Dance your Feet Off on New Years Eve with Popnoggins

We are delighted that this New Years Eve the lovely people who are attending our Moulin Rouge New Years Eve charity ball at Compton Acres, Poole, Dorset will be able to try Popnoggins for the first time outside of London

This fantastic corporate entertainment system is the latest in party entertainment for your guests - forget karaoke or photo booths - this is system uses the latest in green screen technology allowing our party guests to make their choice of favourite dance video and then they can actually start in it themselves!

At our charity ball, all guests can have a go and record their own DVD and take it home with them to view again and again - after a small glass of sherry this certainly is amusing entertainment for you and your friends!

We are delighted to welcome Popnoggins to the South Coast - for more information visit www.popnoggins.com

Happy New Year!

Christmas Opening Times

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year To All our Friends, Colleagues and Customers

Office Opening Times:

Christmas Eve - Open until 5pm

Christmas Day - Closed

Boxing Day - Closed

Sunday 27th December - Closed

Monday 28th December - Open

Tuesday 29th December - Open

Wednesday 30th December - Open

Thursday 31st December - Open

Friday 1st January - Closed

For any urgent enquiries or ticket purchases for the New Years Eve Moulin Rouge Ball please email or call the office in the usual way as email and messages will be checked as often as possible during the times which we are closed

Look forward to seeing you on New Years Eve!

Full details can be found at http://www.bellissimo-events.co.uk/upcoming-events.htm

The Orange Restaurant With Rooms, Pimlico, London

This week I went to sample a new venue in London - The Orange Restaurant. They have recently refurbished this beautiful building to bring four delighfully appointed rooms to their restaurant guests so you can add in an overnight stay after your meal. We sampled the food too and had a wondeful evening - it was a very lively and busy place to be on a wet Monday night in London. We chose rib-eye steak and pizza from their wood fired ovens which gives that beautiful aroma when you dine. We stayed in the St Barnabus Room which has been beautifully finished with stripped floor boards and high ceilings and a very chic finish and lots of lovely touches including a docking station and charger for your iphone. This venue also offers exclusive hire perfect for your own function or wedding and its ideally situated for a pre-Christmas shopping spree followed by a lovely dinner and overnight stay - I will be sure to return!

For more information visit www.theorange.co.uk

Table favour Ideas

(Photograph credit - http://www.americanbridal.com/)

Favour ideas are getting far more interesting these days - and with so many to choose from where is a bride to start? Well, we have compiled a shortlist of our favourite ideas to help you along your way - and favours are not just for weddings - why not leave a small table gift for your guests at your Christmas table of party or next fundraising event. Its a lovely touch to add to any celebration or occasion - especially with edible gifts look to personalise them with the wedding or event details and keep the favours in line with your event/wedding theme - they don't have to cost a fortune. In our family the Christmas day host always leaves a table gift for each guest - inexpensive Christmas table favours!

* Jars of jam or honey

* Flavoured olive oil miniature

* Single stem flower at each place setting

* Small heart shaped vanity mirror for the ladies

* Lottery ticket for the next draw after your event

* Go eco-friendly with plantable favours such as seeded paper ("Love Grows" - above)

* For a Christmas event what about a lovely christmas decoration with ribbon and labelled with the event details maybe local or handmade

* Potted herbs

* Miniature servings of gourmet coffee or herbal tea

* Miniature personalised jars filled with candy or chocolate

Do you have any unusual table favour ideas?

Wedding Planning in the US

I was delighted last week to spend a few days exploring a small part of California in the US to visit a friend but also to get some ideas and inspiration to bring back to the UK to pass on to my clients for their own weddings and events. Having been in the US during Halloween and then seeing the shops filling up with their treats for "fall" and the "holidays" it was wonderful to see just how differently the seasons are celebrated in the US. Halloween celebrations are huge in the US with all the children being escorted for a very well organised trick or treat evening with their parents following with tumbler of wine in hand and dressed to suit the occasion - such fun!

We visited a lovely placed called Los Gatos not far from San Jose, California and I was inspired by the beautiful shops displaying wonderful flowers and plants - full of inspiration for weddings.

I also met some American ladies to talk about wedding planning in the US and how different wedding planning is in the US compared to the UK. In the US its pretty much top of the list for couples when they decide to marry that the Wedding Planner is contacted first of all to help assist the couple with their arrangements. Amercian couples fully understand the concept of wedding planning and the invaluable help which the planner gives to the couple due to their experience with planning weddings and events over and over again and being able to plan for every eventuality and to share their design ideas and connections with local suppliers. It seems as if its quite unusual for a couple to marry wedding without a planner being involved.

American brides do not take the chance of their wedding day passing as a "blur" with them trying to ensure that every little detail unfolds as they want it to during their day - they get the professional in to help from the beginning. The services of a wedding planner in the US is not considered a luxury but an essential service.

The US have clearly got it right and whilst here in the UK we are behind the US in this thinking - we are gradually catching up with this concept!

Cupcake heaven - Martha Stewart's Cupcake book

Having just returned from a short trip to the US, I must tell you about this lovely cupcake book by Martha Stewart - I am currently addicted! Full of wonderful ideas for cupcakes for every occasion - perfect if you need some inspiration for your own celebration. There really has to be a cupcake for every occasion! I have already tried making a few - think I will start working my way through the book! Yummy!

Pretty in pink - and good enough to eat!

We think you would be in heaven with a beautiful candy buffet like this one which was created for a Martha Stewart Weddings event by Amy Atlas Events - how gorgeous! Perfect for a baby shower when a girl is the expected new arrival! Change the colour scheme to suit your event. Great idea also for a bridal shower or create a wonderful selection of sweet treats for your guests to enjoy after your wedding breakfast

Photographs courtesy of - Amy Atlas Events

Dual purpose wedding flowers for the savvy bride

I am loving these beautiful floral wreaths as shown on The Bride's Guide - Martha Stewart Weddings. What a fabulous idea to have wreaths such as these hanging on the end of some of the pews in the Church which can then easily be moved to your reception venue and perhaps used to decorate the room by hanging on the back of some of the chairs or other suitable places - shown below decorating a beautiful window with the light flooding through. The examples below are shown using hydrangeas but adapt to the floral theme of your own wedding

Photo credit - Chrisitan Oth Studios

Another idea is that if you have large pedestal arrangements in the Church ask your wedding planner or florist to move from the Church to your reception venue if possible whilst your guests are making their way to the reception - you could then use again to decorate an entrance or the top table - people will hardly notice and you will get to enjoy them all day!

If you are having a civil ceremony in the same venue - again, ask your wedding planner to move flowers from the ceremony room immediately after the ceremony and photos and use in the room where your wedding breakfast will be served

If its a Church wedding, share the flowers and the cost with other couples who may be marrying on the same day as you

We are delighted to have been featured in the current edition of You and Your Wedding magazine in a feature entitled "Stretching your Wedding Budget" which is available now and is featured amongst lots of other valuable tips from fellow planners from the UKAWP www.ukawp.com

For the online edition http://www.youandyourwedding.co.uk/v1/Stretch_your_wedding_budget

For more essential advice and information on how you can save on your wedding give us a call to arrange a free consulation

New Years Eve Moulin Rouge themed ball tickets on sale!

(Image of Can Can dancers courtesy of
H2OEntertainment)

We are delighted that the tickets for our New Years Eve Ball in aid of Dorset childrens' charity Julia's House are now on sale and in the first few weeks ticket sales have gone really well. The event promises to be packed with sumptuous food, fabulous entertainment and music all wrapped up in a wonderful venue - The Italian Villa, Compton Acres http://www.comptonacres.co.uk/

Why not get your friends and family to join you for a New Years Eve to remember. We already have some companies who have reserved tables for a "late" Christmas party with a difference and what a great idea. All tables are round tables of either 8 or 10 people. Tables or tickets can be reserved now with the ticket price being spread accross three easy payments. By Christmas your New Years Eve will all be taken care of! Credit and debt card facilities available. Call now 01202 533014 or see our "upcoming events" page on our website http://www.bellissimo-events.co.uk/upcoming-events.htm

(Food image courtesy of Beales Gourmet - http://www.beales-gourmet.com/)

Essential Advice - How to save money on your wedding

Its been the talk of the "wedding world" for a while now and is still very current - so, here are our favourite ways to help you save money on your wedding plans or get the most from your wedding budget:

* Look out for discounts on venues for days other than Saturday weddings – Thursdays, Fridays and event Sundays are ever increasing in popularity and can often present large savings on the Saturday costs
* A great way of savings money on food for your guests is to have your ceremony just that little later in the day say 3/4pm so that following photos, your wedding breakfast is more of an evening meal and you may avoid the need to serve evening food as well.

* What about a buffet, BBQ or hog roast rather than a full sit down menu – this will significantly cut your costs. If you have flexibility with your venue or are hiring your own venue then you can create your own menu and save a lot of money and if you serve in early evening you will not need to serve food again later on.

* Look at hiring a wedding planner. Planners can often advise you on your budget, help you get prices down, negotiate with suppliers for you and make savings through their connections in the wedding industry. You can often find you save money by having a planner involved.
* Cut down your day guest numbers and invite more people in the evening – this will significantly reduce your costs. If you have too many day guests you may not have time to speak to them all during the day anyway!
* Try to negotiate with your florist to be on hand if possible to move flowers from the Church to your reception venue so you are doubling up on the usage of the flowers. If your florist cannot offer this service maybe your wedding planner can help with this. Check with the Church that you can take them as some Churches require you to leave the flowers – especially if there are weddings after yours on the day. If there are weddings after yours on the day then speak to other couples and see if you can save money by all contributing towards the costs of the flowers for the Church. If your budget will not stretch to flowers in the Church – try candles instead – very effective and inexpensive.
* To keep the cost of flowers down – always take good advice from your florist and chose flowers which are in season – trying to get hold of flowers out of their season will always pump up the price. Invest in a simple flower book or look on line and only choose from the flowers which will be in season on your wedding day.
* Always ask for the corkage price from your venue. The corkage will include the service for the venue to chill, serve and dispose of the bottles for you. Wait for a great offer on mid range selection of wines and purchase in bulk. It does not matter if you over purchase – as long as you have not purchased too far in advance you should be able to return what you don’t use. Even if you make only a slight saving the quality of wine you will be able to afford should be higher and all smaller savings really add up.
* Its really easy to overspend on evening entertainment. It should not be necessary to hire a band AND a disco – most bands will bring their own equipment to play disco music before, between and after their sets or can set up an Ipod or CD of your favourite tunes during this time or you should be able to negotiate a disco from the band within their price. Shop around for this.

Do you have any other advice which you found useful when planning your wedding? Get in touch

Serenity Flowers - Bournemouth

We are loving the new website of fabulous florist Rebecca Meddings who has recently launched herself as Serenity Flowers. Rebecca is freelance florist with big talent - take a look at her novel website and some of her work : http://www.serenityflowers.co.uk/ which includes a really handy section giving you the flowers in season - great to help you chose flowers which will be readily available for your wedding

You can also have a great selection of unusual additions to your wedding flowers such as the lovely alternatives to the traditional corsage for the ladies or how about a fascinator with fresh flowers? Corsages can be produced on sparkly bracelets and handbag corsages. For the bridesmaids Rebecca offers a lovely choice of alternatives including the cute little wire baskets filled with flowers of the season

Beautiful Voice of Victoria Mellor

We recently had the pleasure of taking a bride and groom for one of our weddings for 2010 to meet Dorset based vocalist, Victoria Mellor. We selected Victoria to sing for our couple at their forthcoming wedding after hearing her sing at a wedding fayre earlier in the year and what a wonderful choice! Our couple were so pleased to be able to meet with Victoria and her husband (and pianist) personally to hear some of their choice of songs which includes a beautiful arrangement of one of their favourite songs for the bride's entrance into the church and a selection of jazz songs during their wedding breakfast. We look forward to their wedding next year

www.victoriamellor.com

Venue Visit - New Forest Hotels

Always a fan of hotels in the New Forest, I was delighted to recently be invited to have a tour of the four New Forest Hotels by Nicola Smith who is the Group Sales Executive of New Forest Hotels Plc. The group have four country hotels situated around the New Forest and so our tour began.

I was shown a good selection of function rooms suitable for a wide range of events including every style and size of wedding from a small gathering to a large traditional country wedding. Each hotel has good conference facilities and restaurants to offer. The range of accomodation they have really is excellent - certainly something for everyone's tastes and budget.

The hotels are Bartley Lodge Cadnam, Beaulieu Hotel Beaulieu, Forest Lodge Hotel Lyndhurst, Moorhill House Hotel Burley as shown in some of the images above.

If you see their website you will also see that they offer a 10% discount on their prices for a stay in one of the hotels if you leave the car at home - what a novel and green idea! http://www.newforesthotels.co.uk/

Thank you to Nicola and the staff for a lovely tour and lunch - we look forward to working with the New Forest Hotels in the future

Venue Visit - Hotel Terravina, New Forest

Venue Visit - The Hotel Terravina

This week we were invited to visit The Hotel Terravina which is a stunning luxury boutique hotel in The New Forest. Having seen the Hotel we think its perfect for a small or intimate event or celebration. The function room would suit perfectly for a chic wedding with its private courtyard garden and beautiful rooms where your guests can stay and enjoy a weekend break. The Hotel boasts a lovely restaurant and extensive wine selection and the restuarant opens out on to lovely gardens with an outdoor pool and sun terrace. The Hotel has a wonderful feel about it and is in a beautiful location in the heart of the New Forest - perfect for a brisk walk or exloring what Hampshire and Dorset have to offer. We found the staff to be very welcoming. For more information visit http://www.hotelterravina.co.uk

Images courtesy of http://www.hotelterravina.co.uk

Themed Baby Shower

Themed baby showers

I recently organised a “girls night in” themed shower that took place on a Friday evening as opposed to the traditional afternoon event. I think the timing really set the mood and everyone was able to relax while enjoying home-made delicious comfort -style food and fruity cocktails.

One of the highlights of the night was the “stick the bottle on the baby’s mouth game” (remember pin the tail on the donkey from when you were a kid?) - well we all haven’t laughed so hard in years! There’s nothing like blind-folding your best friend, spinning them around and sending them off across the room with a bottle sticker in their hand!

There are so many great ideas for themed baby showers

Stephanie Thorne

Image - istock

Fabulous Singer

Last weekend we had the pleasure of dining at The Christchurch Harbour Hotel, Mudeford whilst being entertained by the beautiful voice of Jodie Elms who is singing at the hotel on Friday and Saturday evenings http://www.christchurch-harbour-hotel.co.uk. Jodie is a local talented singer/songwriter and vocal coach. See http://www.myspace.com/jodiesjazz and we are hoping to work with her in the future for weddings and events

Photographs courtesy of http://www.rickmilnes.com

Baby Showers - The American Way

Baby Showers – American style

It seems like the long-standing American tradition of throwing a baby shower is finally starting to take off in the UK. At last! As a former New Yorker, who has lived in England for the past 6 years, I am thrilled to see that more people are throwing showers as they are such a fab way to celebrate the impending arrival of a little one as well as to help prepare the Mum-to-be for her new role.

While every baby shower is different, there are three parts to a shower that remain consistent– the serving of food and drinks, baby shower games and the giving of baby-related gifts to the Mum-to-be.

Baby showers can range from holding a small get together at someone’s home for a handful of the mum-to-be’s closest friends to a lavish event for 50 + at a restaurant. Anything goes these days. It’s all about what works best for the mum-to-be and the hostess

If you would like us to help you throw a baby shower - call to speak to us

Stephanie Thorne

Images courtesy of www.designmom.com

and www.favortreasure.com

Email or not to email?

Whilst working on one of our weddings for spring 2010, we have been putting some thought into invitation etiquette with the bride and groom. The bride and groom would like to receive their RSVPs by email to keep things simple and organized but we have also talked about some guests like to have the opportunity to respond by formal paper RSVP. In the future, it may be nice for the bride and groom to keep these to look back on as memories of their wedding or is that just too sentimental in this day and age? Some people are choosing now to even send email invitations for their wedding and do away with formal stationary all together? Good cost saving and modern or a little to impersonal? Whatever you do, it must be the personal choice of the bride and groom and reflect their styles and personality. Have you had a modern style of wedding invite and what did you think? What about for other non-wedding events – would you be happy to receive an email invite and RSVP my email?

How about a joint wedding and christening?

The Church of England have come up with a novel idea of a 2-in-1 wedding and christening ceremony. Responding to statistics that 1 in 5 couples who marry in church already have children, the Church consider this is a great way of encouraging couples to baptize their children into the Church and avoid the costs of two ceremonies and celebrations. See this link. What do you think? Would this encourage you to have a wedding/baptism ceremony? If you chose to consider this for your own family let us know – we would love to hear from you and could certainly help you to arrange a wonderful double celebration and make great savings along the way.

Special Offer for On the Day Management

We have a few dates available for late September and October for our “On the Day Management” service and are offering a reduced rate - 10% off our normal price of £300 to £270 (no VAT). This fab last minute service can be introduced to your wedding plans late in the day – even 1 to 2 weeks before the wedding. We will meet with you and take details of all your plans and we then become the point of contact for all of your suppliers leaving you to relax and enjoy the build up to your wedding. We produce a schedule for the day with you and arrive on the day of your wedding to make sure everyone arrives when they should eg the room is dressed as you require, everything arrives as it should and we are there to deal with any trouble shooting or stress on the day – rather than you! Our package includes up to 10 hours of attendance at your wedding. Call now to discuss and check availability. 01202 533014

Props/theming for New Years Eve Charity Ball

We have recently spent some time at The Italian Villa, Compton Acres http://www.the-italian-villa.co.uk planning the theming and decoration of the Villa for our fabulous New Years Eve charity ball for Julias House. Its going to be very exciting – the ideas for turning the venue into a Moulin Rouge style venue are wonderful and the Villa is going to have a beautiful feel and look for the evening. Tickets go on sale in early September – you can email us to add your name to the waiting list for tickets when they are released: melanie@bellissimo-events.co.uk

Image - courtesy of www.the italian-villa.co.uk

Country Barn Dance Fun!

In June of this year we had the pleasure of finalizing the wedding of Shelley and Lee which we had been working on with the couple since late 2008. The bride and groom and their friends and family had a wonderful day and here are some of the pictures we have just received from their photographer Leigh Gregory (http://www.leighgregory.co.uk/)