I’m sure nobody doubts that Ever After specialises in making your wedding memories last a lifetime. We do occasionally embark on other little projects and I think it is time that we share one of those on our blog, especially as this little project is actually wedding related as well!

The number one priority of a bride is more often than not ‘The Dress’.  Over the years we’ve seen wedding dresses in all sorts and shapes, and when Kittie and Dulcie contacted us to film their new vintage inspired line of dresses, we jumped on the opportunity to get a sneak peek of their fabulous dresses. During the hustle and bustle time of hair and make-up we took a few shots of the dresses on a hanger and captured the electric atmosphere that was brewing.

The shoot took place in central London. The operational base of the day couldn’t have been located any better: right next to Spitalfield market and the quaint shop Dolly Dare.  Yep, the vintage inspiration really came through even in the locations. Once the models were dressed and ready, we walked around the corner to start shooting. This being London, nobody gave our troop of models, dressers, hair and make-up artists or cinematographers a second look. The joys of working in our capital; I’m sure we would have stopped traffic in a lot of other places.

We had a great time filming and chatting about dress making. A few weeks later we completed our brief and had some catwalk-style shots ready for the website. Of course we couldn’t resist making a little clip to capture this day. I hope you’ll enjoy it and make sure to visit the Kitty and Dulcie website to see the catwalk shots of the dresses.

Last year, we spent Christmas Eve/night stuck in airports, utterly frustrated at the lack of any customer service or support or even staff. This year, we things were back to our traditional way of spending Christmas: having the best “do-nothing” day. Niels and I just spend the day relaxing, having a lie-in, watching a few movies, no cooking, … All in all, just pure bliss. We hope that, however you spent your Christmas, it was equally wonderful.

But today, we’re back at work and back to blogging. And we’re taking you back to last summer, to the wedding of Sammy and James. We did already share a tiny flavour of their wedding back then on our Facebook page, but now we share the proper highlights. Sammy and James tied the knot at Penshurst Place in Kent, a stunning medieval stately home, kept in all its old world grandeur. They chose this venue because of their love for all things medieval and historical. We filmed another wedding here back in 2003 and it left quite the impression on us. Going back there now, it certainly still lived up to the memory. A drinks reception outside in the courtyard with a string quartet playing and perfect blue skies, what more could they have wished for?

And for us, it was a joy to work at Sammy and James wedding together with their photographers Mark and Marianne from Earthy Photography and the ever so friendly team at Penshurt.

Wedding Dress: Alfredo Angelo

Wedding Shoes: Benjamin Adams

Venue: Penshurt Place

Photographers: Earthy Photography

String Quartet: Penshurst String Quartet

Toastmaster: Roy Theobald

Just over 2 weeks to go until Christmas and here at Ever After, we have a little special offer on. Starting early next year, we will have a big overhaul of our packages, so to celebrate to old going out we thought, we’d offer a 10% discount on all our main packages, provided that they are booked by Christmas. Just think about what that 10% discount could get you, a pair a Jimmy Choo shoes, a harpist playing at your reception, a honeymoon room upgrade, … So I’d suggest you don’t delay and get in touch now.

Back in Belgium we would celebrate St Nicholas Day, also known as Sinterklaas, today. On the evening of the 5^th of December, children leave a shoe by the fireplace and hope that during the night they would receive a visit of Sinterklaas who would “fill” that shoe with presents and plenty of lovely and yummy goodies. Well, I may not be Sinterklaas but I do have a little treat for you today.

Last Saturday we filmed our last wedding of 2011 at one of our favourite venues, the Tithe Barn near Petersfield in Hampshire. Our lovely couple for the day were Grace and Ben. Grace looked stunning with a beautiful lace dress and full length lace veil, with the looks of a star from the silent movie era. Ben had reason for a double celebration, not only was he getting married, he was also celebrating his 30^th birthday. What an excellent way to make sure you never forget an anniversary! And as for the day itself, it couldn’t have been any better, a sunny and crisp winter’s day. The weather was even good enough to allow for an outdoor drinks reception, with some hot chocolate.  We also had the pleasure of working together with Jay Rowden for the first time, and we hope we may get that pleasure again.

So time to share a little flavour of this wedding with you, we used to only show these flavours on our Facebook page, but decided that from now on, we’ll also show them on our blog.

It’s the 1^st of December, you can start opening the little doors on your advent calendar today! I can’t wait to get our Christmas decorations out and decorate our house, but before I do that, I’m sharing some festive cheer from last year with you.

Florence and Michael’s wedding, a few days before Christmas, just in between those 2 spells of snow storms that brought our country to a standstill. If you like our Ever After Facebook page, you might actually have seen a little teaser of their wedding that we made for them back then.  Florence and Michael tied the knot at St Godric’s Church in Durham and had their reception at the beautiful Jesmond Dene House in Newcastle. It was a beautiful but freezing cold day, luckily not hampered by any snow. Poor Florence had come down with a cold, but that wouldn’t stop her from having a blast. The whole wedding was just so much fun. The tables were named after the “12 Days of Christmas” and after dinner there was a rather hilarious sing-along to the 12 Days of Christmas by table with everybody joining in (although not all quite in tune) and there was even a little suprise visit from Father Christmas. And they had one of the most enchanting cakes ever, made by one of their friends, very bedazzled!

I do hope you enjoy Florence and Michael’s wedding highlights and that it gets you in a happy and jolly Christmas spirit.

And we have plenty more in store to share for this month! So keep coming back!

It’s been a while, but it’s time to finally share a full wedding film again!

One of the most interesting stories a couple can tell on their wedding day is the story of how they got together: childhood friends, collegues at work,… those are quite typical stories. Kelly and Niels’ story could be the start of a Hollywood movie: A Dutch pilot starts work in England, looking quite lost at the airport a flight attendant decides to approach him and ask if he could use some help… and a love story is born.

Fast forward a few years and our romantic movie continues at Fawsley Hall in Northamptonshire. Kelly and Niels were married in this idyllic location, with a ceremony in a wonderfully quaint little church located in the middle of field populated with a herd of sheep and a reception at the gorgeous Knightley court. This is the stuff that movies are made of! Picture perfect locations and even the weather decided to co-operate! Niels’ Dutch roots provided great little moments and, from our point of view, hearing our mother tongue all around us was a nice (if not slightly surreal) bonus. Just before the before the first dance, Kelly had little surprise for Niels and changed into a different dress for the evening party. 2 dresses: this is one lucky bride!

On the day it was a pleasure to work alongside Kelly & Niels’ photographer Darren Cresswell and make-up artist Rochelle Hutton O’Brien.

Ceremony venue: Fawsley Church, Northamptonshire

Reception venue: Fawsley Hall, Northamptonshire

Wedding Dresses: Ian Stuart

Photography: Darren Cresswell

Make-up Artist: Rochelle O’Brien

“Wow, wow, wow, wow!! We completely and utterly love our wedding video

From the moment we met Rachel and Andy, we knew their wedding was going to be a fun packed day and indeed it was! The day started at the gorgeous location of Warren House, the staff and events team were perfectly organised and a true pleasure to work with. By the time Pam sorted out the hair and makeup and Rachel had her stunning Sassi Holford dress on, it was time to go to the ceremony in true London style: a red double decker London bus that I’m sure doubled as a tourist atraction for some of Rachel and Andrew’s international guest list.
After the ceremony in Fulham, we all took the bus back and were welcomed into the gardens of Warren House. Apart from the garden games, which proved a success with this fun-loving crowd, the guest were treated to the magic of Mark Williams, close-up magician extra-ordinaire. In between the fun and games we got some gorgeous footage alongside Nikole Ramsay who did the photography. The wedding breakfast consisted of a truly inspired hog-roast and guessing from Andrew’s speech, he’s the one that takes credit for this. Just before Rachel and Andrew danced the night away, we showed our Same Day Edit (which we featured on the blog in May) which went down a storm.

Here are their wedding highlights, enjoy!

Credits:
Venue: Warren House
Wedding make-up: Pam Wrigley
Wedding Dress: Sassi Holford
Photography: Nikole Ramsay
Magician: Mark Williams
Doubel Decker: London Heritage Travel

Remember that wedding we filmed in Florida? I must say, that has got to be one of favourite weddings ever. OK, so we got to travel to Florida, which is already pretty awesome. Then the people were so wonderful; Susie, the bride was one of the bridesmaids of a former bride (who is now one of our best friends). Filming in the oldest cathedral in the USA, St Augustine’s Cathedral Basilica, a bit of a privilege too! Then Susie had booked a flight for Michael on the day, and Niels could go up in the plane with him, which he obviously really enjoyed too! I could go on about the things that I loved about this wedding…

Then when I got to editing this one, I was overwhelmed by how much great footage we had, even after the first “rough cut” I still had about double than usual. On the one hand, it made things somewhat trickier, but on the other, I had big smile on my face all the way through editing. And then there’s probably my favourite shot ever, at 2min14 into the highlights. I just love the way Susie looks at Michael, that is pure and honest joy and love in her eyes. Yes, this is one wedding that really makes me happy.

Notable mentions go to

The photographers Mark and Joi – www.mark-brian.com

The Venue: The White Room, St Augustine – www.ocwhiteroom.com

The Church: Cathedral Basilica of St Augstine – www.thefirstparish.org

The On-the-Day Coordinator: Jennifer of 1-877-Le Concierge www.1877leconcierge.com

Wedding sneak peek time! And it’s Erica and Matt wedding we’re giving you little glimpse of today.

Walton Hall in Warwickshire was the setting, a perfect summer’s day and the sweetest couple, what more can you wish for? This was a small intimate wedding, but high on emotion. While Matt may be English, he lives in the USA and this is where he met Erica. Well, technically, they met in cyberspace, via eHarmony.com… Many of their family and friends had travelled from the US and beyond to be with them on their wedding day which made it all the more special. The video was a surprise Erica had planned for Matt, but he already seemed to have an inkling that Erica might just have planned this. Officially, the first Matt knew about us being there was when Niels showed up at his door.

And with the excellent planning skills of Isobel Lamplough of Isobel Weddings and the brilliant Allister Freeman as photographer, we just had a breeze of a day.

Remember that Save the Date clip we made last winter in the snow in Vienna for Elizabeth and Andi? Well, on the 23^rd of July, Elizabeth and Andi got married in Bali, Indonesia in the most gorgeous setting. Unfortunately for us, we weren’t there to cover the day for them, that job was covered by the amazing Mayad Studios. So far we’ve only seen a few photos of their wedding day and I can say: it looked beyond beautiful! On their wedding day, they shared the clip we made from them in Vienna, a little dream sequence of a perfect day in Vienna. We received an email from Andi a few days after the wedding to let us know how much their guests enjoyed the pre wedding film. They even showed it to the Mayad team before the shoot, and as Andi put it “so they’re challenged to deliver the final product even better ”. I’m already looking forward to seeing their wedding film, knowing Elizabeth and Andi, and the Mayad team, it will be one amazing wedding film!

Well, we can now finally share our clip with the rest of the world. You can read the rather epic story behind this shoot here.

Locations:

The eternally beautiful city of Vienna, Austria (I’m biased, I know. But really, you should go visit it at least once. It will undoubtedly enchant you and like us, you’ll want to go back!)

Schonbrunn Palace Park

Wiener Riesenrad

Christmas Market at the Rathausplatz

St. Stephen’s Cathedral

The Ring Hotel

Make up:  Nadja Hluchovsky