Bells N Whistles Events was featured, as were a couple of our weddings and some expert hints and tips from me.

Hints and Tips for planning your own wedding

Photography: Matt Johnson Weddings

The feature is based on a styled table – the rules and some hints and tips.

A huge thanks goes to two of our trusted vendors. Elaine from Butterfly Philosophy for her awesome florals and Stephanie from Stelloberry Design for stationery and beautiful heart garlands.

The look we wanted to achieve was colourful vintage. We used different fabrics and textures – lace & burlap to compliment the beautiful florals which were set in cut glass vases.

The use of the books in the middle of the table gave the vase and table number height and can also be a talking point around the table – always choose books that reflect you and your interests…it will make your event all about you and make it very personal.

The heart garland are great for bare walls or very high ceilings – they’ll make the room feel more cosy and intimate. Always wanting to reflect elements around the room, so that it doesn’t seem random…we’ve created hearts from our burlap napkin ties.

Moss in a very cute teacup (the handle is butterfly wings!), makes it a bit quirky. The teacup has no purpose however, if you wanted you could stick a wooden number in the teacup and it could become your table number.

For this table, we added a votive holder, covered in burlap with the table number stamped on it. There is a candle inside with a cinnamon stick.

When styling your event remember to think about your five senses. Whilst candles are beautiful and add a bit of mood to your event, for smell, you could do something like what we’ve done by using a cinnamon stick or aromatherapy – using your favourite scents. You could take that one step further and if you were to use orange and lemon scents for example, then the orange and lemon can be used as your wedding colours (pastel orange and lemon would be romantic, while a punchy orange and yellow would be great for a punchier colour theme).

Florals are also a great way to add a beautiful scent to your event.

For touch, you want different textures from the table linens to the napery. Be bold!

Sight – well that’s an easy one and the sense that everyone focuses on.

And of course taste. We all want our catering to be a culinary delight!

Whatever the event, never forget the table styling and plate styling. The table is a place your guests will be seated for a good part of the event, therefore the styling at the table is very important and usually the most memorable.

For styling advise or to engage our expertise, call us on 02 8084 3512 or email info@bellsnwhistles.com.au

And the table setting ‘Joe’ was for my son. At the time of this shoot, I was 7 months pregnant with my third child Joseph who is 12 weeks old today

The Knot Magazine, Winter 2012 Issue

So what do you do?

Well, first of all, always plan for the worst. If you want your outdoor wedding – organise a marquee just in case. If you want outdoor photos, have some indoor or covered locations as well and hire large umbrellas – we don’t have 100 umbrellas in our office to hire out for nothing folks…couples hire them on their days to stop them and their guests from getting soaked!

But the best piece of advise we can give you is…

ACCEPT IT

Don’t get worried about rain, don’t be upset by it – accept it, plan for it and most of all enjoy it.

Rain can be fun and as beautiful as the sunshine. I love photos in the rain! (I also love jumping in puddles). I love photos with couples kissing underneath their umbrellas, photos with dark grey clouds in the background and beautiful gowns in the foreground (the contrast can be amazing).

You might say that it’s easy enough for me to say enjoy it or embrace it. For my own wedding, a thunderstorm was predicted. At 8am I woke to heavy rain which turned into burning heat that turned into lightning and thunderstorms. The bits I liked best – wearing wellies under my gown standing in the rain under a large umbrella with my husband. The lightning and thunderstorms was awesome and made for some great photos too. The sun was horrible – so hot, I was sweating profusely and felt uncomfortable. Embrace the weather – we can’t fight it or change it!

I closed my eyes and said a little prayer hoping she means January 2013…not 2012 – only 8 weeks away!

I respond via email to Marie’s request and offer them an obligation free consultation. A few days later, Vanessa and I are sitting in our living room (aka our office meeting room), with Marie, Nigel and Nigel’s parents.

1. It is 2012 (yikes!). It’s their lucky date!
2. No one can decide/agree on any other decisions or aspects of the wedding
3. Marie wants her wedding colour to be hot pink, Nigel wants warmth
4. They both want a Chinese Restaurant for the reception; they want it to be elegant
5. 100 guests
6. $60,000 budget

I quoted our fees based on the wedding brief we’d gathered. I gave them a contract to read over and told them to think about it, but they had until the end of the week as we didn’t have much time to plan a whole wedding!

The next day, after a lovely phone call from Nigel and a long chat. They hired us.

But we need a completed contract and 50% deposit upfront to begin working…as much as I wanted to, I resisted the urge to do anything (well, I wrote notes and discussed a few ideas with Vanessa). Finally, after 2 weeks they got us what we needed and we got to work. By this stage, we had less than 6 weeks to plan and we had Christmas and NY approaching fast.

We found a beautiful venue – Zest Waterfront, The Spit. The Couple wanted a Chinese Restaurant but I added this venue to the list of venues we had confirmed availability and exclusivity (we always aim for exclusivity!)…Marie and Nigel loved Zest. The menu and venue won them over and the tasting they did was a huge success.

We worked a bit backwards, forwards, even sideways trying to get this wedding planned in time. There were many bumps in the road, one of the major bumps was when Nigel and Marie were mugged and Nigel ended up in hospital. We lost about a week or two of planning and at this stage, weren’t sure if the wedding would proceed…we had to wait for Nigel’s surgery to see if he’d be ok.

And he was!

The wedding was back on, same date. Budget cuts were made though…it came down to $40,000…we lost 1/3 of the budget!

We had cake tastings and suit fittings, meetings with the celebrant and stationery designs – it was all happening – very quickly. Our biggest challenge was the Invitations and RSVPs. We just lost so much time with the Christmas break, and with Marie and Nigel taking a bit longer to approve, the invitations were finally posted…two weeks prior to the wedding.

A huge thanks to Stephanie from Stelloberry designs who worked tirelessly and seamlessly with our team to make wedding magic!

As we have all-inclusive packages and don’t charge for extras…we offered the couple our services of RSVP management, and we created an email address and phone number for invitees to contact us on.

Then, there is the monkeys…the cake that Patricia from Yummy Cupcakes & Cakes designed was beautiful…but the bride requested to have 2 monkey figurines on the top. What? Monkeys? Why? This is the first we’ve heard about monkeys in the wedding!

Ever so subtly (over my dead body), I suggested we could do something else with monkeys…I told Marie we would do something very special with monkeys – she had to trust us and she’d see it on the day. It’s not that I wouldn’t ‘allow’ the monkeys, not at all…if a couple really want something, we will bend over backwards to make it happen…but the monkeys are such a ‘personal’ thing to them both – and none of the guests know about the monkeys…so it would have felt a bit out of place – especially with an elegant wedding. We agreed on a floral topper for the cake and it looked amazing.

Marie agreed to trusting us with the monkeys!

The style we proposed to the couple was incorporating the few ideas they had. Marie loved pink, hot pink (although every time she pointed out a pink in the office, it was a different shade). Usually we have a bit more time to find the perfect shade of a colour, and whilst we had samples of different pinks, Marie was unable to come and see them, so we ended up creating a multi-pink theme instead which looked amazing!

She showed us a picture of a gown she wanted – it had alot of lace detailing. So we incorporated lace into the styling with lace overlays on the guest tables and votive holders covered in different shade of pink lace for the bridal table. We didn’t go crazy with lace, but weaved it through some elements…even the stationery had a lace design on it that matched the lace overlay. In the end, Marie decided on a completely different gown…no lace at all!

Marie choose a long, elegant gown for the bridesmaids – they were watermelon colour which is beautiful – and worked perfectly with the five shades of pink that we used for the styling. Thank goodness!

The flowers would be many shades of pink as well – to blend in with the colour theme. We hired Maggie May as our other trusted vendors were all booked up (it is the middle of peak season after all). Maggie May are Zest’s preferred florist and were nothing but wonderful and accommodating (and we’ve hired them a few times since!). They did everything we needed and the end result was beautiful…they even did a superb job with the monkeys!

Friday 27th January

The office is a mess. We still haven’t got final numbers (they keep changing), we don’t know the ages of the children attending (do they need high chairs, meals etc), table seating arrangement isn’t done, bride and groom didn’t list any songs they wanted for the main events like cake cutting, entrance etc…so I had to choose them. We don’t like working like this – it’s very hard to plan a wedding when we don’t have details or those details keep changing, and I most certainly don’t like making personal decisions about music…but we did what had to be done.

Zest are working with us seamlessly. Their team is trying to keep up with the changes as much as we are – it’s very stressful…but we make it through the day. We agree on a table layout and venue setup, the menu is sorted, the bill is paid!

We find out that today is Nigel’s last day at his current job – hence why he hasn’t responded to us very quickly and has been a bit distracted. He’s happy and relaxed which is good but it doesn’t help us…it’s already 5.30pm and he’s at home with a beer, Marie has checked into the hotel with her parents and at 10.30pm, we’re still working on runsheet amends and details!

My car is finally packed with as much as it can take (with three kids seats in the back and my hospital bags too). Over 400 candles, vases, candle holders. Vanessa and Allie’s cars are also full of items to take.

28th January 2012

Today’s the day. There’s no stress…after doing this for so long, I’ve learnt not to sweat the small stuff. We have a wonderful venue, great food, excellent band, the styling is wonderful and of course – we’re there to take care of everything.

It’s a hot day, very humid. Rain is threatening but we’re not concerned as the wedding is all indoors and also, you can’t change the weather – right? The view we had – it was beautiful and magical. Even rain couldn’t spoil it!

11am – BnW bump in. Once everything is in from the cars (and a big thank you to our two muscle men for helping us), we get to work unwrapping all the glass out of the bubble wrap. Yummy Cakes had already delivered the cake and it was sitting pretty in the venue already.

Our new friend Wally, from Zest, was working tirelessly all day to set up tables and basically do anything we needed. We want one of him working for BnW! Wally did comment how as far as wedding planner go, we were the loveliest to work with..nice, easy going and friendly. No screaming, no ego, working as a team.

Maggie May deliver the flowers which look stunning, the chair sashes are put on. We’re still tying guest favour tags/placecards to the guest favours and putting them on the right place settings. There are still changes of attendees and guests names coming through via text message from the groom! We’re having to hand write the new names (thank goodness for spares!) and work as best as we can with all the last minute changes.

We break for lunch (meals from the bistro – which are awesome!), then straight back into it. There’s still alot to do and we’re all working as quickly as possible.

The venue is buzzing and many couples are walking through the venue with the function manager. A footballer walks through with his fiance, everyone is a bit awestruck, but of course, I barely watch tv, don’t follow football and have no idea who he was…he and his fiancé were absolutely lovely to talk to though.

3pm – friends and family start arriving (two hours early). They’re all in the venue, but the fabulous function manger sends them to the boardroom to chill out, leaving us to do our jobs.

The bridal party and bride and groom arrive too…they had a 10am Tea Ceremony and have spent most of the day with the photographer at different locations around the city.

I ask Marie for her bouquet, I start looking at it and eventually find…the monkeys. I had asked Jennie from Maggie May to wire up two little monkeys I had purchased and put them in the bouquet for the couple. I decided to do this because the monkey thing is a personal joke between them, no one else would get it, it was only important to them…so rather than putting monkey figurines on top of the cake which would look out of place, I did something a lot more special and personal.

And the couple loved it!

3.30pm – our band, Sincopa, arrive and start setup. We’re still lighting our 400 candles.

4pm – the wedding canopy and white aisle runner arrive from outdoor wedding aisles. We’re also having to deal with the fact that right next to our venue is a bistro, they still have a few strays finishing their lunch and drinks. we work around them, but it does slow us down. The venue start moving the ‘movable’ wall to change the size of the reception and to create the ceremony space on the other side. We’re doing things with the space that nobody else has and that’s exciting!

5pm – bride is escorted by Vanessa, up the stairs with her three bridesmaids and father. At the top of the stairs, I get everyone ready, calm their nerves and get them to walk for me. Give a couple of hints how to walk, answer any questions and then cue the ensemble. Once playing, I cue the bridesmaids, one at a time to walk down the aisle, then the nervous bride and her father.

Gary Mooney delivers a wonderful and beautiful ceremony, as always!

During the ceremony, we’re checking on the progress of the final details in the venue, next door. It’s all going to plan!

5.45pm – ceremony is over, pre-dinner drinks and canapés are served on the terrace, filled with over 100 vases and candles to shimmer in the fading daylight – so stunning.

6.15pm – the MC welcomes all guests, guests take their seats and the bridal party entrance takes place.

The fabulous food follows, speeches, more food, bride changes into her amazing evening gown, cake cutting, first dance, and of course, the games (involving eggs!)!

After this, we get the party started with the most amazing band who we met over a year ago and we can’t get enough of them! We’ve gone with the Sincopa trio and they always make sure guests have the time of their lives!

Desert bar is setup and more music and dancing follows.

It’s one of those weddings that is so wonderful and fantastic that it just goes so quickly and before you know it, the bride is throwing her bouquet and the happy couple are leaving.

The lights go up, guests start leaving and we start packing up our hundreds of candles (whilst they looked beautiful, although we weren’t loving packing them up at 1am!).

I stayed. Not sure why. I just felt like I should…and I am glad I did.

The e-shoot. Photo courtesy of Vincent Lai

Their budget was small – they were honest with me from the start and I really love honesty. I decided to take on their wedding, knowing how much harder the smaller-budget weddings are (notice I said smaller-budget, not smaller!).

Their brief was:

• 100 guests
• A church or chapel by the sea
• Reception to be at Rosebay
• All the bells and whistles – small-budget, no corner cutting!

We love a challenge, but this was wavering on damn rear impossible. Yet we took it on!

At first the wedding date was late February, but they decided to bring it forward to January, before uni started up again. No date was specified which was great, gave us a bit more flexibility with venues and to work with our own calendar.

We agreed on a lunch wedding, with such a short lead time and smack-bang in the middle of peak wedding season, I knew a lunch would be easier to source and plan than an evening. The couple were more than happy with this option.

We found a venue in Rosebay which had a maximum capacity of 100 which was perfect and a church that worked and had availability.

By the time the wedding came round, we were at 110 guests. The venue was not happy and personally, I was quite on-edge. I like to adhere to fire and safety laws…it wasn’t just a budget consideration, people can’t move around easily, wait staff can’t get meals out and in the event of an emergency, it could all get too dangerous. We negotiated with the venue and they allowed us the 110 and we re-worked the floor plan to fit everyone in comfortably and to ensure safety.

Things the couple had originally thought they wanted or didn’t want – they changed their mind on. To work within the budget, we had to exclude the bridesmaids dresses, brides gown, and the boys suits, which the couple agreed on. When it came to their cake, they said they didn’t want to spend much – just have something they could cut – but not dedicate much budget at all.

We went to Patricia at Yummy Cupcakes and Cakes and they ended up spending over $600 of their small-budget on their cake (but it was awesome and so worth it!). Needless to say, I had chest pains for an hour after seeing what they had chosen. After a chat and a budget shuffle, the chest pains cleared and calm restored!

All elements of their wedding ended up costing more as they always chose the more expensive option, but it is our job to give our couples options – starting with the best affordable option!

Our styling budget cried. There was hardly anything left but the couple were happy with their wedding day plans so we just had to live with it…the stylist in us just wants to make everything as beautiful and perfect as possible.

We made cuts. Then some more and then agreed at last on the bare minimum.

We found out a few months earlier that the couple cancelled the hair and makeup artist we’d sourced for them (they felt it was a bit expensive and wanted to cut back). It was disappointing as we knew Amy Chan would do an amazing job, but ultimately, every choice for each wedding is down to the couple.

They sourced there own stylist and left the trial until quite late (about a month prior). Titin didn’t like the work of her chosen stylist and went back to Amy. By this stage, Amy had taken on other bookings, her first was at 8.30am on the day of the wedding. As a favour to us, she agreed to take on our wedding (again) abut needed to start at 4am. Plus she needed to bring in another stylist in order to get all seven women completed by 8.30am…this meant she had to charge them more. Titin agreed, she knew Amy would do a great job and it was worth it! But at this stage, they’d already lost a bit of money on the trial and now were up for more money.

This is the part where we say. Listen to your wedding planner. Trust them!

So, back to the styling…our budget was so tiny, we needed a magnifying glass to see it! We brought in our own stock (complimentary) as we just couldn’t bare the bare!

We made a wishing tree for the couple and supplied the vase, we brought in some of our own linen (bridal table and cake table flouncing), candles, highchairs (I hated the huge ones the venue supplied – ours are small white ones that don’t stand out), mirrors, table numbers and our table seating chart. That’s just the way we roll!

Where possible we added a touch of blue – whether it was a ribbon tied around the napery, some ribbon on the vases or their initials (which we painted blue). Otherwise, besides the blue chair sash, everything was white because of all the budget cutbacks.

The styling ideas were based around a navy blue colour scheme – it worked with the traditional wedding they wanted and also, always wanting to bring the outside in, we took inspiration from the blue of the water views we had from both church and reception. We loosely based the florals on the royal wedding bouquet – small, dainty, native. We also brought in alot of babys breath which the couple loved.

Alot of the elements needed to be watered down in order to meet the increasingly tiny budget. It was a shame to us, but the couple were happy – and really, that’s all that matters because it’s their wedding.

Titin and Felix never wanted to be featured in a magazine. They just wanted to get married and have a simple, beautiful wedding – and that is what we gave them.

In the lead up to the wedding, we had a meeting with the couple – talked through each minute of the wedding day. The run sheet was distributed, all vendors confirmed. We were ready!

Friday 20th January

Vanessa, Jade and I arrive at the venue. We can bump in from midday but get there closer to 2pm. The venue haven’t done a thing…they hadn’t even setup the tables, the tables were in another room, folded, chairs stacked!

I set up the time lapse (it’s our first ever attempt – so it’s not great!) and get to work. The tables at the venue are so bad, nothing matches – in terms of heights and the thickness of tables. We get to work finding matching tables and laying them out in the agreed layout (which the venue should have done by this stage).

The venue staff were friendly, but not the most helpful. We had to keep going downstairs to ask for things like table linen.

Once the linen was on the tables, we asked if the venue could start laying out the tables with cutlery, glassware and crockery as we just didn’t have much time the following day (bump in was from 10am, with the wedding reception starting at 12pm). We wanted the tables set up so we could layout the napery and wrap ribbon around the napkins, put out the guest favours and placecards. The venue started fiddling with the napkins – making standing fan napkins…umm, no. We’re going for classic, simple styling here. The venue refused to lay out the napkins any other way, so we had to do it.

By this time we looked at our watches, it was approaching time for the rehearsal at the church and had to leave.

And the final setup, taken the day after, just before the tea ceremony. Photo courtesy of Vincent Lai

Saturday 21st January

4am, I woke up and it took me a while to figure it out…but I remembered that The bridal party makeup had already begun. It’s a shame when a bride has to wake up so early on her wedding day – but this was out of our control.

I rolled over and went back to bed for an hour.

Photo courtesy of Vincent Lai

9am – Vanessa and I arrive at the church with order of service booklets and other bits and pieces for the ceremony. The ushers arrive, Vanessa briefs them on what their role. The photographer arrives and soon after, the groom and the groomsmen…after being pulled over by the police of course (just a routine pull over). The moment they step out the car, the heavens open. Thank goodness for all the umbrellas we have and knowing Titin and Felix as well as we do, we brought the white umbrellas for this wedding, although I personally love black umbrellas at weddings – I love the contrast!.

St Peters, Watsons Bay. Photo courtesy of Vincent Lai

Our order of service booklets for the ceremony...matching all the other stationery and elements of the wedding of course!

Guests arrive and then the bride. She’s nervous, very nervous, which is just so sweet. The ceremony starts and we sit back and cry (we always cry at weddings!).

Rain & Sunshine in abundance on their wedding day...that's alot of luck! Photo courtesy of Vincent Lai

Photo courtesy of Vincent Lai

Back at the reception, Allie and Jade arrive and finish setting up the napkins while the venue wait staff finish setting up the crockery, glassware and cutlery.

Jo, from Verde arrives with the flowers and gets to work placing them on tables.

Patricia, from Yummy Cupcakes and Cakes arrives and sets up her magnificent cake on the most divine cake stand (I want one!).

Photo courtesy of Vincent Lai

The chair cover company arrive and do their thing…finally the room is coming together.

11am – the ceremony ends, photography outside on the lawns.

The rain did let up a couple hours later and it was a blissfully sunny day. Photo courtesy of Vincent Lai

12pm – Chinese Tea ceremony in the venue. The guests who do not participate in the tea ceremony are entertained in the lobby area with a string trio (slightly cheaper than a string quartet but still just as beautiful). We also use this time to walk around and take photos of guests with the polaroid camera the couple supplied. They write their well wishes on the bottom and we hung them all on the ‘wishing tree’.

The Tea Ceremony on the deck. It was beautiful and fitting with the rest of the wedding. Photo courtesy of Vincent Lai

Photo courtesy of Vincent Lai

The wishing tree. Photo courtesy of BnW staff (planners...not photographers!).

Another photo from BnW staff. Planners, not photographers!

12.30pm – doors open, guests take their seats.

Everyone was happy. Everything went quite smoothly and things that didn’t, we’re there to deal with and the bride and groom will never know!

Photo courtesy of Vincent Lai

The speeches were spread out – between the course of the meals. First the father of the groom. He made a special mention to BnW for all that we’d done.

Next the groomsman – again, a special mention.

And lastly the groom. After a beautiful speech, he added that last, but not least, a huge thanks to BnW. By this stage I had to go home, heavily pregnant, I just couldn’t stay the whole day. I planned to return later in the afternoon – just before the couple left.

I returned at the end, every guest in there seemed to know me by name – most had never seen me before (I stayed very hidden at this wedding, I feel like a whale and can only wear flip flops to accomodate my swollen feet) but the groom spoke so beautifully and sincerely about all of us and described me well.

I got received so many blessings for my unborn baby from the guests, which is very sweet.

5pm – the couple had left the venue and we began to pack up. They left for more photography – on the beach and also in the city. A huge thanks to Vincent Lai for all his talent and hard work – such a wonderful photographer!

6pm – at the office, dropping off all of our ‘stuff’…then home!

Lunch weddings are lovely and we don’t have enough of them sometimes (although we have back to back Chinese lunch weddings this weekend).

And today, Australia Day, we received a beautiful email from Felix (groom) about us.

From day one to wedding day, my fiance and I found the entire process similar to an emotional rollercoaster and we were relieved that someone was there to take away that emotional burden from us and allow us to focus on our busy lives. When times were tense, I was glad that Bells N Whistles (BnW) remained professional. From hindsight, I think being able to remain professional during difficult times is an important quality to look for when choosing a wedding planner because planning a wedding and the wedding itself can be an emotional wreck, especially when your personal time is a limited resource, and BnW has that quality. Jennifer was very engaging and her enthusiasm towards planning our wedding was one of the deciding factors that made me choose BnW amongst others. Vanessa, who I dealt with, was amazing. She was in control and handled everything with poise, and her manners and people skills are impeccable.

Maybe, just maybe…that’s the reason I choose to stay and wait an hour for a couple I didn’t even know…

And to ‘expand’ on what Felix said about us being professional. Well, yes we are. But I’d like to add that with different couples we have different working relationships. Some we hug and talk about all sorts of things, others are a little less friendly, and more professional. You can’t treat every person the same, just as not every wedding is the same.

It’s quite a good point that Felix makes about the ‘emotional rollercoaster’ of wedding planning. That’s exactly what it is and engaging a planner takes some of that stress off couples, to enjoy the ‘ride’ rather than get off at the end…shaking! I know, I planned my own wedding and even as a planner planning my own wedding, I was still a nervous wreck by the end…that’s why I always tell my staff that when it comes to their weddings, I will take care of all the planning My gift to them!

Last week, I had a little chat at work with my staff. Of course, at BnW, we call them family meetings, because I just love the people who work with me – Allie, Vanessa and Jade are not just people I have hired, they are wonderful people who I trust and adore.

The Bells N Whistles family. Photo courtesy of www.victorcaringal.com

All frocked up after the ABIA awards. Thanks to Tom Muller for taking the photo!

When I setup BnW, almost seven years ago now, I imagined my company would grow and expand – to a point! I never want to be global or so big that I lose focus on what we are really doing here…which is to make wedding dreams come true and create fabulous events!

I didn’t write a business plan, I wrote just wrote my dream on a piece of paper. No financial plans, no forecasts – I know I am every accountants worst nightmare – but doing all that seemed to dilute and destroy my dream. Sure I have plans, mostly filed away somewhere ‘safe’ on my laptop…so safe, even I can’t remember where I put them.

My husband, Patrick Kennedy often gets stressed out about how I have this incurable way of thinking that anything is possible and there are solutions to absolute everything. I can be annoying, but it’s what makes me, me. And it’s what makes Bells N Whistles the great little company that it is!

I always imagined having a quirky little office, great people around whom I could be myself with, and laugh alot. I always wanted to enjoy coming into the office, have great couples, wonderful ideas and so many wonderful stories to tell people (especially when I am an old granny on a rocking chair and wild hair).

I don’t believe in conformity – in fact I run from it. I have been told I am extremely intuitive and alot of couples tell me that I just ‘get them’. I live for the moment and believe me, when the music and dancing starts at your wedding – I’m not the stiff in the corner wearing a black suit with a name tag with a sour expression – I’m the girl on the dance floor, looking like another guest (appropriately dressed), and having a ball. Of course, we’re there to work, so I do wander on and off the dance floor to take care of business.

I love what I do. Simple.

Anyway, I digress, back to the Bells N Whistles family.

When I first started BnW, I didn’t have children…so BnW was my baby. I have poured alot of my time, energy, sweat and tears into this baby and will continue to do so – because I love baby!

Two children and almost a third later…BnW is still my baby! And Vanessa, Allie and Jade, somehow are my kids as well. I’m that kind of boss that tells them to drive safe and eat well. I send them home when they are sick and I care for them…truly I do.

On the odd day when one of my biological children (Grace and Evangeline) have had to come to the office with mum…Vanessa, Allie and Jade are always happy to play and take care of them. My children adore Nessa, Allie and Jade – so much so, they draw pictures for them all the time and always ask about them. Our office walls are covered in them!

One of the office walls.

Grace & Evie playing in the bathtub in the office - they love mummy's office!

Once baby arrives and I venture back into the office – I know that I’ll have three babysitters in the office ready and waiting for kisses and cuddles and I know I can trust them with all four of my babies (BnW, Grace, Evie & little one).

There’s no real point of this post, I guess this is just my way of expressing how much I value and appreciate the hard work that all members of the BnW family put into everything they do and my thoughts on my company…that’s it’s not just something I do for a living…but I actually love it!

For all our couples – you are all honourary members of our family (our family is quite big!). Some of you come & go – once your wedding is over, we don’t see or hear much of you…others keep popping in from time to time and we don’t mind at all. That’s what we’re about!

I once referred to BnW as the ‘Jerry Maguire’ of wedding planning companies…and still believe that. We believe in personal attention – afterall, we’re dealing with people, weddings, events – doesn’t that deserve our personal attention? And most of all, I created and built a company that I can be proud of, and if I had to do it over, I wouldn’t change a thing!

Usually, I am working late or at a wedding, and I hate not being able to keep up with shows, so I just don’t bother.

But we do have a TiVo and it records tv programs for us and also has this function where it records shows that it thinks you may like. So during these Christmas holidays I’ve decided to clean out the TiVo and see what shows are on there.

First up – Four Weddings. I do like this show. Hosted by Fifi Box with a great honeymoon prize fr the ‘winning couple’. I don’t like the bitchy-ness of the show, but then, it does make it entertaining. I think it needs a wedding professional to vote as well – to give credit where credit is due for some of the weddings. Being able to mix a ‘reality tv/personal view’ and a ‘professional view’ of each wedding.

Maybe I’m just a softie, but there have been weddings that have scored very low and I think that was very sad and undeserving.

I then found some new shows on a new station called 4me. They are not mainstream, and alot of the professionals interviewed are people I work with or know of.

There are two shows – I-Do and Wedding TV.

I-Do. This is a show run by the website I-Do which is great for couples who are trying to find vendors for their wedding. As a planner, I avoid this site, I have a huge vendor database of trusted professionals plus I think if a couple go to this site, they are looking to plan their own wedding, rather than find a wedding planner (please feel free to tell me I am wrong). The show interviews alot of vendors and they give the viewer ideas/suggestions/professional advise for different elements of your wedding.

Wedding TV. This showcases some real life weddings which I always think is good for couples planning on getting married. There are also some interviews about the wedding from venue staff or coordinators which is interesting as well as interviews with wedding professionals.

Both are ok.

I guess what I would like to see is more end-to-end shows (a bit like Grand Designs for Weddings). I’d love to see the complete wedding process. Maybe a show that compares a couple who are planning their own wedding v’s a couple who have hired a wedding planner. Talk about how they are feeling (does having a wedding planner take the stress away, does it make your wedding any better, cost effective etc), the costs, how the planners saved them money, did their styling etc and how the couple who planned their own wedding went about it – what process did they follow or did they wing it?

It’s nice to see it all condensed like Four Weddings, but the budgets they give – I’d like to see where they get that from – what are they spending their money on, is that including dresses and rings or just certain elements etc. I want to see them making decisions with their partners and/or wedding planners, how they decided on their wedding (big, small, theme, colour, venues etc).

For some of us, planning a wedding is something we only get to do once (or only plan to do once) and so we want it to be the best it can be. That’s a whole lot of pressure! Then add friends opinions, families expectations, the media, what’s hot/what’s not etc and it makes for a very stressful and complicated process. I think perhaps we need to see the whole picture and look at how some couples tackle their big day.

What are your thoughts?

Having reflected on 2011, there were many, many steps forward. Bells N Whistles Weddings is heading upwards – new office, great staff, wonderful new couples to plan weddings for.

A baby in the making – the final chapter for this uterus!

A new home, a new suburb. This new home has is like a breath of fresh air for me and the kids. Great layout – kids seem happier and definitely happier me! It’s not perfect, but we’re getting closer (little steps forward).

2012. What do I imagine for this superb year?

Well, it’s always a risk putting things in writing (on the web) but I’m all about putting my money where my mouth is, making a statement and standing by it, and of course, rising to the challenge of making it a reality.

I think this year will be one of great transformation, one of moving forward with my dreams…not just baby steps or sideways steps…massive, huge steps. Ross Dawson, an amazing Futurist (amongst other things) also says 2012 will be a year of transformation, he writes about it on his blog as well as his wonderful NYE celebrations with his talented wife and jeweller – Victoria Buckley.

Baby #3. I can’t wait. To hold my baby in my arms is the most precious gift and I am eagerly awaiting this privilege and blessing.

Transforming from a family of four, to a family of five. I get my body back (well kinda…the next saga of breastfeeding begins), I stop feeling disabled and un-able and start to have a bit more energy.

BnW – onwards and upwards. Simple, straight forward business strategy…enough said.

This transformation will be in the form of our thinking – going from a small business to a larger one – more staff, more couples, more budget to create wedding magic.

And lastly, me. I’m transforming. From the baby-making miracle that I am (and all women are!) to a healthy, fit woman who loves her body and enjoys life. To a woman who will enjoy dressing up in pretty frocks and wonderful shoes & accessories without feeling like I am wearing a tent – ohh how I miss those days! Might seem frivolous, but sometimes, looking your best has magical powers on your confidence and self esteem – I thank my mum for her words of wisdom on this topic!

I want to look as wonderful as I feel…it’s tall order but we’ll see what we can do. It’ll be hard work, a lot of effort and lots of commitment on my part to get fit and healthy and stay that way…but I can do it…I know I can.

So here’s to 2012, a year of transformation, a year of not just looking forward, but looking upwards. A year of smiles and giggles. Twelve months of large steps forward.

It was February 2011. I get an email from Anthea with the subject line ‘A wedding, a fabulous skeleton, & a little bit of magic…’

I think I was in love from that moment!

I believe in magic so it was nice for a bride to call on my magical powers, and over time, to believe in them!

I met with Anthea and her mother Sue, shortly after we started emailing and I kind of wished I could bottle those two people up and take them home with me. Talk about magic! They are a beautiful South African family who have alot of love and respect for each other…and it shows!

By the way, Sue is the ultimate mum – she not only supported her daughters wedding dreams, but did all she could to make them come true – we love you Sue!

We met at the venue that Anthea and her fiancé Dror had fallen in love with and decided to book for the wedding venue – Northbridge Sailing Club. Anthea asked what we needed to do with the venue…I told her she couldn’t have the wedding IN the sailing club, but she should have it out on the decks. Anthea’s face lit up – I think she’d secretly wanted that but didn’t think it was a possibility.

The deck is an L shape with an elevated cemented deck just outside the door of the sailing club. We agreed to have the ceremony on the cement (6x6m marquee) with absolutely amazing views, the dancefloor marquee (6x9m) on the smaller portion of the wooden decking (smaller, but by no means small) and the dining marquee taking up the vast majority of the long side of the wooden decking (27x6m).

The deck of the Northbridge Sailing Club

Anthea, who is a crafty, creative, blissfully happy and talented woman cannot possibly be pigeon-holed into a style and neither could this wedding of hers. The only thing I was certain of was the main colour of the wedding…I became accustomed to finding out all the changes to the wedding styling each time I met with Anthea.

Dror, a passionate Israeli who loves his food, his music and of course, his Anthea. His only request was no torrential rain…which is kind of funny considering they married in the coldest December in 51 years and the evening before the wedding, the only word I could use to describe the rain was torrential!

We met frequently with Anthea and Sue…enjoying chitchat and coffee. I was always blown away by Anthea’s magic and imagination.

As quickly as possible, I organised for as many marquee hire companies to visit the site and do a measure and quote…knowing how un-accessible the site is, I doubted most would even turn up or make the trip down the one-lane, narrow driveway to the sailing club. I was right. The ones that did turn up laughed and drove off…except one! A huge thanks to Garry from Patti’s hire for staying and doing what I needed.

Months passed. Many phone calls, emails and face-to-face chats and coffees… Anthea’s vision changed, and then changed again…just the small details…but in that time I fell pregnant and lost the ability to keep up! We had our menu tasting and I was excited about the food.

Anthea found her dream gown from Mark Holt. Penny is an absolute miracle and added to the ‘Anthea’ team quite nicely.

More time passed, cake was sorted, flowers, music…we were ready.

On Wednesday 7th December was setup day. Trucks were braving the narrow driveway from 9am sharp, deliveries being made and at this point I need to deviate from the wedding and talk a little about the ‘ohh la-la French guy’ who delivered the beverages from the Belinda Franks catering, when he spoke he made the four of us ladies giggle like school girls and blush. We asked Belinda Franks catering if they could bring him along on the wedding day. Umm, no.

Back to the wedding. So with all best laid plans…we had some obstacles but that was bound to happen on this wedding with such a difficult location to work with.

We worked until we couldn’t work anymore that evening, then braved the cold, wind and rain to drive home for some well-deserved sleep before the main event.

Setting up the draping in the dining marquee. Stuart up on a ladder, Vanessa and Jade from BnW and yes, my bride up on the other ladder. I the pregnant woman, sitting down on a crate because Sue made me

The finished product - It looks amazing, even more so in person with the blue tulle draping, heart garlands, the raw decking and the tables all setup with the magnificent flowers and origami hearts

The view of the dining marquee from the pontoon. Magic!

Thursday 8th December.
On site at 9am again – the BnW team worked tirelessly to transform the marquees into Anthea’s vision. We had the help of Stuart, a family friend who has the patience of a saint. I know what I am like…you either love me or want to run me over. Stuart told me I’d grown on him, and that he wanted to run me down with his ute the day before, but resisted…and grew to like me.

Stuart’s list of jobs was never ending…but he did everything the way we wanted. Now I want to hire Stuart to work on all our weddings.

One hour to go. Dror walks up to me, introduces his brothers who have flown in from Israel for the big day and than gave me a big hug. I get hugged alot – not sure if it’s because I am small, pregnant or just that happy/familiar face…but I don’t mind at all.

We’re on track. The hot chocolate (a last minute request from the bride so that guests were kept warm) was being served, guests smiling, weather holding out and in fact quite pleasant.

Sue arrives with the two bridesmaids and Anthea’s brother. Sue looks AMAZING! I don’t recognise her for a moment. She too is wearing a Mark Holt creation and looks … hot!

More hugs and I ask someone to escort Sue down to the Chuppah.

The bridesmaids ask loads of questions – how to walk, how to hold the bouquet etc. They are a little nervous; so the three of us are walking in circles…they’re giggling and forgot they were so nervous.

Then, Anthea arrives. A huge smile, a huge hug to follow.

Before cuing the music for her arrival, I prep Anthea on holding her bouquet, walking in her gown (especially down the wooden stairs) to the aisle.

I gave the nod and the magic, the real magic, started. And yes, I cried!

Paul, the Rabbi, was absolutely lovely and his ceremony reduced me to tears over and over.

Afterwards, pre-dinner drinks, canapés, followed by an awesome dinner, a song from the bride to her groom, more tears, laughter, that amazing cake by Patricia at Yummy Cakes who told me she didn’t think the three tiers looked right, so she added a fourth (fake) tier…that’s the kind of vendors I work with…absolutely amazing and true to their craft!

That amazing cake - Lemon-licious, Butterscotch and chocolate mud. Awesome!

Each guest had an envelope, each envelope hand made by the bride containing the table number of the guest and a little 'story' on who they were each sitting next to. I read one and it was amazing...the amount of thought that went into each detail was simply magic!

Where to start - the amazing floral arrangements, the candles, the heart shaped origami hearts that Sue got RSI making, the heart shaped place cards tied to the back of the chairs, the heart garlands draping down the walls of the marquee.

A happy couple!

I love watching the photos and video - it's quite spectaular!

Then the dancing, which went all night.

The couple dancing the night away. A rare moment for Dror to stay still - the man can dance!

It was an amazing wedding, for an amazing couple – filled with so much magic and love.

The night after, whilst at another wedding (actually, I was taken to hospital because my baby wanted to come out a little early…but I wouldn’t have it!)…I received a voicemail message from Anthea…

9th December 7.20pm

“Hi beautiful Jen, it’s Anthea speaking.

I just called to say that you are officially the best wedding planner in the entire universe. I know we know that already but I just had to reiterate it again because I just need to tell you how amazing you are, how incredible you are, how unbelievably perfect you are and how the best fun you are and how I couldn’t have had the most perfect wedding without you, you made everything perfect, in every possible way I could have ever imagined.”

And Anthea, being Anthea…she made us a little gift each. From the heart and again, it made me cry.

A gift for me.

They say nice people attract nice people…well me and my team must be the nicest people in the world because we get hired by all the most amazingly beautiful brides on the face of the planet to make their wedding dreams come true.

Tips:
#1 Always work within the styling you have – it gives guests a taste of the style of wedding you are having and creates synergy with all elements and aspects of your wedding.

#2 Try to do something a little bit different, a bit special. This will make your wedding invite stand out amongst all the other wedding invites stuck on your guests fridge.

About a month ago, a beautiful bride of ours found these amazing invites you could print on wood. It’s sustainable & eco friendly and they look pretty amazing.

We loved them instantly but before we went ahead with the wooden invites for their amazing wedding, we wanted to give them a try ourselves, see the quality, the process, the costs (the real costs) etc…and printing our BnW Christmas card was the perfect opportunity to give them a trial.

Printed on Birch wood with rounded corners, A6 with a white envelope (apologies for the colours - I'm not hi-tech enough to fix, but they were printed perfectly!)

Most of our couples received these as well as our special BnW friends and suppliers (apologies for those who did not, Australia Post made quite a few boo-boos!). The Knot magazine editors received one (because they are just fab and we love them!), and they seem to really like our Christmas card too…click here to see what they have to say about our innovative Christmas Card!

A special thanks goes to Stephanie from Stelloberry Designs for working her magic on our Christmas Card design (and as usual…we gave her very little time to do so!). It was a first for all of us working with these wonderful wooden stationers from the US and I have to say, it was a very pleasant, simple and happy experience!

Happy Christmas Eve!
BnW