Possibly the biggest day in your life, you want things to be perfect and choosing live entertainment for your wedding is an important decision. Using an agency can help, maybe you need a little inspiration too?
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The lovely Chris Weller from ITV’s production team has asked for our help in finding couples to take part in Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. They are looking for couples who are getting married on a Saturday in February, March or April to play a game live on the show.
It doesn’t matter where in the country your wedding is – you don’t need to be near London.
So, if you are up for a bit of fun, email Chris for a full application form: breakaway@itv.com
Alternatively you can nominate someone to be surprised! If you know someone who is getting married on a Saturday between February and April, and think they would enjoy the surprise, email: saturdaynight@itv.com. You never know … you might even get to meet the boys themselves.
The photo booth at our Summer Wedding Fair on Sunday proved to be a huge hit with brides and exhibitors and we would encourage anyone with a little bit left in their budget to hire one for their wedding day.
Almost everyone at the Fair dived behind the booth’s black curtain at some point during the day to pull funny faces at the screen, taking away with them a memento of the day; a printed postcard with their photos and a pre-programmed line of text – in this case details of the wedding fair, but for a wedding it might be the wedding date and the couples’ names.
The best bit? After the wedding, and unbeknown to guests, the bride and groom are given a DVD including all the images!
At this time of year it wouldn’t be unreasonable to have planned around the weather being sunny and warm, and many couples will have opted for a marquee wedding.
But what happens when the rain ruins the wedding plans, and can you insure against it?
The simple answer is yes, you can, but at a cost.
First you will need to establish what losses you would like to insure against. Insuring against “lost enjoyment” would be a challenge, but if you are having a string quartet who can’t be moved inside, or a bouncy castle that can’t be used, you can cover your costs if they can’t be used. You could also cover additional costs such as hiring in umbrellas or gazebos to keep your guests or suppliers dry.
Loss adjusters calculate the policy based on the amount you are wanting to cover, and the likelihood of you needing to claim. It makes sense that if you try to take out insurance a week before the wedding, with forecasts of rain already in place, that the loss adjusters will take that into consideration!
Your standard wedding insurance is likely to cover against water damage to clothes and gifts, but check the small print as they do vary.
As the Isle of Wight returns to normal following the traffic chaos of the festival we have been looking back at one of our favourite Real Life Weddings, which happened to be on the Isle of Wight; Yvonne and Ian’s fabulous, fun-filled wedding day at the Albert Cottage Hotel on the Isle of Wight.
There was no question that Yvonne and Ian Wright would marry on the Isle of Wight. It was where they had spent their first weekend away together, and where Ian proposed. Settling for the Friday of the annual Bank Holiday Scooter Rally, the happy couple indulged their passion for the 1960’s to the full – with Yvonne being chauffeured in her dad’s 1966 Mark 1 Ford Cortina and Ian arriving in style on his own1969 Vespa GTR. Yvonne chose a gorgeous retro inspired dress by from Caroline Castigliano, whilst a friend made the lilac bridesmaids’ dresses from an original 1960’s pattern, and Ian treated himself to a bespoke, ‘mod’ style suit.
The ceremony and reception took place in the sumptuous Albert Cottage Hotel, and Yvonne and Ian designed and sourced the fabulous table settings, with ‘singles’ coasters, check table-cloths and babycham glasses for the toasts! A wandering close-up magician and a vintage ice cream van kept the guests happy during the photo-shoot, and after a buffet style wedding breakfast, the newly-weds and their guests enjoyed the thrill of a casino and bopped the night away.
Those who have managed their wedding budgets well will be in the enviable position of being able to add some little extras to the day that they may otherwise have been unable to justify, and a magician may be that special little “extra”.
The magician should suit the style of your wedding and the size of the venue and audience – do you want “mix and mingle” magic as your guests arrive at the venue, or a spectacular stage performance, or do you prefer a table magician to entertain smaller groups of guests by moving around the room? Perhaps you would like to have the bride and groom, or some other guests of honour, taking part in the magic themselves?
Close-up magic is a fantastic way to involve your guests and make each of them feel special, as the magic unfolds right under their nose, or even in their hands. By circulating from table to table, your magician can ensure that every group of guests is entertained in turn, and this can be especially good for breaking the ice on a table where the guests don’t know each other well.
Every great wedding reception needs a really good live band or disco and Trudi has chosen a client who has been a huge supporter of Guides for Brides since we started in 1995, Adrian North Disco.
Over coffee this morning the office debated the top 5 “must have” wedding reception songs, and the 5 guaranteed to kill the party and after much debate on whether we could include “all songs by Status Quo” in either list, we have the ultimate top 5.
Our Top 5 classic Wedding Disco songs:
And the 5 to avoid:
Celebrate the 350th birthday of Mr Punch this year by including him in your wedding entertainment. Any entertainment agency will be happy to track down a local Punch and Judy show to come along and entertain any children at your reception with, Punch, Judy, Mr Policeman and of course the sausage eating crocodile.
Looking for something a bit more PC? Book a magician who can do close up magic during the drinks reception and then entertain the younger guests with a magic show later.
