Salomons wedding fair, Royal Tunbridge Wells, 12th Sept, 2010
A really early start today traveling to Tunbridge Wells for a Wedding Fair especially after Jon and Claire’s wedding last night which coincidently was also in Tunbridge Wells. The venue for the day is Salomons which is an elegant country mansion in the heart of Kent that offers not only a sumptuous wedding breakfast but a choice of licensed ceremony rooms to exchange those special vows. We are set up as the duo in the body of the actual Theatre and sharing airtime with a massive pipe organ.
We are between Simply Beautiful who specailise in wedding hair designs and Broadview Florists a local florist supplying flowers for all occasions opposite is Becky from Your Beautiful Day who is new to wedding fairs and has found a niche in venue decoration.
She obviously has a flair for colour co-ordination and presentation. We wish her success in her newfound business venture. Nice to see Peter Thompson the Toast Master again we have worked with him before at the Spa Hotel Tunbridge Wells. We particularly remembered that he was a great help and very thorough.
This is the first time we have exhibited at one of the smaller Wedding-Experience events. In the past few years we have performed at their Detling wedding show that regularly attracts over 1200 brides and is lavish in its presentation.
Our first booking today came quite early on. I happened to be in reception when I over heard a group of four asking one of the staff where they could find The Redfords stand. Noticing me the receptionist said “Ah this gentleman can help you”. I promptly gave directions to the Science Theatre (where our stand was situated) and followed closely behind as they ascended the stairs intrigued to learn why they were so intent on finding The Redfords. A short discussion and negotiation later and we were booked. Asking afterwards where they had first heard of The Redfords, Paul explained that they had first seen us play at the Detling wedding show a couple of years ago. It will be a pleasure and close to home at Cooling Castle Barn
Dan our Bass player and I are on duty while Cat and Matt have a break when Katherine and Stephanie arrived at the stand I gave them both a Redfords plectrum and say, “Are you looking for a band?”… “We are both getting married up North so you probably wont be interested” …. “We regularly perform in the North of England so are very interested?” …“Well we have this rather unusual first dance arrangement that includes Poker face by Lady Gaga” “ Wow what a coincidence we were only saying between sets last night that Poker Face would be a good number to add to the list” After a while we gave them both our info pack and they moved on to their next stop.
On his return Matt checks with iPhone App to see if the chords and words are available and he and Cat just sing it out to the amazement on both Stephanie and Katherine who are by now being given a lesson in the intricacies of gentleman’s suit sizes by the Moss Bros team !! Let ‘s hope that this is a good omen and we see ourselves traveling the M1 yet again!! Good luck to them both and now we can add Poker face to our repertoire.
It is lovely to meet so many nice people. Thank you to those couples who have booked The Redfords today and for those who have expressed an interested but as yet have not made up their mind we hope you find exactly what you are looking for.
As a further incentive if you spoke to us today and have read this blog we can offer a 5% discount on quoted prices until the 12th October 2010. And if you get chance come along and catch us at Detling on 24th October for the Wedding experience fair.
Vicki and Gary, One Marylebone, London. 28th August 2010
It’s a bright sunny late August bank holiday weekend morning we are stopped in yet another “On the Run” buying breakfast and batteries. No Van today as the Acoustic performance scheduled for 3.00pm will not need the 1250kgs of gear still load in the sprinter. So not so much humping unless of course we are performing upstairs.
Guess what.. ? We are upstairs…. and… at the top of a very step spiral staircase …and …then playing outside back down the spiral staircase. But wow!!
What a super venue.. One Marylebone London is a grand old Victorian Church that sits directly opposite Great Portland Tube station. It has been converted into a superb wedding venue.
The ceremony took place in a brilliant white upstairs purpose built marriage suite that was more than adequate for the 140 guests. Vicki escorted by her father entered to our version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
The registrar greeted everybody, family members read poems they had written and during the signing of the register Jo Vicky’s sister sang “The way you look tonight” and “At last” accompanied by Matthew on guitar.
Vicki had asked us a few weeks earlier if it would be OK for her to sing. We of course were more than pleased to oblige. Jo had a rehearsal with Matthew before the wedding to make absolutely sure everything went smoothly. It sounded great and was a great touch well done Jo!!
With the ceremony over, Gary led Vicki back down the aisle to “What a Wonderful World”
A quick change to the outside location and we were performing a couple of hours of background music for the champagne reception in the grounds.
With a few breaks to organize guests into various photographic poses our performance ended just as the guests retired to eat and the heavens opened. We were cleared away just in time.
I must say that the setting for the Wedding Breakfast looked beautiful.
Many congrats to Gary and Vicki
More photos from this event can be viewed on our Facebook page
