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After a super busy month of weddings, I’m so pleased to finally share with you the images and also film clip of the successful ‘Style Me Vintage: Weddings’ book launch that we organised in collaboration with a team of fabulous suppliers.

We were delighted when Annabel from the renowned wedding blog ‘Love My Dress’ approached us in February to ask if we could work with her to organise the launch event of her first book.  This is the fifth book in the ‘Style Me Vintage‘ range to be published by Anova Books.  The focus is on providing advice and ideas on how to style a vintage wedding from finding the perfect venue, dress and accessories, getting the hair and makeup right, through to all of the decorative elements such as the stationery flowers and cake.  The beautiful hard-back book has been designed to inspire brides and wedding suppliers alike in a clear and concise manner, starting with the Edwardian era up to the 1970s.

At Cranberry Blue we always love getting involved in something that bit different, and while the vintage look isn’t our signature style we of course jumped at the chance. The brief was to create a glamorous and fun evening that had a vintage feel to reflect the content of the book.

Having looked at a lot of venues in Central London, we decided that the backdrop needed to be quite unusual, with a cool and slightly rough-around-the-edges vibe – Corbet Place in Shoreditch fitted the bill perfectly.

We worked closely with some incredibly brilliant and talented people to make the event possible – Kate from Vintage Style Hire loaned some gorgeous vintage furniture and created a destination focal point in the room, with a cluster of sofas, bureaus and cabinet which were decorated with vintage props, Annabel’s book and stunning flowers spilling out from Philippa Craddock.  We had cute step ladders dressed with vintage bottles and more flowers and an adorable writing desk and old-fashioned type writer and yet more flowers were positioned at the entrance.

Other décor for the venue was supplied by the Paperpom team who worked for hours to create and hang fabulous paper pom-poms from the quirky antler chandeliers and around the bar, all in colours which tied in with the book.  The Eagle-Eyed Bride girls provided the large tasselled balloons and lanterns at the front of the venue, which each had pretty flowers inside from Brian Kirkby.  To add to the atmosphere, AC Discos lit the venue with soft pink uplighting and draped the white picket fence at the entrance with festoon lights.  Giant floor-standing letters that spelt ‘SMV’ (Style Me Vintage) were positioned near the stage and were from Vowed & Amazed.

The 260 guests were entertained by the Vintage 78 DJs who provided a sophisticated jazz trio and also records played on Gramophones.  We also had the superb Photo Emporium with their Hollywood themed props which resulted in some hilarious photos, more of which can be seen here.

After guests were welcomed with a Champagne cocktail upon arrival, Kalm Kitchen supplied some delicious canapés which were presented in such wonderfully creative ways – vintage suitcases, pretty birdcages and on glass cases with vintage jewellery.  Charlotte from Restoration Cake made almost 300 cupcakes for the goody bags as well as miniature cakes as sweet canapés.

Last but certainly not least, Zoe Lem sourced three models to add to the glamour of the evening, and Severin Hubert from the Hepburn Collection and Kristina Gasperas styled their hair and makeup.

To make sure we had all of the hard work captured, Ashton Jean-Pierre photographed the event and Niki from Allora Visuals filmed it as well – a short highlight clip can be seen here.

I would like to say a HUGE thank-you to everyone involved in making this event such a success, it really was a pleasure working with people who are so passionate about what they do.

Lastly, to share with you an email from Annabel herself which certainly did make all of the hard work worth it:

You were just incredible.  My memories of the evening will forever make me smile. It was absolutely perfect on every level and I am so so happy I got to work with you. You exceeded any expectation I had of working with a professional event planner.  At the fair I was at yesterday, I was inundated with people coming up to me who were either there or who had seen the images and they were raving and raving. Lots of people have said it’s the best industry event by far they have ever been too – Emily from the publishers emailed to say it was the best book launch she’d ever been to. I kid you not!  So thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much xx”

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Supplier Credits

Event Planner – Melanie Helen // Cranberry Blue Weddings // @cranberrybwed
Photographer – Ashton Jean-Pierre // @ashtonjp
Film – Allora Visuals // @alloravisuals
Florist – Philippa Craddock Flowers // @philippaflowers
Entertainment – It’s A Windup! // @vintage78dj
Canapes – Kalm Kitchen // @lovekalmkitchen
Cake – Restoration Cake // @restorationcake
Photo Booth – The Photo Emporium // @photo_emporium
Venue styling – Vintage Style Hire // @vintagehire
Pompom Decor – Paper Poms // @paperpompom
Lighting – AC Disco // @PAHireOxford
Light Props – Vowed & Amazed // @vowedandamazed
Models Via @zoelem1 – @MissRubyElixir // @SophiaStVillier // @5feet10kirsty 
Makeup – Kristina Gasperas // @kristinagaga
Hair Styling – Severin Hubert // @severinhubert
Balloons – Eagle Eyed Bride // @eagleeyedbride
Flowers with the balloon décor – Brian Kirkby Flowers
Venue – Corbet Place // @trumanbrewery