Here comes the sun!

So this lovely hot and sunny weather might be perfect for your wedding day but it has got me thinking that there are a few things you should consider if your wedding falls on a gorgeous day! You might not be expecting the sun, but in Britain you just never know! Its always best to be prepared! It might be your big day but you should also keep your guests in mind so that they have a fabulous time too and go home thinking its the best wedding they have ever been to!

Image courtesy of www.bigbouquet.co.uk

 Here are some of my hints and tips to ensure everyone can enjoy your day!

Number 1-  Have plenty of water on hand for your guests

This is very important if you're having an outdoor drinks reception or if your reception is going to be in a marquee. Its also important if you have children at your wedding. But lastly make sure you, the Bride and Groom drink plenty of water- its your special day and you want to enjoy - you don't want a headache for the rest of the day because you're dehydrated! Serve it in pretty glasses with lots of ice and slices of lemon and lime to add a refreshing hint.

We always try to bring with us to the ceremony a basket of bottles of water or a lovely container filled with ice and bottles to keep cool.  On a really hot day when guests come in / out of the Church or civil ceremony they are often really parched so its great for them to be able to grab some water on the day in or out and little tip - have a bottle handy for the bride before the ceremony starts with a straw so as not to spoil the lipstick!

Image courtesy of www.visualphotos.com

Number 2- Greet your guests with a refreshing drink

Alcohol is dehydrating, so rather than meeting your guests with a glass of Champagne staight away, offer a choice of refreshing soft drink such as elderflower presse, traditional cloudy lemondade or iced tea and then offer them a glass of Champagne after. This works particularly well if you are having a church service followed by your reception elsewhere as guests will be hot and bothered by the time they arrive at the venue after driving in a hot and stuffy car.

Image courtesy of www.potterybarn.com

Number 3- Provide some shade

Yes, everyone loves this weather but not everyone loves it all day long. Put some nice parasols outside to offer an escape from the sun for your guests- you'll probably appreciate it too after wearing a bridal gown all day. Alternatively, provided a selection of hand held parasols for people to help themselves to.

Image courtesy of Paradise parasols

Image courtesy of www.trendir.com

Number 3- Suncream

Be sure to buy a couple of bottles of suncream to put in the toilets. Its something your guests probably won't have thought of when leaving the house in a mad rush to leave on time in the morning. And if they have, they probably won't have put any on as they won't want to smell of suncream all day. By the time they have been stood out in the sun for a while they will have changed their minds and really wished they had put some on! As the Bride, the last thing you want is to get sunburnt on your wedding day so make sure you put some on too! You don't want red shoulders in your photos and you don't want to be peeling before you even go on your honeymoon!

Image courtesy of www.beautyandthedirt.com

Number 4- Hayfever Tablets

With the sun comes hayfever! Put a couple of boxes of hay fever tablets in the toilets so that your guests aren't sneezing and sniffing all day and can enjoy the sun rather than having to hide inside all day.

Image courtesy of www.personalpharmacy.co.uk

Number 5- Fans

Put some fans in a small basket that your guests can help themselves too. If you don't want to go for the battery operated fans, buy some really pretty paper fans that match your theme- you could even use them as favours on the tables.

Image courtesy of www.caesarsweddingfavours.co.uk

Number 6- Toiletries

Put some spay deodorant and some nice perfume in the toilets that guests can help themselves to- they will really appreciate this gesture I can guarantee you! After standing outside in the heat and then dancing the night away your guests will often feel the need for a bit of a freshen up! Add a packet of baby wipes or make up wipes too to wipe away those smudged Panda eyes from the heat! Blotting paper and a powder can also be a god send for your guests who might want to take away the shine but have forgotten their makeup bags!

Image courtesy of www.instyle.com

Number 7- Give the ladies some flip flops to change into

Chances are with the British weather, the ladies won't have bought outfits for a hot sunny day! They will probably have bought high, enclosed heels which will rub on a hot day. Give every lady a pair of comfy flip flops so they can slip off their heels and dance the night away and avoid dancing in bare feet which is not the best idea with potentially broken glass on the floor!

Image courtesy of www.iconicaphotography.com

We have recently been introduced to a company who did a great little box of flip flops so you can buy the box with x 20 pairs of flip flops inside all ready to go and your guests can take from the box and then the box can be used afterwards for a really good place to store your wedding day memorabilia.

For more information visit Heels Off

Number 8- Eat!

If its a hot day, you might not feel like eating much when you come to sit down for your wedding breakfast but it is really important that you make sure you eat something and enjoy it! If you don't you'll run out of energy and feel dizzy later. Plus you'll only regret it later when you didn't taste all of the delicious food you had on offer!

Image courtesy of www.rankinephotography.com

Number 9- Bugs!

These nasty little things come out in the sun, particularly in the evening. Light some citronella candles outside at your evening venue to keep those pesky little flys away. Also invest in some bug spray and put in your little basket of goodies for the loo to avoid you and your guests being bitten! 

Image courtesy of www.lavendarbiscuit.blospot.com

Number 10- Ice cream

Get an ice cream man or a traditional ice cream tricycle to come to your wedding either during your drinks reception (would make for some great photos!) or between your wedding breakfast and evening reception. Your guests will love it and really appreciate the ice cream to cool down! The image below is of Little Al who you can hire for your wedding at our venue on the beach in Bournemouth Beach Weddings Bournemouth

Image courtesy of IanH Photography

Or what about a refreshing watermelon lolly?
Mini Mate

Enjoy the sun and long may it stay out!

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Going for Gold!

As Olympic fever really hits the country today with the opening ceremony this evening, we thought we’d treat you to a little Olympic inspired blog!

If you fancy an Olympic themed wedding or party, then let our mood boards below inspire your décor and theming!

A true Olympic theme

Or why not go back to the Olympics roots and go for a Grecian theme for your special day.

Or if you’re feeling very patriotic with all the celebrations in Britain this year, how about a Best of British or London insipred theme?

Alternatively, if you don’t want to theme your day with the Olympics but still want to get into the spirit, why don’t you incorporate your very own mini games into your wedding day? Revert your guests back to their childhood and treat them to some fun and silly games and races- very nostalgic!

Image courtesy of Joel Smith Photography

Getting all your guests involved will really bring everyone together and the laughs will be endless! Even those who don’t want to participate will have a great time but we think you’ll be surprised at how many people  really get into the spirit and want to join in!

A mini games will also make for some very special photo opportunities and will ensure your guests will never forget your day!

The nostalgic silly sports are the best so that its fun and not taken too seriously- although you can guarantee there will always be one competitive one!

How about a sack race?

Image courtesy of Joel Smith Photography

Or Egg and spoon race?

Image courtesy of phweddings.co.uk

Or tug of war?

Image courtesy of activehire.co.uk

Or a wheel barrow race?

Image courtesy of Leslie Ann Mills

Or a sandcastle building competition if you’re on the beach- would be perfect for Beach Weddings Bournemouth

Image courtesy of leighton-orient-blog.blogspot.com

Or a three-legged race?

Image courtesy of alexbecket.co.uk

Or why not put your guests into teams and play baseball or rounders or good old English cricket?!

Image courtesy of Sundberg Photography

Some other ideas for you are  welly throwing, balancing bean bags on your head, obstacle course, quoit throwing to see who can throw theirs the furthest, relay racing- theres so many endless possibilities!

To give your guests something to really remember your day by it could be a great idea to order some personalised gold, silver and bronze medals that have been personalised with the Bride and Groom’s names with the date of your wedding to congratulate those who take part in your games! This alone will bring out the competitiveness in your guests who will revert back to their childhood with the desire to win a medal!

Image courtesy of amazon.co.uk

All that’s left to say is good luck in your competition! Enjoy the opening ceremony- you never know you might get some wedding inspiration from there!

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Mood board credits

Olympic colours mood board

Blue flowers- weddingflowers-cotswolds.co.uk

Red flowers-bouquetweddingflower.co.uk

Yellow flowers- BXB Photography

Green flowers- prweb.co.uk

Black bouquet- Blue petyl bouquets

Red Shoes- jcowandewar.wordpress.com

Blue shoes- fairyshoeprincess.com

Green shoes- ninashoes.com

Yellow shoes- pied a terre

Black shoes- rasputinmataram.com

Blue table- lovely wedding.info

Green table- word-of-wedding.com

Yellow table- bridesmaidsandweddings.com

Red table- weddingsonthefrenchriviera.com

Red Bridesmaid dresses- whiteazaleabridesmaiddresses.blogspot.co.uk

Yellow bridesmaid dresses- katemiddletondresses.org

Blue bridesmaid dresses- momentville.com

Black bridesmaid dresses- girlsdressoffer.co.uk

Green bridesmaid dresses- Cassidy Duhon

Grecian theme Mood Board

(Left to right)

Flower girls- bridalcookie.com

Statue- bransoneventrental.com

Handbag- brides.com

Dress- inweddingdress.com

Urns- pyromouse.org

Column wedding cake- brides.com

Draping- wedding-decorations-with-columns.bjfbiero.dnsalias.net/?q=Wedding%20Decorations%20With%20Columns

Leaf earrings- polyvore.com

Wedding dress- Dessy

Olives- Wikipedia.org

Olympic flame- metro.co.uk

One shoulder wedding dress with ruffles- Dessy

Grecian Hair with hairband- theweddingtiara.com

Wedding cake- pinterest.com/stilettofotog/captivating-cakes-cupcakes

Jewellery- athensguide.com

Table cloth- resourceoneinc.com

Best of British

(Left to right)

Underground sign- pureclassics.blogspot.com

London cake- cakelove.tumblr.com

Phone boxes- popartuk.com

Guestbook- madewithlovedesigns.co.uk

Lollipops- notonthehighstreet.com

Post box- theweddingpostbox.com

Black cab- photograph-london.com

Red bus- viktorialove.com

Pimms- fdin.org.uk

London flags- houseofturquoise.com

Bunting- nationalgallery.co.uk

Shoes- domesticsluttery.com

Black cab with wedding ribbons- thechiefbridesmaid.co.uk

Union Jack Heart decoration/pew end- littlepresentpalace.co.uk

Bride- wedbits.com

Place card- beadazzledesigns.co.uk

Flowers- arenaflowers.com

Victoria Sponge- goodtoknow.co.uk

Chair- onewedding.co.uk

New Forest Marquee Wedding - Elegant and Pretty - Real Wedding of Catherine and Will

Now this wedding has taken a long time for us to blog about.  Having recently received the disk of images from the hugely popular Surrey based photographer Gill Flett we couldn’t wait to blog about it and share these images with you.  The wedding of Cate and Will was such an elegant affair and one of the most stunning brides that we have to say we have ever seen.  Cate looked radiant in her lace gown which was understated and simple and suited her style perfectly.  

We were recommended by a fellow wedding planner to work with Cate and Will (for which we are thankful to have had the recommendation) to help plan the last few weeks of their wedding and manage their day.  Things were a little complex when we became involved with a lot of plans left to be made so close to the wedding.  Cate and Will had done a great job to select the most stunning venue – a marquee based wedding on the lawns of Exbury Gardens in the New Forest but with Cate and Will living out of the area and having busy jobs and their family and friends travelling to spend their day with them there was a lot to do in a very short space of time.

Our initial meeting on site with me was a long one and it was clear that Cate wanted to hand over the reigns to someone to take the burden away from her and I was very happy to do that.  We spent a long time running through all the details of the day which Cate had planned so far with her Mother and her Husband to be.  Cate and Will had had a lot of interest in the similarities between themselves and “the” Kate and Will whose nuptials were coming up shortly before our couples and they had been featured in magazines and there was a lot of buzz about it. 

I spent a long few days confirming plans with marquee company and furniture hire companies  and arranging last minute loos (the job is so glamorous!) and liaising with the catering company to ensure that we could pull this wedding together as there were a lot of things left to finalise.  The weather for this wedding was thankfully gloriously kind to us and after a few weeks leading up to this wedding of lots of planning.  The day itself went like a dream.  The day started with me being on site early to finish off the 3 days I had spent on site overseeing the marquee going up and he internal works being completed.  The cake arrived and was set up and looked amazing.  Flowers courtesy of the amazing Garden Inn arrived and were perfectly suited to Cate’s chic and elegant theme with vintage touches.  

The catering team came on site and we completed the table set up and place cards went out and whilst the catering team started on the food for the day I went off to the Church to greet the arrival of Groom and Groomsmen to ensure all were ship shape ready for the ceremony and to greet the arrival of the Bride.

After the ceremony and back at the marquee guests were treated to plenty of Pimms after the ceremony and after the bride and groom welcomed them into the marquee they dined on venison and sea bass.

This is a small selection of our favourite images from the day courtesy of Gill Flett who was an absolute pleasure to work with

Cate and Will used us for a last minute rescue service for their marquee wedding and this is what they felt about our service. 

"Melanie, I wanted to email you and say what a fantastic job you did at our wedding. I know we weren't an easy one to deal with exactly but you handled it as if it was a piece of cake (which I know it was not!). I honestly don't think the wedding would have taken place had you not been there to deal with the various catastrophes and iron out all the other little details I'd not thought of. Instead, I enjoyed every minute of the day which I honestly didn't expect. It was all just so beautiful, everything ran so smoothly and you turned the marquee from an ugly duckling in to a swan under some pretty mean circumstances - I do not know how you remain so calm! I also noticed all the little extras like the paper lanterns and candles that you'd put out, which made such a difference. I can't tell you how highly I recommend you. You literally thought of everything. You were wonderful!"

Our advice is to get a planner in early especially for your marquee wedding.  Marquee based weddings are actually a lot harder to arrange, involve a lot more planning and consideration and a lot more can go wrong.  We had to work extremely hard and fast to pull together a lot of details for Cate and Will to ensure that their day went without a hitch and it was a true blessing that the weather was kind to them.  They had been let down by a number of suppliers sadly and if we had not have been able to step in last minute Cate would have been one stressed out bride on her day which is such a shame.  Take our advice and get a planner in early.  A good planner will not only save you time and stress but will not work on a commission basis with suppliers so will pass all commissions on to you as discounts so you should save money along the way.  Use an expert to get your plans organised early and well. 


If you would like any help with planning or rescuing your wedding, marquee or venue based, please contact us 

Part II - The day of the Daybreak Wedding - Kate and Frazer and the start of our first wedding season

The wedding day arrived and the beach was alive with hustle and bustle very early in the morning.  We are always very lucky with our beach weddings  that the seafront team work hard and start early to get the beach prepared for weddings and today was no exception. The tractors were out early and we were thankful for that to make sure that the beach was well groomed for the imminent arrival of one very special couple. 

Kate and her bridesmaids were up early and being pampered by Kate Middleton’s hairdresser Richard Ward no less who created an elegant style for Kate with her hair up and dotted with beautiful wired rose buds. 

And our very own Laura Mackenzie who styled the Bridesmaids hair who wanted soft blow dried hair.

The wonderful and super talented photographer Ian Hamilton was appointed as the official photographer for Kate and Frazer and started work early taking bridal preparation shots at The Marriott Hotel whilst Kate was getting ready and being interviewed by Angellica Bell with live streams going out to ITV.  With all this in mind Kate was very much a calm bride and just took the day in which is a real surprise with all that had to be taken into account. Surrounded by TV crew and presenters and lots going on its enough on a "normal" wedding day but Kate had so much more to contend with and dealt with it all incredibly well - such a pleasure to be around. 

Angellica Bell helping Kate with her stunning Amanda Wakeley gown

Down in the marquee Melanie was on hand to greet Frazer and his Groomsmen and we spent the final hour tweaking the marquee and the ties and buttonholes and making sure that everyone was well prepared and calm - Frazer was so calm and chilled that we had to keep checking that it was his wedding day!  No nerves at all it seemed - just enjoying the moment. 

Melanie "backstage" with Angellica and Michael and the Groomsmen with the TV crew getting ready to go live on air 

 

Frazer and the Best Man pre-ceremony - and an appearance from the family dog of course too!

Coastal Creatives made this for  Kate and Frazer as a gift to mark their beach wedding day 

 

Relaxed and calm were the boys! 

 

The stunning pew end flower buckets were from our recommended Beach Wedding florists Arcade Flowers - trimmed with blue candy striped ribbon to finish the look 

When Kate arrived we had been so lucky all morning that no one had been caught in the rain.  The press decided that they would print pictures the following day stating that we had been showered all day but in fact we were extremely lucky! 


Our pretty white umbrellas were used to keep people from peeking pre ceremony and to prevent the wind from getting at that wonderful hair do! 

 

The Bride, Kate and her stylists arriving at the marquee 

Kate looked absolutely stunning in an Amanda Wakeley gown and just inside the marquee had some last minute hair and make-up tweaks and was ready to walk down to the aisle to her friend Lucy singing Eva Cassidy’s “take my breath away” which created an emotional and surprisingly private feel to the occasion although the ceremony was being streamed to millions of people across the country!  

Lucy preparing to sing for the ceremony

Frazer’s face when he first saw his bride was an absolute picture.

  

ITV Floor Manager greeting the Bridal party as they start to walk down the aisle live on ITV breakfast television

Now viewers on the morning will have noticed that the programme actually cut short during the official ceremony.  The reason for this (and they say never work with animals and children!!) was that the two adorable children shown below were unfortunately a little late doing their thing walking down the aisle which made the ceremony run a little late and when ITV have to go to an ad break then there is no other choice!  So cute though dont you think! 

 

 

The beautiful "three Rachels" bridesmaids looking stunning during the ceremony 

On the decking of the Wedding Hut, surrounded by sand, Kate and Frazer said their vows to each other and the moments were extremely heartfelt and tender and it was a true privilege to share those moments. The guests in the marquee were still whilst watching on

The moment that Kate arrived to Frazer  to marry 

Stunning image of Kate during the ceremony 

Family look on with teary eyes during the ceremony

Beautiful moments during the ceremony 

 

Signing of the Register inside our Wedding Hut after the ceremony

 

Great picture of the new Mr and Mrs Seed after the ceremony 

Kate and Frazer enjoying some fun moments with their Bridesmaids after the ceremony and after the TV crew had left 

Guests were treated to breakfast canapes 

After the ceremony the couple went live to the ITV studios to give their feelings on the day so far and were given a fabulous cruise honeymoon as a complete surprise! 

In the marquee after the ceremony, guests were treated to Champagne and yummy canapés prepared by our caterers Fish Face Events.

Melanie with the newly weds 

Guests make their way from our beach venue up the cliff lift to The Marriott Hotel to continue their celebrations 

It was such a pleasure to have this as our first official wedding on the beach and Kate and Frazer and their families were a real pleasure to deal with.  Not one to want to take the easy route, having our first wedding live on national TV broadcasting to the nation in not the best weather we could have asked for but it was all amazing experience and we have to say that we were thrilled with the way it all went and looking back on the last few months now that we are well into our first season it was such fun and we really loved every minute - thanks to everyone who made it possible and particular thanks to Ian Hamilton of IanH Photography who did such a superb job in shooting this wedding with very little notice, early starts, long days and having to dodge in and out of TV crews to get the pictures and boy did he get the pictures - finishing with this - one of our favourites - taken as the Bride and Groom made their way into dinner at The Marriott Hotel - simply beautiful. 

All the Beach Weddings Bournemouth team

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