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):
Accessories
Bridalwear
Bridesmaids dresses
Cakes
Catering
Décor
Favours
Florist
Hair & Make Up
Models
Shoes
Signage
Suits
Tableware
Transport (including a vintage car, a colourful old fashioned caravan and a barge!)
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.
Last month I started to talk about the three key aspects of planning a wedding that pretty much affect every other thing that is connected with your big day. These are where, who and how much (otherwise known as your venue, guests and budget). These are a group of three things that are united. As I mentioned in the post that looked at when to get married, nearly all the decisions you have to make about your wedding will come back to one, two or all of the elements in what I class as the holy trinity of wedding planning.
This month I’m going to tackle the who element and your all-important guest list (and will look at the where and how much aspects another time).
There will probably be some tough decisions to make with your guest list. Perhaps the reality of your budget means you have to rein in a few of your plans, or other people’s involvement means compromising on some thoughts, or maybe who you want to invite and have on your guest list causes headaches.
Here are 10 things that can dictate and influence who gets to come to the big day:
1. Venue
Firstly the other two elements of the holy trinity of wedding planning (the where and how much) will have a massive say on how many guests you can invite. For example, you can’t decide on a venue without knowing how many people you want to invite. Or maybe you want to pick your dream venue and have the size of the place dictate the number of guests you can invite. The venue could also influence the style of wedding you have based on how many guests you’re allowed in the room for a ceremony, a sit down meal or a standing buffet (this number will vary depending on the number of chairs and tables required for different room set ups).
Where you hold your wedding may affect whether people are able to travel to it. For instance, if you have a destination wedding abroad or hold it in a different part of the country to where your family live. These decisions could mean that elderly relatives can’t make it or people can’t take extra time off work to travel or stay over at the venue. Although, maybe you want to limit the numbers and so eloping or flying off to Vegas may be the best option for you so that you have just a few select guests there. (Bear in mind that infamous episode of Don’t Tell the Bride though and don’t eliminate important guests ie pick one sibling over the other to go to a destination wedding!)
2. Budget
The other part of the holy trinity of wedding planning is the money side of things. How much you have to spend will definitely factor in to how many people you can invite. It might not just be about how many people you can fit in the room, but how many you can afford to be there too. There are some costs that won’t change no matter how many people are there but there a number of variable costs that will alter depending on how many people are enjoying them. These costs include the food, favours, cake, drinks, stationery (such as invites, menus, orders of services etc) and the size of the bridal party. Plus if you are going abroad, consider whether you or your guests pay for their transport, travel and hotel costs.
[Look out for more on budgeting advice for weddings and venue choices in future blog posts about the holy trinity of wedding planning coming soon.]
3. Timing
I covered quite a bit about this aspect in the So, when’s the big day? post last month. Suffice to say that the day of the week could have a big impact on whether people would be able to attend and also if it’s during a holiday time. If you really want to ensure people can make it then the best advice is to give them as much notice as possible. Send out save the date cards or discuss with key people to find out whether they could make it.
4. Law
Let’s bring this back down to the basics. The most important people to be at your wedding are you and your partner. As well as you two, you only really need 3 (or 4) other people to be there if you want an intimate affair. So as long as you’ve got someone to carry out the ceremony (plus a registrar if the person who conducts the ceremony is not authorised to register marriages) and two witnesses then you’re sorted. Anyone else is a bonus.
5. Family
It’s probably best to start with your nearest and dearest. Who could you not do without in order to enjoy the day? These are probably your parents, siblings, family and close friends. If you have a very large family, it could mean that you don’t have many spaces left for lots of other guests!
6. Wedding party
Then there’s the crew that stand alongside you on the big day. These reliable, supportive and trusted friends are who you are putting all your faith in to ensure your day goes smoothly. So pick your team wisely (this was a top tip from one bride in the Wedding day advice from real brides and grooms blog). It is entirely up to you how big to make your wedding party. But consider that how many people are in the bridal party will affect the number of bridesmaids dresses, bouquets, gifts, suits etc that you have to include in the budget (yes, everything comes back to the holy trinity of wedding planning again!) Decide and discuss what you are going to pay for and what elements you require to be paid for by the wedding party as soon as you can.
7. Wallet
Now this is the biggy and probably the most political and controversial aspect. Who is paying for the wedding? If you are paying for your own wedding, you pretty much can decide all elements yourself. Or at least have the final say. However, if the money is coming from someone else you may feel indebted to honour their wishes or requests. For example, if your parents are paying then they may want to invite many of their own guests to the day. Traditionally it is etiquette for the bride’s and groom’s parents to have a proportion of the guest list to allocate themselves. Often it comes down to a bit of compromise. For me, I didn’t want to look around the room and not know the people that were sharing our day. With an intimate occasion, I didn’t want to invite a long-list relative at the sacrifice of inviting a dear friend.
8. Day vs evening
If you have the option to be able to split the day to different elements then you could include additional people as evening guests to join you after the main meal. But try to make sure it’s not just a tagged on event and still includes elements of a wedding day to make them feel like valued additions to the day.
9. Plus ones
You’ll also need to decide whether you are going to include children to your wedding. Are you inviting work colleagues? If you’re not limited to numbers will you allow single guests to bring plus ones that you potentially might not even know?
10. Who?
Ultimately, it all boils down to who you want in the room with you and how well do you want to know the people that are there. Honestly, you’ll start to see pound signs appearing above your friends and family’s heads! I guess, it’s a crude way to think of it but in reality you’ve got to think ‘Would I take this person out to dinner and pay for their meal?’ (or pay for them to have a drink, if you are having a separate evening guest list). Do you know them? Do you like them? Have you seen them recently? Do you want them to share your day with you?
When you look back on your big day your wedding photographs will be a snap shot of your family and circle of friends at that moment in time.
There’s no right or wrong answer on who to invite to your wedding. Nor is there a magical formula that will work it out for you. Ultimately, you should invite guests that you want to share your special day with. When you look around the room you want to know that everyone in the room is an important part of your life and it is precious to have all the people you care about in one place at the same time.
So, you’ve got all your guests to the venue, now where do you seat them? Look out for a guide to organising your seating plan in another blog post soon.
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!
We are nearly a week in to this brand new year already and I’m sad to be taking the Christmas decorations down with the arrival of Twelfth Night. I used to really enjoy Epiphany celebrations when I lived in France – eating the delicious galette des rois and finding the little charm so you could wear the king’s crown!
It is a bit of a relief to have the season of endless lists safely tucked away for another 11 months though (what with Christmas card lists, present lists and food shopping lists to name a few). Don’t get me wrong, I really like Christmas and I LOVE lists (hey, I’m a wedding planner, lists are what floats my boat!) but things seem to get a little crazy in December.
Harper’s Bazaar’s Ten Iconic Wedding Gowns (so pleased that Audrey Hepburn made the list – honestly if I could dress like her every day I would!)
But I do love this time of year. It’s a time of new beginnings: a new year, new year’s resolutions (*see some of mine at the end of the article), new goals, new plans for the future and the days are finally getting longer again! It’s when our metaphorical diary is full of blank pages yet unwritten. It also seems to be a time when there are an abundance of engagement stories after Christmas or New Year proposals. And with Valentine’s Day just over a month away and it being a leap in 2016, we’re sure there’ll be a few more stories to add to the pot shortly.
So the start of the year often spurs on people to kickstart (or reignite) their wedding planning too. I adore weddings – which is a good thing really! Weddings are such a wonderful celebration of love and marriage. There’s not many times in your life that you have all the people that you care about in the same room at the same time and they’re all there just because two people fell in love with each other. When else would you bring all your circles together in one place? (even Google+ keeps your circles separate!)
For me, I always wanted to get married and admired both sets of my grandparents who celebrated their diamond wedding anniversaries (and beyond). I was determined to aspire to have the same thing for myself despite experiencing the sad adverse reality of my own parents’ marriage. On top of this, my romantic notion was peppered with weddings in films and television programmes that influenced my youth such as:
Scott & Charlene in Neighbours (I still can’t believe that programme has been going over 30 years!)
Charles & Diana (who can forget the puff ball sleeves and the huge long train!)
Monica & Chandler in Friends (how beautifully romantic to fall in love with your best friend)
The One with All the Wedding Dresses episode in Friends (even though my husband thinks it’s a crazy idea I still want a wedding dress party with my friends for my significant birthday in a few years’ time! I’ve no idea if I’ll be able to fit in my wedding dress by then – so maybe that’s another goal to add to the list!)
Pride & Prejudice (who didn’t fall in love with Colin Firth as Mr Darcy)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (the stammering Hugh Grant, the whole ‘will they, won’t they’ story line had me hooked)
Saved by the Bell (yes, Zack and Kelly did get married eventually after being childhood sweethearts. It was a cheesy episode set in Las Vegas but proved that your first love can be your last love too)
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (how did Lois not spot that Superman and Clark Kent were one and the same gorgeous man?!)
Prince William & Kate (they got married the same year that we did so this event heightened the build up to our big day)
Probably the most influential and meaningful weddings that I was honoured to be a part of (prior to my own of course) were those of my two closest friends in July 2007 and August 2008. It was wonderful to be one their bridesmaids (although at the time I thought I was destined to only ever be a bridesmaid and not a bride. I even thought about being a professional bridesmaid at one point!) It feels so wonderful to share someone’s special day and be part of the wedding party.
I waited a long time for my own Prince Charming (honestly I thought the film 27 Dresses was written about me!) but was over the moon to have my own fairy tale day eventually. It was whilst planning my own wedding in 2011 that my real passion for wedding planning took over. I realised how precious it was to have all the people I cared about in one room at the same time. In the space of 18 months I encountered birth, death and marriage (not in that order!) which had a life changing effect on me. So my new beginning was to make Hanami Dream a reality. I decided I wanted to help others to celebrate their own personal milestones. I find that organising these types of occasions is much more rewarding than my old corporate life.
This year has already started with great excitement as I am thrilled to be entered in the UK Blog Awards.**
Voting is open until Monday 25th January 2016 at 9pm. You can vote once a day, every day for 3 whole weeks! So please keep voting.
Thank you and Happy New Year!
*Some of my resolutions for this year include learning to hula hoop (I always think it’s something that I should be able to do but confirm the opposite when I pick one up! And I hope this skill is easier to pick up than the year I attempted to learn the running man!), eating more veggie meals (I’m currently in love with Lorraine Pascale’s Eat Well Made Easy recipe book) and moisturising more often (hmm, with two small children and a husband to look after, time to myself is often in short supply so we’ll see how this one goes!) Hopefully I’ll be able to manage at least one of these by the end of the year!
**More than just a wedding blog, Hanami Dream Wedding and Special Occasion Organisers provide inspiration and help you to celebrate the personal milestones of your life. The blog looks at wedding tips, trends and traditions with real life stories and examples from my own family history. Looking at examples from the past and future trends to provide inspiration to couples who are wedding planning and celebrating milestone occasions.
Our year is starting with great excitement as we are thrilled to be entered in the UK Blog Awards.
If you like reading our blog then we’d really appreciate your support. So please vote for Hanami Dream in the wedding category of the UK Blog Awards #UKBA16.
Last month I started to talk about the three key aspects of planning a wedding that pretty much affect every other thing that is connected with your big day. These are 
