I’m not going to lie, I’m like a kid on Christmas Eve when I’m waiting with baited breath for the Pantone® announcements. For three times a year, I feel like a proper journalist waiting for the news to break about the next season’s top colours. (And I’m nearly beside myself waiting for the colour of the year announcement in December!)
Yes, I get excited! So when the fashion week season kicks off (this month is New York, London, Milan and then Paris) I’m on stand by waiting for Pantone® to make their declaration.
And it was quite a delay this time, as Pantone® waited until not only after New York Fashion Week to finish, but London as well. Whilst the fashion crowd have now moved on to Milan, I was beginning to think that Pantone® weren’t going to reveal a colour report at all this time. And if I may moan about Pantone® for one minute, I must say that I’m disappointed that it is less about their predictions now and more just about counting colours that designers have used. Don’t get me wrong, their report is comprehensive and incredibly impressive (blimey, there were around 180 shows at NYFW alone!) but I guess I feel it’s less about foresight in advance now.
However, it is good that their analysis is taking more of an international view for the first time and this report is a great overview of fashion designers’ use of colour in their Autumn/Winter 2017/2018 collections.
Plus I’ve already fallen deeply in love with the collection of colours that will trend this Autumn. Don’t get too excited. There’s no huge surprises. In fact, I probably could’ve written this article without even seeing the colours as they’re fairly typical and what you’d expect.
But they are a beautiful, rich collection of classic autumnal colours.
Looking at them makes me want to run, jump, kick and roll in a pile of crunchy fallen leaves all in the vibrant hues of Grenadine, Autumn Maple, Golden Lime and Butterum.
Even the distinctive, pale pink Ballet Slipper sits well with the cooler, wintry colours of Marina, Navy Peony and Neutral Gray.
For me, the stand out colour is Shaded Spruce, a rich warm dark teal colour, which is a wonderful evolution of the Greenery colour of the year. It will take us from the freshness of spring/summer to the evergreen foliage of the winter.
Pantone® Color Institute Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman was right when she said that, “Cocooning colors are something you just want to wrap around yourself and feel comforted.”
New York and London fashion weeks were full of tactile fabrics such as fur, velvet, quilting and tweed with a bit of Hollywood glam. These Fall/Winter 2017/2018 colours are Hygge at its best – comforting and cosy. How warming would that glorious and rich Tawny Port be to sup apres ski!
I also love the combination of the grey and yellow (maybe next year we’ll finally have a yellow as the colour of the year!) as it feels like such a comforting ray of sunshine.
The top ten colours from NYFW for Fall 2017 are:
PANTONE 19-4524 TCX Shaded Spruce
PANTONE 17-1558-TPX Grenadine
PANTONE 17-1145-TCX Autumn Maple
PANTONE 13-2808 TCX Ballet Slipper
PANTONE 16-0543 TPG Golden Lime
PANTONE 17-4041 TPX Marina
PANTONE 19-4029 TCX Navy Peony
PANTONE 17-4402-TPX Neutral Gray
PANTONE 16-1341 TCX Butterum
PANTONE 19-1725 TCX Tawny Port
Plus these from LFW (which are pretty similar to the ones from New York apart from a very welcome addition of a purple, a dark neutral brown and a fabulous yellow in the mix):
PANTONE 18-1662 TCX Flame Scarlet
PANTONE 12-2904 TPG Primrose Pink
PANTONE16-1331 TCX Toast
PANTONE 14-4121 TPX Blue Bell
PANTONE 18-3531 TPX Royal Lilac
PANTONE 18-1018 TCX Otter
PANTONE 18-4028 TCX Navy Peony
PANTONE 16-1338 TPX Copper Tan
PANTONE 15-0751 TPG Lemon Curry
PANTONE 16-0639 TPX Golden Olive
It’ll be great to see how couples incorporate these colours in to their weddings later this year (and whether the luxurious fabrics and sheer tops will influence wedding dress designs).
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.
Gifts for your guests can be great mementos or souvenirs of your wedding day showing a token of your appreciation whilst also matching your theme or colour scheme. Nowadays couples are choosing more unique, personalised, dated and themed gifts. There is also a wonderful trend of providing charity pins to guests and making a donation to a chosen charity.
Here’s a pick of some of my current favourite favours to: eat, meet, keep or have as a treat.
Edible
Traditional sugared almonds
Chocolate bars with personalised wrappers
Retro sweets (think flyer saucers, dip dabs and flumps)
Loveheart sweets (brought up to date with new slogans such as ‘text me’!)
Lollipops in a communal bowl on the table
Cake pops
Ice breakers
Games to play with other guests on the same table
Cameras to snap candid shots
Colouring books to keep children entertained
To wear at wedding
Flip flops for when your heels are hurting your dancing feet
Sun glasses for an outside wedding on a sunny day
Umbrellas for an outside wedding when the weather isn’t as sunny
Moustaches just for fun
Temporary tattoos
Grow
Packets of seeds to grow vegetables
Dried herbs to add to meals at home
Succulents or other potted plants
Drink
Alcohol miniatures
Loose leaf tea
Shot glass
Decorations
Scented candles
Soap
Fridge magnets to always remember the couples’ wedding anniversary
Plus take a look at these brilliant local suppliers that can bring a different angle to provide some wonderful favours:
FabFudge was created in August 2016 on the back of an idea, to help fundraise for Reboot Me With HSCT – A Multiple Sclerosis Fundraiser.
It originally started with us making Fudge for friends and family who bought it and everyone loved it!
With over 25+ different types and flavours of fudge, including Vegan friendly, Gluten Free & Alcoholic , we have a wide range of fudge suited for just about everyone, and were constantly increasing our range. The chocolate we use is only the best UTZ Certified Belgium Chocolate, therefore when you buy our fudge, you are getting the best chocolate around! If you cannot find something that you like or you want to give us a suggestion for something we can make, get in touch with us and we’ll do our best to make it for you! We also cater for events, if you want more information please get in touch with us.
We can deliver to a wide range of places all over the world. All profit made from FabFudge goes to Reboot Me With HSCT – Fundraising for Multiple Sclerosis treatment.
Our fragrance work shop has all always worked well for corporates and stag/hen parties, but we realised there was a gap in the market to turn these into favours for wedding guests or special occasions as table presents.
We talk about the fragrance the couple would like to create, whether it be unisex or a distinct aftershave or perfume and then take them through our 18 blends from Grasse in France (the home of perfume).
We create the fragrances with their choices, sorting out the measurements of each blend. They then have a 30ml atomiser (or larger in their chosen style) or choose either 5ml or 10 ml bottles as the wedding favours. This can also be made into scented candles, room sprays or even scented love hearts or ornaments.
Needless to say the packaging and colours can tie up with their desired coloured scheme. The fragrance then has a certificate and kept on our database if they would like refills or their guests. We work Nationwide and can work in their homes, or hotels or wherever they choose. We are also developing a do it yourself kit for lower budgets, where the couple can receive all the instructions and equipment and make them themselves.
MuffatPrague started life as a sonic and visual arts blog in 2011.
After a lifetime’s love of the letterform, all things typographic and a couple of decades of working independently in creative spheres, designer-maker team Rob and Hils decided to start hand-craft letters from their garden studio in 2014. Their Oiseaux, a simple bird form designed by Rob has now become their brand identity and signature design. Their work is handmade from locally sourced reclaimed ply, walnut and oak, finished with Farrow & Ball Eggshell and Oxfordshire beeswax.
They were voted Best Creative Producer (Bucks/Oxon) in the Muddy Stilettos Awards 2016 and have new ideas coming for 2017 – keep an eye on their website and Instagram feed for more info.
The birds are available in 4 sizes with a single brass leg fitting or bakers twine loop.
NC Oxford is Oxfordshire’s finest producer of luxury scented candles and reed diffusers. All of our products are lovingly hand poured in our workshop located near the historic town of Woodstock. We use the finest quality ingredients including natural soy based waxes to give our candles a slow clean burn. We combine our wax with the most luxurious fragrance oils, expertly balanced, to produces wonderful aromas. Our products’ simple but stylish design will compliment any room or occasion effortlessly. When given as a gift, it will make a lasting impression.
For your wedding day, we are able to produce a commemorative and bespoke range of candles and have candles to suit all budgets. Choose from:
The “Bride & Groom” – a large 3 wick candle which will have burn time of over 70 hours
The “Mother of the Bride”, “Maid of Honour/Best Man”- our luxury 220g signature candle, with a burn time of 40-50 hours
Wedding favour votives – our smaller, but elegant 90g votive candle, with a burn time of 15 hours
Wedding favour tea lights – deep filled luxury tea lights. Each tea light has a burn time of 3-4 hours
All of our jar candles some with stainless steel “snuffer” lids. As well as being a stylish addition, the snuffer lids help to keep the fragrance strong in the candles so they can keep for years without losing their wonderful scents.
To make your wedding favours extra special, we can include your name and the date of the wedding on our designer labels, ensuring that you and your guests can cherish the candles forever. Simply choose your favourite scent from our “Special Occasions”, “Quintessentially Oxford” or “Timeless” range.
Perfect Pamper Gifts pride themselves on offering personal and thoughtful gifts. When it comes to gifts, we all want to give our loved ones something that’s unique, personal and not found in bulk on the high street. A grand gesture isn’t so grand when you can see your gift in every other shop after all.
Specialising in bath, body and pampering treats, all of the products are handmade within the UK so you really can experience the best the UK has to offer. Offering luxurious bath bombs to irresistible candle tins and a whole lot more, Perfect Pamper Gifts provide the perfect pampering gift for all occasions. A ‘create your own’ facility means your gift can be packaged how you like, tied with a bow and finished with a message to make it as personal as you wish. A gift becomes memorable when its personal.
Stonesfield Soap Company is a small, family-run business based in in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. It started off as a hobby, following on from our daughter’s 9th birthday party (a ‘spa science’ party, making bath fizzies, melt & pour soap etc), and as a concerned response to the huge number of unnecessary chemicals found in toiletries today. Since then, it has grown into a business driven by a passion for the manufacture of natural, artisan cold-process soap with an emphasis on design. The maxim that ‘beautiful skin deserves beautiful soap’ is at the forefront of what we do, with a firm belief that a good, natural soap should not only leave the skin feeling gently cleansed and perfectly conditioned but should also provide a positive visual experience, with the design of the soap playing an important role. The inclusion of various botanicals, clays, milks and a wide range of pure nutrient and essential oils, all carefully chosen for their individual properties, helps us create a very special soap indeed. We employ a strong ‘no palm oil’ policy and actively support a local conservation charity that works out in Sumatra. As well as soap, we are continually expanding our range of bath and skincare products, such as balms, bath bombs, salts and oils.
Wildflower Favours are all about eco weddings, butterflies, bees, wildflowers and nature! We supply recycled seed packet wedding favours, personalised with the bride and groom’s wedding details, and containing British-grown British wildflower seeds. Seeds which our native butterflies and bees love! We also create lovely invites and wedding favours from recycled seed paper – paper which is embedded with flower seeds and really grows into flowers! We want to spread the word about the environment and giving nature a helping hand and weddings are ideal for reaching a big audience and converting people to the beauty and usefulness of wildflowers.
Personalised Chocolate Bars from WrapperStar are a fantastic & cost-effective way of adding a truly personal touch to your wedding reception tables. It’s a great wedding favour that all ages will love, & can be tailored to your theme/colour-scheme as well as being individually personalised to double up as your place settings too.
Each bar is 10 chunks of smooth creamy milk chocolate (made in the UK) & is a lovely token gift that can be personalised on both the front & back of the wrapper. Choose from an existing design or have a bespoke wrapper created just for you to match your wedding stationery – with pearlescent papers, diamante or pearl embellishments and the option to use your own artwork, the possibilities are endless!
Why not inject some extra fun into the speeches with WrapperStar’s Wonka Bar wedding favours? Imagine the excitement when the golden tickets are found! Please ask for more details.
Based in Witney, Oxfordshire, WrapperStar delivers throughout the UK & Europe.
A beautiful Saturday in April 2015 saw the wedding of Erica and Ruby at Cogges Manor Farm.
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Robin Smith
Cogges Manor Farm is nestled in the lovely market town of Witney and offers two stunning seventeenth century barns for weddings. They were a perfect blank canvas to add loads of personalised details to the day with vintage books, afternoon tea, lots of handmade touches and accents of yellow. This wonderful vintage literary wedding was captured by a number of professional photographers (who are also close friends of the couple) who each had a different section to cover throughout the day.
The couple hadn’t heard about this wonderful venue until Erica’s sister sent them a link to Cogges’s website. They instantly fell in love with the barns when they went to see them and booked their wedding date on the spot! And from there, they produced a beautiful, creative, DIY budget rustic barn wedding. It came complete with hay bales, bunting (kindly loaned from friends & family) and the Cogges chickens running around.
Most things were either handmade, collected or sourced by the couple or their family and friends. They even held a craft session at a local pub and invited their friends and family to stamp out thousands of cat and tea pot shaped confetti from old books. They hand made photo bunting from photographs of themselves over the 5 years they’d been together, as well as hand made centrepieces of brown ale bottles (with brown string wrapped around the necks adorned with buttons), and beautiful handmade paper flowers (again from old book pages) that they held as alternative bouquets too.
The brides both made a great entrance in to the barn. Not only were their outfits stunning, with Erica’s wedding outfit (of trousers & waistcoat) handmade from design to finished garment by the amazing local Oxfordshire wedding dressmaker, Geraldine Jarell of Oxford Frocks. But they also both walked into the barn from opposite large barn doors. They were escorted by their respective fathers and walked a mesmerising figure of 8 around their 100 guests seated on hay bales. The couple met in the middle of the barn, surrounded by all their friends and family, and had an enchanting ceremony complete with the lighting of a candle.
There were lots of personal touches to decorate the barn, such as a stack of Beatrix Potter books that Erica was given as a child by her aunt (who sadly couldn’t make it from Canada on the day). There was also an old gramophone that belongs to Ruby’s dad which played records of Eva Cassidy and the like during the reception drinks in the walled garden.
Photography by Tom Weller
Afterwards, the guests were treated with a ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover’ themed wedding favour. As they came back in to the barn, they helped themselves to a surprise book. These were a job lot of paperback books bought from eBay and each wrapped in a brown paper parcel and stacked on a table. This gave people something to chat about at their tables before and during their afternoon tea. Many people told the couple after the wedding that the book they chose was perfect for them!
Afternoon tea has featured in this couple’s story for a while as Erica proposed to Ruby at Jane’s Enchanted Tea Garden in Oxfordshire on 29th March 2014 (the day that gay marriage was legalised). So it is fitting that afternoon tea was also the theme of their wedding day, utilising vintage mismatched china that they had collected over a year. They visited numerous charity shops and car boot sales accumulating enough tea sets to host afternoon tea for 100 guests. The afternoon tea was served inside the Wheat Barn on rustic picnic benches (Ruby wanted to avoid white table cloths at all costs!) And now all of this china is used to serve loose leaf teas and hot chocolate in their own pottery cafe, Busy Brush Café in Wallingford. Delicious sandwiches, scones and cakes accompanied their afternoon tea.
Guests were encouraged to leave a finger print on an alternative guest book tree picture, plus write a personal message to the couple on vintage postcards left in a vintage suitcase.
A beautiful ‘Thank You Tree’ was displayed in the barn with luggage tags carrying messages to thank family & friends that had helped them – from solo singing during the ceremony, to loaning fairy lights that made the barns twinkle, to taking photos at the wedding, the endless search for China teapots etc. They borrowed the tree itself from their friend Anita who owns Country Collections shop in Wheatley.
In the evening, the guests were spoilt with some of the ‘best jacket potatoes you’ve ever tasted’, cooked in an old Victorian Oven out on the veranda. Plus, the wedding cake was actually a 1.5m high cake stand stacked full of jars of retro sweets that people could nibble on throughout the evening.
Then came a brilliant spectacle as the couple’s first dance was a flash mob dance where Erica and Ruby started dancing alone to Happy by Pharrel Williams. Then 5 friends, one by one, jumped into a well learnt dance routine. Mid way through the song lots of other guests got up and joined in too. What a wonderful way to take the pressure off everyone looking at the couple and so much fun!
After this the happy couple didn’t leave the dance floor and enjoyed the songs of a local Witney band, Vinyl Daze, well into the night.
This vintage literary afternoon tea wedding proves that with some personal touches, great friends, time and creativity, a beautiful barn wedding can be produced without breaking the bank.
Photography by Thomas Phillips
Photography by Thomas Phillips
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Robin Smith
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Thomas Phillips
Photography by Robin Smith
Photography by Nick Bradbury
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Nick Bradbury
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Nick Bradbury
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Thomas Phillips
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Nick Bradbury
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Thomas Phillips
Photography by Thomas Phillips
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Thomas Phillips
Photography by Robin Smith
Photography by Thomas Phillips
Photography by Thomas Phillips
Photography by Mark Carroll
Photography by Tom Weller
Photography by Alan Glasspool
Photography by Alan Glasspool
Photography by Thomas Phillips
Photography by Thomas Phillips
Venue | Cogges Manor Farm | Witney, Oxfordshire | www.cogges.org.uk Photography | Nick Bradbury | Mark Carroll | Alan Glasspool | Thomas Phillips | Robin Smith | Tom Weller Bride’s outfit | trousers & waistcoat | made by Geraldine Jarell | Oxford Frocks Flowers | handmade Hay bales | provided by venue Thank you tree | Country Collections , Wheatley | https://www.facebook.com/Country-Collections-762549283781067 Band | Vinyl Daze | www.vinyldaze.co.uk
It seems we are in the full throes of award season at the moment. Social media, television and magazines are strewn with images of glamourous celebrities on red carpets attending glitzy award ceremonies. At this time of the year there’s the SAG Awards, BAFTAs, Golden Globes, Grammys, Emmys and not forgetting the Oscars at the end of the month, and my favourite, the Brit Awards in a few weeks time.
And the world of weddings get in on the act too by recognising successes with various awards in their own right. I’m proud to also be a part of the whole award season, with my blog being a finalist in the UK Blog Awards 2017 (UKBA17) as well as currently being shortlisted for the West Oxfordshire Business Awards 2017 (#WOBA2017).
It was a pleasure to host the WOBA judging panel last week and share more about Hanami Dream weddings and special occasions and I look forward to hopefully being able to celebrate further achievements when the results are announced later in the year.
Celebrating achievements (no matter how big or small) is important so I wanted to share some personal musings about why I blog and how much I value the recognition that awards bring to niche blogs such as mine.
Why do you write your blog?
In a nutshell, I love to blog about weddings because I love weddings! How wonderful to have all the people you care about, from different walks of your life, in the same room at the same time on your wedding day!
I get to combine this passion for weddings with my skills and experience of organising amazing styled photo shoots. In particular, I love the unique detail shots. After all, it’s all the little details that bring any event to life.
My local Cotswold wedding blog compiles, creates and collates inspiration, providing couples with wedding planning tips, tools, trends and traditions to celebrate their personal milestones.
Since 2014, this blog has evolved (and continues to) wherever new opportunities and avenues take me. The possibilities are really exciting and my blog conveniently fits around my growing family commitments and lifestyle (with three beautiful children currently under 5 I’m certainly never bored).
The beauty of blogging is that I can work anywhere, at any time and write about the things that really interest me. I’m a big fan of local wedding businesses and I support and promote them whenever I can.
What does it mean to be a finalist?
Being a finalist in the UK Blog Awards for a second year gives me a huge sense of achievement, is great recognition and a wonderful testament to the level of support shown by my readers.
I feel honoured to even be considered alongside the calibre of my fellow finalists in the Individual Event and Wedding category. Being up against great finalists has given me the chance to re-evaluate my blog again, an impetus to continue to improve it and a challenge to think about further evolution.
It is great to have another reason to shout about my business. I’m also currently shortlisted for the next round of the West Oxfordshire Business Awards #WOBA2017. Both these accolades give me the opportunity to connect with other professionals in the blogging world, wedding industry and local businesses.
This added promotion has given not only my blog extra exposure, but I’m pleased it’s also showcasing the stunning venues and highly talented wedding industry professionals from small, local and independent businesses, that my blog supports in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside of the Cotswolds.
