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Favourite 12 of 2012

Posted on December 31, 2012

The end of a year is a great time for reflection and what a fantastic year it has been here at RSVP Wedding.  To celebrate this year’s achievements, I have selected my favourite 12 images from 2012.

There are lots of exciting plans ahead and we are in the midst of planning some fabulous weddings for 2013 which I can’t wait to share with you.

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous 2013.

Photo credits:
1, 2: Abi Chadwick Wedding Photography
3, 4, 5: Mark One Photography
6: Ian H Photography
7, 8, 9: Debs Ivelja Photography
10: Carrie Bugg Photography
11: Anna Morgan Photography
12: Jerry Fenner Photography

Happy Birthday RSVP!

Posted on September 18, 2012

Today marks the start of our third year in business. The last year has been an incredibly busy one with us planning a whole host of weddings across Hampshire and Dorset.

Our first wedding of the season took place at Chewton Glen, a 5 red star luxury country house hotel situated on the edge of the New Forest National Park. The Bride and Groom, together with their family and friends, enjoyed exclusive use of the hotel and grounds. We were very excited to see one of the couple’s wedding pictures gracing the pages of OK! Magazine back in March.

The next month took us across the New Forest to The Mill at Gordleton in Hordle. The Mill thoroughly deserves its recently awarded title of Les Routiers Boutique Hotel of the Year 2012. We erected a Persian inspired marquee in the beautifully landscaped gardens, overlooking the river which is home to a family of ducks. The Bride added extra glamour to the occasion by donning a stunning Bruce Oldfield number.

Crossing over to Dorset, we then helped Wedding Blogger Sara at Wedding Sparrow coordinate her wedding at The Green House in Bournemouth. The Green House, voted Best Wedding Venue in Southern England in 2011 by The Independent, is the greenest hotel in the UK. Sara and her Graphic Designer husband worked together to create a truly personal wedding which was captured by the wonderful Debs Ivelja.

Over the past year, we have worked closely with the owners of Gaddens Manor House in Crow to launch it as a wedding venue. Our first wedding took place at this ‘home from home’ venue over the Jubilee Weekend. The Bride and Groom arrived at the venue looked on by some of the famous New Forest Ponies.

This year has seen a rise in the number of marquee weddings we have planned at private homes. Our largest and most logistical wedding to date was a marquee wedding for 170 guests in Burley. The weather was kind to us once again, allowing the outdoor ceremony to take place on a pontoon deck which had been built specially for the occasion.

We are looking forward to the last wedding of the season, taking place at a private home in Gaunts Common on the outskirts of Wimborne, this weekend. Afternoon tea, a hog roast and a late night pizza van will keep the guests well fed and three different live bands, garden games, a cartoonist, magicians and fireworks will keep them entertained.

In other news, we recently took part in a gorgeous bridal fashion shoot at Deans Court in Wimborne, where we were responsible for the detail styling. We have contributed to a number of wedding magazines and blogs (visit our About Us page for further details) and have become the resident wedding planner at Le Trousseau, an online luxury wedding accessories boutique.  We have also achieved a higher grade of membership with the UK Alliance of Wedding Planners, reflecting our ever growing experience.

Although the wedding season is drawing to an end, we have already started work on planning more beautiful weddings which will take place in 2013. With a little more time in the office and at the computer over the next few months, we promise to bring you full reports and photographs of the weddings we have had the privilege of being involved in this year.

Hampshire & Dorset Wedding Magazine – Ask the Expert

Posted on March 12, 2012

Choosing your wedding dress is an important part of the wedding planning process. As brides search for the ‘perfect dress’, what should be a fun experience can sometimes end up being very stressful for brides. In the March/April issue of Your Hampshire and Dorset Wedding magazine, I helped one bride on her way to finding her dream wedding gown…

I am having my wedding reception in a pretty pub in the New Forest. I haven’t started wedding dress shopping yet, but my best friend told me that since my reception will be quite casual, I can’t have a big gown. What sort of dress should I be looking at?

First and foremost, choose a dress that flatters your body shape.  You want to look and feel like a million dollars on your wedding day so if a fuller silhouette is one of the styles which suits you best, don’t rule it out.  Once you have narrowed down your selection, think about the practicalities of your wedding location as well as the time of year.  As you are getting married in a country pub you may wish to opt for a column or empire line dress with some daring detail.  Vintage inspired gowns work particularly well in a more rustic setting.

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You can read this and other questions on page 99 in the March/April issue. If there is anything you would like to ask me, email it to suzanne@rsvpwedding.co.uk and I will post your questions with answers here on our blog.

Le Trousseau – The Love Letter

Posted on February 20, 2012

I stumbled across Le Trousseau, the luxury wedding accessories boutique, at the end of 2010 and have been eyeing up their adorable accessories ever since. When I bought up the last of their etched hurricane vases for use at a client’s wedding this summer I was asked whether I would be interested in becoming their resident wedding planner and industry expert. This would entail giving planning and trends advice in their newsletter, The Love Letter.  It took me all of about a millisecond to say yes!

For my first piece, I gave the following tips on where to start when planning a wedding:

1. Let’s talk money
It may not be the most exciting of topics but you really need to work out what you can afford to spend. Setting your budget early on will help keep you focused.

2. Location, location
Having a rough geographic area in mind will help you narrow down your venue search. If the ceremony and reception are to be held in different places, try to keep them within a 30-minute drive of each other.

3. It’s a date!
Think about the time of year you would like to marry and then try to keep a window of dates open. The more flexible you are, the more options you will have in terms of booking a venue and your team of suppliers.

4. The guest list
You may find that your budget or venue dictates the number of guests you can invite. If you need to trim your guest numbers, consider creating an A and a B list.

5. Choose your dream team
Try and establish your priority areas and then set about researching the suppliers within your price bracket. Remember that good suppliers get booked up well in advance.

Finally, if it all gets too much, think about hiring a wedding planner to help!

To read more of my top tips, sign up to The Love Letter here.

An Unexpected Proposal

Posted on February 14, 2012

Now maybe this is something that a wedding planner shouldn’t really admit to but neither my husband or I buy into Valentine’s Day in a big way. The most we do is put our work down for an evening (believe me that is a real luxury for us), open a bottle of bubbly and spend a little time with each other. Before I get into this story any further, one thing you need to know about my husband is that he loves surprises. His worst nightmare is doing something because he feels he has to and he hates me handing over a list of what I would like for my birthday or Christmas (what can I say, planners love lists!). So you can imagine my surprise four years ago, when my husband chose to propose to me on Valentine’s Day. Don’t get me wrong, a proposal wasn’t entirely unexpected as we had been looking at rings but I just didn’t expect for him to do it on a day set aside for love. In fact, with both of us being a little crazy about skiing, I would have put large sums of money on him proposing to me at the top of a snowy mountain on the ski holiday we had planned that Easter. So why did he propose on Valentine’s Day? His simple answer was that choosing the 14th February would be the biggest surprise of all.  And despite spending a couple of days away at the lovely Lakeside Hotel on Lake Windermere (I probably should have clocked something, right?), he really did surprise me.

Four years later he continues to surprise me, today with his bravery in handing me Nigella Lawson’s book ‘How to be a Domestic Godess’.  I guess he’s trying to tell me something…

Hampshire & Dorset Wedding Magazine – Ask the Expert

Posted on January 14, 2012

Often couples (and sometimes their parents!) approach me with very different ideas about their wedding and it is my job, as a wedding planner and designer, to bring their ideas all together.  In the January/February issue of Your Hampshire and Dorset Wedding magazine, I was asked about blending two different themes…

I was inclined to go for a ’60s-inspired celebration, but after having been to a friend’s 1920s vintage themed wedding, I’ve been inspired by the look and can’t make up my mind which style to go with.  How can we decide?

Sit down and work out exactly what it is that you like about each theme.  Maybe you would like to team a 60s wedding dress with vintage glass, antique books and blooms.  Cut out pictures from magazines and create a design board – this will help you see whether your ideas work together.  Then, looking at your budget and the time you have available to plan your wedding, make a list of ‘must have’ items.  Before you start sourcing individual items, make sure you have the big things, such as your reception venue and wedding dress, as they will influence the overall look of the day.  Consider hiring a village hall for your reception venue – this would fit your theme perfectly and leave you with plenty of scope to style it as you wish.  Once you have found your dress, you can then begin to source your ‘must have’ items.

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You can read this and other questions on page 69 in the January/February issue. If there is anything you would like to ask me, email it to suzanne@rsvpwedding.co.uk and I will post your questions with answers here on our blog.

Hampshire & Dorset Wedding Magazine – Ask the Expert

Posted on December 28, 2011

As a wedding planner, I have built up a comprehensive database of recommended venues across Dorset, Hampshire, West Sussex, Surrey, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon. When I received a call from the Features Editor at Your Hampshire and Dorset Wedding Magazine asking me to recommend venues suitable for a reader’s Broadway/West End Musical themed wedding, I was more than happy to help. Read on to find out which venues made my shortlist.

We’d like to theme our wedding around Broadway and West End musicals, so there will be a big band and lots of dancing. What type of venues do you think would suit our celebrations? Can you recommend a few in the region?

Big bands are generally made up of between 10 and 25 musicians typically playing instruments such as trombones, trumpets and saxophones along with a rhythm section of guitar, bass and drums.  Consequently, you will need to make sure your venue can accommodate a band of this size and that they do not have any restrictions on sound levels.

Considering that the big band became popular in the 1930s, you may wish to choose a venue synonymous with this era.  The Cumberland Hotel in Bournemouth is a purpose-built Art Deco hotel dating back to the1930s. With its stunning free-span dome, staging, dance floor and dedicated sound system, it would be an ideal choice for a big band wedding.  The open-air Singing Theatre at the Larmer Tree Gardens (situated on the Wiltshire/Dorset border) would also make a spectacular backdrop for this type of wedding.  Home to the Larmer Tree Festival, it is perfect for a musical extravaganza.

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You can read this and other questions on page 67 in the November/December issue (out now). If there is anything you would like to ask me, email it to suzanne@rsvpwedding.co.uk and I will post your questions with answers here on our blog.

Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 23, 2011

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas. I love this time of year and am very excited about hosting Christmas for the first time. We’ve finally got a dining room large enough to seat my whole family (I’m one of five children) and I’ve spent the last couple of weeks making bunting, stockings, beaded tree decorations and a wreath all in preparation. Now the cottage looks lovely, it’s time to turn my thoughts to the dinner!

Whatever you’re doing, I hope you have a lovely time. You won’t have received a Christmas card from us this year as we have decided to donate money instead to Friends of Ray of Hope, a charity with a special place in our hearts.

Happy Christmas x

Photo credit:
Christmas Wreath: Anna Sawin via Style Me Pretty

Perfect Wedding – Wedding SOS!

Posted on November 1, 2011

With the clocks going back, it’s time to turn our attention to the winter wedding season.  Weddings at this time of year are definitely on the rise with a number of brides wanting to create a winter wonderland theme.  Here’s a recent question I answered for a Perfect Wedding reader on this subject:

I’m having a winter wedding and would love to have a winter wonderland theme. How can I do this without being tacky?

Forget the snow machines and go for a colour palette of silvers and ice whites with a dusting of pale blue or dusky pink accessories.  You’ll create a magical winter wonderland that’s chic rather than cheap-looking.  Or for a simple touch of elegance, add fairy lights and twinkling candles to your venue.  The dancing shadows and reflections on glass will add to the romance of your theme.

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You can read this and other questions on page 200 in the October issue. If there is anything you would like to ask me, email it to suzanne@rsvpwedding.co.uk and I will post your questions with answers here on our blog.

Wedding Stationery – Cardlab

Posted on October 28, 2011

This morning, I received a lovely box of sample stationery from Cardlab, a company which I am working with for a wedding next year. I love the simple elegance of their designs as well as the luxury feel of the paper in your hands.

All of their invitations are printed using a vintage letterpress. They also have a range of co-ordinating items such as order of service booklets, menus and table plans. Best of all, the design details (card, ink, ribbon and eyelet colour; typestyles; motifs and dividers) can all be customised to suit your wedding theme.

Visit Cardlab for more information.