1. Pantone® announce colour report for Fall 2015
2. Trend predictions for children party themes in 2015
3. How we organised our Alice in Wonderland tea party
4. How we went somewhere over the rainbow with our Wizard of Oz party
5. Celebrating milestone occasions in 2015
We hope you’ve had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas. At this between and betwixt time, we take the time to reflect on the past year and look forward to the brand new year ahead. It’s a popular time to book holidays, make resolutions, kick start a new healthy regime and start thinking about personal special occasions that we have coming up.
Next year is going to give us plenty of reasons to celebrate as a nation with the Queen’s 90th birthday and we hope there’s street parties aplenty to mark such an amazing milestone in June.
In the music world, 2016 would have also seen the 80th and 90th birthdays of musical legends Buddy Holly and Marilyn Monroe respectively. Plus it also marks 150 years since Beatrix Potter was born
It’s also a leap year in 2016 so ladies this is your chance to pop the question. Let’s not take the lead from the Greeks and Romans though who thought that starting any new life event (from getting married to christening a child) in a leap year would bring bad luck.
Maybe you’ve got your own personal celebration in 2016. Perhaps you’re expecting a baby (much like Bridget Jones in the third installment of the film series set for release next year) and will mark this new arrival with a baby shower or a christening. Other babies due to famous faces in 2016 include:
Perhaps your children are a little older and you’ll be celebrating their graduation from university or marking their coming of age with a special party (like Kendall Jenner, who will reach her 21st birthday in 2016).
Congratulations if you got engaged over the festive season (or if you’re already engaged) and are planning an engagement party and/or wedding in the new year. Here are some famous engaged couples we think could make it up the aisle and we’re sure their special days would influence wedding trends in 2016:
Or maybe 2016 will give you the opportunity to renew your vows, celebrate an anniversary, mark your retirement or enjoy a special milestone birthday with the important people in your life.
Some famous faces turning 30 next year are:
Whilst celebrating their 40th birthdays will be:
Other big birthdays include Janet Jackson, Gordon Ramsay and David Cameron’s 50th; Tom Hanks’s 60th; Dolly Parton’s 70th; and Robert Redford’s 80th.
Whatever you’re celebrating in 2016, we wish you a very Happy New Year.
Weddings are a wonderful celebration of love and marriage. They can blend together families, traditions, cultures, creativity and lots of personal touches. Whether a religious, civil or humanist ceremony, a traditional or themed reception, these special days are about what is important to each individual couple.
Despite some couples’ originality, there are always trends that appear and popular themes that epitomise a particular era (think puff ball sleeves from the eighties). Sometimes fashion, films, television programmes, interior design, celebrity weddings and even current affairs influence these trends. Of course, there are some timeless and classic themes that never seem to go out of favour, and with the latest film in the Bridget Jones series set for release next year we’re sure the romantic theme will continue to be strong.
So what does 2016 hold for us? Well for one thing, it is a leap year. So will it bring about lots of proposals from women on the 29th February and encourage some excited wedding planning as a result?
It will be a time of revelry as a nation again as the Queen will be celebrating her 90th birthday on 12th June. This could prompt some street party themes using inspiration from the Union Jack colours. Red, white and blue could also be at the forefront of people’s minds with the culmination of the American elections as well.
Plus, let’s hope we’re also able to mark the achievements of our British footballers in the UEFA Euro 2016 finals in France and Spain, as well as our athletes in the Olympics next year. Maybe some sporting themes could become prevalent as a result of these events or perhaps weddings will be inspired by the Rio party atmosphere of the Brazilian venue of the Olympics.
2016 also marks 350 years since the Great Fire of London, 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare, 950 years since the Battle of Hastings and 50 years since England win the football World Cup.
Take a look at our curation of predictions for wedding trends to look out for in 2016 (and see more of our inspiration at pinterest.com/HanamiDream/):
Venue / themes
Décor
Flowers
Clothing
Colours
Cakes & catering
These are a few of our predictions for wedding trends in 2016. See more of our curation and inspiration at pinterest.com/HanamiDream/
May we take this opportunity to wish you a very happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year.
The Pantone® Color of the Year 2016 is Rose Quartz AND Serenity. Yes, we get two colours for the price of one next year. It’s the first time Pantone® have ever announced two colours and a long time since a pastel colour has hit the top spot. They are a nice calm change to the recent bold jewel colours of the last ten years. We can already see these colours featuring singly in couples’ colour schemes and look forward to seeing people using them in tandem too.
Pantone® is the world-renowned authority on colour and the Pantone® Color of the Year is always really influential in any popular colour themes in fashion, interior design and weddings.
Our guess for the Color of the Year 2016 was for Peach Echo, Buttercup or a great neutral colour like Iced Coffee. However we we didn’t see two colours coming! Nor a pastel colour. What we have got is something more relaxing and more choice.
Imagine planning your wedding without the internet, without your smart phone, or without Pinterest! Goodness, imagine if you didn’t even have a ball point pen to quickly jot down ideas in a notebook! Rewind a hundred years and you’d be planning a wedding without technology and the advancements we are lucky to have nowadays.
However the 1910s did see the invention of some amazing things that we now take for granted like the bras that we wear and anything with a zip. Thanks to the inventions of that decade we don’t have to be without electricity in our homes, telephones, fridges, vacuum cleaners, plasters, stainless steel, tea bags, instant coffee, pyrex and pop up toasters. Transport wise the 1910s saw amazing firsts for flying machines and motor cars becoming more widespread. Plus for entertainment the first crossword puzzle came about in the 1910s as well as hand cranked movie cameras, neon lighting and fortune cookies.
I’ve recently been thinking about this era as my mother has been researching our family history and came across an amazing photograph of my grandfather’s parent’s wedding from 1911. We were amazed at the grandeur of their wedding considering that they both worked in service and so wouldn’t have been able to afford such a grand wedding.
Think Downtown Abbey or Upstairs Downstairs. My ancestors would have definitely been the ‘downstairs’! The 1911 census said that one out of every seven employed persons was a domestic servant. Yet despite their position, their wedding was quite a lavish affair. My Grandad often said he thought that the ‘upstairs’ helped with the wedding and also that the chief bridesmaid’s employer helped too.
Their wedding certificate said that they lived in Scott Ellis Gardens. This was a stone’s throw away from St John’s Wood in London, home of Lord’s Cricket Ground and near the famous Abbey Road studio. Scott Ellis Gardens was built on land owned by Lord Howard de Walden.
Their wedding took place on 5th June 1911 at St Mark’s Church, Hamilton Terrace, NW8. It was on a Monday, which according to the traditional rhyme was said to mean the bride would be healthy (watch out for more on wedding traditions and superstitions in future blog posts) and the bride was driven there by coach and pair (a coach drawn by a pair of horses). What struck me about the date is that it is almost exactly 100 years before my own wedding on 5th August of 2011.
1911 was a time before any world wars, when there was no NHS, no vote for women and you could’ve gone out to work at 13 years old. It saw the launch of the ocean liner RMS Titanic in Belfast (which we know didn’t enjoy the happiest of voyages), there was a big heatwave, as well as the Coronation of George V in June.
My Great Grandad, Albert Edward Wagstaff was 20 at the time of his wedding and worked as a woollen warehouseman at a large firm called Holland and Sherry in London. He married my Great Nan, Sophie Elizabeth Piggott who was 22. They were at least a decade younger than the age I was when I walked down the aisle, although they were relatively old to marry in those days.
How different my dress looked compared to my Great Nan’s. Hers was a long sleeved, high necked and flowing gown versus my strapless, sleeveless, tight fitting dress. Her bridesmaids wore flowers on broad brimmed hats and wore their own Sunday best outfits, versus my bridesmaids with sophisticated chignons and custom made dresses for the day. My Great Nan had a floral crown, which wasn’t a trend when I got married 4 years ago, but is already having a revival now. One thing that I was keen to mirror was to have a big bouquet which my Nan in the 1940s also had on her big day.
The men were wearing their best suits (which didn’t match with each other) and we can see that the tradition of buttonholes hasn’t altered much in 100 years. However my Great Grandad does look particularly dapper. He handled very good quality materials at work (mostly in suitings for gentlemen and ladies costumes) and was often able to buy remnants. So he always had very good suits made for himself and beautiful costumes for his wife. Perhaps this is why they look so smart on their wedding day.
I love looking at how weddings have changed over the years and also how some traditions have continued to be upheld. (Take a look at our Wedding time capsule post for details of other trends.) Despite the technology and tools we have nowadays, our wedding photos don’t look too dissimilar to those of a hundred years ago and weddings remain constant events in our society with many common and recurring features. Maybe things haven’t changed too much in the last 100 years after all.
Back row (left to right): William (Albert’s older brother), the groom Albert Edward, William (Albert’s father), 2 ladies unknown, Frank (Albert’s youngest brother who went missing in the war)
Middle row: Avis (Albert’s sister), Jinny (Albert’s sister), the bride Sophie Elizabeth, Ruth (best friend and chief bridesmaid who was a cook at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton), Avis (Albert’s mother who my own Grandad was terrified of her and called the Countess!)
Front row: children unknown
This post is dedicated to my Grandfather who sadly passed away this month aged nearly 92. He was an inspirational man and played an important and influential part of my life. He was kind, generous, wise, fun loving and always thinking of others.
Over the years, Grandad’s moving speeches (and bright orange shirts) were always so poignant and he would always end a speech by saying how proud we had made him. On this occasion, I feel I’m allowed to say that Grandad did us proud.
We don’t have a television at the moment. After some building work before the summer we moved it and have never reinstated it. We haven’t missed it at all and what it has meant is that we only watch something that we really want to watch now (rather than flicking through channels if we are tired) or do other things instead.
I’ve taken to watching iPlayer whilst I cook and found some great period dramas over the summer to watch such as The Duchess of Devonshire, The Scandalous Lady W and Lady Chatterley’s Lover. I soon discovered that there’s a common thread through these and realised that all of these films made me feel really lucky to be a wife of this century. Plus along with the recent film release of Suffragette, I’m very grateful that I have choices and rights that my ancestors wouldn’t have had.
The vows I chose to make when I got married were promises rather than laws. I didn’t become the property of my husband and I chose not to ‘obey’ him in my vows. However a few centuries ago people didn’t have this same luxury. We live in a time when marriage is about partnership, lifelong companionship and equal rights.
The wording of the Church of England traditional wedding vows includes the bride promising to ‘obey’ and the groom vowing to ‘worship’ his wife. However some couples choose to leave out these words nowadays and alternatively choose ‘to love and to honour’ or ‘love and cherish’.
Traditional vows
‘I, (name), take you, (name)
to be my wife/husband,
to have and to hold
from this day forward;
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish,
till death us do part’
Traditional promises
Will you love her, comfort her, honour and protect her,
and, forsaking all others,
be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?
Whilst traditional vows still hold a lot of meaning, relevance and importance, we are also able to choose to make those vows more personal depending on the type of ceremony. Especially in humanist or non-religious ceremonies where you can personalise and express yourself completely when writing your own vows. Whilst sometimes the amount of choices we have in life can be overwhelming, I remain grateful that we have choices.
Over the past four years, Zena Birch has worked very closely with couples to help them create their own personal vows to go alongside or precede more traditional ring vows. Here are some of her top tips for writing your own vows.
In a humanist ceremony instead of holding themselves accountable to a god or a deity, couples are actually asking those gathered to hold them accountable as they witness their public declarations. Therefore the words they say as they make their vows and their promises to each other are more important than ever.
In today’s age it is possible to live very happily together without getting married, so when a couple decide to take this extra step it is a deeply personal commitment. Your vows are to be celebrated every year you manage to uphold them, but they should also be the words that hold you fast when times get difficult and as such it is important that the vows you say to each other are made up of the values and commitments you are willing to stand by.
My couples and I work together to discover just what those words/promises might be. It can be very daunting – faced with a blank page and some of the most important words you are ever going to say, so the advice I tend to give is to make sure they:
We are lucky to live in an era where our own words hold validity. Writing your own wedding vows is a very enriching experience and one which can really help lay the foundations needed for a long and joy filled marriage.
For more information on a humanist ceremony go to www.zenabirch.com or contact zenabirchweddings@gmail.com
Zena-Birch-Bespoke-Humanist-Ceremonies
There was a time when I thought I’d always be the bridesmaid and never the bride. I thought the film 27 Dresses was written about me! But despite being a bridesmaid more than three times, I’ve luckily now been a bride too. Before being married, I was a flower girl as a toddler, a bridesmaid twice as a child and a chief bridesmaid two times as an adult. My roles at the weddings were to look cute, to play a part in a family wedding and to provide support and guidance to close friends (in that order). It was certainly an honour to be part of the wedding party and enjoy the celebrations and their special day.
Plus one lasting part of being a bridesmaid is being able to enjoy wearing the beautiful dress again at other occasions after the wedding (although the orange puff sleeve dress from when I was a bridesmaid in the 1980s sadly doesn’t still feature in my wardrobe!)
Traditionally bridesmaids would’ve worn exactly the same as the bride to confuse evil spirits and protect the bride from bad luck. Nowadays bridesmaids are chosen to support the bride and to honour the part that friends and family have played in the bride’s life.
According to Cool Daily Infographics, there are around 11 million bridesmaids a year, brides have an average of 5 bridesmaids each, with 64% of brides dressing their bridesmaids in identical outfits.
Here is some wonderful insight from the lovely and highly talented Mrs W Tutus on the growing trends in bridesmaids’ dresses and why you should choose a tutu for your bridesmaids.
I’ve seen a lot of bridesmaids dresses over the years – as the eldest daughter of a Vicar, when you are very small an exciting Saturday afternoon excursion is to go and watch the arrival at Church of the Bride and her Bridesmaids/Flower Girls and swoon over the pretty dresses in front of you!
The wide ranging choices for dressing the littlest members of your Bridal party (and the big members for that matter) can seem hugely overwhelming – do you opt for something traditional from a Bridal boutique, scour the High Street for the right choice or opt for handmade?
Unsurprisingly, I am a big advocate for all things handmade – the benefit of choosing to have something made specifically for your little ladies is you get to have EXACTLY what you have been picturing in your mind during the dreaming/planning process and can be sure that no-one else will have dresses like yours!
Whether your wedding is going to be an incredibly traditional religious ceremony or something a little more outlandish and out of the ordinary, chances are there is a Tutu or Tutu Dress out there (or somewhere within the depths of your imagination) that will fit perfectly with your chosen theme.
If Traditional or Classic is your style, then choosing to put your little maids in either of my Taffeta Princess or British Belle styles offers a wonderful balance of pretty fluffy tulle coupled with the elegance of a taffeta overdress, all the finer details of which can be chosen and customised by you, whilst the Crochet Princess has a lovely Vintage feel to it, thanks to the hand crocheted bodice and wonderful oversized bow at the back.
If quirky or over the top is more your cup of tea however, opting for the Pomander Fairy or a full length tutu teamed with a Princess Streamers Bustle may be the way to go – both of these styles offer incredible amounts of wondrously fluffy tulle and most definitely appeal to the inner Princess of any Bridesmaid or Flower Girl!
Tutus are a great choice if you are choosing a Rustic theme for your wedding – a knee length tutu skirt teamed with a simple leotard are an excellent alternative to a potentially more traditional dress…….add a matching Tulle Crown and Wand and you have a great way of expressing the individuality of both the Bride and the young lady wearing it!
Another option to consider is a custom Tulle Petticoat to go under a more traditional dress – a flash of rainbow colours adds both fun and volume to an outfit……and is guaranteed to make everyone smile, courtesy of all the twirling that will be going on!
Once the Wedding Day is over, all these things make lovely additions to any little Princess’s dressing up box and can continue to be worn for many years to come!
Absolutely everything from Mrs W Tutus is handmade by herself and as well as existing designs, she is always excited to create something totally unique based on your own ideas – she has 42 colours of tulle that you can choose from, be it a single or mix of colours and some of which come in both sparkle and glitter tulle, so you can be confident that it will be a perfect match for your chosen theme.
For more information, go to www.mrswtutus.co.uk or email kate@mrswtutus.co.uk
At this time of year Spring seems a long way off – we’ve just entered the Autumn Equinox, the leaves are changing colour, nights are drawing in and the mornings are bitterly cold (thankfully we’ve had some lovely sunny days though!).
However those lovely folks at Pantone® have just announced their colour report for Spring 2016, released to coincide with New York Fashion Week. And this palette of ten fresh and vibrant colours gives us hope for the Spring time when everything will come back to life again.
The colours seem full of sunshine and are really vibrant rather than just subtle pastels. There seems a real cohesion and they blend together in harmony. There’s not a colour that jars amongst them and we can already imagine some nifty colour partnerships amongst them.
We love the combination of the navy Snorkel Blue, yellow Buttercup and aqua Limpet Shell which transports us right to a tropical beach in the summer time – representing the sky, sand and sea respectively. Which is just the desired outcome by the Pantone Color Institute™ who say that ‘Colors this season transport us to a happier, sunnier place where we feel free to express a wittier version of our real selves.’
These colours are intended to be calming, soothing, relaxing and have a sense of escapism. This is a chilled out vacation in Cuba with days spent relaxing by the sea and nights full of fiestas.
The top ten colours for Spring 2016 are:
Pantone® is the world-renowned authority on colour and the Pantone® Color of the Year is always really influential in any popular colour themes in fashion, interior design and weddings.
We wait with baited breath for the release of the 2016 news. Could it be the turn of an orange colour to be the Color of the Year such as Peach Echo? Or perhaps a strong neutral like Iced Coffee that will blend with Spring as well as Fall colours? Or our particular favourite is Buttercup. Let’s wait for December to find out!
My phone broke the other week and I lost all my photos. I was gutted I’d not backed it up recently. It made me realise how important pictures are to me – a lasting memory of a moment in time never to be replayed. Luckily technology nowadays allows us to have a back up, prepare for the worst and gives us options should accidents or the unexpected happen. Surely we should apply this same back up plan mentality when thinking about one of the biggest (and most expensive) days of our lives? Here are some things to think about, courtesy of those nice people at Silk Thistle Wedding Insurance.
When planning your wedding, insurance is probably the last thing on your mind. After all, there are so many important decisions to make: Finding the perfect venue, planning menus, colour schemes and flowers. Would you like your bouquet cascade or would a single flower make more of a statement? Should you have a traditional three-tier cake or one made of cheese or even a pork pie wedding cake? Would you prefer a vintage Rolls Royce to take you there or something a little different, like a double decker bus or a Hummer?
Even wedding photography has got more complicated; drones, videos and photo booths are all available, as well as some amazing wedding photographers, but who or what do you choose? There are wedding trends you had never even thought of: Boho, Gatsby, Rockabilly and Fairytale to name a few. Your wedding dress will reflect your style so it’s essential to get it right. And what about the shoes?
You plan everything down to the minutest detail. It’s like a military operation. What could possibly go wrong……?
Well unfortunately, things don’t always go to plan. What if the hotel you had booked your reception at went into receivership, along with your hefty deposit just two weeks before the wedding? Or the bridal shop burnt down, along with your dress? What if your Dad had to go into hospital suddenly? The seating plan would be the least of your worries as you would be more likely to postpone the wedding altogether. It’s all very well planning for a little rain, but what if the weather was so bad you and your guests couldn’t even get there? What would you do if the photographer’s equipment was stolen and all those memories lost or the wedding cake got damaged in transit?
Wedding Insurance can protect against such eventualities by covering you financially should things go wrong. At Silk Thistle Wedding Insurance, there are six levels of cover to suit every budget, as well as optional extras like marquee, ceremonial swords and public liability cover. They cover things like the rings, venue, dress, cake, suppliers and even photography (if only they covered losing photos on smart phones!)
With the average wedding in the UK costing over £20,000 they don’t come cheap. It is a large financial commitment, probably the biggest you’ll make after buying a house and a car. Wedding Insurance is probably one of the smallest expenses of your wedding budget. It could be the best money you’ll ever spend on your wedding!
For more information go to www.silkthistle.co.uk
Booking your band is often one of the more enjoyable tasks when it comes to planning your wedding, however to prevent any hiccups on your special day (apart from those caused by the Champagne) have a read of the 5 essential tips below expertly compiled from the lovely people at Matchbox Music.
1. Size, does it matter?
Some say size doesn’t matter, but if you get to your wedding night and you haven’t checked your measurements you could be in for a disappointing end to the day.
I am of course talking about the size of your band. Although it might sound obvious, you should always check that your band is actually going to fit in your venue. If you are unsure, just send your band leader the dimensions of their performance space. Any professional band will be able to give you a size estimate for their act prior to the wedding.
2. Money, money, money
When trying to work out how much to spend on a wedding band, a general rule of thumb is to take the number of musicians and multiply it by £250. This can be used as an estimate for the starting price of a band excluding travel expenses, so for a 3-piece band you can expect the cost to start from £750. Make sure you confirm with the band how long and how many sets are included for the price, you can expect on the above price an average two 1-hour sets or three 45 minute sets.
You might have found your dream band for a price that fits your budget, but if the band has to travel 500 miles to get to your wedding, you’re going to have to pay hefty travel expenses or even pay for accommodation. Instead if you find a band that is more local to your wedding venue, the money you save on travel expenses can instead be used to pay for longer sets of music, a larger band or even getting the band to play your first dance.
3. Technical difficulties
Checking that the technical requirements of the band can be met by the venue is hugely important. Imagine booking a band to play outdoors at your wedding, only to find out on the day that the venue has no way of providing power for the band, it would be a disaster that could easily of been avoided.
A simple way to avoid such situations is to check the rider. A rider is simply a list of technical and general requirements that the band need in order to perform which you as the client are responsible for providing. Typical items to be found on the rider will be the number of power sockets required, providing a changing room for the musicians, and providing the band with a meal. If all items on the rider are not met, the band are within their rights to not perform, so it is important to carefully read through it.
Once you have read the rider, check with an appropriate agent at your venue that all the requirements can be met. It is better to do this sooner rather than later so any problems can be rectified.
4. Using a booking agent
Using an agent makes the process of finding your wedding band a lot simpler and more enjoyable. A good agency will have an easy to use website, which will have bands for every budget and genre. You can seamlessly browse through the acts, comparing their promotional videos, set lists and testimonials until you find the band that is perfect for your special day.
Using an agent can sometimes cost a little extra, but that money is well invested in the knowledge that you have support should any issues arise during the lead up to your wedding. In the event of the unexpected, such as the band breaking the contract, you won’t find yourself in a situation where you have no band with only a week until the wedding!
5. Superstar DJs – here we go!
To keep your guests dancing the night away even after the band has finished you’re going to need some music, and for this you will need to book a DJ… or do you? A way to potentially save money is to choose a band that offers a DJ package. Each band will offer different DJ add-ons ranging from a simple iPod playlists to a full DJ with decks. Whatever the case, if the band offers a DJ service it is probably going to be more cost effective than outsourcing an independently booked DJ.
With these top tips you’ll be set to dance the night away. If you’d like to find out more about booking a wedding band visit www.matchboxmusic.co.uk or contact Matchbox Music at info@matchboxmusic.co.uk
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