Category Archives: Wedding fairs and events

The Wedding Industry Awards 2013: worth every penny?

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Claire

The Wedding Industry Awards photo by Adbycreativeimages (3)Last week saw the launch of The Wed­ding Indus­try Awards. These were a quiet rev­o­lu­tion in the wed­ding indus­try in 2012: their integrity was a breath of fresh air. The vot­ing was open to brides and grooms; not to twit­ter bud­dies and wed­ding indus­try pals. Feed­back given by cou­ples dur­ing the vot­ing process was fab­u­lous, in depth and heart­felt. The even­tual win­ners in regional and national cat­e­gories deserved their glory: they were truly admired by the cus­tomers they’d worked so hard for.

After the awards event early in 2012, there was a buzz of antic­i­pa­tion as wed­ding sup­pli­ers across the coun­try looked for­ward to a big­ger and bet­ter Wed­ding Indus­try Awards in 2013.  Read more…

Posted in debate, english weddings, Wedding fairs and events, wedding industry, Wedding Industry Awards | Tagged , , , | 31 Comments

Ladies, let me introduce to you The Wedding Institute

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Claire

the wedding institute new wedding fairs (23)
Another treat directly from my inbox today… The Wed­ding Insti­tute. This one’s for the ladies (lov­ing the acronym the W.I. there!) — a project cre­ated by the lovely wed­ding sta­tioner Vicky Trainor and pho­tog­ra­pher Becky Mitchell, both estab­lished national and regional busi­nesses in the cre­ative and wed­ding market.

Vicky’s email had me smil­ing from the start. “It’s grim up north”, she said. Look­ing out of my win­dow this morn­ing I have to agree… and yet the “do like to be beside the sea­side” feel of the post­card Vicky sent to intro­duce The Wed­ding Insti­tute makes me feel quite fond of my north­ern roots…
the wedding institute new wedding fairs (22)Over to Vicky to tell you what The Wed­ding Insti­tute is all about and how YOU can get involved with one of their won­der­ful events…  Read more…

Posted in bridal shoot, daily UK wedding inspiration, english weddings, wedding blogs, Wedding fairs and events | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Luxury Wedding Show — what it’s really like inside!

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Claire

Wendy Bell invitations at the Luxury Wedding Show (13)
Only three weeks ago I was wist­fully telling my friend and spon­sor Wendy Bell how I’d love to go to The Lux­ury Wed­ding Show — if only all the events weren’t so far away from my lit­tle base in Cheshire (I know, piti­ful isn’t it…)

The Lux­ury Wed­ding Show seems to have cor­nered a niche in the UK wed­ding mar­ket — and not only that, there’s a won­der­fully voyeuris­tic appeal too. From gor­geous designer wed­ding invi­ta­tions to flow­ers and cakes, decor and more — it’s great to see the best in the UK wed­ding indus­try. Even if you’re not splash­ing out on a lux­ury wed­ding, wouldn’t it be fun to go and look around any­way, see what the more extrav­a­gant brides are buy­ing? I know I’d love to see these shows from a wed­ding supplier’s point of view as well.  Read more…

Posted in daily UK wedding inspiration, english weddings, Wedding fairs and events, wedding industry, wedding suppliers | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Musings on wedding industry awards

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Claire

I’ve been mus­ing a lot recently. Think­ing about this indus­try, the finan­cial side of wed­dings, the way it all works and what moti­vates peo­ple in the wed­ding indus­try. For many of us it’s the thank you card from a happy cus­tomer; the email say­ing how wed­ding guests com­mented on our work. It’s also the sheer love of our jobs that keeps us going.  Read more…

Posted in debate, english weddings, Wedding fairs and events, wedding industry, Wedding Industry Awards, wedding suppliers | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

A real treat for 2012 brides on English Wedding today!

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Claire

I don’t squeal. I’m calm, col­lected and sim­ply love being a wed­ding blog­ger. No hys­ter­ics. So when top UK wed­ding dress designer Char­lotte Bal­bier her­self emailed me I didn’t squeal*. At all.

*I jumped four foot in the air and did a quick lap of the ceil­ing in my excitement.

Last month Char­lotte Bal­bier did a sneaky peek pre­view day for her bou­tique own­ers of the new 2012 ‘Candy Kisses’ col­lec­tion at www.greatjohnstreet.co.uk. The event was to give the bou­tiques a pre­view into the new 2012 col­lec­tion and also to have a time to meet fel­low bou­tique own­ers, relax, chat, net­work and be spoilt with cham­pagne, yummy canapés and after­noon tea.  Read more…

Posted in bridal shoot, daily UK wedding inspiration, Dresses, english weddings, inspiration, Wedding fairs and events, wedding industry | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Is your venue having a Royal Wedding Brunch? Is that a bit bleurgh?!

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Claire

this is a cheeky pre­view of my lat­est shoot where we set fire to wed­ding stuff… more com­ing soon.

Morn­ing every­one! This blog post is a sim­ple ques­tion really:

Is your wed­ding venue hav­ing a cel­e­bra­tion of any kind on the 29th of April? (OK 2 ques­tions) and Will you be going? (no pun intended)

My enthu­si­asm for the royal wed­ding has kind of flopped at the moment I’m afraid, and cyn­i­cism taken over.

royal wedding brunch

And when I look at wed­ding venue web­sites and press releases about these royal wed­ding brunches and tea par­ties my reac­tion is a half-hearted, scep­ti­cal “hmmm”.  Read more…

Posted in royal wedding, Wedding fairs and events, wedding industry | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The wedding show where YOU will be the centre of attention!

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Claire

The Wedding Sanctuary London 20th March 2011Wed­ding shows are def­i­nitely chang­ing for the bet­ter. Recent years have seen vin­tage fairs, spe­cial­ist wed­ding shows and now it’s time for The Wed­ding Sanc­tu­ary to change your expec­ta­tions even more!

I love the con­cept of The Wed­ding Sanc­tu­ary — which is at Som­er­set House in Lon­don this Sun­day. The event promises to offer you “per­sonal style advice and the best one on one plan­ning sup­port avail­able”.

Top names from the UK wed­ding indus­try will be at The Wed­ding Sanc­tu­ary, to give you the oppor­tu­nity to ask ques­tions about every­thing from your wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy to cakes and flow­ers.  Read more…

Posted in Advice, english weddings, inspiration, Recommended, Wedding fairs and events, wedding suppliers | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A very special wedding fair this weekend

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Claire

There are so many wed­ding fairs going on at this time of year that I don’t blog them as a rule. But this one’s spe­cial — it’s my favourite venue in the UK for wed­dings, only min­utes from my child­hood home in the Lake Dis­trict and a beau­ti­ful, enchant­ing location.

Lake Dis­trict Wed­ding Fair at Muncaster Castle

Muncaster Castle wedding fair March 2011

Photo Credit: www.lakedistrictletsgo.co.uk

Muncaster is a charm­ing, his­toric and stun­ning venue for your wed­ding day. The cas­tle over­looks a beau­ti­ful val­ley and is set on the main road around Cumbria’s west coast. It’s the per­fect idyl­lic wed­ding venue, licensed for civil cer­e­monies and with grand recep­tion rooms and a beau­ti­ful pri­vate gar­den for your guests to enjoy.  Read more…

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Plan your own wedding like a professional — with a genie for the weekend!

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Claire

When I chat to brides as part of my day job or for all those of you who send me lovely emails about your wed­dings I’m always impressed and often amazed. Why? Because so many of you are plan­ning your gor­geous wed­ding recep­tions with a hun­dred or so guests… it can be a mil­i­tary oper­a­tion and it’s almost always a once in a life­time expe­ri­ence for you — so hats off to you, ladies and gents, for plan­ning your wed­dings. I don’t think I could do it!  Read more…

Posted in Advice, english weddings, misc, Real UK weddings, wedding budget, Wedding fairs and events, wedding suppliers | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Elvis is alive and well… and in a wedding photobooth in Yorkshire!

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Claire

Incred­i­ble news, and what a priv­i­lege to be able to reveal such an exclu­sive on the Eng­lish Wed­ding Blog: Elvis is alive and well and enter­tain­ing at wed­dings in the York­shire area.… we have pho­to­graphic evi­dence too!

Susie from Booth Rev­o­lu­tion got in touch after sign­ing the Eth­i­cal Wed­ding Sup­plier Pledge to show me some fun pics from the Wed­ding & Lifestyle Show in Feb­ru­ary. Booth Rev­o­lu­tion hire out photo booths for wed­dings and are based in Harrogate.

Elvis in a wedding photo booth

Elvis in a wed­ding photo booth  Read more…

Posted in english weddings, Photography, wedding entertainment, Wedding fairs and events, wedding music, wedding suppliers | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments