Venues in the Spot Light...Colchester Town Hall

I LOVE discovering an amazing venue, and when I did a wedding fair at Colchester Town Hall, boy did I discover an amazing venue!

Situated right in the heart of Colchester's town centre, this gem of a venue is everything you could ask for; elegant, grand and steeped in history. 

With a gorgeous staircase for photo opportunities, the Mayor's Chamber for a ceremony and the Moot Hall for a reception and Wedding Breakfast, it certainly has the wow factor. 

The architectural features are to DIE for, with columns, stunning ornate ceilings and beautiful wood panelling as far as the eye can see. A venue like this would require very little dressing and is therefore ideal for couples looking to keep things elegant and classic.

My personal favourite room, the Moot hall, has a Cathedral feel about it; with palatial high ceilings, stained glass windows and parquet flooring throughout. The natural light flooding through the enormous windows ensure that the Moot Hall never feels dark or dingey and the huge expanse of space means that up to 200 guests can easily be accommodated. 

The Moot Hall is a breath taking and regal location for a ceremony or reception

 

Colchester Town Hall offers tonnes of photo opportunity spots, such as the Mayor's Balcony

Colchester Town Hall is available to hire from just £150 for a ceremony; head to http://www.colchester.gov.uk/article/11861/Civil-Ceremonies-and-Wedding-Receptions for more information.

Keep your options open, you never know what you might unknowingly uncover!

Mrs Enchanted 

Xoxo

Pink Lemonade Productions...the story so far

I appreciate that I have been neglectful of my blog for a little while now but in all honesty Pink Lemonade Productions has been the central focus of my attention as it has been incredibly successful so far.

Here's what we've been up to!

First up was a photo session for the website; I really wanted to go for a country, rustic feel and so this was one of our favourite shots. This particular photo was taken in a rare moment of sunshine, although in hindsight it could have done with a bit more colour. Here are a few more fun ones...

It was super windy and so everything kept toppling over. Here are our mares Evie and Millie trying to steal the limelight!

The fun continued when I was moving the hay; Millie decided to give chase! It was such a giggle.

Evie was keen to investigate the vintage suitcases...

Papa Smurf made his debut in my favourite frame. 

Next up was the Wedding Fair at Priory Hall in Hadleigh. Let me tell you, this venue is full of quintessentially English country garden charm. Tudor period features and quaint courtyard areas make this venue a fantastic hidden gem in the suffolk countryside. Check out the gorgeous images below from Priory Hall's Website!

We were set up in the marquee, and a fantastic day was had by all who attended. Cyndy Hilton, the Lady of the Manor as it were, is charm and grace personified; not to mention the expert organiser of the Weddings and events that take place at Priory Hall.

Here is a small collection of the centrepieces we offer, as well as some of the beautiful flower arrangements made by Judi at Heirloom Blooms. 

Here is Marilyn, our gorgeous star of the show; I am so proud of our popcorn machine, especially since she has now been sign written. We served both sweet and salted popcorn to all of the suppliers and couples attending the fair. 

Next up was Colchester Town Hall Wedding Fair; and let me tell you, these photos don't even begin to do the venue justice. Read more and prepare to be wowed on my dedicated post here.

Here we are, all set up and ready to go! This time the popcorn was lightly salted and seasoned with vanilla infused sugar. It was incredibly popular! By the time of this fair, our gorgeous flyers had made their debut. 

We absolutely love the images we use, but our absolute favourite is the gorgeous festival style photograph featuring some beautiful products courtesy of Three Bird Nest. Pink Lemonade Productions is incredibly grateful for permission to use this stunning image, and we love telling everyone who asks about it. Check out their Etsy store or Facebook page! 

Finally....there's the Website Launch!

Www.PinkLemonadeProductions.com is live and ready to be loved by all! Check it out and let us know your thoughts.

A million Thank You's to the brilliant and talented Harleigh Allouch; she managed to translate the inside of my head into web page format with very little to go on! 

Harleigh, you have been my sounding board, my designer, my creative director, my go-to, my confidant and most importantly, my friend. 

You too can have a beautiful we page by clicking here.

Until next time...

Wake up, dress up, show up and never give up :) 

Mrs Enchanted xxx

Old Time Perfection - Hayley and Mike

It's not secret that I love all things retro, vintage and rustic; it was after all my love of the whimsical and quirky that was the brainchild behind Pink Lemonade Productions.

When I was approached by the most fantastic couple who had a vision of vintage for their wedding next August, needless to say I was very excited.

Meet the Couple

Hayley and Mike went to school together and got together in 2007 after finishing their exams.

Five years later, in 2012 they'd booked a skiing trip in the French Alps for Christmas.

"On Christmas Morning, Mike took me to the top of a mountain and proposed to me. When we got back to the Chalet, all my family and some friends we went with were waiting with a cake and champagne to celebrate." 

Goosebumps, anyone? Check out their beautiful engagement photos!

Hayley and Mike have chosen my three favourite things for their big day; pastels, vintage and rustic.

When I created their Inspiration Board, I was thrilled to find that I'd managed to translate their vision of vintage perfectly.

Hayley and Mike have chosen not to have a specific colour scheme and instead opted for an entire palette of pastel shades which works beautifully. 

In this board, I kept the focus on texture. The contrast between the hessian and lace, wood and flowers ensures that the whole feel stays soft and romantic. It's also a little 'undone'; nothing should be uniform for this look, hence the colour palette working so well. Perfect blooms should be set with wild flowers, mismatch the china, and definitely consider a 'naked cake'.

Isn't this gorgeous? It takes me back to baking cakes with my Grandmother. 

It's important to keep this theme going beyond the decor for authenticity. 

"We're not having a seating plan, formal sit-down dinner, not even speeches! We're having an afternoon tea party with Pimms and we just want a really chilled out and fun day," Hayley told me. And why not? Your wedding should always reflect you as a couple, and if the boho free spirited vibe works for you, then go with it. Make your own rules for your wedding! 

I can't wait until next August to bring this beautiful couple's theme to life.

Until next time...

Be yourself and write your own rules :)

Mrs Enchanted

Xoxo 

DIY PROJECT: Tassel Garland

It's very easy to get carried away with decor and spend a fortune, but with a little effort and imagination, it's easy to find hundreds of DIY projects that are simple and beautiful.

Today I am showing you how to make a beautiful tassel garland!

This is so easy to do...no sewing, no glue, just string, scissors and fabric!

This particular garland I am making is to tie in accents of a black and white themed event that Pink Lemonade Productions are doing on Thursday.

Here's what I used:

Pinking shears

5 x half meter various monochrome fabrics

Twine

First of all I cut strips of fabric widthways across the fabric, approximately 2.5cm to 5cm wide. With this type of garland, it adds to the effect to vary the width of the fabric strips. I made sure all edges were cut with the pinking shears (to make zigzag edges).

I used big polka dots, gingham, stripes, plain black and a mixed polka dot pattern.

Once you have lots of strips (each of mine measured approx 50cm in length) lay out your base which could be string, ribbon, twine or bunting tape. 

Lay the fabric strips against the twine as above, with the looped end crossing the twine. Then, tuck the loose ends through the loop and pull through, leaving the top knot loose. 

You can pull the 'tails' tighter once you have all of your tassels in place.

Alternate the fabrics to add depth and texture to your garland. Keep going until you have enough scrappy tassels to fill your length of twine! It is really that simple. 

Easy peasy :) 

 

Happy scrapping! 

Doesn't it look adorable? :)

Also, voting is still open (just!) for the Wedding Blog Awards...we would love to make the short list. Every vote counts :) we've received nominations so far for best newcomer and best inspirational blog, so thank you very much for everyone who has nominated us. <3 

Much love, 

Mrs Enchanted xoxo

Wedding Blog Awards 2014!

So for the first time ever The Enchanted Bride has received nominations for the Wedding Blog Awards...to say I'm overwhelmed is an understatement.

My little blog just started as a go-to for Brides to be looking for a little inspiration and ways to DIY and save money; and has turned into a journal of real life weddings, trend alerts and advice!

After taking a few months off, I realised just how passionate I am about the wedding industry, and remembered that it's about the readers, not the writer. We, Mr Enchanted and I, also launched Pink Lemonade Productions, our brand new company that is combining all of the planning and advice of Enchanted Occasions, and the fun elements of Sugar Rush, with the addition of some amazing rustic, retro and vintage props.

The past few weeks have been absolutely incredible; the launch was at The Mayor's Charity Masquerade Ball, which couldn't have gone any better! We set up our Facebook page, which has started gaining momentum, and we're pleased to say that the next few months are going to be a very exciting journey.

Anyway, back to the Wedding Blog Awards...

I would absolutely LOVE your support in the Inspiration / Newcomer category, and you can cast your vote here

http://www.weddingandweddingflowers.co.uk/blogawards/2 

All you have to do is enter the URL, www.theenchantedbride.blogspot.com and select the category.

Then, pop your name and email address in, and submit! It will take five minutes and is really easy. Very single vote counts!

Thank you so much to all of my lovely readers all around the world, you are the reason I love writing :) 

Much love,

Mrs Enchanted

Enchanted Inspirations: Nyla Rose in the hot seat!

When I decided to do an "In The Hot Seat" post, I knew exactly who I wanted to offer the interview to.

I have been inspired in more ways than one by this wonderful, courageous and ambitious young Woman as I've followed her journey on Facebook, and as an added bonus the products she offers are truly beautiful and perfectly suited to a shabby chic garden themed wedding or vintage tea party. Allow me to share the story behind Nyla Rose Gifts and Interiors...

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your business?

A. Starting with myself, I'm Natalie, 30 and a mum of 1 (more of which later!) It has always been a dream of mine to run my own business and be in charge of my own destiny, I guess! I was made redundant whilst on maternity leave last year and decided to take the leap and since then it has gone from strength to strength. Nyla Rose is an online boutique selling all things pretty- shabby chic homeware, gifts and fashion (dresses and handbags). A one stop shop for loveliness :) 

Q: What was the inspiration behind Nyla Rose?

A. Without doubt my daughter Nyla Rose has been my inspiration. I set up the business when she was 6 months old and it has grown at a incredible rate in the past 13 months.
I genuinely want to make her name well known and to build a huge company that will make her look one day and say 'wow, my mum did that, I can do anything'. Cheesy but that's the honest truth- I want to be her inspiration and for her to grow up thinking she can do anything. If she wants to land on Mars, I'll tell her she can. 

Q: How are your products suited to Brides to be? 

We currently have some fantastic vintage style wedding dresses that are priced between just £30 and £50 that are perfect for a Bride on a Budget or a bride looking for that vintage style. This one is £50 and simply gorgeous! It is quite unbelievable to get a wedding dress of that quality at that price.
We also have a huge range of dresses that would be perfect as Bridesmaids Dresses. Our Audrey Range has been particularly popular. These are only £30 and we also offer a 20% discount when they are bought as bridesmaids dresses! They look fabulous with the petticoats underneath and provide a nod towards the vintage wedding look that is so popular.
Some of our brides have mixed up the colours of the bridesmaids dress for a 'rainbow' colour scheme- this works particularly well with the pastel shades and the bridesmaids could even wear dresses to suit their colouring. 

Q: What are your favourite products and why?

The problem with this job is I just want to keep everything for myself as I love all the products so much (I am the sole buyer for the company and my ethos is, if I don't totally love it, I just won't stock it!)
I am a big fan of these gorgeous sass and belle storage cases- they are great value too, at £21 they are a whopping £13 cheaper than Debenhams (I'm always checking out the competition!)
I also love our Cath Kidston inspired handbags and own several of the polka dot satchels, they are a great size and I use one as a baby change bag.  The bubble gum pink one is a Nyla Rose staple and the colour is really striking. The satchels are only £26 and brilliant quality.

Q: You do lots of competitions and giveaways on Social Media. What is the drive behind them?

A. Hand on heart, doing the giveaways is my favourite part of my job- I love the excitement that builds up and making someone's day when we announce a winner is something I will never get bored of. It is important to me for the Nyla Rose brand to be a strong one- I want us to be known as a happy, positive and genuine business and the giveaways are a large part of that. Of course, they have to work from a business point of view as well and they do wonders for our Facebook page. We run huge giveaways once a fortnight and each one gains us at least 4,000 new followers to the page as well as increasing all round interest in the products. For me, it's a no brainer and as we grow the page they are going to get bigger and crazier! 

Q: How do we get in touch?

Everything we sell is available on our website which is www.nyla-rose.com, we have worked really hard on making it girly heaven so hope you like it :) make sure you sign up to our newsletter too for exclusive offers and discounts.

Our Facebook page is crazily popular with over 62,000 likers and growing all the time! As mentioned we do giveaways galore and it's a great way to keep in touch with us. www.facebook.com/nylarosegiftsandinteriors

Our Instagram is #nylarosegiftsandinteriors and Pinterest is NylaRose

Q. Do you ship internationally?
We have lots of customers outside the UK and have posted all over the world! Please contact us prior to placing your order on the website for a postage quote.

Q. A final word from Nyla Rose
A. We totally love what we do and hope you do too!
Natalie x

Lindy Bop Vintage Style Wedding Dress, £50

Audrey Prom Style Dresses, £30 

Bubble Gum Pink Polka Dot Satchel, £26

Vintage Style Suitcase Stack, £21

All available at www.Nyla-Rose.com

A massive thank you to Natalie for allowing me to put her in the Hot Seat. Make sure you check out and 'Like' Natalie's Nyla Rose Facebook page for the chance to win one of her amazing giveaways, and let her know I sent you! 

Also, head over to my new page on Facebook! 

Www.facebook.com/Pinklemonadeproductions 

Until next time, 

Be inspired and make it happen!

Mrs Enchanted xoxo

Because there are no words...

This post comes simply as a dedication to the loving memory of two wonderful men whom were called up to join the stars too soon and taken away from us in the last few months.

Rest in peace, Pops and Uncle Gordon. So many of us will miss you.x

The Enchanted Bride is BACK!

This is a bitter sweet post unfortunately. 

Where has the Enchanted Bride been for the past five months?

Well, I became an Enchanted Bride in December, in an intimate and beautiful candle lit church ceremony with only closest friends and family present. You can read about that below in my only post of 2014 so far.

One of my Brides who had been a very close personal friend for many, many years took advantage in the cruellest way. I had started planning her wedding, offering her my very best and most beautifully creative ideas, because that's what friends do. I wanted her wedding day to be a stunning Winter Wonderland complete with snow machine, and knowing that I too was having my own winter wedding, I was very careful not to tread on her toes. I didn't even tell her about our wedding plans because I didn't want our wedding to over-shadow hers. Despite originally planning on an ice blue and silver colour scheme for our own New York winter wedding that we were hoping for, I changed it to midnight blue and gold so as not to steal her thunder. I bypassed a beautiful snowflake wedding cake because I knew that was what she wanted for her wedding. And instead of being met with the love and gratitude you'd hope a friend would give, I received an evening-only invitation and all of my ideas passed off as her own. Exactly the same as I did, she had customised shoes, a candy stand and frosted glass mason jars with candles inside. 

Then came the biggest blow of all; she went on to set up her own events company and pretended that Enchanted Occasions and Sugar Rush by Enchanted never existed. My company and blog that I had worked so hard to build up and the exams I studied so hard to pass...smashed in a soul destroying instant.

After spending a short while licking my metaphorical wounds and reflecting on my goals, I have used this betrayal and set back as an opportunity to put into play a whole new game plan. 

I've worked too hard for too long to let someone take it all away from me.

A very, very wise and wonderful man once told me "You must be first, best, or truly different."

By the end of this wedding season I plan to be all three. 

You read it here first; PINK LEMONADE PRODUCTIONS is the new baby of Enchanted Occasions and will offer a whole new line of exciting and brilliant vintage props and stands for hire for Weddings, parties and events.

Think carnival, village fete and retro cinema and you are halfway there!

It will take me longer to recover from the betrayal than it will take my company, but with a powerful new alliance between Enchanted and a few other small and talent based companies, World Domination is well within sight!

Despite all, I wish my former friend every success in her endeavours. 

I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank all of my beautiful brides and loyal readers for your continued support and encouragement. 

Stay tuned for more ideas, tips and tricks, and remember that true friendship has no price. Every set back is an opportunity.

Much love,

Mrs Enchanted xoxo

Mr and Mrs Enchanted 11.12.13

In my absence, I have gone from being Miss Enchanted, to Mrs Enchanted! 

Four years and two beautiful children later, my Fiance and I tied the knot on 11.12.13.

Mr Enchanted and I wanted a wedding that was intimate, understated, and personal to us, so planning and putting it together was a relatively simple process. We wanted our day to reflect who we are as a couple, but we didn't want to take ourselves too seriously, so we injected humour into the day by choosing the colour scheme of midnight blue and gold - The colours of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
Mr Enchanted wore canvas Mickey Mouse shoes that we had found in Disneyland Paris the month before our wedding, and I wore a pair of shoes decoupaged with the pages of a book to reflect Belle's love of stories. His suit was navy with a gold waistcoat and midnight blue cravat, and he wore a simple buttonhole of two cream roses and gypsophelia.
My bouquet was personal to me and so I made it myself; it contained ten cream roses, one to represent each year that has gone by since my beloved Father passed away. I added gypsophelia as a filler and tied it with an ivory tulle bow. My dress was simple with a draped tulle bodice and understated train, (the culprit behind my dragging the pew-end decorations back up the aisle as we exited the church; much to everyone's delight...including mine!) and I wore a fur shrug as my 'something borrowed' from my wonderful friend Michelle.

The candle-lit ceremony took place at 4.30pm at Saint Andrews Church in Melton, which is truly beautiful. Simple wicker stars were woven with gold thread and placed at the foot of each pew end.
I walked the aisle (solo) to the Piano Guys' instrumental of Christina Perri's A Thousand Years and we said
our vows in front of thirty of only our closest and most important friends and family.
We personalised our vows, and instead of saying "as long as we both shall live", we said "for as long as stars are above you".

Our reception was at Venue77 in Ipswich, where we welcomed our guests with Champagne cocktails. Our tables were decorated with a single pink rose lit by an LED light, which was placed under an upturned cylindrical vase and stood atop a stack of vintage books. The centrepieces were reflective of the Enchanted Rose. On our buffet table, we had book page wrapped mason jars with tealights inside.
The supplier for our linens, Ella's Events in Colchester, Essex, were absolutely brilliant, and their range of products available to hire is not only extensive, but incredibly reasonably priced, and the team couldn't do enough for us. 

For our buffet, we served sliced hot joints of pork and beef with soft and crusty bread rolls, a selection of salads and hot buttered new potatoes. We also had a large cheese board with sliced french stick and crackers, canapes, and a dessert table with cheesecakes and gateaux. We had so many compliments on our food, which we provided and the chefs at our Venue prepared and cooked, which frankly saved us a small fortune. We had approximately 60 guests which we comfortably catered for and STILL had so much food left!

Our first dance was to Ellie Goulding's How Long Will I Love You, which was less of a dance and more of an awkward shuffle with Mr Enchanted trying to avoid standing on my wedding dress! However, there was a beautiful Kodak moment when a confetti canon was released above us half way through the song.

All in all, it was an understated and emotional day, which was heartfelt and individual.

We didn't have an official photographer, but we decided that the people who knew us best could capture the moments that represented us as a couple. Unfortunately, amidst all the excitement, the details such as our table decorations, shoes and flowers were missed, but we have perfect memories of our special day because we did it all ourselves with the help of friends and family. 

Below are a few photos from the special day. 

I wish we'd had some proper photos taken but we still had a beautiful evening.

There were sadly a few loved ones who were unable to make it, so plans are in the pipeline to renew our vows and do it all again as soon as we can! 

Until next time...stay true to yourselves as a couple. Your wedding is about you, not everyone else.

Much love,

Mrs Enchanted xoxo