The Pollen Blog

2011 has been an amazing year at Pollen HQ , some absolute classic and memorable moments too

Very moving ones - the bride who had a locket with her late mothers picture hidden deep in the bouquet where only she new and another who had a yellow freesia hidden deep in the vintage rose bouquet where only she knew, her late grandmothers favourite flower.

The groom who asked us deliver a bouquet to his fiancée on the morning of the wedding with the message ‘ can’t wait to marry you’

Even I said to Donal after he delivered it to the bride-to-be in  the suite (he came back covered in lipstick) , ‘you look like you are going to cry as well’ and he said ‘ I have just got something in my eye…………….’

Entertaining moments – the father of the groom who said to his son the groom –to-be, (after he and his intended bride couldn’t agree on the centrepieces) ‘ you need to learn the art of compromise son, let her have what she wants- take it from me choosing centrepieces is going to be one of the smaller challenges of married life together!’

The father in law who bit the head of one of the cake top figurines- you had to be there- well maybe it was just as well you weren’t…………

Cheeky moments - the bride and groom who ordered wine the venue normally used for cooking for their guests and sampled the finest vintage at the top table - we here there were good takings at the pay bar that night

The complete ooh aah factor moments

To the baby flower girl pulled down the aisle in a sledge on wheels and the baby chairs and chair covers to match our grown up ones, set up in the library for all the children

The helicopters arriving on the lawn at Buxted Park with grooms and their best men

The equestrian incident

The horse that was very late for its starring role at the Asian wedding …………..

The knights of the road award

the Pollen van made an unscheduled stop (ok we had in airline terms ‘ a technical problem’ ), called RAC, 12 minutes and the mechanic arrived – ‘immortal line, it’s a priority Mr Pollen we can’t have you late for the wedding can we’

many ’its my day my way’ moments, but the award goes to the groom who had a bacon double cheesburger while the rest of the guests dined a la carte - classic

 Donal and his amazing box of tricks moments

 Picture the scene, gorgeous bride ready to walk down the aisle at Buxted park, music cued , candles lit, guests all seated with anticipation, pollen team watching from the wings and ……page boy pulls head of his  button hole and lobs it at his sister the flower girl

Time stands still , it all goes a bit quiet, flower girls lip starts to quiver and…….out of nowhere comes a quiet reassuring voice from donal ‘ don’t worry I have got another one here, lets pin that on again and you’re  all good to go’

Collective sigh of relief , smiles all round

And he did it again at Pelham house

Brides family have got the wedding cake from a well known supermarket all ready to set up , except they forgot to buy the pillars to hold it up and its a bank holiday.

Cue donal – ‘I am sure I have got a cake pillar  kit in my box of tricks’  and sure enough out it comes, what are the chances, so much so now that we never leave the unit now without the ‘Box of tricks’ god knows what else is in there but you can guarantee with a bit of rummaging and delving, what you need will be in there!

These are just a few of the many magic moments we had in 2011 all great memories and in the end we did everything we could within our powers to make sure things went well.

At the beginning of January 2012 we take our annual break until the 23^rd of the month, before the start of our 2012 wedding season,  if you are looking for ideas and inspiration for your own special event and would like to see some pictures of venues set up then head for our website here for the latest ones.

www.pollen4hire.co.uk 

Here’s  to 2012! Dex

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the last few months have been a bit of a whirl, we have been very fortunate to have so many bookings.

Lots of new ideas for 2012 too, wedding backdrops for the felbridge hotel and draping for the curtains in the ballroom at Buxted park, links with a new supplier of children’s chairs with chair covers to match, light curtains for the hallway at Buxted park, top table swagging and new table runners, so if you just about to put a deposit down with someone else make sure you are 100% certain! ( some of these items will only be available as part of a complete package)

here are some tasters of what could be done for your own very special day - here’s to 2012!

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it is always nice to get feedback and I know it probably seems a little bit self -promoting ! But if you are in the early planning stages of your own special day this is what some of our very recent customers wanted to tell us about what we do at Pollen this week.

Hi Donal

I just wanted to say a very big THANK YOU to you for organizing the chair covers, bouquets etc for Laura’s wedding. It was such a pleasure dealing with Pollen and we were delighted with everything. You took so much of the strain and everything went like clockwork.

We loved the glitter twigs and thank you so much for placing them for me and also leaving the huge bunch for us to enjoy as well. I wish you could have seen the bride and bridesmaids, the colour scheme looked fabulous!!

The bouquets Laura and Matt organised for us two Mothers were absolutely beautiful too!

All in all a fantastic day, the combination of Buxted and Pollen made it a very memorable and relaxed day!

Thank you again

Best Regards

Tricia

Hi Donal, i just want to say thank you so much for our wedding flowers, you made buxted look even more stunning that it usually does, all of our guests commented on how beautiful it looked. thank you so much xx

kerry calderbank

Dear Donal and Dex

Were do I begin to compliment you both, The service you provide is simply fantastic, the ceremony room looked stunning, wedding guests couldn’t believe how romantic it all looked, the corridor to the orangery and the orangery itself just amazed our guests.

The wedding was a success and you both played a massive part in this, taking so much stress away from us (grooms parents) and Daniel & Sarah.

Again a massive thank

Kind Regards

Steve & Beverley Nash

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Fun and Games

Leo has taken the whole idea of a portable photo booth to a new level with his ‘London Black Cab’

Proving very popular at the Buxted park hotel wedding fair, many brides to be and their fiancés (plus a number of wedding suppliers including Pollens very own Donal Casey) were to be seen disappearing into the vehicle and much raucous laughter ensured.

Through the wonders of the technology you actually get the picture in your hand there and then so lots of potential for memorable moments to be captured on film for posterity, from your special day.

If you want to have a look at Leo’s website it is here

www.cocophotobooths.co.uk

Also Lisa Devlin sets up her own photo booth with some seriously special vintage props to complement her award winning vintage inspired photography

So check out her website too at

www.devlinphotos.co.uk

In the meantime have a look at some pictures of the flowers we have in the unit today ( peonies and lily of the valley included - fragrance overload!)

take some of these

add these

a pinch of these

a sprinkle of these

a bunch of these

and is if by magic a brides bouquet by Donal @ Pollen

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yesterday at Buxted Park Fiona Hosford arrived with her magnificent golden harp.

Now speaking as someone who used to play the violin ( badly - think 2 cats in a bag) which only has four strings. To see Fiona’s hands float gracefully over the many strings of her harp and produce such romantic evocative music is quite amazing to see and hear.

nothing wrong with an ipod of course for your ceremony music, but if you would like some live music for your special event, here is the link to her website and a picture too, in the Coat of Arms lounge.

http://www.harpist.uk.com/

cream taffeta and champagne organza sashes tied together with amnesia roses as a decoration

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we meet many new couples when we are actually working on the weddings of couples who have booked with us , I think they feel reassured when they see us getting on with the job, working as a team and pulling together with the venue staff to make everything happen - we often get an email starting  ’we saw you at …………’

all the pollen team wish Mr and Mrs Martin every happiness for the future and thank you for allowing us to use the fantastic pictures of your special day and also for your lovely message that came with them

donal and dex

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and the individual parts of a gorgeous vintage bridal bouquet come together.

take some of these

and some of these

mix with these

add some of these

a smattering of these

a blend of these

some of these

as if by magic - a gorgeous vintage inspired brides bouquet by Donal @ Pollen

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Another wedding supplier said to me the other day

‘ you do a lot of work at Buxted Park’

Well I just smiled and said ‘yes’ and left it at that, because we do work at the hotel a lot but on the way home in the Pollen van we had a quick think about where we had been in the past few weeks

Michael hall school forest row – gorgeous vintage theme with chiavari chairs

Village hall Cuckfield – gorgeous vintage theme with chiavari chairs

Newick Park – gorgeous martini vases with chair covers and in the company of the ultra charming husband and wife photography team of KDH www.kdhphoto.co.uk

Pangdean barn – gorgeous candelabras and our chair covers

Charleston manor, Seaford – gorgeous vintage theme with chiavari chairs with mouth-watering food by www.foodgloriousfoodsouth.co.uk

Horsted place -  gorgeous vintage theme with chiavari chairs for a sunny summer ceremony outside

Brook House, Fulking – vintage chiavari chairs for a very special 70^th birthday

High Rocks – bespoke chair covers with diamante buckles

The Tin Tabernacle Barcombe – gorgeous vintage theme with chiavari chairs

Pelham house  - gorgeous candelabras with pollen petals and storm lanterns

The Ravenswood hotel - gorgeous martini vases with chair covers. Gorgeous stationery from the wedding rising star  Joanne at www.elegantstationery.co.uk

Westerham gold club – tall candelabras supplied by us to be decorated by an excellent local Kent florist

West hove golf club -– gorgeous vintage them with chiavari chairs

The Anchor Inn Barcombe – brides mum did very sweet flowers and we did chair covers and bay trees- and another we did there earlier in the year with crystal candelabras and chair covers with the very amazing photographer Chris Giles – rocking! www.chrisgilesphotography.co.uk

Fabrica – gorgeous vintage theme with chiavari chairs and some serious gastronomy from Simon and his team

There seems to be a recurring  theme – not just at Buxted park!

There’s more too;

The holiday inn Brighton -  gorgeous candelabras and flowers from us  and chair covers and lighting backdrop from the ever hard working business woman of Ditchling Claire at www.amaryllisevents.co.uk/

(if you are ever in Ditchling go to The General for brunch – it is historically delicious)

The Ramada Jarvis Brighton- gorgeous candelabras for the brides mum to decorate

In between then I know we worked with the rock-my- wedding blog-tastic Lisa devlin – by the way if you are a photographer looking to try and emulate Lisa’s signature style she has photography farms – visit her website at http://devlinphotos.co.uk/

Anyway I think we arrived back at the unit in Hove then before we could think of any more, but anyway just in case you wondered we don’t just work at Buxted park – gorgeous as it is. But we love going to Buxted park and Dora on reception at the hotel said to me the other day , ‘ you should have a room here’ and in fact this turned out to be the very thing that happened, so I felt it was my duty to fully ‘pollen test’ the room on behalf of our brides and future brides and their special guests. (hint - it was fab)

Part 2 coming soon…………………  dex x

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we had a quick break at pollen towers after a very busy summer of totally fantastic bookings all over the county and we came back to a exciting message from Georgi Mabee ( see below) and we feel very privileged to be a part of so many special days - all set for the Autumn/Winter!

Hi there,

I’m a wedding photographer and back in July covered Heidi & Kato’s wedding at Buxted Park where you supplied the flowers.

I just wanted to let you know I had several photographs featured from this wedding on a top UK Blog and your flowers are featured on there if you’d like to see:

http://english-wedding.com/2011/09/cricket-with-oranges-and-lemons-wedding/

Best wishes,
Georgi

–

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Using colour in bold swathes and blocks is a great way to achieve a stunning effect - these gerberas look fantastic in the diamante holders too

As always we had a fantastic time on this booking and the couple worked for an airline ( not the one you’re thinking - Virgin!) and the glamour of the day and the setting was well and truly captured by Leo

All pictures are by very kind permission of Leo at www.cocoweddingphotography.co.uk

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