Bamburgh Castle Wedding Fair 25/26 September 2010

Update 05/10/2010: Well thank you to everyone who came to see me at the Wedding Fair. It was a cold, windy weekend but fortunately stayed dry. It was also great to meet up with other suppliers outside of the wedding environment and have time to chat and catch up. Many of us work closely together to ensure your wedding day runs smoothly and seamlessly

Now an annual event the Bamburgh Castle Wedding Fair is a fantastic opportunity not only to see this magnificent Wedding Venue but also to get to meet many of the recommended suppliers who work closely with the Castle to ensure Weddings here run smoothly and are just perfect!

The main Fair will be held in the wonderful Marquee under the castle wall, with it’s incredible views out to sea.

I’m delighted to announce I will be there on both days (though wont be getting any sleep on the Friday night so please forgive me if I look shattered!) and look forward to welcoming existing clients, potential new clients and anyone who wants any help in finding a Wedding DJ, Master of Ceremonies or for anything to do with their Wedding Disco, Mood Lighting, Starcloths, Photo Slideshow or any other help or advice I can give! In fact, why not drop in for a chat – I’ll even have some free choccies on hand!

Of course, most of the suppliers don’t only work at Bamburgh and many of us cover the entire North East including Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham, Teesside and North Yorkshire.

Entry to the Fair is free and you also have the opportunity to see the wonderful Kings Hall which is where Wedding Ceremonies take place.

For more information either contact the castle direct on 01668 214515, e-mail administrator@bamburghcastle.com or else contact me!!

The Wedding Fair is open from 10am till 4pm both days. The address is:

Bamburgh Castle,
Bamburgh,
Northumberland,
NE69 7DF

Website Progress

Well… FINALLY my new website has gone live, and I do hope you all like it.

Unfortunately we have had quite a few problems getting it up and running, and during the changeover a lot of photos and links were lost. I’m doing my best to restore them as I go along but with the Wedding Season still in full swing it is difficult to get the time.

If you find anything not working or missing from the site please feel free to let me know and I’ll concentrate on those.

Hopefully over the next 2 weeks everything will be working fully – and I have a LOT of new photos, news and some great blogs to post!
Thank you for your patience

Colin

Website Progress

Well, several days into the new website and things are starting to take shape.

The basic layout is finalised and the theme is decided. there are a few tweaks needed here and there, and the header bars need to be moved to allow for the logo.

Also a couple of people have commented on the black background. I like black because it shows photos well, but do understand it isnt to everyone’s taste. Unfortunately the current theme has a black background for all of the colour schemes apart from white, but I feel the white looks too uninteresting and generic. I’m hoping to have a custom page designed when I can come up with some alternatives.

We are having problems with the display of images and this is something currently being worked on. The aim is to embed images in some pages as per the old site, and to have a sidebar showing a changing selection of images too. There are also two galleries.  One for Wedding photos and one for Moodlighting.

My new idea is Your Wedding Day where I am showing several pages, each discussing a different part of a Wedding Day, each with descriptions of how my services can help to make that part of the day run more smoothly and elegantly. Although the idea of the pages is obviously to showcase my services I am hoping there are a lot of ideas and tips here generally for Brides and Grooms to read and consider.

I’ll keep updating the blog as we go along, to provide a record for when the site goes live. In the meantime I’d very much like to offer my sincere thanks to the following people for their help and input, and for their patience in dealing with a net nelly like me!!

Firstly thanks to Ian Forest, my ever-understanding friend and web-host. Eventually we’ll get all the sites on line and I will understand what to do!

Secondly – Adam Flaherty. With the patience of a saint he teased, talked and ripped out of me what I needed for my new logo and came up with the goods! He is also painstakingly helping me with understanding the basics of Word Press, which is a little like open heart surgery, only more complicated!

Thirdly – Barney Grossman. His constant enthusiasm for Word Press whenever I want to head butt my monitor has kept me going. He is also providing some of the more technical graphic support onsite, for which he deserves credit.

Lastly (but certainly not least) – my ‘Web Development Team’ comprising of clients past and present, ladies (and gentlemen) of the Wedding-Ideas Forum and assorted other kind hearted souls. These are the chaps who will keep the site relevant, useful and aimed specifically at the most important people – my clients.

Thank you all

Colin

P.S. – reading that back it sounds like I’m taking an award at the Oscars.  Sorry about that lol. However I’d like to thank my manager, producer………

Ian & Sarah, 24th April 2010

On 24/04/2010 I had the absolute pleasure of providing the entertainment and venue lighting for Ian and Sarah’s incredible Wedding at Alnwick Gardens.

I’d met with the couple several times prior to ‘The Day’ and knew that it was going to be a totally unique, offbeat and fun day. Ian and Sarah both work as Graphic Designers and so had high expectations of the visual experience they wanted. We even spent time matching the moodlighting to the Wedding Stationery!

Alnwick Gardens is one of my favourite places at which to work. It is unique, very different to anywhere else and is a gorgeous place to have a wedding. In good weather the photo opportunities are endless!

The venue does present a few issues for suppliers though. One of which is that as the building is constructed from glass it doesnt get dark inside until it is dark outside. For this reason it is even more important than usual to ensure everything looks it’s best at all times.

Sarah looked incredible in a very unusual but beautiful dress in white with a black overlay (sorry, I dont know the ‘official’ term!) and a brilliant Top Hat to finish her unique look. Ian dressed more traditionally,  but looked equally suave. However, just to remind people how much time he spends in the Gym, he also brought along a full size cutout of himself wearing a mankini a’la Borat!

Their Theme was black, white and purple and it looked stunning. The Cake had a white and black top layer with individual hand-made matching cupcakes below.

We had been asked to set up the Disco prior to their Wedding Breakfast as timings were going to be a little tight later on. The weather was perfect so their photographer took everyone off afterwards for a mega photo session!

For their First Dance the couple chose the acoustic version of  Everlong by The Foo Fighters. They had practised a few moves and it looked great – all of their guests were impressed. They also chose a Second Dance for everyone to join in, which was the brilliant White Wedding from Billy Idol. To continue with the offbeat nature of this lovely couple I had a request list which included a fair bit of music I dont often get to play at Weddings, including Marilyn Manson – Beautiful People, as well as a definite Rock theme with some firm favourites such as Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Guns ‘n’ Roses plus the obligatory Bryan Adams and Bon Jovi. It wasnt all rock though, and Sarah showed her secret love of some cheese with the Grease Megamix, Build Me Up Buttercup and a few others! In fact there was a bit of everything on their Request List including some 70s Disco, 80s, 90s and on to the chart stuff which included Lady Gaga and Beyonce! The only hard and fast ‘rule’ of the evening was to preferably not play any Abba unless requested, and then just the one track!

The fun didnt stop there though and Sarah had a surprise for her new Husband, which we did to come out of the buffet. As her Top Hat was a firm fave with Sarah and expressed her taste in clothing she decided to do a ‘special’ dance for Ian, to the brilliantly rocky Leave Your Hat On by Joe Cocker. I made the announcement and got Ian up, ribbed him a little about the Mankini and got him sat in his chair. Sarah then did her dance and brought the house down! It was simply brilliant! Afterwards Ian said that he is a very hard man to surprise but that got him totally!

At midnight it was officially Best Man Keith’s birthday so Ian said a few words and presented Keith with a present, and we started into their End of Night celebrations. For their Wedding Circle Ian and Sarah had chosen another offbeat song (there is a pattern emerging here!) which was the Beavis and Butthead version of I Got You, Babe featuring Cher. Ending the night in the same unique style we had seen throughout the day, this was one of the most enjoyable Events I’ve had the pleasure of attending. Ian an Sarah are a fantastic couple, their guests were all great fun, and I wish them all the very best in their new life together!

A few more photos from their Wedding can be seen here: