Inspired by Vintage | Hansley Beard: Event Planning & Design

Summer’s Christening Cake Bar in Winter!

Last week we had the pleasure of creating a beautiful cake bar for the christening party of Summer Keira in Chesterfield:

We wanted to share some of the photos of it here from all sorts of angles as there are so many different details to see!

Here are some nice words from her mum Laura:
“I contacted Jennie for assistance for my daughter’s christening. I’d booked a venue, and I was making cupcakes instead of a traditional cake.”

“I had an image of how I wanted it to look and the theme colours of pink and green that I wanted to use - it was just the main element of physically doing the display.”

“Jennie suggested we could do a feature table with the cupcakes with some of her hire items including numerous cakestands and some teacups and saucers. I also bought a few matching sweets ~ bon bons and alphabet letters.”

“The items used gave the table a girly vintage feel with a modern twist.”

“Jennie made labels and wrote little messages on them such as ‘Summer’s Cake Bar’, ‘Made by Mummy’ and ‘Please Take Me, I’m Yummy!’

“What the display looked like was amazing! Everyone commented on how lovely it looked.”

“I’d be more than happy to recommend and work with Jennie again for any party or special occasion whether this be venue decor or hiring vintage crockery items. Thank you so much, Jennie, for all your help. The display looked fantastic!”

This was a great opportunity for us to show how you can use modern and vintage together to make something unique.

We used a candy striped cloth and finished off the table with beautiful bunting by ‘Bloom’, based in Sheffield, and made from pink gingham and rose fabric from the Amy Butler collection.

To add a little twist we placed whirlypop lollipops in the flowers.

If you are organising a christening party, baby shower or children’s party and already have your ingredients (cakes, cupcakes, desserts or sweets) but want an ingenius way to display them and wow all your guests, get in touch with us at Hansley Beard to see what display items we have available. We offer partial to full styling and design services, just set-up or you can hire the vintage crockery or modern display items yourself and set it up yourself.

If you don’t have the edible items already we also have contacts with excellent cake makers, cupcake companies, sweets and chocolate suppliers and can work with you to create all of the perfect cake bar, dessert bar or candy buffet for your child or baby’s event, including theming, colourscheme, menu choices, design and set-up.

Flowers bought from Swallows and Damsons
Images by Jennie Beard

Posted Sat, 04 Dec, by Jennie Beard in Candy Buffet, Candy Station, Christening, Dessert Bars, Flowers, Pink, Vintage Crockery Hire, Vintage Styling | 1 Comments

Vintage Crockery & Prop Hire ~ The Woodland Photoshoot ~ Part 3

Today we wanted to share a few more of our favourite ‘unseen’ images from our recent photoshoot with the amazing S6 Photography:

Models: Katy Bangert and Shannon Alesayi
Photography by S6 Photography
Styling by Hansley Beard
Vintage Crockery and Props from Hansley Beard Hire collection
Flowers supplied by Swallows and Damsons
Tea Supplied by The Girl with the Golden Cup . To buy specially blended teas for your wedding, contact Caroline at The Girl with the Golden Cup. (She can even make up bespoke teas just for you!)
Woodland venue used by kind permission of Ecclesall Woods Sawmill, Sheffield City Council

Hansley Beard have a vast collection of beautiful vintage crockery, glassware and props available for hire from our Sheffield studio. If you’re looking to hire for your wedding or event, please get in touch with your wishlist and we’ll do our very best to help! Styling services, decor set-up and decor theme development also available.

Posted Sat, 04 Dec, by Jennie Beard in Autumn, Flowers, Photography, Vintage Accessories, Vintage Clothing , Vintage Crockery Hire, Vintage Styling, Vintage Weddings, Woodland Wedding | 5 Comments

Vintage Crockery & Prop Hire ~ The Woodland Photoshoot ~ Part 2

Today we want to share some more about our vintage crockery woodland shoot in Sheffield as featured recently on the blog of S6 Photography.

With this shoot, I wanted to show how vintage crockery can be used alongside other items in all sorts of creative ways to create a stunning yet quirky context for a wedding or event. It sounds a simple thing to say but it’s all about what and how you put things together, not only to create the wow-factor but to create a beautiful experience for you and your guests.

Having secured our woodland ‘venue’ I set about gathering crockery and glassware items from my collection that fitted the theme and colours and light that we would be working with.

I also gathered appropriate pieces of furniture that would provide the setting and context for the crockery.

And added some decorative details like this length of bunting made from old lace.

I then started to think about creating different sets or scenes at the shoot and planned to work it around a scene in the woods, a travel theme, a vintage table theme and a Middle Eastern theme. I then tied it all together with old maps, books and bottles, gramophone records and ‘singles’, and various vintage props.

We added some authentic tea from The Girl with the Golden Cup .

We used the specially blended wedding ‘Rock and Rose’ tea for our Table Scene and the Siberian Fire tea for our Middle Eastern Scene.

Flowers were supplied by Swallows and Damsons.

I accentuated some of the colours by using real fruit and food in beautiful containers and vessels ...

... and covered some in gold wax to bring out the richness of the autumn colours.

We particularly loved being able to show off some of our amber coloured glassware.

I then set about dressing our models to fit the colour theme and vintage style. The wedding dress is actually my own wedding dress which has a huge French lace train and was perfect for showcasing some of my vintage plates – plus I always thought it was a shame that it had only been worn for one day!

Both models got to wear ‘the dress’ on the day.Other outfits included a bridesmaids dress mixed with a fake fur coat and rustic shoes and a vintage outfit using the fake fur coat with a vintage green velvet dress and brown leather boots. We also added the lacy ankle socks to give it a current and funky edge and various hats, hair pieces and accessories.

Thanks again to Jon Dennis from S6 Photography for his genius photography skills, the wonderful models who patiently stood around and posed in the freezing cold and my photoshoot assistants Myrtle and Jodi.

Come back in a few days time for a peak at a a few more of my favourite shots ...

Models: Katy Bangert and Shannon Alesayi
Photography by S6 Photography
Styling by Hansley Beard
Vintage Crockery and Props from Hansley Beard Hire collection
Flowers supplied by Swallows and Damsons
Tea Supplied by The Girl with the Golden Cup . To buy specially blended teas for your wedding, contact Caroline at The Girl with the Golden Cup. (She can even make up bespoke teas just for you!)
Woodland venue used by kind permission of Ecclesall Woods Sawmill, Sheffield City Council

Hansley Beard have a vast collection of beautiful vintage crockery, glassware and props available for hire from our Sheffield studio. If you’re looking to hire for your wedding or event, please get in touch with your wishlist and we’ll do our very best to help! Styling services, decor set-up and decor theme development also available.

Posted Wed, 01 Dec, by Jennie Beard in Autumn, Flowers, Photography, Themes, Vintage Accessories, Vintage Clothing , Vintage Crockery Hire, Vintage Styling, Vintage Weddings, Woodland Wedding | 5 Comments

Vintage Crockery & Prop Hire ~ The Woodland Photoshoot

Last weekend we got up really early on what turned out to be a freezing cold but dry day and ventured out to our local woods to set up and style a most amazing photoshoot, photographed by the amazing Jon Dennis from S6 Photography based in Sheffield. We wanted to showcase some of our vintage crockery and props that we hire out for weddings and events and decided to work round an Autumn theme, carefully picking out select items from amongst our collection.

Jon has just featured some of the best photos from the shoot over on his blog and I am absolutely estatic at how wonderful and how beautiful they are! I’ll be posting more details about the shoot shortly but for now here are a few of the shots but do check out Jon’s blog for the full set at s6photography.co.uk/blog/vintage

Models: Katy Bangert & Shannon Alesayi
Styling by Hansley Beard
Vintage Crockery and Props from Hansley Beard Hire collection
Flowers supplied by Swallows and Damsons
Tea Supplied by The Girl with the Golden Cup
Shoot venue: Ecclesall Woods Sawmill by kind permission of Sheffield City Council.

Hansley Beard have a vast collection of beautiful vintage crockery, glassware and props available for hire from our Sheffield studio. If you’re looking to hire for your wedding or event, please get in touch with your wishlist and we’ll do our very best to help! Styling services, decor set-up and decor theme development also available.

Posted Fri, 26 Nov, by Jennie Beard in Autumn, Flowers, Photography, Vintage Accessories, Vintage Crockery Hire, Vintage Styling, Vintage Weddings, Woodland Wedding | 3 Comments

Vintage Bridal Soiree ~ The Showcase

On 30th September Sheffield’s first Vintage Bridal Soiree took place! We organised it along with Little White Book, Coco Catering and Swallows and Damsons. We all wanted to arrange a vintage wedding evening that was classy, elegant and fun! We chose the fabulous Chimney House because of its historical past and its beautiful red brick walls. We’d like to share here a selection of some of the wonderful event photos by Serendipity Photography.

More blog posts to follow in the next few days about the event, but for now, here’s what was happening upstairs.

Upstairs some of the most exclusive local Vintage wedding suppliers showed off their beautiful Vintage creations.
Bouquets and accessories made from Vintage jewellery by DC Bouquets:

Vintage style wedding cakes by Love Candy Cakes:

Vintage decor by Little White Book:

Vintage wedding photography by Serendipity Photography:

Vintage stationery designs by Lucy Ledger Designs:

The room was filled with a mixture of original vintage wedding dresses from The Vintage Pad, Little White Book and Hansley Beard, and stunning vintage style modern dresses from Sheffield’s bridal boutique, Choola:

Colourful flower arrangements by Swallows and Damsons also adorned the venue:

Guests were entertained with magic tricks by BZ Magic:

And Caricatures by Rich Smith Illustration:

All to a background of original gramophone music by It’s a Wind Up! Vintage 78 DJs:

... and Jazz with Emily West and Ryan Taylor:

Thanks to all these wonderful suppliers for being involved!
Ticket and raffle proceeds went to Sheffield Children’s Hospital so a big thank you also to all those below who donated raffle prizes:
• Millennium Galleries Cafe
• Cocoa
• Freshmans
• Swallows and Damsons
• Renaissance designer dress agency
• Azaad’s Kashmiri Restaurant
• Imogen’s Imagination
• Vanessa Boddye from Pampered
• Yee Kwan Ice Cream

More stories over the next few days about our Vintage Soiree!

Vintage Bridal Soiree – organised by Hansley Beard, Little White Book, Coco Catering & Swallows and Damsons

Posted Wed, 13 Oct, by Jennie Beard in Caricatures, Dresses, Flowers, Photography, Stationery, vintage stationery, Vintage Styling, Vintage Wedding Films, Wedding Fayres and Shows, Vintage Weddings | 0 Comments

Vintage Wedding Photo Collection (1)

With a passion for vintage weddings, I love spotting old photos of people’s weddings when trawling the antique shops and internet. I love looking at the details on the dresses and in their hair and the way they arranged their flower bouquets. But most of all I pause and reflect on who they might be, where did they marry, where had they met, what is their story?

This studio image from 1932 is one of my favourites.

Posted Sat, 16 Jan, by Jennie Beard in Dresses, Flowers, General, Photography, Vintage Clothing , Vintage Weddings | 6 Comments

Wedding Fashion online database at the V&A

In the world of weddings, finding the right inspiration is the key to homing in on the details that will make your wedding unique.

If you’re looking for inspiration for your vintage wedding, look no further than the V&A museum’s online database of wedding fashions.

You can search weddings from the Victorian period up to the 21st century. You can also see wedding dresses from the V&A’s own fashion collections.

If you have family wedding photos in your family but have no idea of the date, why not browse the dress database to look for similar period dresses or weddings?

To add to this historical record, you can upload your own wedding photos or your family’s wedding photos, from 1840 to the present. The site currently has no wedding images from 1987, 1988 or 1989, so photos and wedding details from these years are particularly welcome.

Both images used by kind permission of the V&A, London
Top image - 1935 Wedding of Mary Woodworth Bradley and Henry Harrison Blagden
Bottom image - 1920 Wedding of Hazel Mary Cox and Captain Ronald Streeter Lambert

Posted Sat, 31 Oct, by Jennie Beard in Dresses, Flowers, Vintage Accessories, Vintage Clothing , Vintage Styling, Vintage Weddings | 14 Comments

Ultimate Brides Wedding Show

Last Sunday, we had the pleasure of showcasing our stunning pink and black ‘Vintage Boudoir’ at the brilliantly organised Ultimate Brides Wedding Show at Magna in Rotherham. We coordinated and collaborated with fifteen other top quality local wedding suppliers to create our themed stall. The show was attended by hundreds of brides and their guests, from all over the region and beyond. Here’s a selection of the best photos from the day:

All Photos by CandM-Photography