Well, it really is blog day today, there is just so much to say!! And now to attempt to load more images!!
Aah, here is my pretty market stall. She is now available for hire and perfect to go over a cheese or drinks table. This was her first outing at the Vintage Wedding Fair in Frome and now she has gone down to Devon where she will be at the Decidedly Different Wedding Fayre in Tiverton on 23rd June. This event is run by Tracey and team from Blue Fizz Events and should be a great day.

sad

To all my lovely clients and companies, buddies and friends... I am sad to have to post this blog, but from now on our policy is going to have to change a bit.. Of course we always try to do our utmost to be as helpful and accommodating with all the many changes of plan as each event unfolds...of course this often means more time and effort and cost for us!! Although I try to have accounts settled before every event, often there are outstanding amounts that I have to chase. But we are a small company and working on small margins and recently I have been let down by a client abusing our goodwill. So it is time to toughen up and so from now on we will have to have all payments before the event. If ever this seems unreasonable (for example if we sit down in the middle of a field and refuse to move a marquee until we are paid extra to do it!!)..this is the reason why!
Here is the email I had to send..

Hello Karen,
I imagine you have decided not to respond to my contact and are not planning to pay the balance owed for your wedding hire.

I could go down the route of involving my solicitor etc, but have neither the time or energy.

instead, with great sadness I have decided never now to trust to goodwill and to believe that by putting ourselves out for our clients that they will appreciate our work and pay us accordingly. From now on we will not provide goods or services without full payment first. In your case that would have meant your sister in law giving the boys the full amount in cash before they moved the marquee to the second chosen position. I will be detailing this experience on my blog so future customers understand why, reluctantly, we will not be offering such a generous and helpful service in the future.

Caroline Penny

busy,busy!!

AAAhhh!!!Yippee!!!! I AM SUCH A TECHNO WHIZZ!!! The whole blog format has changed and (in-between numerous phone conversations!! and several glasses of wine!!) it has taken me about an hour to work out how to add this photo!!

Anyway, this is the new addition to the team WOOO!!! I am just about to send off my cheque to Trent Windsurfing Club!! to purchase this pretty (and appealingly slightly grubby I think!) little marquee! She is 15' x 25', so very slightly bigger than our two original Vintage Marquees.

It is rather a worry that I seem to have a passion for collecting such large and cumbersome items!!! Still, at least my canvas marquees are useful (whereas sofas..wellll.....)

We are already galloping along with the wedding season, and the sun has actually shone for one of them! It is so great to be part of all the exciting planning and preparation and to help create beautiful wedding venues, from barns, to village halls, to marquees huge and tiny! All are so special and individual and wonderful!

Tomorrow we are building marquees at Stockton, Wiltshire for the Vintage Nostalgia Show which should be a very jolly event for all us retro lovers! Then on Wednesday the crew are heading to Hungerford, providing the Jamboree marquee and masses of chairs etc for a wedding and on Thursday the Big Top is going upon Frome for a big party and at the weekend one of our little Jesters is at Hartham Park, Corsham for a boules tournament.


Next time I hope to post a picture ( a major achievement in itself!!) of David, our main man!( along with JP) on his vintage tractor....watch this space!!!

Babies and rain!!

Well, last week was both fraught and lovely too!!
Now three of my beautiful brides from last year have babies! Woo! And last week I actually had cuddles with two of them..aah! Both Laura and Natasha have beautiful baby girls, both about 6 weeks old now. soooo sweet!! That was the good bit...
Now for the stresses, I have just received an email saying I have the ideal business/company. Well, that is so not so when faced with the prospect of erecting marquees in sodden fields in the pouring rain! Poor Sarah and Paul who had planned an idyllic day with children skipping in the fields and marquees looking majestic by the picturesque canal, had to admit defeat and succumb to the kind offer of a concrete barn with corrugated roof! So it was a challenge for all and an emotional few days to turn the shed into well, something weddingy!! And do that we did! The Vintage Marquees crew provided silk drapes, matting, and of course masses of quirky paraphernalia (churns, lights, gingham cloths etc) then Sarah's friends did the rest. Four of us worked at the wedding serving the teas, creating a wedding cake out of meringues and flowers (!!), serving champagne and scuttling around being helpful and I have to say it was a truly special day, I think made all the more so for the spirit of camaraderie pulling it all together in the face of adversity.
Martin and Julie at Marsh Farm (in Trowbridge, where the reception was held) were wonderful too and I hope we will work together again.. it really would be lovely to put up our tents by the canal...one day..when the sun shines!!

wedding fair

A good day last Sunday at the Vintage Wedding Fair in Frome.
A frantic scramble to get my 'market stall' together, (only collecting the wrought iron frame on Friday!!) but then of course a delightful hour twining ivy and garlands, arranging vintage china, piles of linen, milk churns and flowers etc.
Lovely to meet potential clients who were visiting from far afield and also to get to know the other stall holders and make lots of great new contacts, from vintage car hire, old style photographers, retro video companies, caterers with stunning special cakes and fantastic florists! You can check out www.discovervintage.co.uk to see the list of exhibitors, but updates will be made to my links page in due course...
Here, hopefully(it's always a bit hit and miss!!) is a photo of the new cushions...sewing machine out again tomorrow for the next batch!

Wehhey!! I did it!!!
These will be £1.00 each to hire.. a bargain!

We have had our first hiring of the season,( before things go mad in May!) the lovely Three Peaks marquee.. and luckily we were able to dry and dismantle the tent in-between deluge upon deluge of rain! Oh the joys of hiring marquees!!!

April Antics!!

Carrying on with a bit of alliteration in my titles!!

Derek and I have created a new ad for the (very few) publications I advertise in. I have just tried to upload it, but have failed aaah!! Will try to upload an image of one of the new Chivari banquet chairs instead.. Smudge is investigating!!

We are soooo busy, and have a few new members to our erection team now to cope with the hectic summer to come. Masses of events all over the country it seems, we will be very busy.

Meanwhile I am spending in anticipation! I am just about to purchase a lovely Indian tent to add to the collection..pictures to follow soon. The 100 Chivari chairs are here and unless we hire more storage, I think there is room for no more new stock. Oh, apart from the 100 seat cushions that I am frantically sewing! They are so pretty (again, pics to follow).

A very exciting web site development, you can now highlight an icon on my price list and see a picture of the item. I am still taking photos of all the stock items, so images will be added all the time.

There is always work to do and the next job is to try and give a rough transport costs guide on the web site, not easy, but we will try! Thanks for looking, more soon....

March madness

Well, It's about time!!

I know I haven't updated my blog for ages, but that doesn't mean to say that there hasn't been frantic activity in Vintage Marquee land! I am in the process of purchasing many metres of matting, a dance floor, 10 lovely old rustic benches,100 lime washed chivari banquet chairs and several new tents!!

Hopefully later in the season I will have have some very pretty small pergola marquees for sale..just a new little side line I am planning!

Also there has been work going on designing new advertising (I really need to promote the company locally as we seem to be delivering marquees all over the country this summer, but have very few bookings in Bath!).

We had a wonderful two weeks in India and I now have a very sweet canvas market stall which will first be seen at the Vintage Fair in Bath at the end of March and then in Frome in April at the Vintage Wedding Fair.

Yaaay, I have managed to upload an image again!! This is John, David, Floss, Ruby and I tidying our store shed!!