It’s great to network on Twitter and to add to my honoured collection of accolades with this lovely one from Marketme. 
#SmartSocial is a competition that rewards businesses that are smart with social media (run every Sunday 9am – noon on Twitter).
Social media helps me to provide wedding inspiration, tips, trends and traditions to Cotswolds couples.
If you’re planning your wedding in the Cotswolds then make sure to get your copy of the 2016/17 edition of Cotswold Bride which is out now for the year.
http://www.weddingsite.co.uk/magazines/cotswold-bride
Not disguises by the seaside but some lovely models are required for a bohemian styled bridal shoot with a literature theme.
The shoot will take place at a stunning venue by the River Windrush in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside this October half term.
This project is supporting and showcasing local, independent wedding businesses – everyone provides their services and products for free and in return gets some wonderful lifestyle shots to use at a later date. This is a collaboration of like minded people that create great things together though don’t have the budgets to produce this kind of work if they all worked independently.
The shoot will be approximately 2-3 hours in the afternoon of Tuesday 25th October (weather permitting) and will provide some fantastic lifestyle shots for your portfolio. One fitting prior to the date may be necessary. Own transport is required to Minster Lovell, Witney, OX29 0RN.
We are looking for models fitting the following description:
WAVES – Female with long blonde/brown wavy hair, approximately 20-30 years old, 170 cms tall, size 10-14
BEARDS – Male with dark hair and beard, taller than the bride, approximately 25-35 years old, 40” chest, 32” waist
If you’re available and would like to be involved in this fantastic styled bridal shoot then please email Hanami Dream
For more information on the shoot take a look at Hanami Dream’s wedding blog
I’m delighted to be supporting Cogges Manor Farm with their Wedding Open Day on Sunday 16th October 11am-3pm in Witney, Oxfordshire.
See more information at http://www.cogges.org.uk/event/cogges-wedding-open-day
Hanami Dream will also be offering a drop in wedding planning clinic on the day.
Watch out for more details coming soon.
coggesweddings #bridetobe #Cotswolds #cotswoldwedding #groomtobe #inspiration #keepitlocal #Oxfordshire #oxfordshirewedding #specialoccasion #ukwedding #wedding #weddingideas #weddinginspiration #weddingplanner #weddingplanning #weddings #Witney
#WeddingWednesday #weddingfair #openday #barnwedding
I’m delighted to be chosen by Andy Quinn as one of this week’s winners to be given the title of #QueenOf Wedding Inspiration. I will wear the crown with pride.
It’s great to network on Twitter and to add to my honoured collection of accolades with this one from The Royal Connection. It’s a competition that was started by Aqua Design Group to celebrate women in business with a weekly #QueenOf competition during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012. Due to its popularity it still continues every Thursday 9am-9pm on Twitter (and now also includes a #KingOf competition every Tuesday 9am-9pm as well).
I’d love to hear from any fellow #QueenOf or #KingOf winners and look forward to connecting with them on #TheRoyalConnectionHour every Wednesday 9-10pm on Twitter.
Are you planning your wedding in your lunch break?
Join #UKWedLunch every Wednesday 1pm-2pm GMT on Twitter for wedding chat
STARTING WEDNESDAY 10TH AUGUST 2016
What an exciting Friday night I had last week!
Off I trundled to the UK Blog Awards at the wonderful Park Plaza Hotel in Westminster Bridge, London. The staff there were great and gave me a brilliant first impression of the evening (oh my goodness, I will pay to valet park everywhere now as it was so seamless and a stress free start to events!)
Let me say that I went with little expectation of anything other than a good night out and some nice food and drinks. Well, I wasn’t let down in that department (the sausage, mash and delicious onion gravy was divine!) PLUS I had the added bonus of actually picking up a highly commended award as well!
At first, I could hardly believe that my company name was on the screen when Kate Russell was announcing the highly commended blogs in the individual events category (albeit that my company name was being pronounced a little differently than intended!) But what a very pleasant surprise and one I have to keep pinching myself about. You can see all the winners and high commended blogs from the night at the UK Blog Awards website.
I’m so pleased and feeling fairly chuffed at the moment. More importantly I’m now spurred on to develop my blog further.
Not a bad start to a bank holiday weekend!
It’s been nearly 4 months since my blog was announced as one of the 10 individual finalists in the wedding category of the UK Blog Awards 2016. After voting and then judging, we’ve had a long time to wait. Now finally we get to hear the winners announced this Friday at an awards ceremony in London.
I’m proud to be a finalist and, honestly, I’m so honoured to just be counted alongside my fellow nominees. I’m going along really for a great night out, the delicious bowl food and a brilliant chance to network with some amazing bloggers. I feel like I’ve won already (yes, I know that sounds cliche and cheesy!) as the process has given me such a sense of achievement.
Win or lose, the awards have changed the focus of Hanami Dream. It has given me more confidence and the opportunity to promote my blog more.
For me, blogging has put me back on a level playing field again. After being on maternity leave, I found that there weren’t many flexible options available for women with experience, knowledge and great skills. But no one knows if I’m writing a blog post in my pyjamas late at night, or if I’ve just returned from the school run, or I’m covered in snot from one or more of my offspring. I feel on an equal footing again and blogging means I can still use all my skill set but at a convenient time to me.
The UK Blog Awards have been the catalyst for me to open my mind up to different opportunities and it has given my blog a new lease of life. Since I was announced as a finalist in January my blog has evolved considerably and I now feel that I’ve honed it and progressed it to the next level.
I look forward to hearing the winners announced on Friday night. But more importantly I look forward to the next chapter in the journey of my blog.
After a short hiatus (and a couple more babies between us!), Hanami Dream and Farrow Photography are proud to announce that they will be doing another styled shoot later this year.
Farrow Photography & Hanami Dream
They first joined forces in 2014 to bring to life some inspirational themes to show how you can enhance your milestone events (whatever the age of the guest). Their first shoot was based on Alice in Wonderland and they held a cute tea party to mark Alice Day (4th July).
Their next shoot followed shortly afterwards in August to mark the 75th anniversary of the release of the Wizard of Oz film. They were honoured to be able to showcase some amazing products from local suppliers in their Wizard of Oz themed children’s party.
Photography by Farrow Photography
Following the success of their previous themed photo shoots, they will collaborate once again to produce an amazing bridal styled shoot based around another well known story, The Wind in the Willows.
The shoot is planned for this autumn in the Oxfordshire countryside of the Cotswolds and we’re excited to offer the opportunity for local suppliers to join with us. So let us know if you’d like to provide products to bring our creative ideas to life in a wonderful new inspirational shoot.
The beauty of styled shoots (versus a real life wedding) is that this is your opportunity to be a little more extravagant and really show off what you’ve always wanted to do. You can indulge your fantasies. Maybe you’ve got a new product that couples won’t have seen yet or you want to create something really unusual that you wouldn’t normally do.
Styled shoots are a collaboration of like minded people that can create great things together but perhaps don’t have the budgets to produce this kind of work if they all worked independently.
Everyone works pro bono, so it is just your products that you’d need to provide to be involved. Nicola from Hanami Dream organises and styles the shoots and Sandra from Farrow Photography takes the shots. And the rewards are amazing with great imagery of your products in an amazing lifestyle surrounding, plus inclusion in all our promotion of the shoot and a feature on Hanami Dream’s blog, which is a UK Blog Awards finalist this year. So there’d be plenty of exposure of your beautiful products.
This is an inspirational and aspirational wedding styled shoot to provide images that we want to share with the whole wedding world. We live in a beautiful part of the UK and have some wonderful talented suppliers in the wedding industry right on our doorstep. So let’s show what our part of the world is truly capable of producing!
If you’re local and think you’d be interested in showcasing your products in our shoot then please email Nicola from Hanami Dream and outline what your product is and how you think it would fit in and enhance our theme. We’ve put together a mood board on Pinterest so you can get an idea of the kind of things that we’re after.
We are looking for some of the following (although this list isn’t exhaustive – if you can offer something we’ve not thought of we’d love to hear from you too):
We’ll only be including one supplier from each category (ie only one florist will be used for the whole shoot) to provide clarity and clear communication.
You can see from our previous shoots that we really like close up detail shots which show off everyone’s products that have contributed very nicely – it is all about the little details that bring any event to life.
We look forward to sharing more news as plans unfold for this colloboration.
Photography by Farrow Photography
I am absolutely thrilled with the exciting week I’ve had to round off January.
Firstly on Wednesday I was picked by Jacqueline Gold CBE (CEO of Ann Summers and Knickerbox) to be one of her weekly #WOW winners. What an honour to now be counted as one of her Women on Wednesday that she thinks have potential to grow and succeed in their industry. I’m very proud to be joining the prestigious #WOW club.
Then if that wasn’t enough excitement, I’ve also found out today that my blog has been shortlisted in the UK Blog Awards 2016!
Thank you so much to everyone for all your votes. I really appreciate your support and it has ensured the blog has made it to the final round in the wedding and event categories!
Now it’s all down to the judges and getting ready for a spangly awards ceremony in April.
I’m alongside some other amazing blogs so the judges are going to have a tricky task ahead. I’m just really chuffed to have made it this far.
Congratulations to all my fellow individual finalists in the UK Blog Awards wedding category. I’m proud to be a finalist alongside you.
So there we are – what a week! First a very proud Jacqueline Gold #WOWwinner and now a finalist in the #UKBA16. Can’t wait to see what on earth will February will bring!
Thanks once again for voting.
#proud #overthemoon #chuffedtobits
