Kingston Maurward House

This weekend we added another new venue to our books - Kingston Maurward House near Dorchester. This venue offers a range of rooms for events including a striking Entrance Hall and the Pengelly Suite for civil ceremonies or receptions. For larger events, the conference room is dressed with a marquee lining to provide a simple, blank canvas with clean lines which lends itself to all forms of decoration. Our outside lighting equipment and furniture is ideal for venues like this, with sweeping lawns, ornamental gardens and terraces for guests to enjoy. Brass lanterns can be used to line terraces, our vintage garden furniture and parasols provide comfortable and attractive seating and entrances and departures can be made more dramatic with the addition of our gas flambeaux and paraffin flares. For further details of our outside lighting and garden furniture options, please visit the hire catalogue on our website.

Personalised Cocktail Sign for Hire

We have several ropelight signs for hire and recently personalised our Cocktails sign for a Barmitzvah to hang above the cocktail bar. Other items provided for the Barmitzvah included a market stall for a cheese display, a sweet stall, a photo booth, a fairy light dance floor, Anycolour lighting, starcloths and full production services.

Lighting at Belvoir Castle

We were delighted to be selected to provide the lighting for the Duchess of Rutland's summer ball at Belvoir Castle last month. Uplighters provided a colourwash to the walls and ceilings of the rooms throughout this stunning venue while a gobo projecting large stars made a feature of the floral centrepiece. Gas flambeaux greeted guests on arrival and dramatic lighting to the outside of the Castle set the scene for an exclusive event. For further details of lighting techniques and options please visit our website or give us a call.

Chilham Village Hall Transformation

One of our favourite and most satisfying jobs is always the transformation of a village hall. Yesterday it was the turn of Chilham village hall, a popular wedding venue in the most beautiful and quintessentially English village of Chilham, Nr Canterbury.

This was a very family oriented wedding with friends providing flowers and family members involved with the set-up and decoration. Decorative items provided by the bride and groom helped to put the finishing touches to a classic summer wedding with vintage overtones. The overall effect was to be subtle and soft, so we replaced the curtains with full length muslin drapes to frame the windows and mask the ambient light, and provided bespoke covers for the "village hall style" heaters. Walls were uplit in amber which worked in conjunction with the drapes to provide a soft hue to the room and these were supplemented with our twisted willow arrangements around the walls of the room. Round tables with floor length cloths were hired to supplement the Hall's own furniture and our crisp white chair covers with gold organza sashes completed the look. Clusters of storm lanterns in the hearth and on ledges provided a candlelit glow and complemented the brides own decorations which including ornate bird cages and vintage style picture frames.

Outside, we provided a marquee as an extension to the room for arrival drinks in the event of wet weather. Luckily, the rain didn't persevere all day and everyone was able to enjoy the outside space for which our new vintage garden furniture was ideal.

The continuation of the wedding party into the evening allowed us to change the look and feel of the Hall and lighting changed from amber to magenta as the dancing began. Subtle lighting, black cloths for the occasional tables and standard lamps turned the functional ante-room into a chill out area for the evening bar and lanterns and pealights outside provided an atmospheric walkway for guests departure.

Further details of venue transformations can be found on our website - click on menu item "venue transformations".

Recommended Florists - Lily & Myrtle

This weekend we were fortunate to work once more with Lily & Myrtle (florists) at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hook. The flowers were stunning in soft pastel shades and a classic style, but also smelt divine as a result of using organic garden roses amongst other seasonal flowers. Although we work with a vast nunber of different suppliers and love working with new people, it is always a pleasure when we work with our regulars. All of our clients can now benefit from a discount on our hire stock if their flowers are arranged by one of our recommended florists - please ask for details of a florist in your area. These florists know our equipment and work with us regularly, generating savings for us which we are happy to pass on to you. For more details of Lily & Myrtle please visit their website at http://www.lilyandmyrtle.co.uk/

Uplighters and Colourwashes

The lighting we provided at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich a few weeks ago provides a great example of the dramatic impact that can be achieved through the use of uplighters. In this instance, uplighters in purple provided a colourwash to the walkways between dining and dancing rooms as well as creating a clublike feel for the evening reception area. Outside, uplighters in amber were used to provide soft lighting to the colonnade which was used at dusk as the magical setting for the first dance. Additional items supplied including a star gobo to illuminate the floor for the first dance, storm lanterns to line the walkways and moving lights for the disco. Other images on our website and blog show how uplighters can be used to provide colour and warmth to the simplest of spaces as well as highlighting details such as columns and other architectural features. Further details can be found under venue transformations on our website - click here

Glass Candelabra - Plinth Decoration

One of our most popular items, our glass candelabra are used as centrepieces for many themes and at numerous venues. They are offered with an optional plinth, which can raise them by 75mm or 150mm to aid guest communication across the table. Most clients decorate plinths with an oasis ring, but recently at The Landmark Hotel in London, a fabulous vintage effect was achieved simply by wrapping the plinth with loose ivy and dressing with single flower heads. Much more cost effective than an oasis ring and providing a simpler, looser style of decoration the table looked stunning. Flowers by Neil Birks - wonderful! www.nbflowers.co.uk

Decorating Conference Rooms for Weddings

We are frequently asked to dress conference rooms for weddings and parties and examples of venue decoration can be found throughout our blog. The Hilton Metropole at the NEC Birmingham offers a good example of what can be done to make a room "weddingy" without breaking the bank. For this rather large Greek wedding with 600 guests, we provided uplighters in the wedding colours, a backdrop behind the top table and a starcloth behind the band. Chair covers, bows and tall table centres completed the look. The overall hire cost was low, particularly given the size of the room, but the impact was great and turned a traditional meeting room into a wedding venue.

Ethical Centrepieces

In June, we were asked once again to provide table centres for the One World Broadcasting Trust annual awards ceremony. One World Media seeks to raise awareness of global human rights, social and development issues – from poverty and debt to education, good governance and freedom of expression. Ethical or "green" supplies are therefore essential to carry this message through the event, as well as meeting the normal requirements for any event of budget and value for money. The design chosen for this event incorporated both beauty and sustainability whilst featuring the colour of the brand. All elements of this table centre are reuseable right down to the gel beads in the vases. Even the flowers are sustainable with either seasonal fresh flowers or reusable silk flowers. This option offers an exciting and individual table centre that gives the client peace of mind as well as a beautiful decoration.

Various other sustainable table centres are available using a variety of vases and containers - please ask for details. Equally popular are our candelabra, storm lanterns and hurricane lamps, all available with wax or battery powered candles.

Vintage Glamour

Vintage weddings are proving popular this summer and the images below show some of the decorative ideas and hire items we have provided to date.

Wedding signage, vintage garden furniture, ribbons in trees

Glass candelabra, eclectic vintage floral containers, swarovski crystals, vintage tableware, napkins dressed with ribbons, crystals and pearls

Padded furniture, mirror topped bars and tables, clusters of eclectic votives and storm lanterns