11pm seems to be blog time!
Our last really hectic day of the season today! Wool!

Bev, Daisy, Holly and had to be up at 6.30 today to travel to Harptree Court near Wells.
The event was Jo and Xaxier's wedfest! Jo combines exuberant creativity with detailed organisation and created a wonderful mini festival for their wedding celebrations. The Brixworth was bedecked with decorated lamp shades and old photo frames, candle lanterns covered with butterflies and strings of old photos. We filled huge hampers with wonderful picnics and guests sat on picnic rugs or at trestle tables. Jo's mum made lovely gingham runners for the old trestles ( I must see if she wants to sell them!). The vintage marquee was the 'hedgerow bar' with galvanised baths full of chilled wine and cider. I wish we hadn't been working so hard, we would have had more time to admire everything! But I will try to post a few photos next time.

We are somehow going to go away on holiday tomorrow!! But before that John has to get back from Bath (he has gone to get Daisy who doesn't feel well.. Obviously something she has eaten!!?) then tomorrow there are four tents to dismantle before the hurricane winds arrive!
I hope that during our absence (at it has to be said, the trickiest time) the rest of the carpeting will be finished in the cottage, the decorating will be completed too, the kitchen will be made, the kitchen floor finished...(am I a little optimistic?)

Being unfit parents we are leaving a 21yr old, an 18 yr old and Daisy (15 or 20, depending!) and I am actually feeling very guilty about it. But it will be fun and games when we return, four days of frantic house packing and cleaning and then we move into the cottage. Which incidentally will have no cooker, one sink (the tiny corner one in the girls bathroom!) and a fridge in the shed!

But come October, well, the end of October, let's be realistic! Life just might be settling down to some sort of normality!
one small parting fact, Vintage Marquees has provided tents for 43 events this season!!!
I feel I have earned my new iPad which I am playing on now!

September 2nd, can you believe it!!??
And we have two more hectic weekends, then just the odd booking or two this year.
A few catering events over the winter and lots of planning and web site updating for next year.
Since the last post I really can't remember what I've done!! Mainly spun in circles between cottage, tents, and general chaos!
Some lovely events though...We had Freya and Victor's wedding which was very special. A fabulous bohemian event, complete with a stunning yurt which made our beautiful Big Top look rather ordinary! Every event is so exciting and so special. Freya and Victor cleverly covered all angles by having a tea party (provided by yours truly!) followed later on by their own home cooked curries etc and eaten in the yurt with everyone being very chilled on the floor cushions etc. It all worked really well and the Big Top (meant to be a bit posher!! than the others) has never looked so ethnic, with Indian wall hangings to boot!

The following weekend I provided about 80 sets of vintage china, table cloths and wedding favours for Laura's wedding in the Abbey Gardens in Malmesbury. I was washing and sorting china for the rest of the week!

The photo shows the pretty wedding favours, small heart shaped soaps in organza bags. There really is no end to our talents!!haha!

This weekend we migrated to Amersham in Buckinghamshire (the longest drive I have ever done!!) Very brave!! My mini was packed to the gills with Bev, Daisy and I, as well as 120 chocolate brownies, several hundred cheesy biscuits, pate, cheeses, lantern crooks, etc, etc! Purdy organised an extravaganza of a party for Charlie and Becky who were 21 and 18. An absoulutely amazing party in their totally stunning garden. Cleverly I forgot the camera, but again, the Big Top did look fab, expecially late at night with all the lanterns lit and fairy lights twinkling around the pool...

Sadly there is always the slight thrill when I actually remember my password to sign on to the blog!! Little things!!...Well, my manic summer might just be nearing its end now...phew! I have 7 more events (and the small matter of finishing work on the cottage and moving in) in the next 3 weeks, then THAT IS IT!!!
Already I have such an exciting (and indulgent..and expensive!!) project planned.. I have this idea to have a corner sofa made and cover it in kelims! I have found Shakeel who sells his beautiful Kelims from Kashmir and next week I will be working with Anne from the Sofa Workshop in Bath and cutting the fabric for this very exciting sofa!!!(This I hope will be followed by much curtain making etc, etc, oh joy!!)
But on the work front, Shakeel might just have a friend in Jaipur who might help me organise major marquee production. This is the next plan. By early 2012 I hope to have a sales page and be producing pretty traditional style small marquees for sale. Do drop me an e-mail if you would be interested in prices and have style preferences.
Another small update to my ever expanding inventory of hire items. I have now aquired 10 vingageish deck chairs and 9 candelabras. Also two wrought iron chandeliers to hang from the roof of the marquee!! More thrilling new additions to come!

The wedding before!

Sophie and Anthony's wedding last weekend was lovely and the weather was fab. So lucky, as it hammered down the next day. Don't we love England!!
This one was taken at Rachel and Ricky's wedding which was sumptuous, with delightful shabby chic detail everywhere! No detail was left to chance, from the vintage deck chairs, to the ice cream stall, candelabras, windmills and croquet!
I love the creativity and imagination of it all! Each event is so different and all equally lovely! In the last three weeks my Big Top has been a lovely lunch tent with old linen cloths and a band outside playing in the garden, a beautiful 1950's lounge, complete with full bar at one end, and coya matting looking like carpet, And then the centrepicec for the lovely wedding party overlooking Box Valley, with pretty missmatched bottles full of sweet peas and vintage crockery and bags of jelly beans.
Thank you to everyone who loves the look of my marquees and has taken the leap of faith to ask me to help at their weddings. It is hard work, but so special and I love it all....really!

Here is the utterly stunning view (and quite a great
photo, don't you think!!)
of Box valley taken looking out from our marquee
at Sophie and Anthony's wedding last weekend.
A tricky one for us staff, tripping around on a slope, but I think all the guests faired well and no one toppled down the hill! A lovely do with fabulous food and sumptuous BBQ from Neston Farm shop (hopefully we will be liasing with them in the future)

too busy to blog!!

Well, here we are again! Three more weddings since my last blog and I think about another seven to go before the end of the season. Then I think I will hibernate and sleep for the winter (actually of course I won't, I will be Mrs"I'm in my new cottage at last" and will be happily busy making curtains and plumping cushions!!)

Now, the Corsham do was a lovely relaxed (for the guests anyway!) affair in a beautiful garden with lots of lovely tents dotted around and listening to the jolly Pack Horse band from Lacock.

Perfect.

That was followed by Rachel and Ricky's wedding in Gloucester. Wow!! What an event that was! An amazing procuction with so much planning and brilliant attention to detail.

AAh!! I seem to have failed to add the appropriate image (arm chairs in a marquee) and found one of Josh (my big 21yr old) and I in the snow..aah well, better luck next time, hehe!

More blogging activity tomorrow I hope (it's midnight now, no wonder I'm making mistakes!)

till the next one...

This is Rob and Kate's 'going away bike'!! They sailed off down the drive while being showered with confetti! Luckily not rain!! Such a stormy day, but as the ceremony began mid afternoon, the sun came out and my brollies didn't come out again until the evening! Another BEAUTIFUL wedding that I have had the luck and privilege to be involved with.