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!!

January 2012

Happy New Year!
I now have a new Mac (very scary!) and am just learning how to use it. I would post a picture or two, but can't work out how to AAH! Still, I can at least update my blog and let you know all that has been going on in the happy world of Vintage Marquees!
We have had a major tidy and sort out of our stock room, so all is looking much more orderly now. The end of last season was just mad, and all our stock was in and out in such a frenzy, it is great to feel under control at last! Good to do a stock take too (always useful to know how many tables and chairs I have!) and to start re-taking all my library photos. The plan is to have a comprehensive library so that every item on the hire list can be highlighted so the detail can be seen (e.g. just how rustic the trestle tables are etc).
Some exciting new contacts...I have teamed up with Russ who organises the vintage nostalgia show in May at Stockton Park in Wiltshire. (www.vintagenostalgiashow.co.uk) That should be a fantastic event for all vintage enthusiasts. Also in April I am exhibiting at the vintage wedding fair in Frome (www.discovervintage.co.uk).
We are looking into buying a few more marquees, so hopefully we will have one large enough to accommodate 100-120, the most popular size for weddings it seems!
Until next time.....

Hellooo

hello there!
I have neglected my business terribly in the last month, so no blog updates, very slack, but with good reason!
We rolled directly from major wedding work (Jo and Xavier's amazing wedfest! ) the first weekend in September (not to mention Ali's lovely pub garden wedding and Miles and Jennifer's wedding and Henrietta's party for Marco, all just before (an I'll timed, but lovely) two week holiday!
Then we had three days to pack, clean and move house! We moved back to Biddestone (lovely) about a month before the cottage was really liveable! So we have had an interesting few weeks. With some stress and much work it is finally feeling like home and at last I am ready to get my sewing machine out and start curtain making., yippee!
Another handicap work wise has been the death of my laptop! It has totally thrown me! The iPad is lovely...but! So I will make the giant leap to a mac (I think!) v scary. It will probably take me years to get used to.
But I have made some new friends and great contacts through my plans and purchases for the cottage....trying to source woven Kashmiri fabric to cover a sofa, I have met Sanjil who I think will help us with our research into having bespoke marquees made.
Purchasing rugs for the lounge, Wayne, while spraying stain protector on the carpet has said he can also waterproof my old marquees!
I have not been entirely neglectful to Vintage Marquees, I have made a small purchase of another 40 of the lovely old folding chairs. I am always adding to my stock, but our season's end has coincided with much work this year on the home front, so we need to have a major sort out of our storage unit and a major stock take too. I really have no idea how much of anything I have now!
Lots of work on the Web site planned too. (brace yourself Derek!) with a picture library of the hire items if we can make it happen!
So a huge thank you to John, David, Rodders and all the great uni boys who have helped us through the summer. It has been really hard work, but good fun too and we have met so many lovely people and worked at so many unique events.
Lots of bookings and enquiries already for next year, so looking forward to a dynamic 2012.
We have a new home phone number 01249716119, and of course the email address is always a good way to contact me.
Less waffle next time x