Hansley Beard

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 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 at Cox and Cox ~      Cake and Cones

At Hansley Beard we like to be up to date with new collections and beautiful products that can be used for your vintage wedding.

The wonderful online store, Cox and Cox, have recently launched their new Spring Collection which includes these delightful vintage style cake boxes. Available in pink, green or blue, they cost only £6 for 10.

We also like these vintage style favour cones, available in blue, pearl grey or lilac and also £6 for 10 (ribbon not included).

Posted Mon, 22 Mar, by Jennie Beard in Catering, Vintage Cake, Vintage Favours, Vintage Weddings | 1 Comments