Rainy Wedding Days

Photo from Bailey Photography based in Sydney (http://www.baileyphotography.com.au/)

A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting a wedding venue with a bride getting married in August. The venue is beautiful - a lovely country house with marquee and stunning gardens. Hopefully, the wedding ceremony will be outside with the drinks reception in the gardens. However, we did discuss the wet weather options.

Here are a few tips for those of you planning an outside wedding this year:

• Don't worry about the weather - you won't have a good idea of what it will be till 3/4 days before the date and won't know properly till the day itself. There are plenty of other things to worry about with planning a wedding so concentrate on those things that you can actually help with.
• Have a wet weather plan. When we select a wedding venue for a wedding with an outdoor civil ceremony or drinks reception, we always ensure that there is space indoors if it does rain. Ensure that your venue has enough space inside for the outdoor elements of your wedding day if needed.
• If it does look like it will rain, invest in some umbrellas in white or bright colours for your guests. Some may come prepared but others might not.
• Have some indoor areas in mind for wedding photographs. Sweeping staircases, restaurants with interesting features, bridal suites, country houses with old doors can all be used for photographs.

Multicultural Weddings 4 - Music

Music is a great way of combining the cultures and ensuring that both cultures are represented in a multicultural wedding. There are plenty of opportunities to add musical elements to a wedding starting from when the guests arrive at the start of the day all the way through to the bride and groom leaving in the evening.

Don’t be afraid to mix up the musical elements of the wedding and to have short bursts of different types of music. Here are a few ideas:

• As guests arrive and for the civil ceremony, have a pianist or classical musician playing. To save space, pianists can play on an electric keyboard.


• For the Asian ceremony, the groom and his family could be led in to dhol drummers and dancers performing. Then traditional sitar and tabla players could play during the ceremony.


• For the drinks reception, go for something more relaxed like steel drummers or an accordian player.


• In the evening, opt for a DJ who can play different types of music during the ceremony.

Here are some photos of the dhol players from Asian British Music

Real Weddings - Stunning Asian Wedding - Part 1

On the 1st February this year we organised a large Asian wedding for a Sonal and Rishi at The Grove in Hertfordshire for 450 guests. The wedding was a beautiful day and was organised in a short lead time of four months. It was great to see all the different details come together on the day and we worked with a large number of suppliers to create the wedding.

Jay and I Services provided the mandap and decor. They designed a stunning wooden mandap decorated with fresh flowers in vibrant shades of pink, orange and red. They also provided the table decorations and decor for the head table.

Ragamamas did the catering throughout the day and did an amazing job in providing all the catering and staffing for the 450 guests starting with a breakfast in the morning, canapes and mocktails during the drinks reception and a sit down meal later on.

Blitz Communications provided all the lighting and sound for the wedding including the beautiful purple uplighters for the evening reception.

Anil Tohani took the photographs for the day.

Here are a few of our own photos:

Divine Cakes

Maki designs and makes beautiful wedding cakes that really are an art form. Some look so beautiful, they are too good to eat.

We worked with Maki last year when she designed a cake for a client. It was collected from her base in London and we assembled it at the wedding venue.

Here are a few of her stunning designs:

Animal Fun at Weddings

At the weekend, I took time out from planning weddings to attend a family wedding as a guest. When I go to weddings as a guest, often people will ask what I do and when I say I am a wedding planner, they ask if I find it hard to switch off or if I am always evaluating the wedding. I really enjoy going to a wedding when I can blend into the background as a guest and not be running around doing lots of things!

The wedding was held at Oakfield Manor at Chester Zoo and its true, you can mix animals and weddings for those brides that love animals and are looking for a unique venue. We were transported in an open top heritage bus from the Doubletree by Hilton Chester to the zoo.

Here are a few photos:

Open top heritage bus is great for short journeys to a wedding venue:

Oakfield Manor at Chester Zoo is suitable for smaller weddings and can accommodate 45 guests for a civil ceremony with more guests for the evening reception.

Doubletree by Hilton Chester is a beautifully restored 18th century manor house set in five acres of landscaped gardens. The hotel offers modern comforts and conveniences with traditional styling and décor and will have a luxury spa opening in the autumn.

Inspiration - All things floral

I recently received a Cath Kidston brochure in the post. The brochure was full of inspirational ideas and many would be ideal for a countryside marquee wedding.

Here are a few suggestions of items that could be used for a wedding and then kept afterwards:

Tea light holders at £2.50 come in different colours:

Glass lanterns at £7 per lantern in green and pink:

Floral Gingham Paper Napkins at £3.50 for a pack of 20:

Or how about these pretty pink purses for thank you gifts for your bridesmaids from at £12 each:

Fabulous Fascinators

On Saturday, I went on a course at White House Arts where I spent a fun day learning how to make a fascinator. The course was run by Andrew McDonald, a great teacher and painter. This would be a great thing to do as a Hen weekend activity or for those wanting to make their own customised fascinator to wear to a wedding.

For those looking to be inspired even further, the Victoria and Albert Museum are running an Exhibition on Hats till the end of May titled Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones.

Here are a range of fascinators offered by Event Headwear:

For those looking for something more substantial than a fascinator, try Mary Jane Baxter who designs stunning hats and all things millinery. I saw her designs a few years ago at Boudoir Femme.

Cute Cupcakes

For those bridesmaids looking to arrange an unusual but fun hen weekend for their friend or sister, how about a cake decorating party? Many brides are moving away from the traditional hen weekend idea of going out dressed in a veil and L board to bars and looking for a more sophisticated event.

Xanthe Milton, aka "The Cookie Girl" is hosting 2 hour cake decorating parties at the Drawing Room on Portobello Road. Classes cost £45 and include champagne. She also hosts Cocktail and Cupcake parties.

Cookie Girl can also provide delicious cupcake towers for weddings and boxes of mini cookie kisses as wedding favours.

Wedding Venues - Sri Lanka

Reef Villa in Wadduwa is a new wedding venue that opened in autumn 2008. It is a 7 bedroom property set in 3 acres of land right next to the beach. It is located south of Colombo and about 90 minutes by car from the main international airport in Colombo. They now cater for weddings and it would be an ideal location for those looking for an intimiate wedding location to share with friends and relatives. It prides itself on being neither a hotel nor a villa but combining the best of both with beautiful accommodation, spa and in house chef.

Here are a few photos: