Kelmarsh Hall Wedding Fair

A couple of weekends ago we visited the Silver Linings Wedding fair at Kelmarsh Hall, a stunning wedding venue. I was captivated by the romance of the place the first time that we visited so I was really excited to go back to see some lovely wedding suppliers.

First I wanted to take some detail shots of the gorgeous rooms. The above is the chandelier in The Great Hall. The ceiling is beautiful and I love the bird-cage effect.

This is the chandelier in The Saloon. It hasn't shown up very well on this photo but the walls are painted a beautiful vintage sage green / duck egg blue that is so difficult to capture, but which looks beautiful against white and crystal.

The black and white corridor was the perfect place to show gorgeous dresses from a variety of companies. They looked stunning against the backdrop of the various period features and it was really lovely to see them in various lights.

The corridor behind the great hall leads to a sweeping staircase along with another chandelier, and with the light pouring in through the window, it highlighted the lovely pink / salmon colour of the walls.

There was a fantastic mix of suppliers, some I had heard of and some I hadn't, and below are a selection of some of my favourites

Carriages are an Asian wedding planning company, and I loved the photographs they had used on their flyer. The car and the backs of the outfits in a sepia tone looked lovely. The flyer from Gemma Willis really caught my eye for the different style of the image used. It wasn't a traditional posed shot and seemed to sum up the couple nicely.

Star Paws are a company specialising in getting your pooch primped, primed and ready for its moment in the spotlight on your big day. They had an adorable little doggy dressed up in an a cute outfit to show what they could do, so sweet!

Courtyard Bridal Boutique is on my list of places to visit to start my dress search and it was lovely to meet some of the ladies from the shop. They really know their stuff and I really enjoyed talking to them about different fabrics and their new store. I'm really looking forward to visiting them to see what lovely things they have in stock.

Wedding cake tasting - Cupcakes and Afternoon Tea

This year I am making the wedding cake of a friend I used to work with. Their theme is bright and colourful, and they have asked me to use classic 100's and 1000's on their cake to fit in with this. Two tiers will be completely covered in buttercream with the 100's and 1000's attached, and the other two will be covered in white fondant with circles of fondant with 100's and 1000's. They are having a different flavour for each of the four tiers so I wanted to have a tasting for them to show them what the decoration would look like and also to check they were happy with the flavours.

I started by making the fondant circles, leaving enough time for them to dry. I made different sizes so we could see how the sizes would differ when they were covered with the decorations.

I then covered each circle with a layer of edible glue...

...and pressed them gently into a plate of 100's and 1000's.

This is the result of one dip and as you can see they look a little thin. It worked well on the smaller circles, but with the larger ones I found a better way was to place the disc with the glue upwards and pour the 100's and 1000's over the top, pressing them down as I went.

I wasn't sure the glue was going to hold them on, however when I checked they were holding firm! There were a few that had escaped (mainly all over the kitchen floor when I was trying to decorate them) but I think that's just their prerogative!

As well as the circles I also wanted to emulate the buttercream tiers, so I used the carrot cake cupcakes that had risen well to be my guinea pigs.

I covered the domes with a layer of butter cream...

...smoothed it a little...

...and then dunked the cake straight into the plate of 100's and 1000's, moving it around to the edges so I made sure all of the butter cream was covered.

These stuck in a much thicker layer than the edible glue, and actually felt fairly sturdy.

Once they were dry I tried shaking the cakes to see if they would all fall off, however to my surprise again they all stuck firm! I imaging in transport I may loose a few, however with that many, I'm hoping the effect will still be lovely.

Lemon drizzle on the left and vanilla on the right. I hate it when cupcake cases fold in on themselves, grrr!

Vanilla buttercream was piped on to all of the cupcakes to prevent a transfer of flavour. When the cake is stacked all of the flavours are so unique I don't want them to merge into one. We decided that vanilla butter cream was the best way to do this and to keep a consistent look across everything.

I filled the Victoria sponge cakes with strawberry jam before replacing the top and piping over it.

I then added three fondant decorations to the Victoria sponge cakes...

...a medium disc to the coffee and walnut...

...and a large disc to the lemon drizzle.

All together they looked really pretty, but I still had to label them to make sure that I remembered what was what.

To make the cake tasting extra special I put on a little afternoon tea spread on our coffee table with a nice flowery tablecloth and baked some sultana scones as well. You really can't beat a freshly baked scone, and it was lovely to have them as a tasty extra for the cake tasting as well.

We went through all of the details of the sketches that I had done previously and checked that they were happy with all of the flavours. We confirmed the cake topper and I was delighted to hear that the only amends they wanted to make was to change the carrot cake for the largest tier as they liked it so much and more coffee in the coffee and walnut cake. I'm feeling a lot more confident about the design now I have practiced some of the elements, and I'm looking forward to the first week in May when I can get started!

Wedding table centrepieces - Vases and Candlesticks

The little bits of any project are often the most fun, and to give ourselves a bit of a break from the big scary and expensive bits of wedding planning, we decided to look at table centrepieces. Originally we wanted to go with tall candelabras with floral decorations, but when we costed them up with the flowers and took into account the height of them, we decided to style the tables ourselves.

Our first purchases were four candlesticks from Marks and Spencer in their sale. They are the copper / rose gold coloured and clear glass candlesticks to hold pillar candles. We then went on a raid of the charity shops in Olney and found some fantastic bits. 

The lilac-tinged glass candlesticks were £3.00 for the pair in the Willen Hospice shop!

The cut glass vase was also £3.00 from the Willen Hospice shop.

This pair of silver candlesticks were found in the Mercy in Action shop. They've got lovely detailing around the bottom and a lovely elegant shape.

We then went for a wander around the Olney Antiques centre, and found a huge range of beautiful antiques that would have looked amazing on the tables, but would have blown the budget completely! Instead we found a C1880 Flower / Celery vase (Who had to choose between flowers and celery to display!) for £16.00 and two lovely spotted mirror pillar candle holders for £10.00 for the pair! I was so please with our little haul, and packed them up to take to my parents to store in their roof.

Whilst we were up in the roof we rummaged through all the heirlooms and collections that mum and dad have accumulated over the years, we found all of the vases for the tables and more candle holders! This gorgeous cut glass cake stand will be the perfect setting for a collection of different sized and coloured pillar candles.

A collection of small vases will be perfect for smaller flower arrangements and will look lovely with tables with more candles on. 

One of the vases was given to my parents as a wedding present on their wedding day and is engraved with their names and the date of their wedding which is a lovely personal touch.

Mum and dad used to use these candlesticks in the lounge, and I love the art deco details. They're a little different from the other pieces we have found, but really like the eclectic mix-match of styles. The little glass sugar shaker is just a pretty decorative touch that will add a little sparkle to one of the tables.

This lovely little bowl is just that, it will look great filled with flowers and the lid can be set to one side for added decoration.

Waddesdon Wedding Inspiration Day

A couple of weekends ago, my mum, maid of honour Holly and I went to the Wedding Inspiration Day at Waddesdon Dairy and The Five Arrows Hotel. It was our first outing to wedding plan just the three of us and I was really looking forward to going. Waddesdon is a gorgeous venue, and to experience it looking lovely for a fair was fantastic.

The Wintergreen was a long space, part conservatory part orangery with stone urns and lots of natural light. 

The table settings were one of my favourite parts and they gave me so many ideas of colours, textures and flowers. There was a whole mix of suppliers who had contributed which was great, as it gave you the chance to experience what each of them could do. I loved the decorative charger plates and coloured glassware.

Although it was a chilly day, the Pavilion was set up for a civil ceremony. The Dairy looked out over a lovely tranquil lake with ducks and swans swimming past and modern sculpture nestled in the trees. I loved the use of the foliage covered hoops for decoration and the draped wicker heart at the top of the aisle.

I also got to see the designs of Harriet Wilde up close and in person. I have loved her designs ever since I discovered them on Pinterest, so it was great to see the shoes up close and in person. The floral metal detail was as intricate as I had imagined and just as pretty. She also had some other styles to show and it was great to see what else was available. 

Outside in the drinks and canapé marquee the styling continued and tall poser tables were made out of old trunks and suitcases with vintage luggage labels.

Their chalkboards to direct you around the various sites were great for inspiration for different typography styles, designs and wording to use for our own signs, and made me think that I better start practicing! It's not until you see a really good chalkboard that you realise what a skill it is.

Rose gold has been a huge trend in jewellery, but on this table display it had spread to the cutlery. It doesn't particularly show up well on my photos but the pink-hued metal against the green and cream was lovely. 

Xander and Thea - http://xanderandthea.com had a beautiful display in the Wintergarden with a beautifully styled table with tips on what to ask your photographer. Their shots were beautiful and the colours worked so well together. I love the muted and vintage shades and how everyone looked so relaxed. This is exactly the kind of style I want to emulate in our photographs of our big day. Their website is so lovely and contains some gorgeous sample shots of beautiful couples.

White Cottage Weddings - https://www.whitecottageweddings.com had a lovely stand showcasing a handful of their designs that they can create. They were giving out packs of samples with lots of original and unusual ideas and all of them were so inspirational, for their designs, wording, paper stock or layout. They have given me lots of ideas of what to include on our invitations to make them quirky, personal and unusual. Plus their website is beautiful and I love the bespoke map section that they provide!

These information cards were left dotted around the decorated tables with the information of those who had contributed. It was great to see so many companies working together to show what they could do not just on their own but collaboratively to produce a beautiful outcome.

The links to their website are below;

The Bespoke Wedding Company - http://thebespokeweddingco.com

Elite Hire - http://www.elitehire.co.uk

Duchess and Butler (I love their logo!) - http://duchessandbutler.com

Signature Flowers - https://www.signature-flowers.co.uk

On Cloud Nine Stationary (Absolutely love their map designs and the 'Save the Date' paper aeroplane!) - http://www.oncloudnine.org.uk

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