This time last week I was as excited as an Andrex Puppy with a new loo roll, as it was the night before my first exhibition at The National Wedding Show.
Its fair to say I’d been planning every last detail of this show for quite some time (ask my husband – he thinks I’m a little obsessed!) so I was glad the time had finally come to put it all together and to get the show on the road. As it turns out, my show was rather late getting on the road on the account of my hired man with a van being involved in an accident the night before (he was fine, the van wasn’t). The replacement van which he described as “functional but not particularly pretty” was in fact neither of those things…barely longer than my daughter’s scooter, at least 3 different colours and let’s just say aesthetically challenged!
Two and a half hours later, a suitable replacement arrives and we’re on our way to Kensington Olympia. What a fabulous venue it is for an exhibition…the iron and glass roof is simply stunning and floods the space with beautiful, natural light…something, as a photographer, I’m a bit partial to! However, there was no time to stand back and admire it – there was set building to be done!
Not content with slinging up some wallpaper with double sided sticky tape we set about constructing the MDF wall panels, with batons to hold it all together to create a seamless finish for my wallpaper. Somewhat up against the clock at this point my stand closely resembled a scene from 60-minute makeover…with sawing, drilling, wallpapering and stand dressing happening pretty much simultaneously! I just could not have done it without my lovely husband Henri and amazing friend Emily whom I thought it was not possible to love any more than I already did! What we thought we could do in 5 hours, we did in 3 and I was quietly chuffed with the results – see the picture below..
This was my first exhibition and to be at one of this scale was just amazing and mind-blowing. There were something like 15,000 visitors across the 3 days and I was in my element meeting so many lovely people. What really surprised me is just how many brides-to-be came with their grooms-to-be! That might sound obvious for a wedding show but from personal previous experience I believe it was much more of a girlie day out with Mum and/or bridesmaids, but from my point of view it couldn’t have been better, getting to meet both lovebirds!
I had the most amazing weekend with quite a few signing up on the spot, or soon after and I’m just a little bit excited now about some of the gorgeous weddings and fabulous people I’m going to be working with over the next 18 months or so, from an intimate 4-person wedding in the home counties, to a stylish affair at the Four Seasons on Park Lane, a sun-soaked wedding in Key West, to the quirkily-named Blazing Donkey in Kent…and everything in between! Its this kind of variety that makes every wedding unique and my job capturing them, so very rewarding.
I’d also like to make a little shout out to some special people who were my friends and neighbours at the show….
- Andy and all the team at The Groomscompany who do offer some dapper menswear for the stylish groom
- Ofer at Better Venues who have some pretty spectacular venues in their portfolio including Clissold House and the Porchester Hall
- Louise at Louise Miles Cake Design – she really has the most incredible designs and a spectacular attention to detail
- and last but not least my fellow photographer, Catherine Pound, who not only sent over a couple for whom their date she already had booked, but for selflessly offering to relieve me at my stand while I was alone so that I could grab five mins for a cuppa and a loo-stop. Catherine, you are a gem! x
For those of you who who haven’t entered yet, I’d like to remind you about the little competition I’m running at the moment to win your wedding photography for FREE!…that’s a chance to win £1,500 worth of photography, just by clicking http://bit.ly/1ekVKyl and filling in your details before the draw at 17:00 on Friday 14th March! I can’t make it any easier than that now can I?
Good luck if you do decide to enter, and stay tuned…I shall be announcing the winner shortly!
