The Wedding Ideas Awards 2012 – the final countdown

The wedding industry event of the year is fast approaching,

It’s just six days until the wedding industry’s party of the year – the Wedding Ideas Awards, in association with Hitched.co.uk

For our 350 guests and for those who can’t join us, I thought I’d give you a teeny insight into the people that make the event happen, and what to expect from the big night, on Friday (the 13th, lucky for us, and 16 WINNERS!)…

This year is the first time that the winners have not been selected by consumers alone. Over 10,000 votes were cast at weddingideasmag.com but then a carefully selected panel of experts picked a winner from the five most popular. That means that this year the winners list includes some of the smaller, independent companies. And being an independent publishing company ourselves, we like that. What hasn’t changed, though, is that almost all the nominees are companies that we work with and feature regularly in the magazine, so it’s clear that working with us is one of the best ways to get your name out there.

The judging panel comprised of some of favourite and most respected industry people: Susi Rogol - www.bridalbuyer.com , Andy Jackson - www.bridalindustrysuppliers.co.uk , Darren Noel - www.hitched.co.uk , Alexandra Burns - www.fyeoportraits.com , Andrew Shanahan - www.iamstaggered.com , Claire Davies - www.weddingservices4u.co.uk , Julie Tooby - www.essentially-you.net , Jayne Bransby elegantsteps.co.uk , Kim Herbing www.theweddingcommunity.com and Lou Baltruschat - www.whimsicalwonderlandweddings.com

Each nominee was invited to submit an entry for the award and hats off to the judges – they had a heap of brilliant entries to go through.

Now onto the evening itself. Guests will arrive at thebrewery.co.uk, be greeted by us, as well as the team from Hitched.co.uk, and have a formal photograph taken by Paul Collins from wildaboutweddings.com who will also be taking the winners’ photos on stage. Then our guests will head upstairs to receive a delicious cocktail from cocktailbox.co.uk At 7.30pm, toastmaster Richard Birtchnell londontoastmaster.com will call our guests for dinner. Thanks to Adam at toptableplanner.com for his help in seating 350 guests – it’s no mean feat, take it from us! During drinks and dinner Magic Marco and his team will be doing close-up tricks for our guests entertainmentmagician.com. The tables, general styling and flowers will be done by the brilliant team that is Clare Price tch.net Emma Lappin emmalappinflowers.com and ambiencevenuestyling.com



Award-winning wedding dress shop Creatiques with Jenni Falconer

Last year’s meal was delicious, so we’re really excited about the menu we have chosen this year. As soon as desert is served, we’ll be straight into the awards. An introduction by Managing Editor Rachel Morgan will be followed by a comedy sketch by Rob Deering robdeering.com then Rachel Southwood will join Rob on stage to present the awards. The winners are to be presented with a personalised bottle of gold flake bubbly from luxorbrut.com as well as their award, and a beautiful winners’ envelopes from pocketfoldinvites.co.uk


Managing editor and Managing Director - Wedding Ideas' Rachels!

Shoot It Yourself shoot-it-yourself.co.uk will be filming the event and we’re lucky to have secured the services of Antisocial Media musicweddingvideos.com to create a fun behind-the-scenes film of the day. We’re also blessed with a great team of photographers – peoplebyryan.com supertography.com and of course wildaboutweddings.com to capture the event. Look out for the pictures at weddingideasmag.com and on our facebook page fb.com/weddingideasmagazine as soon as we get our hands on them.

The celebrations will continue into the night with a giraffe ice sculpture vodka luge (yes, really) created by www.globalicesculptures.co.uk A fun photobooth by www.hellofotobooths.co.uk and a fun and funky disco, with our favourite DJ Darren Daley www.darrendaley.co.uk on the decks. Finally, www.glily.co.uk is creating a gorgeous sweet buffet for us. DELISH!


The Global Ice vodka luge for Giraffe Media's Wedding Ideas Awards takes shape - see link http://blog.weddingideasmag.com/2012/01/the-wedding-ideas-awards-2012-the-final-countdown/

We know that the awards are going to be a night to remember. They always are. Couldn’t make it this year? Come along mid-January 2013 when we’ll do it all over again…

Wedding Ideas love x


The Wedding Ideas team at the 2011 Wedding Ideas Awards