The dining table was, naturally, one of the focal displays of the shoot. We set this up in the conservatory-like Orangery at Gaynes Park. Normally this room is used for ceremonies and also makes for a great separate children’s activity area, but for our purposes the abundance of natural light and the overhead beams worked brilliantly with the design.

We wanted to keep the table setting simple and elegant for impact, with subtle decorative touches adding points of interest. Earthy-coloured linens and cream china from Jones Hire were paired with brown glassware and wooden cutlery from Options Hire, a combination that added hints of colour to the table and really complemented the rustic feel of the setting.

The stationery, exquisitely designed by Artcadia, included a letterpress invitation suite with varying fonts in natural brown tones and a vintage key emblem, whilst the menu featured a beautiful rustic cutlery motif.

The flowers were a key part of the shoot design, and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Euphoric Flowers – two of our favourite florists and great friends. Exceptionally talented and lovely people to boot, we had previously sent Vicky and Simon our design brief and a rough guide to what we wanted, and let them work their creative floral magic. On the day they delivered the most stunning centrepiece arrangements that perfectly fitted our design – a mixture of white and cream flowers with subtle hints of green, displayed in rustic urns and moss-covered containers that spread along the length of the table.

Our final finishing touches to the table were using scrabble tiles in place of name cards (again giving a rustic and slightly vintage feel to the design), a gorgeous chandelier hanging as a centrepiece above the table for a touch of decadence, and strands of lace tied to the backs of chairs with a sprig of white Astilbe as a simple and delicate decoration.

Our second focal set-up was a mock ceremony. On our pre-shoot site visit to Gaynes Park we were blown away with the beautiful open-sided Gather Barn. This area is licensed for civil ceremonies, and having already decided we wanted to include a ceremony design as part of the shoot, our creative brains almost exploded at the possibility of using this stunning setting.

We wanted to keep the design for the ceremony very simple, but with emphasis on ‘wow factor’ impact. We really wanted to show brides and grooms how your ‘altar’ space doesn’t simply have to be a plain table on which you sign your register – after all, this is the area your guests will be looking at for a good 20 to 30 minutes, and also features heavily in your photographs.

Inspired by many of the American ceremony backdrops we’ve seen for outdoor weddings, we opted to hang long lengths of lace from an overhead beam to create a ‘curtain’ framing the ceremony area, with a crystal chandelier hanging above where the bride and groom would stand. For the registrar table we used a rustic table from Out of Love covered with a lace cloth, and decorated this with floral arrangements similar to those used for the dining table and rustic wooden “LOVE” blocks. We also used two large rustic French-style chairs, and Sarah put her sewing skills to use making “Mr” and “Mrs” signs for the chair backs, which for a real wedding would also make good props to use for some quirky couple shots.

Please do stop by the blog again in a couple of days to see more images from the shoot, including our designs for a cake display, table plan, confetti display and evening buffet.

Happy planning,

Helen and Sarah x

Photo Credits

Venue: Gaynes Park
Photography: Segerius-Bruce
Flowers: Euphoric Flowers
Stationery: Artcadia
Linen and china: Jones Hire
Glassware and cutlery: Options Hire
Rustic furniture: Out of Love

Has your friend ever organised anything like a wedding?!

You may be really lucky and know someone who has vast experience in planning events or parties, but chances are that your trusted friend or relative will be as new to the world of weddings as you. This means that, like you, they don’t necessarily know where to look for a venue, the order in which to book suppliers or how to divide up a budget. We’re absolutely not saying that planning a wedding is an impossible task for anyone who isn’t a planner, but it’s worth keeping in mind that your friend won’t have all the answers.

On the other hand, booking suppliers, juggling appointments and keeping track of expenditure are just some of the everyday tasks for a wedding planner – organisational multi-tasking is second nature to us! We also know where to look for that really unusual request you have, we know how much things should be costing and whether what you are asking for is realistic for your budget, and we also know how to break down what can seem like an endless task list into a manageable and fun experience.

Your friend is emotionally involved

It’s great that you have a ‘wedding buddy’ with whom you can share your excitement and spend endless hours together sipping tea and browsing through wedding magazines. But when it comes to making difficult decisions or dealing with a tricky situation, can you separate your friendship from what is best for your wedding? Your friend has probably known you for many years and you’ve been through lots of up and downs together – whilst this is a great basis for a special friendship, it’s not such good news when you need honest and impartial advice.

Emotions invariably run high when planning a wedding, and a great advantage of having a planner involved is that you have someone who wants you to have the wedding day of your dreams, but doesn’t have the emotional attachment to cloud their judgement. That means we’ll be totally honest with you – if something isn’t going to work with the format or design of your wedding, or your budget won’t allow for a plush photo booth or the 6-foot floral archway you have your heart set on, we’ll tell you and advise on alternative ways of incorporating your ideas into your day. It’s much harder for a friend or relative to do this without causing friction between the two of you, meaning you could end up blowing your budget or including things in your day that look totally out of place.

Your friend has a life outside your wedding

For wedding planners like us, planning weddings is our full-time job. It’s what we do all day, every day, and have done for over three years. Your friend, on the other hand, most probably has a full-time job, not to mention family and a social life to fit around your wedding planning, and it isn’t easy to juggle the organisational challenges that come with planning such a special event around everyday life. A professional planner, however, will allocate their time to you throughout the planning process, sending you shortlists of prospective suppliers, organising meetings and coming up with design ideas as a regular part of their working day. The fee you pay for our services covers the time we spend with you, so there’s no last minute phone call saying “sorry I can’t make the florist meeting because so-and-so has invited me out to lunch”!

There are only so many conversations you can have about ribbon

No matter how good a friend she is, there will come a point when your friend simply cannot take any more wedding talk from you. What we mean by this is that before you were engaged you will have had conversations about all sorts of different things, but now whenever you see each other all you will be talking about is your wedding. That can start to feel claustrophobic – let’s be honest, for any normal sane person there is a limit to how many times you can talk about the perfect shade of ribbon or debate how the napkins should be folded! As planners, however, these are the conversations we love to have. Whenever we meet with you we want to talk in detail about your wedding – where are we at with the design; what’s next on the list; what did you think about the idea for the table plan we sent you; did you like the font for the stationery we suggested? We never, ever get tired of talking about weddings – fact!

Is your friend a supplier or a guest?

Having a friend help organise your wedding can be a great experience to share together, but what happens on the day itself? Will your friend be running around making sure everything is set up as you want, with a mobile phone and a sewing kit tucked in her clutch next to her camera and lip gloss?! Or will she be able to relax and enjoy the day like all of your other guests? If she’s a particularly close friend then you may have asked her to be your bridesmaid as well, in which case she has a whole set of separate duties to fulfil on the day that will leave little time for checking on timings and suppliers.

Even if you plan your entire wedding with a friend or relative, please, please consider hiring a professional planner to coordinate the day. We make sure that everything runs on time, is set up exactly as you want, act as an independent point of contact for suppliers in case of any problems, and deal with any little hiccups or unexpected occurrences that may arise. And whilst we’re doing all of the running around, you and your friend can enjoy the day you’ve worked so hard together to organise, posing for photographs, chinking champagne glasses and hitting the dance floor to your favourite tunes.

Have you planned your wedding with a friend, or are you going through the process right now? We’d love for you to comment and share your thoughts and experiences with us.

Happy planning,

Helen and Sarah x

Photo Credits

Best friends as wedding planners: via Zazzle
Best friends guide to wedding planning: Amazon
Wedding planning cartoon: The Asian Fashion Journal

We were already aware of how brides and grooms could feature Oxfam’s work in their own special day here at Helen Carter Weddings, as Sarah had used their wedding list service herself. So when Kate Kellaway-Moore from Oxfam Unwrapped got in touch to ask if we’d like to be involved in the auction, we jumped at the chance.

In order to widen the appeal of our lot, we have put together something that can be used by brides throughout the UK, and also that isn’t available as one of our normal services.

The lucky winner will benefit from our Style and Design Service plus an additional 10 hours of planning time. After an initial consultation, where we will quiz you about your likes and dislikes and any initial thoughts you may have about your wedding style,  we will complete a venue assessment. Next we will put together an inspirational design board and detailed design report, which we will talk you through so that you feel confident that you know what to do to make your wedding day truly beautiful.

In addition, your ten hours of planning time will allow you to draw on our experience and expertise in all things wedding related – whether you would like help in sourcing your photographer, finding quirky favours or just aren’t sure how to word your invitations, we will be on hand to help you out during the lead up to your wedding.

So if you’re interested in us helping you whilst you help the work of Oxfam, head over to the auction here.

Happy Planning!

Helen & Sarah x

Photo Credits:

Feature image: via Love My Dress

Design board: Helen Carter Weddings

With the amazing input and support from Annabel from Love My Dress blog, Oxfam have put together a truly stunning list of auction lots to tempt brides (and grooms) to be.

Ranging from venues to dresses, cakes to favours, flowers to stationery there really is something there to tempt everyone who is putting together their own wedding, and with some of the lots being unique to the auction, it may be a chance to grab something truly different for your big day.

Lots that particularly caught our eye include:

• An eco-chic Sawday’s honeymoon to the Lake District
• Wedding dresses from Jenny Packham, Charlotte Balbier and Claire Pettibone
• A bridal flowers package from Phillippa Craddock
• And these sweet  personalised postcard maps from Cute Maps

However, with over 100 individual items or experiences to bid for there is lots of choice for would-be bidders to browse through and, who knows, you might just pick up a bargain. All the money raised through the auction will go to Oxfam Unwrapped humanitarian aid campaign, which will provide help and relief for people in emergencies around the world. So by bidding on an item you don’t just get the chance to win something amazing for your special day, but it could also help to improve life for many in some of the world’s poorest countries.

The Oxfam Wedding auction will run from the evening of Sunday 29th April to Wednesday 9th May. Full details of all the auction lots can be found here. Check back later this week to find out how we are supporting the auction.

Even if you don’t feel like bidding, you could also consider supporting Oxfam on your own day by using the Oxfam Unwrapped wedding list or by doing without traditional favours and instead purchasing one of Oxfam Unwrapped’s gifts per table. With gifts like “Chocolate”, “Olives”, “Coffee”, “Beekeepers” and “Nicer Rice” you could even consider incorporating your choice into your table names.

Happy Planning!

Helen & Sarah x

Photo Credits

Invitation to the auction: via Love My Dress

Maps: Cute Maps

Ethical gifts: Oxfam Unwrapped

Please let us introduce Elena Maria, who started her own business making traditional Italian favours and bombonieres after her own wedding.

So Elena, how did you start your business?

Ewan and I had got married in 2009 and I created lots of the wedding stationery and accessories myself (save-the-date cards, wedding invitations, orders of service, table plans and wedding favours).

In August 2010 I had my first child, Lila. At the time, I was working in a logistics role with a large agricultural company, dealing with spare parts for tractors, combine harvesters and the like. It was a job I absolutely loved but I was also very excited about becoming a mum so I decided to take a whole year out for maternity.

When the time came to start seriously thinking about going back to work, it didn’t seem like the right decision for us so I decided to leave the world of work behind and take on a very different type of full-time job, one that meant working even longer hours!! As much as I loved taking care of my daughter, I would often say to Ewan, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to one day run my own business doing something that I absolutely love, and that can fit around being a mum?’…. I remember picking up a photo that Ewan had taken of me a few days before our wedding; I was sitting on the floor of our living room, surrounded by bits of tulle fabric, ribbon and sugared almonds, putting the finishing touches to the favours. It was such a lovely memory, I looked so happy doing that………and that’s when the penny dropped!

What makes your favours different to others you could buy?

When putting together my website, I wanted to create something that would be easy to use, fun and with a real sense of being able to create a favour that fits the bill – why should you have to settle for second best on your wedding day? Also, I noticed that lots of other companies were offering personalised printed favour labels but having handwritten those for my wedding favours, I wanted to do the same with all ‘elenamaria’ products, giving them a very unique twist.

Being half Italian, I wanted this to come through in the website by creating a range that is in keeping with traditional Italian favours and bomboniere that I have been brought up around. You’ll also notice that all the favour boxes are named after Italian towns and villages too.

I feel that by having a high quality range that I’ve handpicked teamed with a wide choice of colour and decorations options, couples can find just the right favours to give to their guests on the day. However, if there is something that a customer is looking for that they can’t find on my website, I’ll do all that I can to try and create the look they want. Recently I had an order from the father of a bride organising some tulle favours He wanted those favours going to foreign guests to have an addition of something ‘very English!’, so together we came up with the idea of adding miniature Big Bens to the favours that looked absolutely stunning!

What is the history behind wedding favours?

Though many think the idea of ‘wedding favours’ is relatively new, it in fact is a wedding tradition that goes back several centuries.

Initially, favours were reserved for the weddings of the upper classes as a way for the bride and groom to thank their guests for being a part of their celebration. European aristocrats presented their guests with a gift of a small box, usually filled with sugar, as at the time this was a very expensive commodity. However, as sugar became more affordable, it was eventually replaced by five sugar coated almonds, representing health, wealth, longevity, fertility and happiness, with the contrast between the bitterness of the nut and the sweet coating representing the bitter and sweet in a marriage.

Brides wanting to take their favours back to the origins of the traditions can find Elena’s beautifully made favours at www.elenamaria.co.uk

Happy Planning

Helen & Sarah x

All photos:

Elena Maria

]]> http://www.helencarterweddings.co.uk/spotlight-on/spotlight-on-elena-maria-favours/feed/ 0 http://www.helencarterweddings.co.uk/wedding-press/elegant-rustic-shoot-the-concept/ http://www.helencarterweddings.co.uk/wedding-press/elegant-rustic-shoot-the-concept/#comments Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:50:12 +0000 helen http://www.helencarterweddings.co.uk/?p=1646 ]]> In the Summer of 2011 we were asked by You & Your Wedding magazine to style a shoot to showcase a stunning array of bridal designs, but also to feature a multitude of beautiful details that brides and grooms could draw inspiration from when planning their day.

From our point of view it was almost the equivalent of planning a whole wedding, but with photographers, models, florists, make-up artists and a fashion editor as guests rather than the usual aunts, uncles and friends from childhood!

Our first step was to put together a design board featuring some inspiring images, all on an elegant rustic theme. We wanted to showcase lots of delicate textures, natural coloured fabrics and flowers reminiscent of the English countryside. Next we needed to find a suitable venue to showcase the dresses and all our decorative ideas, and Gaynes Park in Essex, with its light and airy orangery and rustic Gather Barn, fitted the bill perfectly.

The rustic, earthy tones we chose were given an elegant twist by incorporating lots of lace throughout the concept. By using lace in the ceremony backdrop, for dressing the dining chairs and in the designs for the cake display we lightened what could have been a heavy palette, as well as tying in with the delicate detailing on many of the dresses being photographed. The brief for the flowers was also for frilly and unstructured blooms in natural tones which would be elegant, but not too formal.

We also repeated the lace theme through into the escort card display, which was teamed with antique keys for another element which echoed throughout the day, in the cake display and on the kraft and cream coloured stationery.

Look out for future posts featuring more of the details of the shoot which was featured in March/April’s edition of You & Your Wedding magazine.

Happy Planning

Helen & Sarah x

Supplier Credits:

Photography: Segerius Bruce
Venue: Gaynes Park
Flowers: Euphoric Flowers
Cakes: The Cake Parlour
Stationery: Artcadia
Petal confetti: The Real Flower Confetti Company
French style chair (with bouquet): Out of Love
Linen and tableware: Jones Hire and Options Hire

In my time as a wedding planner, I never cease to be amazed by the actions of some wedding guests – it is as if common sense goes out of the window and everyone enters this paranormal crazy land where bizarre behaviour is perfectly acceptable! So for today’s post I’m not offering advice to brides or grooms, but instead want to share a few wise words for those of you who may have an upcoming wedding to attend, many of which are based on observations and experiences from my time in the wedding industry.

Reply to the invitation and respond by the RSVP date

I am still often amazed by the number of guests who fail to reply to their wedding invitation. Often this is because they are family members who assume that the bride and groom know they are going to be there, other times it’s simply because people forget. However, I cannot stress how important it is to send an RSVP, even if you are the groom’s sister or bride’s best friend. This isn’t simply confirming your attendance, but is an opportunity for you to highlight any special requests – maybe you need a high chair if you’re bringing a little one, or perhaps you have particular dietary requirements. Keeping on top of RSVPs and guest requests is time-consuming for a planner, let alone a bride who is entering one of the busiest planning phases of finalising and confirming arrangements – is it really so much of an effort to make her life that little bit easier?!

Make your travel and accommodation arrangements well in advance

Many couples include details of local hotels and taxis with their wedding invitation. If you know you will need a room for the night or need to book some form of transport, give yourself plenty of time to make the arrangements and please don’t expect the bride and groom to take care of it for you – they really have enough to organise without checking whether their 100 or so guests have somewhere to sleep! If transport is being offered by the couple make sure you let them know with your RSVP whether you wish to partake of the offer – this is really important as the size/number of coaches and/or taxis often cannot be finalised until the RSVPs are received. Also if plans change let the bride and groom know, even if that’s the day before the wedding. When any of our clients provide coaches I always have a list of guest names of who should be on the coach to avoid anyone getting left behind, but if you’re on the list and don’t turn up it can cause unnecessary delays whilst we try to find out where you are.

Arrive at the wedding approximately 30 minutes before the ceremony

I always err on the side of caution and work on guests arriving up to 1 hour before the ceremony, but realistically being there 30 minutes before the ceremony time stated on the invitation is perfect. Please don’t turn up 5 minutes beforehand (I’ve seen this many times!) – the bride will usually have already arrived at the venue for pre-ceremony photos and won’t necessarily want guests seeing her before she walks down the aisle. Equally don’t turn up 2 hours before the ceremony (yes, I’ve had this as well!) – the venue most probably won’t be ready to welcome guests so early, and there will be lots of hubbub with suppliers buzzing around that we really don’t want guests to see!

Don’t head straight for the bar

This is a personal niggle of mine, but I have seen guests arrive before a ceremony and instantly ask for the bar. Yes this is a celebration and everyone wants to have a good time, but it is also a momentous occasion and should be treated as such with respect. Alcohol cannot be served prior to a civil ceremony in the same room in which the ceremony is taking place, so don’t be surprised if your request for a quick beer is refused. There’s plenty of time to celebrate after the ceremony has taken place.

Make yourself available for photographs

Photographers and planners know that nobody wants to stand around for hours on end with a fake smile on their face. I always recommend limiting formal group shots to 6-8, which with a good photographer can take 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the groups. Usually formal photographs are taken at the start of the drinks reception, so that they’re out of the way and everyone can relax and enjoy themselves. If you are a family member, are part of the bridal party or know the bride and groom want a photo taken with you, keep an eye and ear on the photographer and try not to wander too far until the group shots have been taken – it’s much quicker and easier to get through the shots if everyone is close to hand and responding to their name being called.

Bring snacks for young children

A wedding day is a really long and boring day for little ones, and inevitably they get hungry before the wedding breakfast is served. I advise to keep the drinks reception to an absolute maximum of 90 minutes, but even with just an hour if the ceremony is at 2 you won’t realistically be served your meal until getting on for 4 pm. I always feel slightly irritated when I overhear guests complaining that their children are hungry or asking when dinner will be served – bringing a few snacks with you (little boxes of raisins always seem to go down well!) is a simple solution that will usually help to avoid any hunger-related tantrums.

Don’t try to upstage the bride

A golden rule – don’t wear white (unless you’ve been asked to)! I know this from personal experience – it might seem like a little thing, but for many brides (including me!) this is a really big deal. Obviously everyone wants to look their best at a wedding, but quite honestly nobody is going to really paying that much attention to you – all eyes will be on the bride and groom, and rightly so. There are innumerable colours and styles to choose from, so please, please don’t try to outdo a wedding dress – it never works!

Respect the venue and decor

This might seem an odd point to make, but after a few drinks things can sometimes get out of hand. The bride and groom will have paid a lot of money for their venue – they will also have signed a contract, which usually includes a clause about damage to furnishings and/or property. This also goes for caterers and hire companies. It might seem hilarious to make off with a fancy wine glass, swipe the salt and pepper pots or wrap a chair sash around your head and wear  it home, but by doing this you are actually going to cost your friends or relatives money. Anything broken or missing has to be paid for, so please don’t be the reason for an unexpected bill.

Don’t gatecrash the wedding

I always find it surprising when people think they are automatically invited to a wedding because they once served the bride in a shop or are the groom’s 21st cousin four-times removed. If you are only invited to the evening reception, don’t show up at the ceremony unless you have checked with the couple first that this is ok. Unless it’s in a church, ceremony seating will be provided for just over the number of guests attending, so unexpected guests could result in a shortage of chairs. Also a venue will be licensed for a maximum number of guests, and there is no flexibility with this – over the maximum number and the registrar can refuse to conduct the service.

Please also don’t turn up for the evening party if you haven’t been invited. The bride and groom may be providing food for their evening guests, numbers of which will have been confirmed in advance, so just rocking up on the night may mean a shortage of refreshments. In addition, the venue will have a maximum capacity based on fire regulations – if you and a crowd of friends think it would be funny to surprise the couple, be prepared that you may cause serious problems and embarrassment for the couple if the venue has to ask the party to stop because of too many people.

Knowing what to do at a wedding when you’re a guest is so important in helping the day to run smoothly, and people are what help to make a wedding truly special and memorable. Next time you’re invited to a wedding, make sure you’re the perfect guest!

Happy Planning!

Helen x

Photo Credits

Wedding guests: Kerry Morgan Photography
Routemaster: Marianne Taylor Photography
 Guests in white: Bride.Ca
Uninvited guests cartoon: Cartoon Stock

With Peta Hunt working her magic with some amazing dresses, including an absolute beauty from Phillipa Lepley and a Charlotte Casadejus design straight from the catwalk at the Luxury Wedding Show, our work was all about creating delicate backdrops to complement the ruffles, lace and tulle on show.

As always, Chanelle from Segerius-Bruce took some amazing shots – we’ll be sharing more images with you soon in the meantime you can check out the full article here. For more details on the design and to see what we got up to on the day, take a look at the behind the scenes video, shot by the ever-talented Adrian from The Dreamcatchers.

Happy Planning!

Helen and Sarah x

Supplier Credits

Location: Brocket Hall
Fashion Styling: Peta Hunt at You & Your Wedding
Photography: Segerius-Bruce Photography
Cakes and confectionery: The Cake Parlour
Flowers: Hybrid Flowers
Stationery: Louise Richardson

Our first approach was to create design boards for the overall look we wanted to achieve – if it’s good enough for visualising our clients’ wedding day then it’s good enough for us! We decided to create our own boards independently, without either one giving any hints about colours or styles. This could be seen as a bit of a risk (we could have ended up hating each other’s personal styles and unable to amalgamate both tastes!), but we believed it was important that both of our personalities were reflected within the design of the site.

The boards included wedding-related pictures, but also general photos we were drawn to, fonts, colours and images we felt reflected our characters. The idea was convey our personalities on one page, so that the new site would not only have a professional feel, but also a subtle personal touch running throughout the design. Much the same as when putting together a design board for a client, every image was carefully considered and included for a reason.

 What was particularly striking about the results was how different our colour preferences were – Sarah opting for deep blue-green and aqua tones whilst I was drawn to delicate pink and peach hues. Unsurprisingly (!), cakes featured in both of our boards, but what was also interesting to note was how we were both drawn to quirky fonts, delicate dresses, novel display ideas and lace detailing.

The boards were invaluable in pulling together our design ideas and conveying what we wanted to our designer. We opted to combine our colour preferences with a peach and teal colour scheme, and decided that the site and logo should have a clean and crisp feel, but with quirky hand-drawn illustrations softening the edges and reflecting our creative approach to our work. Along with a multi-page design brief, we sent our ideas off to Simon at SSS Media (a great friend, super-talented web designer and man with unending patience!) and started on the process of our rebranding work.

The starting point was the logo, which would set the tone for the site and be used for our new business cards. This proved somewhat of a challenge – similar to many of our brides we were more sure of what we didn’t like as to what we did! However, with incredible patience, Lexi our designer worked with our ideas to produce something that we absolutely love and feel fits our brief perfectly.

Next came the business cards. We’ve found from experience that we mostly share our cards with other industry professionals – suppliers, venue coordinators, bloggers, journalists and so on – so we felt we wanted a design that was suitable for both brides and our peers. We were delighted with the results – clean and fresh, but stylish and quirky at the same time.

The site itself was a mammoth undertaking – I don’t think any of us involved realised just how much work this would be! What we asked of Simon and his team was immense, but they rose to the challenge and created something that didn’t just fit our design brief, but far surpassed our expectations. Clean yet quirky, professional but still personal, detailed yet user-friendly.

We hope you like our new site as much as we do – if you have a few minutes please do take a nose around and let us know what you think! A huge thank you to Simon, Lexi and Ian at SSS Media for all of the hard work they put into helping us with our new look.

Happy Planning!

Helen and Sarah x

This move has been in the pipeline for well over 18 months, and the journey to get here has been filled with many hours of deep soul-searching, several heartbreaking conversations, some difficult decisions, immense levels of stress and many tears. There have been delays, set-backs and much uncertainty over the future, but 4 weeks ago on Sunday we finally arrived to start what we hope will be the adventure of a lifetime.

So what does the move mean for our wedding planning business? Well basically it’s all good news! We are continuing to plan weddings as normal, with Sarah looking after all of our current and future UK clients, and ultimately we will be looking to opening up an office here in Chicago over the coming months. Sarah and I are in regular contact, supporting each other and sharing new ideas from either sides of the pond, so the best part for our clients is that they now have the benefit of two obsessively organised planners’ brains working together on their arrangements – you can never check a spreadsheet or list too many times!

Our coverage area within the UK has also expanded, with our new Surrey office location meaning we are covering the southern Home Counties as well as continuing our work in London, Essex and Hertfordshire. With the majority of our trusted suppliers covering the whole south east region, we can continue some wonderful working relationships and ensure our clients receive only the best services for their wedding day.

So many special suppliers and planner friends have provided immense support over the last few months, introducing me to new people in Chicago, providing a shoulder to lean on when I’ve needed it and cheering me up with tea and cake when challenging times have called for more extreme measures! They know who they are, so I won’t name names, but I would like to take this opportunity to say the most enormous thank you to all of them – proof that working in our wedding industry is definitely the best place to be.

Happy Planning!

Helen x

Photo Credits

Chicago skyline: The Flying Kiwi
Helen and Sarah: Segerius-Bruce Photography