Friday 16 October 2009

A red and white theme wedding

In August I had the pleasure of working with a lovely couple Jo and Nev on their wedding at Great Tythe Barn in Tetbury.

I had met Jo the year before as she was a bridesmaid at another of my weddings and it was because of this, she saw how valuable it was to have a wedding planner and for someone to oversee their day.

The ceremony and reception were all in one place and everything went to plan, even the rain disappeared at the right points and everyone had a fantastic day. The highlight was the sky lantern release at night.
nb. Only plan a lantern release which is overseen by a professional who knows what they're doing.

Here are a few shots from their reception that I took.










I wish Nev, Jo and their gorgeous little girl Ruby the best of luck in the future life together.

Thursday 15 October 2009

A Cotswold Dream wedding

I've been so busy over the summer I've not had a chance to show highlights of some of the weddings I've worked on,so now it's time to put that right.
Back in August I was lucky enough to go back to Kingscote Barn in Tetbury for Emma and Luke's wedding
Kingscote Barn is a perfect wedding location as it's natural stonework and wooden floors allow any colour or theme to take hold.

Emma had chosen a heart theme with a country twist in pinks and creams and I am sure you will agree, that Emma and the venue looked gorgeous.

The photography was done by the very talented Sarah Cameron and their photos are just gorgeous, have a look at her blog to she her shots from the day. Below are the photos that I took of the reception
I wish Emma and Luke a life full of as many laughs as there were on their special day!








Wednesday 12 August 2009

A little last minute change...

Back in September last year I met a lovely bride called Kelly at a wedding show. After a little chat it was obvious that she needed an On the Day Co-ordinator as her wedding was going to be at a city location in Gloucester which wasn't a usual wedding venue and her family were worried that there would be no one to run the day properly. Also they were planning to decorate the venue themselves and didn't know how it was going to be done as well as everyone getting ready. Her parents thought it was a fantastic idea and after a meeting with everybody, they confirmed the booking for the wedding in May.


As I do with all weddings, we had our final details meeting about 4 weeks before the wedding and I started my work in taking over the final organisation of the wedding. However, all was not to be that simple. Five days before the wedding, Kelly phoned to tell me that the venue's owners had decided that it was impossible to hold the wedding there and that they were cancelling their venue. As you can imagine, Kelly and her finance Pete were beside themselves.

Emergency meetings were called with the owners and the family and luckily the venue's owners had a second venue in the city which was due to reopen after a refurbishment on the same day as the wedding. This venue was much better suited for a wedding and they agreed to delay their opening and for the couple to use it for their reception.

Now the work really began. I had to reassign the decortations using the items we'd already purchased and work out the logisitics of the day including the speeches and disco as well as contact all of the suppliers to ensure they knew the change of venue.

I asked the couple to print a card which could be inserted into the Order of Services explaining the change of venue with a map so the guests didn't go to the wrong place.

On the day itself, the sun was shining and everyone at the house was calm and relaxed, maybe a bit too calm, but it did give me time to go round and take some photos .


I was waiting for the cupcakes that Kelly's aunt had made to be delivered before I left and when they arrived, I was off to set up the venue!

When I arrived, the venue was let's say 'chaotic'. The problem with using a venue not used to doing weddings is there is little sense of what needs to be done and when. The staff were focusing on the kitchen as there was a large amount of food to be made and nothing had been done which I had expected. The tablecloths were unusable as they were and needed ironing so I managed to get a member of staff to iron them all for me so I could start with laying the tables. Whilst they were doing this I turned my attention to the bar areas.

Kelly was using banqueting roll for the tables in the bar so the red rose petals and candles would stand out, but the venue said it would be too much hassle. Not the attitude I have, if this is what the client wants, it's what they get! So myself and one of their staff painstakingly covered all of the 22 round tables and decorated with candles, confetti and candles, just as Kelly wanted them.

Once the tablecloths were ready I could start in the main room and managed to lay up the tables and set up the cupcakes with enough time for me to get changed before the guests started to arrive.

Kelly and Pete were thrilled with the way the venue looked and realised that there was absolutely no way it would have happened had they not had me to oversee everything. The rest of the day went exactly to plan including the sky lantern release off the roof of the building!

I wish Kelly and Pete a wonderful marriage together and hope it's not as stressful as the final week of the run up to their wedding!




Wednesday 15 July 2009

A very striking,unique Asian wedding

I always embrace a challenge and when I received a call from Sabrina about her Asian wedding this was no exception.
Until now I've not had the opportunity to work on an Asian wedding although I've researched weddings from other cultures and their traditions. Now the opportunity arose for me to learn more.

Sabrina needed someone to oversee the day itself and to have a consultation as she was struggling pulling her ideas together. She had quite strong ideas about how she wanted her wedding to look but not sure on how to do it. She wanted to break from tradition and have something very striking. We did have a consultation where we went through the budgets and also ideas for the designs. Originally, she wanted to try and get away from the traditional red and wear a green or blue dress and have a turquoise colour theme which is what we worked on, using turquoise lighting to light the room, but this soon changed and she did have red as one of the main colours.

Sabrina chose to have red and turquoise as her colours. Now this isn't a combination I would usually recommend, especially as the main hall in Cardiff City Hall in Cardiff is gold, but the carpet was red and she really wanted it to be striking and chose turquoise as this featured in her beading on her dress.
She chose to have red chair covers with turquoise sashes, turquoise tablecloths and red napkins. Her centrepieces had turquoise water and red flowers. She also added in gold flowers to pull some of the colour from the room into the design. As you can see it was a very bold effect...



Sabrina had hired seperate companies to provide the food and to provide the waitering staff so there were lots of different elements to pull together for this wedding. Andy Mousoulou was the organiser of the waitering staff and covers most of the functions at City Hall. His staff were fast and efficient at setting up the tables, so my assistant Deanne and I were able to finish the tables with the table names and favours relatively quickly. Which was just as well as the florist accidentally broke one of the goldfish bowls on the table and I had to strip the tablecloth, napkins, crockery, cutlery and chaircovers and get them dry. Wasn't an easy task with only a weak handdryer in the toilets to use! However, of course we got it done and it wasn't noticed on the day.
The stage (Mandap) was already in place by the time we got there and looked stunning set high on the stage for the ceremonial proceedings later on in the day.



Something I could not prepare myself for were the delays. I was warned that Asian weddings very rarely run to time, which for me is just something I'm not used to. Maybe overrunning by 1/2 an hour but the groom and his family were travelling from Birmingham by limosine and coach (all 130 of them). They were due to arrive at 1pm and due to them leaving very late and traffic into Cardiff they finally were in the room at 2.15pm. As you can imagine, there was a lot of changing to the schedules.
Once the groom and his family arrived, the wedding could take place. It was fantastic to watch a wedding from a different culture and understand the emotion of the day too. It's customary for the bride to be slightly shy/forlorn. The wedding itself was a Muslim wedding and as opposed to say a Hindu wedding where there is lots of music and celerbrations, a Muslim wedding is a sombre occasion as it signals the daughter leaving her family.
The bride herself isn't in the room for the Nikkah, which is the ceremony and she enters the room once the ceremony has been conducted and sits at a seperate table to the groom.



Sabrina looked just amazing in her gorgeous dress and amazing makeup and Mohammed looked very handsome too.
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Her henna on her hands were something else too.

It was great to see the different style food served which although being very behind schedule went down very well. The groom was presented with special ceremonial food which was amazingly presented.


At one point I was helping the catering staff to hand out the dates which the groom's family bought to all 370 guests, that took some time!


Once the food was consumed, it was time for the bride and groom to come onto the stage for the ceremonial part of the wedding were they exchange milk, sweets and water. It was lovely to see Mohammed and Sabrina together for the first time.



Everyone came up to take photos of the couple at this point.

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Shortly after the ceremonial activity it was time for the couple to leave. This is a very poignant part of the day and is very emotional for the bride's family. Sabrina and Mohammend left in a wonderful procession which was a lovely send off for them into their new married life

I would like to thank Sabrina and Mohammend for letting me be part of their big day and for giving me the opportunity to learn more about Asian weddings and their customs.

I wish them the best for their future together as husband and wife.

If you woud like to find out more about how I can help ensure your wedding day runs without any stress to you and your family then have a look at my 'There on Your Day' service on my website.



Tuesday 9 June 2009

An Intimate wedding



My husband and I have been lucky enough to work with top UK photographers Damien and Julie Lovegrove over the last four years on various projects and over that time Paul and I have found a mutual love for photography.

We were delighted to be asked by some friends of a friend, if we would take some group shots for their wedding. Well obviously we said yes and said if they would be happy to, we would like to cover their whole wedding from getting ready to the first dance......lucky for us, they said yes.

We went to meet the bride, Nina and her bridesmaid, Claire at the Hotel Du Vin in Bristol where they were getting ready to do some pre wedding shots. The room was quite dark, but the bathroom which was on a mezzanine floor had a massive skylight, perfect to get these shots.



The wedding was at The Kings Arms outside Bath which is a fabulous country pub in a beautiful setting.

The couple decided to have a spiritual blessing which was led by the bride's Godmother. The couple were married the day before in a registry office to legalise the marriage.

The guests all stood in the front courtyard as the bride came through the pub into the guests.


The service was lovely and we were able to get a number of lovely shots which capture the mood.

We took so many lovely photos throughout the day. It was so relaxed and informal with the guests being treated to a fabulous Lamb Spit Roast (given to Nina and Tom by Jamie Oliver as a wedding present!). Here are a selection of our favourite shots.

We had a lovely time and would like to thank Tom and Nina for letting us photograph their wedding. To see all of the photos go to
If you would like to find out more about Ruth and Paul photographing your wedding, prices start from as little as £500.