Welcome to the Helen Carter Weddings blog. We provide professional, bespoke wedding planning to couples in London, Essex and the surrounding areas, and are passionate about distinctive and stylish celebrations. Our blog is designed to provide practical advice alongside creative inspiration, and we hope you enjoy our mix of planning tips, design ideas and featured wedding services.
Helen Carter Weddings provides bespoke wedding planning throughout London and the South East. We have a wide range of services available, from full wedding co-ordination to venue or supplier sourcing and wedding day management. We’re passionate about creating distinctive and stylish events, and are dedicated to ensuring our clients enjoy a unique, personal and stress-free wedding day.
We love everything to do with weddings, and we’ve created our blog to share advice, ideas and inspiration. We try our very best to credit everything we show both here and on our design boards page. However, if you see something that hasn’t been properly referenced and you know who it belongs to, or you see something that is yours and you would rather it didn’t appear here, please contact us.
Description of this blog.
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Posted in Planning Advice, Wedding Press
It’s always lovely to be asked to put together an article for a magazine, and when You & Your Wedding come knocking, we’d have been foolish to turn down the chance to be part of their £5000 reception challenge feature. However, it must be said that this was one bit of research which really gave the HCW brains (not to mention search engines and telephones) a work out.
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
Posted in A Bride's Perspective, Real Weddings
An earlier blog post has told the story how I’ve fallen into this world of wedding planning – I was one of Helen’s 2011 brides and was lucky enough to be asked to join the team after my big day. One of my first jobs was to write a blog post about why someone would want to hire a wedding planner from the point of view of a bride who’d just used one, outlining the benefits I had experienced from having Helen on board with our wedding preparations and on the day itself.
Although the intervening period since joining the crew has been busy with plans for 2012 brides and the other parts of the job, I had yet to experience a wedding from a planner’s perspective. That was until the crazy ten days which was “Christmas HCW-style”, when we worked on three weddings in ten days.
Monday, January 9th, 2012
Posted in HCW News
We’re now well and truly back into work mode, and our first week of 2012 has been as busy as ever, with new enquiries, ongoing arrangements for upcoming weddings and some exciting plans that we’re going to be unveiling very soon.
Over the last week we’ve also been reflecting on the last 12 months. 2011 was the busiest and most successful year to date for Helen Carter Weddings, so we thought we’d share some of our highlights with you.
Beautiful Weddings
We’ve had the pleasure of working with some wonderful couples over the last 12 months, and have had the privilege of designing and organising some truly beautiful and very unique wedding celebrations. From contemporary city venues to historic halls, and country hotels to classic marquees, 2011 saw a real mix of wedding styles and certainly worked our creative brains!
Friday, January 6th, 2012
Posted in Wedding Press
We’ve all now returned to the drudge of normality after a (hopefully) sparkling Christmas and New Year period, and thoughts turn to plans for the year ahead. Future weddings and trends were bought sharply into focus here at HCW towers when we were asked by Chelsea at the Pastel Pirate wedding blog to pen an overview of what we’d seen in 2011 and what we thought might be big in 2012.
Pop over to Chelsea’s blog to see what we expect and desire to be “the thing” in 2012, and take a look at what other wedding professionals think will be on trend for the next twelve months.
Thanks to Chelsea for the opportunity to refocus our minds for the year ahead!
Photo Credit: Hundred Layer Cake
Thursday, December 15th, 2011
Posted in A Bride's Perspective
My dad always said that his proudest moment would be walking me down the aisle. However, he passed away suddenly just before his 70th birthday, some thirteen months before I started seeing Andy and 16 years before I finally got to walk down that aisle.
For many years, marriage wasn’t part of our plans, but when Andy suddenly changed his mind the question of who was going to “give me away” loomed large. My mum made it quite clear that she couldn’t do it – she was already blubbing at just the thought of it, and we may have needed the equivalent of the Thames Barrier if she’d had to step up in reality. I have no brothers and although I have a special Uncle who has been a wonderful part of my life, he isn’t my dad, and somehow asking him didn’t seem right.
Friday, December 9th, 2011
Posted in Photo Shoots & Events, Wedding Flowers, Wedding Styling
Earlier in the week we blogged about our succulent shoot in Epping Forest which was featured on Whimsical Wonderland Weddings, and today we are able to share more of that shoot with you.
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
Posted in Cakes, Mad About..., Wedding Styling
There’s nothing we love more here at Helen Carter Weddings than drooling over fabulous cake designs on the web (actually, that’s a lie, there’s nothing we love more than eating cake, but browsing comes a close second!). Therefore, we were delighted to come across US cake pop designer Lauren Caveness whose company Sweet Lauren Cakes produces some of the most stunning displays we have seen for a while.
Cake pops are a relatively new phenomenon here in the UK and have started to be used at weddings as quirky and tasty favours. Lauren takes this one step further by substituting the wedding cake for a bespoke cake pop display, which can be tiered to mirror the traditional cake.
Monday, December 5th, 2011
Posted in Photo Shoots & Events, Wedding Flowers
In September, Helen could be found tripping through Epping Forest with Fiona from Fiona Kelly Photography and Liz from Blue Sky Flowers, styling a rustic shoot featuring some wonderful succulents and rather a lot of wood.
The varieties and colours of the succulents used really show-cased how versatile these little plants are and showed how a bride looking for something a little different could incorporate them into her day.
Thursday, November 17th, 2011
Posted in A Bride's Perspective
You know how it happens in fairy tales. The aspiring princess enters a beautiful room where candles flicker and reflect in multiple mirrors. She is momentarily taken aback by the beauty in the room, but as her eyes grow accustomed to the magnificence of her surroundings, she sees “The One” from the other side of the room. Her heart skips a beat and there begins a relationship the likes of which she has dreamed of since childhood. Never once does her gaze wander off to lesser contenders, there is one true destination for her heart and the bond is immediate and emotional.
Well, that’s how it’s meant to happen isn’t it? Finding “The One” – the confection of taffeta, lace (or whatever is your thing) that you’ve dreamed of since childhood? It’s not just the dress which you have dreamed about, but also the champagne-softened experience of shopping for the ultimate dress with your closest friend or mother. My experience, however, was somewhat different and I have to say that I learned quickly as I progressed from shop to shop.
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
Posted in Spotlight On...
Last week we introduced you to Chanelle of Segerius Bruce Photography, who was the photographer responsible for the fabulous images of our vintage peach shoot that was featured in both You & Your Wedding magazine and on Rock My Wedding.
Today I’m delighted to welcome to the blog the hair and make-up artist from the shoot, Gemma Sutton. Gemma is a super-talented lady who regularly works on fashion and editorial features, as well as transforming brides for their big day – I really do wish she could work her magic on me every morning!
Tell us about you and your company
I have been working as an internationally acclaimed makeup and hair stylist for the past 10 years. My work has enabled me to travel the world and work with a number of well established photographers, models and celebrities. Some previous clients include Vogue, TM Lewin, BBC Holby City, ITV3 Drama “Bodies”, OK Magazine, Louise Redknapp and Edward De Souza.
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
Posted in Photography, Spotlight On...
Over the last couple of weeks we’ve shown some of the photos from our vintage peach shoot, and today I’d like to introduce the lady behind the lens and the person responsible for such wonderful images, Chanelle from Segerius Bruce Photography.
I’ve known Chanelle for a couple of years now, but it’s only over the last 6 months that we’ve had the opportunity to work together more closely. She did an amazing job on our shoot, so I asked her to stop by the blog and answer a few questions…over to you Chanelle!
Tell us about you and your company
I am Chanelle, part of husband & wife team – Segerius Bruce Photography. We shoot weddings around the UK and have also had the pleasure of being flown abroad for weddings in countries including Bali, Prague, Cyprus, Mauritius and South Africa.
My background is in Graphic Design and High End Retouching for famous fashion photographer, Mario Testino. I have been running Segerius Bruce Photography for three years now and love it!
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
Posted in Spotlight On...
It’s not been that long since Helen Carter Weddings had only one member of staff, so last week saw the momentous occasion of the company’s first “works outing” to the intimate IndigO2 venue within the O2 complex. Donning our glad rags, we met up to sway along with a very varied audience to the crooning melodies of Frank, Dean and Sammy (Sinatra, Martin and Davis Jr) recreated by the very talented performers from Easy Theatres who recreated the glamorous world of Las Vegas’ Sands Theater on the banks of the slightly less glitzy Thames.
