Inspired by Vintage | Hansley Beard: Event Planning & Design

Sheffield Town Hall Vintage Photoshoot Part 2: “Something Old” ~ Art-Deco Vintage Dessert Bar

A Hansley Beard vintage photoshoot wouldn’t have been complete without a Hansley Beard vintage dessert bar and candy buffet!

We decided to design it to fit the 1930s art deco theme of the shoot using our theme colours of white, silver, dark wood and a hint of purple. Here’s how we did it ...

We dressed two of the Town Hall tables with old-fashioned lace-trimmed linen and hand-made bunting from Bloom Textiles, made from old settee covers and blue and white print fabric to match the crockery:

The key is to build a table scene that is both practical and aesthetically pleasing, placing the tables against an appropriate backdrop. In the room we were dressing we chose to place the dessert bar against the stunning Victorian leaded window. The wooden windowsills provided further ‘table’ space to place more items and props.

We then set up our structure. We wanted to use the 1930s vintage suitcase as a table too and placed it as a feature at the back and placed the beautiful lace-themed cake from Victoria Made on it:

We added a label to ‘suit’ the occasion ~ made from a luggage label and old stationery fitings:

Further vintage props were an art-deco dressing table mirror, 1930s telephone, vintage books, art-deco clock and mini blue glass bottles:

Next we picked out vintage vessels that would fit the theme to display the delicious edibles ~ vintage clear glass cakestands, blue and white ware dishes and cups and saucers, glass apothecary jars and crystal glassware:

We sourced white and silver wrapped sweets for the jars and glassware ~ bon bons, mint imperials, marshmallows, silver chocolate foil balls, white drops and chocolate vintage buttons:

Victoria Made made blueberry tarts, white chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and purple macarons which we carefully displayed on our vintage vessels:

We used a beautiful wooden cupboard to display some of the cupcakes ...

... and added a minature blue and white ware tea set:

Coco Catering provided blueberry mouses and jellies:

We added sweets and chocolates already displayed in the right colour tins and containers:

Images of 1930s and 1940s weddings added to the theme:

Finally we added our finishing touches ...menu, ribbons and utensils:

For the menu we used a 1930s art deco wooden frame and typed a list of all the delicious items available on the dessert bar.

Finally the main point of the dessert bar! After wooing your guests with its glorious beauty it’s time to invite them to tuck in and eat away! Here are some more of the shots of our models tucking in:

If you are interestied in our dessert bar and candy buffet services, do get in touch with us at our Sheffield Studio. We offer a number of packages from bespoke designs to fit your theme, coloursheme and tastes to a hire package where you supply your own sweets and desserts and we supply the jars, props, serving vessels, wooden plinths and wooden/fabric backdrop stand (if required). We offer a free consultation to explore your ideas and requirements and can work with almost any theme!

Photographer: S6 Photography
Co-ordination, Concept & Styling, Vintage Wedding Design, Vintage Crockery and Prop Hire, Dessert Bar Design and Sweets, Vintage Dresses and Accessories: Jennie Beard from Hansley Beard Event Planning & Design
Venue: Sheffield Town Hall
Models: Katy Bangert, Shannon Alesayi and Cecilia Charlesworth,
Wedding Dresses: Danielle Lara Couture
Hats and Veils: Danielle Lara Couture, Imogen’s Imagination, Hansley Beard
Table Plan and Napkin Holders: Jodi Arthur from Hansley Beard Event Planning & Design
Flowers and Brides Bouquet: Swallows and Damsons
Cloth Bunting and Napkins: Bloom Textiles
Wedding Cake, Cupcakes, Meringues, Tarts, Macarons and Biscuits: Victoria Made
Mousses and Jellies: Coco Catering
Make-up and Hair: Shannon Leigh
Photoshoot Assistants: Jodi Arthur and Myrtle O’Connor from Hansley Beard Event Planning & Design

Posted Sun, 15 May, by Jennie Beard in Candy Buffet, Candy Station, Catering, Dessert Bars, Photography, Themes, Vintage Cake, Vintage Styling, Vintage Weddings | 5 Comments

Sheffield Town Hall Vintage Photoshoot Part 1: “Something Blue” ~ Willow Ware your Wedding!

A few days ago we were honoured to have our recent Vintage photoshoot featured on the wonderfully inspirational blog Love my Dress. In the next few days I’d like to share with you some of the best photos from the shoot by the amazing Sheffield-based S6 Photography – some that were on Love my Dress and many more new and unseen images!

It all started with the colour blue! I always think that blue is a special colour. In fact so special that I realised that many of the weddings I have organised or styled have had an element of blue in them ~ “Something Old, Something Blue ...”.Before Queen Victoria’s wedding brides traditonally wore blue as a symbol of purity. Blue can light up a room if used correctly and yet retain its classic-ness and Georgian splendour. At Hansley Beard we have A LOT of vintage crockery that we hire out but amongst our favourite is our Blue and White ware – often called Willow.

Blue and white ware has been popular for centuries and pottery companies up and down this great land have produced hundreds of types of designs and vessels – sometimes sticking to the original Willow design and imagery and sometimes creating variations or copying earlier versions. In our Hire collection, we have blue and white ware dinner plates, side plates, cups and saucers, dishes, tureen dishes, turkey plates, milk jugs, sugar bowls, teapots, coffee pots…the list goes on!

For this shoot we wanted to dress a table for an intimate and small wedding breakfast and knew that Sheffield Town Hall had the perfect size committee tables to create this. Knowing they were wishing to promote their extra rooms and facilities for weddings and events and knowing that the venue smacked of vintage class and historical authenticity we asked if they’d be happy to host us.

We decided to mix the blue and white ware with whites, creams, art-deco browns and royal blue glass as well as a dash of purple to bring it all to life!

Place name cards from John Lewis were embellished with old stationery fittings that I’d retrieved when working in an Archive and guest names were typewritten on one of our old vintage typewriters.

My assistant Jodi made two types of napkin holders out of buttons and we asked Bloom Textiles to make us some napkins form old settee back covers.

We added in lots of linens and lace on the tables and touches of silverware and silver cutlery reminded us of our Sheffield roots.

Flowers were supplied by Swallows and Damsons and included hydrangeas, lilac, anemones, tulips, eucalyptus, gypsophilia ...

Thanks to all the wonderful vintage suppliers from Sheffield who contributed to this shoot. We all hope you find some beautiful blue inspiration and do get in touch if you want to willow ware your wedding!

In our next blog we’ll be showcasing our Art-Deco Dessert Bar and Candy Buffet from the shoot ...

Photographer: S6 Photography
Co-ordination, Concept & Styling, Vintage Wedding Design, Vintage Crockery and Prop Hire, Dessert Bar Design and Sweets, Vintage Dresses and Accessories: Jennie Beard from Hansley Beard Event Planning & Design
Venue: Sheffield Town Hall
Models: Katy Bangert, Shannon Alesayi and Cecilia Charlesworth,
Wedding Dresses: Danielle Lara Couture
Hats and Veils: Danielle Lara Couture, Imogen’s Imagination, Hansley Beard
Table Plan and Napkin Holders: Jodi Arthur from Hansley Beard Event Planning & Design
Flowers and Brides Bouquet: Swallows and Damsons
Cloth Bunting and Napkins: Bloom Textiles
Wedding Cake, Cupcakes, Meringues, Tarts, Macarons and Biscuits: Victoria Made
Mousses and Jellies: Coco Catering
Make-up and Hair: Shannon Leigh
Photoshoot Assistants: Jodi Arthur and Myrtle O’Connor from Hansley Beard Event Planning & Design

Posted Sat, 07 May, by Jennie Beard in Candy Buffet, Dessert Bars, Dresses, Photography, Royal Weddings, Suppliers, Themes, Vintage Accessories, Vintage Cake, Vintage Clothing , Vintage Crockery Hire, Vintage Styling, Vintage Weddings | 3 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 ~ ‘Help Yourself Sugar’ Candy Buffet

In our final blog about the Vintage Bridal Soiree, I wanted to show some of the wonderful photos by PH Weddings and Serendipity Photography of our delicious vintage style candy buffet that we designed especially for the event in our chosen colour-scheme of lemon, aqua and coral.

(Image by Serendipity Photography )

To serve the candy and desserts, we used items from our collection of apothecary jars, smaller jars and vintage cake stands. Sally at the Chimney House had suggested we use her glass table in the venue for the candy buffet so we picked out mainly clear glass jars and serving jars to match the table and a few pink!:

(Image by PH Weddings)

(Image by Serendipity Photography )

(Image by PH Weddings)

As the colours we had chosen were from a 1950s colour palette, we then looked at giving it a bit of a 1950s twist and sourced some extra serving items that were original 1950s plates and pyrex pots. Instead of using scoops we used vintage silver spoons:

(Image by Serendipity Photography )

We sourced different colour sweets to fit our colours theme, in different shades and contrasting tones ~ Lemon and Raspberry Bon Bons, Blackcurrant Dyna Sticks, Barley Sugars, Sherbert Pips, Chocolate Foil Balls, Flying Saucers, Tutti Fruti Candy Canes, Lemon and Rose Turkish Delight, Alphabet Letters, Candy Necklaces and Iron Bru Lollipops.

For the backdrop, we went with a ribbon theme in lemon, aqua and coral and thought these would look great hanging against the Chimney House’s brick walls. We also wanted to ‘write’ a message for the partakers of the candy buffet so we came up with a ‘vintage’ saying and used Circus Alphabet cards from Cox and Cox on the ribbon to spell it out:

(Image by Serendipity Photography )

We liaised with different suppliers to make some delicious tasty items to fit our theme and colourscheme ...

Blush Cupcakes made a variety of amazingly cool cupcakes in our three main colours ~ Lemon, rosehip and peppermint cupcakes, decorated with sweets and seaside rock:

(Image by Serendipity Photography )

(Image by PH Weddings)

(Image by PH Weddings)

Coco Catering made some lovely yellow and orange fondant fancies ...

(Image by PH Weddings)

(Image by Serendipity Photography )
... and milkshakes using ice-cream from Yee Kwan Ice Cream.

Love Candy Cakes made a wonderful wedding cake in our three colours with a vintage lace design:

(Image by PH Weddings)
(Rose supplied by Swallows and Damsons)

We asked Lucy Ledger Designs to create name labels to tie in with the colourscheme and fairground and circus theme:

(Image by Serendipity Photography )

(Image by PH Weddings)

(Image by PH Weddings)

Do get in touch if you’d like Hansley Beard to design your candy buffet or dessert bar to fit in with your wedding or party theme and colourscheme.

We also hire out our candy buffet jars and cake stands if you’re planning to do it yourself. Contact us via our website contact form.

Finally, I just wanted to say a big thank you to Rosa, Myrtle, Katy and Shannon for helping me on the night!

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

Posted Sun, 31 Oct, by Jennie Beard in Aqua, Candy Buffet, Candy Station, Catering, Circus, Dessert Bars, Fairground, Lemon, Photography, Vintage Cake, Vintage Crockery Hire, Vintage Styling | 4 Comments

Vintage Bridal Soiree ~ Pose for the Photobooth

We wanted the Vintage Bridal Soiree to be edgy and current whilst creating some new inspiring trends so we decided to use fresh colours from the 1950s such as aqua, lemon and coral.

We also wanted the Vintage Bridal Soiree to be a fun evening and wanted to include a photobooth concept. As we’d agreed to go with a circus and fairground theme, Laura from Little White Book offered to make a kissing booth for our event, which was absolutely amazing and one of the highlights of the evening! Guests dressed up in hats, feather boas, scarves, shades and a whole range of other props from our prop collection at Hansley Beard and posed for photographer Helen from PH Weddings. Once again the Chimney House provided the perfect backdrop:

Wearing vintage dresses from our collection to match the colour theme, Katy and Shannon then posed for the camera:

Models: Katy Bangert and Shannon Alesayi

Photobooth Photography: PH Weddings

Kissing Booth: Little White Book
Props Hire: Hansley Beard
Colour Swatches from House Beautiful
Cupcakes by Blush Cupcakes

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

Posted Wed, 27 Oct, by Jennie Beard in Aqua, Circus, Coral, Dresses, Fairground, Lemon, Photobooth, Photography, Vintage Styling, Vintage Weddings | 29 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

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