKAWP 2006- January 2013.

Finally, our resident photographer for the evening was Jessica Young from JKB Young, who recently arrived in London from Manhatten and captured the evening with some amazing photographs. JKB Young specialises in editorial and reportage wedding photography.

To conclude the evening guests were given a stylish black goody box from Box De Lux, a bespoke and luxury gifting business who also provided nail varnish, mini perfumes amongst other things. Other goodies included were luxury beauty products from Beau Choix, sugared shortbread from The Abigail Bloom Cake Company, a luxury London wedding cake company, a stainless steel butterfly wine glass charm by Weddings by Creativetch, a luxury stainless steel wedding stationery business, a Wedding Save The Dates magnet and a tasty cupcake from The Velvet Couture Bakery.

The evening was immensely enjoyable and I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with fellow planners. I would like to say a final big thank you to everyone who was involved in providing complimentary goods and / or services to help make the evening a huge success – your generosity and kindness was really appreciated.

Photo Credit: JKB Young 

Text written by: Liz Reed – Elizabeth Jane Events