Hansley Beard

Our new vintage unit opening at The Nichols Building!

It’s all go this week as we are launch our new ‘shopfront’ in Sheffield’s wonderful new Antiques, Art and Crafts Centre in the Nichols Building on Shalesmoor.

All are invited to the grand opening event this Thursday 21st July from 2pm-7pm including nibbles and cocktails served in Hansley Beard Vintage Crockery . The Lord Mayor will be officially opening the building at 4pm.

We have been planning to have a shop space for some time as so much of what we do is visual and we wanted to have somewhere where people could see examples of our candy and dessert bars, our styling and a sample of the crockery and props we hire out. Our hire stock is expanding all the time but we hope to bring out our new brochure and inventory of items very soon!


When the opportunity arose to rent a space in this new venture we decided that this would be a good next step and that as we love ‘vintage’ so much that we would also start selling vintage items ~
some are homewares and some are vintage and vintage-style decor items that can be sourced and used for vintage weddings and events.


If you can’t make it to the opening do pop in another time. There are a whole host of different units full of antiques, vintage items and clothes and art from some of Sheffield’s most talented and chicest suppliers and artists, as well as a lovely tearoom.
Opening times are:
Saturdays ~ 10-5pm
Sundays ~ 10-4pm
Closed Mondays
Tuesdays-Fridays ~11-6pm

Look forward to seeing you there sometime soon!

Check out the Nichols Building website or facebook page for more details.

More pictures coming soon!

Posted Tue, 19 Jul, by Jennie Beard in Candy Buffet, Decor items for sale, Dessert Bars, Vintage Crockery Hire, Vintage Styling, Vintage Weddings | 16 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

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 ~            ‘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 ~ Fairground Food and Vintage Crockery Hire

In the third of our blogs about the Vintage Bridal Soiree event, we want to talk about food and vintage crockery hire ...

Blanche from Coco Catering suggested we integrate the authentic vintage wedding theme with some fairground and circus elements to give it a modern yet historical twist on vintage.

Guests were treated to Coco Catering’s fairground themed food of mini beef burgers with hot sweet pepper relish in a sesame bun, mini chickpea, coriander and feta burgers in a sesame bun and mini hot dogs with a choice of sauces.

“Coco Catering love working with clients who are passionate about food and want to make food a feature of their wedding” said Blanche, “The Vintage Bridal Soiree was a fantastic opportunity for us to be creative and demonstrate how couples can incorporate food into their wedding theme. Vintage themed weddings have become incredibly popular recently; as well as the traditional afternoon tea which has become very popular recently, couples have requested great British classics such as sausage and mash and pie and pea suppers or retro foods such as hot dogs and mini burgers. We have lots of ideas for wedding food on our website but we are always happy when clients approach us wanting bespoke menus.”

Blanche also went round with a specially made tray serving delicious sweet & salted popcorn:

(Images by Serendipity Photography)

... and served a delicious array of old-fashioned drinks ~ cloudy lemonade, ginger beer, cream soda, innovatively served in jam jars with straws ~ and toffee apple cocktail & candy floss cocktail, all served in beautiful vintage cups and saucers from our Hansley Beard Hire Collection:




(Images by PH Weddings)

(Image by Serendipity Photography)
The beautiful drinks signs were designed and produced by Lucy Ledger Designs.

We also displayed a selection of our other vintage crockery and glassware, all available to hire from our Sheffield studio:

(Image by PH Weddings)

(Image by Serendipity Photography)
Cupcakes by Blush Cupcakes and Bridal bouquet by Swallows and Damsons.

(Image by PH Weddings)

To add to our fairground theme, I also brought along a picture from my own mum and dad’s wedding trip to Blackpool in 1963!:

So, for delicious vintage inspired food for your wedding contact Blanche at Coco Catering. And if you’re looking to hire vintage crockery contact us at Hansley Beard via our website contact form.

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

Posted Sun, 17 Oct, by Jennie Beard in Catering, Circus, Vintage Crockery Hire, Vintage Styling, Vintage Weddings | 1 Comments

Vintage Bridal Soiree, Sheffield ~ Get your tickets!

Tickets are now on sale for our Vintage Bridal Soiree to be held on 30th September 2010 6-10pm at the fabulous Chimney House, Kelham Island, Sheffield. We have been working hard on the event along with Laura from Little White Book, Blanche from Coco Catering and Anna from Swallows and Damsons.

The evening will showcase the current vintage trends including vintage style wedding cakes, a selection of vintage attire, vintage crockery, a candy buffet, local wedding planners, bridal flowers, fairground food and mouth watering cocktails. There will also be a medley of entertainment including local Jazz singer Emily West, City Magicians, and live caricatures by Richard Smith.

Tickets are on sale at £5.00 each with all proceeds going to Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

For further information and tickets please contact Laura Green at Little White Book on 07515697130 or email thelittlewhitebook@me.com

Poster designed by Rich Smith Illustration

Don’t delay! Get your tickets today!

Posted Thu, 09 Sep, by Jennie Beard in Vintage Accessories, Vintage Crockery Hire, Vintage Styling, Vintage Weddings | 2 Comments

News on the Vintage Front!

As some of you who know me know, I have a bit of a split personality and find myself doing ‘Vintage’ things parallel to everything else I’m doing (non-Vintage!?), although nowadays a lot of it is starting to merge into a bit of modern and a bit of Vintage!

On my other (non-vintage!) blog I’ve been listing the various things I’ve been up to in June and July and a bit of August. So here are a selection of the things I’ve being doing in June and July and a bit of August whilst hanging out in the ‘Vintage world’ part of my head!:

Vintage Crockery Hire:
Enquiries for hiring my vintage crockery and other items has risen recently as more local brides opt for the Vintage look for their weddings. We also hired out all the crockery we had with roses on it for a naming ceremony celebration for baby Rebecca Rose. My vintage crockery collection is ever increasing and I’ve been busy sorting it all in my new studio so that it’s easier to see (and count!) what I have. More developments on this coming soon…

Emma from The Wedding Daze and Helen from Ph Weddings also used some our vintage crockery and glassware for their recent stunning Sex and the City photoshoot:






Food by Coco Catering
Cupcakes by Yummylicious
Menu Card and Place Name by Lucy Ledger Designs
Photographs by Ph Weddings

Chatsworth W.I: 
In June I was invited to give my talk on ‘Weddings through the Ages’ at Chatsworth Women’s Institute. Members brought their own wedding memorabilia and photos and told me details from their own weddings, spanning from the 1940s to the 1990s. We hope to post some of their stories on here soon but for now, here’s a photo of Mary’s wedding day in 1970:

She hired her dress of Nottingham Lace and her veil from Young’s and she still has the drawing of the design in her photograph album:

Last year we gave the talk at Bakewell W.I and next year we’ve been asked to give the talk at Balsow W.I. Thanks to Paul from CVC Event Services for hiring us the very reasonably priced powerpoint projector and screen.

Vintage Wedding Research:
We’ve been doing some research into the dying out concept of ‘keeping a bottom draw’ so do let us know if you have any ‘bottom draw’ stories to tell!

1930s Themed Wedding:
We recently met with a bride and groom who are wanting us to help them decorate their 1930s wedding next year. Very excited about this one! Will keep you posted!

And Finally…

Vintage Wedding Showcase event:
In the last couple of years, I’ve been wanting to organise some sort of Vintage wedding event showcasing what Sheffield has to offer for local Vintage brides. I’ve also been developing my idea to start organising evening bridal soirees, as an alterntative to traditional wedding fayres. So after chatting to fellow business colleagues, Laura from Little White Book Wedding and Event Management, Blanche from Coco Catering and Anna from Swallows and Damsons, we decided to take the plunge together and organise an exclusive vintage bridal soiree this September. We’ve chosen the beautiful Chimney House at Kelham Island for the venue and have lined up lots of great local suppliers. More news and ticket details on this shortly…

Posted Sat, 21 Aug, by Jennie Beard in Vintage Crockery Hire, Vintage Weddings | 1 Comments