Rownhams House Flash Wedding Dress Sale!

We are all ready for our last event of 2014 at Rownhams House, Hampshire, on November 16th, 11am-3pm, £2 entry. We have lots of lovely suppliers joining us but we're uncontrollably excited about the flash wedding dress sale being hosted by Twirl Bridal Boutique! For one day only they'll be joining us to offer beautiful brides up to 50% off dresses with prices ranging from £199 to £699. There'll be lots of bargains to be had so make sure you come down early to avoid disappointment and bring some cash!

Spread the word and come find us on facebook to see who else will be joining us at the fab event!

Event Madness

We’ve had two brilliant events this October which is unusual for us however when offered such great opportunities from Venues we just can’t say no!

On October 12^th we hosted the first ever wedding fair at the quirky venue, Bursledon Brickworks. Lots of brides poped into have a nose around the museum, meet all our lovely suppliers and grab some bargain from our ex bride boot fair! Towards the end of the day our suppliers found a great opportunity for networking which became lots of fun as we tried to fit into Prop’a’print’s portable photo studio.

The following Sunday we hosted the first fair for the new owners of Wickham Vineyard now known as Three Choirs. In a contrast to the previous week the sun shone gloriously for us and we simply couldn’t have hoped for better weather. The Vineyard and it’s surrounding were beautiful and many brides who visited just fell in love with the location, as did the suppliers.

There was free wine tasting and canepes by the lovely Clifford Brown Catering on arrival which was enjoyed by all. The exhibitors got to make the most of the beautiful views all day in the marquee set up next to the vines by 3Men and a Marquee. Whilst brides were taken on tours around the venue to see their upcoming plans for barn conversions, extensions and accommodation huts amongst the vines.

Pictures of events to follow!

Brickworks & Boot Fair for Beautiful Brides!

Calling all brides.. We have a fair coming up which you cannot afford to miss, this Sunday October 12th! Premièring the first wedding fair at The Bursledon Brickworks Industrial Museum we’re so excited to showcase the amazing venue to all our brides.

This venue has so much potential especially for brides looking for larger venues, with a vast inside space which can accommodate all your wedding plans as well as lots of little nooks, cranny’s and beautiful outside areas to sneak off to with your photographer. If you have never seen this venue then it most definitely worth coming down for a little nose around to see what it can offer for you.

Our array of talented suppliers can help you to envisage how this venue can work for you such as Behind The Scenes Events, wedding Planning or Brides of a feather, venue dressing.

If you've already found your dream venue but need to find a florist, photographer, caterer, entertainer or any other supplier then come down & get inspired. We also have a few lovely married brides setting up some bridal boot fair tables ready to sell future brides an absolute bargain!

All of this for a bargain £2 instead of £5 it usually costs to visit the museum. The lovely museum café will also be open for you to chat with your groom or bridesmaids afterwards.

We look forward to seeing all you blushing brides!

The Bursledon Brickowrks Photo Shoot

Do you remember we put together a photo shoot back in July at Bursledon Brickworks Industrial Museum to showcase the venue in advance of our wedding fair there on October 12th?

Well we did and we have finally got all the photographs together from our two photographers, Jenny Owens and Bluecloud Photography.

We are so pleased with the out come as are all the suppliers involved, listed below. As the venue is new to weddings we wanted to decorate it in a pretty, nuetral, pastel theme to show off its potential to brides. It would be great for an industrial, steam punk theme however it's such a beautiful unique venue even the more traditional brides would be able to make it work on their big day. 

The huge main hall could accommodate even the largest of weddings and there are a lot of fun, quirky backdrops for photographers to play with, as our beautiful shoot demonstrates.

So come and join us there on Sunday 12th October 11-3 for just £2, to see the début of this amazing venue and lots of our favourite exhibitors all in one lovely & unique place!

Dresses - Hannah Elizabeth Bridal

Hair & Make up - Couture Hair & Make up

Flowers - Wild and Green Florist

Venue Dressing -
  Brides of a feather
  The Pom Pom Shack, 
  Indulge in Vintage 

With huge thanks to our models.

A Successful Outdoor Extravaganza!

We've had a couple of days to unwind & reflect here at L&U HQ after the awesome success of our outdoor extravaganza!

We knew it was going to be great fun as we had so many fab suppliers booked in to exhibit but with the best weather we could have asked for and a great turn out from brides it surpassed all expectations.

We had over 500 visitors through the door, it truly was a roaring success and all the exhibitors agreed. So who's up for L&U Wedfest 2015!?

He's a few snaps from the day but watch this space for the official event photographs!

The Lovely & Unique Team!

An Outdoor Extravaganza

We are so excited here at lovely & Unique HQ for our upcoming outdoor wedding extravaganza at Fairthorne Manor, Family Park & Campsite, Curdridge on September 21^st. We’ll be celebrating the end of this gorgeously sunny wedding season with a fantastic festival themed event at this exciting outdoor venue, we even here the sun will be back for the second half of September!

Brides & visitors can expect to see all sorts of fun exhibitors and suppliers at this event which you wouldn’t expect to see at a bog standard wedding fair. To create the festival atmosphere Juggletastic will be showcasing their stilt walkers, fire breathers and street entertainers. Outdoor catering from catch a fire pizza, Southampton Caterers and Fat hog and Big Pan, not forgetting 

Caravanilla the yummy ice cream van which you can enjoy on a deckchair from Anywhere Deckchairs!

No festival is complete without lots of live entertainment from singers such as All in the Swing and Matthew Callanan. Stay refreshed with a couple of drinks supplied by Deco Noir & Beetle Juice Cocktail Bar or tasty treats from Queen Bees and Café Royal.

All this and a huge Marquee, from 3 Men and a Marquee, full of all our favourite traditional and essential Suppliers, from cakes, dresses and stationary to Photographers, Beauticians and Wedding Planners.

Our first 50 brides will also be lucky enough to receive luxury goody bags and fun festival lanyards complete with complementary brollies from JollyBrolly the umbrella hire company.

And as if it can get any better…it’s free!

Pictures from Pinterest

DIY Brides by:Nicola Wray

Guest Blogger and wedding planner Nicola Wray from Behind The Scenes Events was kind enough to take some time out of her busy schedule to write a post about DIY brides for us. We find so many DIY brides visit our fairs looking for inspiration and they often need the help of a wedding planner to help them achieve their dream day, so thought this would make great reading for you all...

With the recession firmly holding its grip on the nations purse strings the dynamics of wedding spending have changed over the last few years. Most wedding suppliers will agree that the state of the nation’s finances has not necessarily affected the numbers of couples getting married but what it has done is changed the way the wedding budget is spent.   Depending on where you look the average spend on a UK wedding is between £15,000 and £25,000 but as the couple’s tighten their purse strings we are seeing this figure decrease steadily.  

Brides are becoming more DIY savvy and budget conscious, gone are the days of extravagant spending, out of control finances and unnecessary purchases.   Brides normally gain inspiration and ideas from three key sources; wedding fairs, the internet and bridal magazines. The focus of these sources has changed. Look through a large number of the wedding magazines on offer and you will see they are packed with budget saving ideas and DIY goodies. The real life wedding sections are full of inspiration from past Brides who have created their own stationery, favours, cakes, flowers and dresses. It is only natural that women want to pull off a day to match what is being reported on and make theirs bigger and better!   

The likes of Pinterest, Facebook and the copious amount of wedding blogs out there have changed the thinking of Brides entirely. A world of creativeness can now be accessed through the click of a button. Facebook enables Brides to see a huge range of suppliers that perhaps they would have never traditionally found. A lot of these are new businesses set up in the past few years that are bringing affordable yet different products and services to couples. Brides can search Pinterest for original ideas that they can replicate themselves at very low costs and involve the whole Bridal party. The blogs are acting in much the same way as the traditional wedding magazines and showcasing what other couples did on their big day. The beauty about these blogs is they often team these real life stories with do it yourself guides, free downloadable templates as well as supplier information.   

The nature of wedding venues has changed over the past few years to bring couples more choice about where to hold their celebrations. Venues such as barns, sports establishments, boats, village halls, historic houses, museums, marquees and even schools are now getting licenced or holding receptions as they realise they should be on the wedding band wagon! These venues often lend themselves to a less traditional look or are a blank canvas for the couples to work with. The negative can be the hire charge involved and the extra cost of facilities such as caterers so it is only natural that costs need to be kept down where possible. Low cost afternoon tea parties, asking the guests to be involved in bringing items for a dessert buffet or having a later wedding with only one meal mean budgets don’t get out of hand but the day is still as special as having a traditional format.   

The UK is very much in the middle of a ‘make do and mend’ revival and weddings now reflect this.  A return to traditional values is reflected in the television programmes we watch and the press articles we read. Brides are now drawing from the resources around them to use the talents of friends and family to pull off their big day with quirky, individual twists.   

Here at Behind The Scenes we have reacted to this change in Brides thinking by ensuring our packages suit everyone. Our Venue Set Up and Styling package starts at £100 and means couples can take the worry out of setting up all ther hard work. We look to work with suppliers who are offering something special to couples without necessarily having the price tag to match! Many of these businesses offer DIY classes to help cut down the spending and let Brides stay in control of their special day. These classes are great to have for a hen do as they get all the guests involved! What all the suppliers have in common is that they are all eager to offer as much advice as possible and pass on as much enthusiasm as they can to ensure that each individual day is as special as it can be and will last forever in the memories of the people involved. 

If you're a DIY Bride and think you may need some help with setting up on the big day then pop along to our next fair to say hi to Nicola and the BTSE team.

www.behindthescenesevents.co.uk

Bursledon Brickworks Museum Behind The Scenes!

Today we've been busy with some amazing suppliers down at Bursledon Brickworks Museum! In preparation for our event there on October 12th we arranged a beautiful secret garden meets industrial themed shoot to show brides just how beautiful the space can be. Not to mention showcase the talent of some great suppliers, Brides of a feather, Hannah Elizabeth Bridal, Wild and Green Florist, The Pom Pom Shack, Indulge in Vintage and Claire Greaves from Couture Hair and Make up.

Here are a few behind the scenes teaser pictures we snapped whilst setting up in the morning, but watch this space for the professional shots from BlueCloud Photography and Jenny Owens Photography.

Petal & Posie Floristry

This months 'Spotlight on supplier' is the lovely Petal and Posie Floristry! 

Launched to breathe new life into floristry design, Petal and Posie pride themselves on being original, contemporary and on trend. More than just a floristry service Petal and Posie want to inspire brides with the natural ability flowers have to transform any occasion. Their beautiful website shows how keen they are to inspire and engage with brides through inspiration boards and exciting blog.

When Stacey & Rosie exhibited at our Groundlings Theatre Wedding Fair in June 2014, the first thing they said on the day was ‘we don’t need this table’, which immediately got us intrigued and excited! They bought their own set up along and really made the most of the space which just displayed their creativity & originality amazingly for all Brides to see.

 “Founder and owner Stacey Grineau has 15 years in the florist industry, together with her husband they have 4 stalls throughout Dorset. Stacey’s style is influenced by the charm of vintage and the freshness of contemporary design, creating everything from bouquets to complete events. With a vision to get back to her creative roots and break away from run of the mill flowers in floristry. Petal and Posie was born.”

 “Stylist and business partner, Rosie Slater has worked in the advertising industry as an Art director for the past 15 years, this has given her an invaluable eye for detail and a natural ability to stay on trend. With experience in styling photo shoots and making all things look pretty, Rosie’s background in design ensures that all projects, big or small receive the finishing touches they deserve.”

 “Co-owner and head buyer at Petal & Posie Craig Daly has learnt his trade in the bustling fresh cut flower markets of Birmingham. Having a strong family background in flowers he has gained experience and understanding to a level that cannot be taught. Held in high esteem with most wholesalers and growers near and far. Industry contacts throughout Europe ensure the absolute best prices and contact list is the envy of every florist.”

We can’t wait for future events and photo shoots to see what else they may have up their floral sleeves!

Pop over to their website to say hello!

Photography - Hana Venn and Petal & Posie's own photographs.

A Lovely & Theatrical Affair!

The first official day of the summer and the sun had put his hat on for our Lovely & Theatrical affair at The Groundlings Theatre, Portsmouth. A glorious day for their much anticipated first fair which turned out to be a very successful one for exhibitors and brides a like.

After climbing the beautiful rustic wooden staircase the brides first ventured into the Green room to meet the lovely Louise and her large roulette table from Jolly Jesters and Worn Once Sparkles with their huge collection of stunning dresses.

The main theatre room was filled with exhibitors chatting to brides, grooms, bridesmaids and families. The room was buzzing with energy from the continuous entertainment provided by the the group Voices from the Heather Uden Choir and the fabulously retro All in The Swing.

Ofcourse a Lovely & Unique wedding fair wouldn't be complete without some bunting strung from the ceiling, a stunnugly dressed round table supplied by Bridesof a Feather to inspire brides, gorgeous fresh flowers, tempting treats and a few alternative table plans.

Queen Bee’s supplied their delightful pop up tea room serving refreshments and nostalgic cakes in the quirky café area whilst Caravanilla supplied delicious British Ice Cream from Olive the 60’s Caravan. Pleasing the visitors with their unusual choices of ice cream and vintage theme, our favourite flavour was the Cider Sorbet.

The talented Hana Venn who helped us out with the previous photo shoot at The Theatre was also event Photographer for us on the day and has captured some amazing shots of the day.

Here are some of our favourites but to view the all the pictures Click Here.

Photography by Hana Venn.