A Very Vintage Chic Day...

The past couple of weeks has been hectic for Vintage Twee (to put it mildly) as we prepared for the fantastic, long awaited Vintage Chic Wedding Fair which was held at the Malmaison Hotel in the heart of Birmingham City Centre on Sunday 14th April. We have spent the last few months creating our new 2013 ranges to show all the new bride to be's out there, as well preparing a brand new display to show them off - so you can imagine we were very excited to pack up our goodies and head down to the Midlands for this wonderful event!


Vintage Travel Range
Cupcake by Cotton and Crumbs

HOWEVER....plans were temporarily put on hold and panic set in when disaster struck during the creation of our new display stands and my boyfriend had a run in with his benchsaw mid shelf making....After numerous hospital trips and visits to the Plastic Surgery Dept, he's back in one piece and miraculously managed to finish the stands for us! (to which at first he got a stern telling off for doing, closely followed by leaps of joy and appreciative hugs that we wouldn't have to head down to Ikea for something we would have to hide with pretty lace and hope for the best...). As if that wasn't enough, that same weekend also saw a trip to car heaven for the Twee Beetle and, despite the bandages and painkillers, he searched the whole of Yorkshire with 9 fingers for the perfect replacement that would take us safely (and stylishly of course...) to all future wedding fairs! So Vintage Twee became the proud owner of a lovely Suzuki Jimny which (again, miraculously) fit all our new wedding fair display into the back perfectly.  Ok...enough of the drama and let's get to the event and the photos!



Pretty English Range
Cupcake by Cotton and Crumbs

We stopped en route to see the lovely Tracy from Cotton and Crumbs who had so kindly made us some cupcakes for our display, one for each of our new range of stationery. We would like to say a huge thank you to her for creating these, they looked so beautiful and complimented our designs perfectly :) I would also like to thank Mama Twee who stepped in last minute and was a massive help - she made sure I was fed and watered all day long (thanks mum) and also enjoyed meeting all the brides and grooms who came along on the day!

So here are some photos from Vintage Twee's stand! (look out for our brand new items coming soon!) It was an extremely good turn out and we didn't get a chance to talk to many of the other exhibitors as there was a constant steam of excitable brides to talk to but it was lovely seeing the other companies - even if it was only brief!

 

 

Vintage Music Sheet Rose Bouquet, Table Plan Luggage Tags and NEW
Vintage Style Guestbook Postcards...coming soon!

 



Ditzy 50's Range - including favour boxes, menus,
table names and invitations



Vintage Travel Range - including suitcase favour boxes, menus,table names and invitations

 


For Richer, For Poorer Lottery Ticket Ring Holders
BRAND NEW and available to purchase through our Boutique soon!

 

 

Love is Sweet Cupcake Sticks and Royal Range Place Settings
Cupcake by Cotton and Crumbs

 

Pretty English Favour Boxes

All in all, a fantastic day was had at the Vintage Chic Wedding Fair and we are looking forward to attending the Autumn show towards the end of the year. (but no exposure to DIY or any form of power tool at least 2 months prior to this date..promise) xxxx

A fond farewell to Auntie Edith

 
Today's blog post has not been an easy one to write but it was very important that it was, as it is a special tribute to the person who was responsible for a lot of Vintage Twee's inspiration. Two weeks ago my Great Auntie Edith sadly passed away at 94 years old after a long and difficult struggle with dementia and multiple strokes. We will say goodbye to her on Monday 25^th March in her home town of Halifax, Yorkshire, where she lived and worked as a proud nurse and Matron for 40 years of her life.

 This is not meant to be a sad post, but more a chance to give thanks for the childhood memories that Auntie Edith gave myself and my sister Emma, on those lovely Sundays when mum and dad would take us there to visit her. We would always arrive as she was in the middle of baking her homemade butterfly cakes and scones, Emma and I bounding into the kitchen to see if she'd waited as always so we could help her prepare the antique tea trolley. We would load it up with fresh sandwiches and cakes, as well as her best vintage china, and then fight between ourselves to be the one who wheeled it into the lounge to serve everyone! And so from an early age, I had always loved the concept of afternoon tea and Auntie Edith was the person who taught me all about good old fashioned hostessing from as far back as I can remember.

Like myself, Auntie Edith was a true business woman whose career meant everything to her. She had a very kind and gentle nature and used this to help as many people as she could, progressing through a very successful nursing career and having the honour of being the last Matron of Halifax General Hospital. I would often smile at the stories she would repeat about the 1940s nurses that would try to sneak out of the hospital with their uniforms on but she always caught them...Or how she found out from a 5 year old little boy on her Burn's Unit that whenever she was off duty, the nurses would use her 'bestest teacups, them with the roses on' to enjoy lengthy tea breaks in her absence!

 

The four sisters as children - Auntie Edith (far right) and her 3 younger sisters (Grandma Twee next to her!)

The four sister as teenagers - left to right: Auntie Georgie, Auntie Irene, Auntie Edith and Grandma - Elizabeth!

The four sisters together - left to right: Auntie Irene, Auntie Edith, Grandma and Auntie Georgie

 

Christmas parties held the funniest memories and the best being the year when I was 9 years old...I planted my pet hamster into a box of party poppers which my mum had trusted me to hand around, in the hope to play a trick on Auntie Edith...you can imagine the trouble I got in when my hamster landed on her tweed skirt! She would also be the last one standing at any game we played, her favourite being Musical Chairs to which she would fight all the children off for the last chair in the room to win her annual bottle of sherry!

 

 

As if the Christmas party traumas weren't enough proof, Auntie Edith was an extremely strong, determined woman and, even when she resided in a nursing home for the last few years of her life with little sight and no memory, she never uttered a word of complaint. Despite her lack of awareness, I would still take her a balloon and cake on her birthday – when I asked her how old she thought she was, I would always get the same reply: '21 and a bit. But you dont tell anyone the bit'. (something I may have to use this upcoming August for the big 30...)

 

Auntie Edith's 92nd Birthday Celebrations with me and Mama Twee!

 

Monday will be a very sad day for all our family who loved and cherished this woman. Auntie Edith was not just my grandmas oldest sister, but more like a grandma to us herself, who gave us some wonderful childhood memories that partly led to the inspiration behind the creation of Vintage Twee today. She was a true lady, business woman, role model, caring auntie and the last surviving family member from that generation who we will love and miss dearly. Vintage Twee will be closed on Monday 25^th March 2013 as we say our goodbyes and raise a cup of tea and a scone in our Great Auntie Edith's treasured memory.

Auntie Edith's big 90 4 years ago with our family

 

Lights, Camera, Action!

Vintage Twee has been so excited to share with you the unique items which we recently created for a fabulous (and local!) Bride and Groom, Lauren and Ben. We met the lovely couple when they were planning their vintage movie themed wedding last year and we were delighted to go along to meet them and discuss some ideas of how we could contribute!

Lauren and Ben's wedding was on 9^th March 2013 at the stunning Manchester Monastery (so we can now reveal the items we created without spoiling the surprise for the guests!). Being huge film fans, their theme was old Hollywood style with a modern twist...with the stationery being based upon a collection of their favourite films. Think timeless black and white for the colour scheme, tall candleabras with white roses and tealights for the table décor and black satin and pearl detail throughout. Imagine Vintage Twee's creative mind ticking over with excitement at the possibilities...!!

With placecards, table names, a table plan, Guestbook, Order of Service and Menus to create for their 170 guests, we set to work designing something unique and fitting for a classically elegant wedding of this theme. Lauren and Ben wanted to incorporate stills and quotes from their favourite films which were to feature on the Table Names and Table Plan. We came up with a design that centred around an old movie reel – the table names were featured inside this with a watermark of the still shot from the film behind. Names included 'The Goonies', 'The Usual Suspects', 'Jurassic Park' and '24 Hour Party People' to name but a few!

 

 The table plan was a super A1 in size to accommodate all their guests and mounted into an ivory ornate frame. The header included repeated watermark quotes from their featured films behind their names and wedding date (my personal favourite: 'I've fallen for you like a blind roofer' – guess the film??!!) and the guests seating allocations were mounted onto luggage style tags which were

embellished with small pearl hearts. 

 

 

 

To continue the old movie style theme, we created some vintage ticket place cards to fit into clapperboard holders which Lauren and Ben had sourced themselves. These would have made any of their guests feel like a movie star when arriving at their seat! Finally we custom made the lovely couple a beautiful wedding guestbook, Order of Service cards and Menus along the same theme which, in all the excitement, we forgot to snap and therefore cant show you these today! Hopefully Lauren and Ben will have captured these for us and we can share them with you soon.

 

The best part of this order for us was being able to hand deliver it to the Bride and Groom to be as they are based just round the corner from Vintage Twee! It was so lovely to see them open everything and tell us that we had managed to capture the essence of their day perfectly – a true compliment to any designer. I would also like to thank them for being one of the most organised couples we have ever worked with – for such a large wedding with so many guests, it was impeccably organised and a joy to work on!

 

 

So hopefully this post has given inspiration to any brides and grooms planning an old Hollywood style wedding - watch this space as these items will soon be available to purchase via www.vintagetwee.com. There is however only one question left on my lips now Lauren and Ben's wedding has taken place....how did those guests react when they found themselves on 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' table?!!!!

Afternoon Twee with Laura and Toby...

After out last real wedding blog post and request for any photographs of Vintage Twee's contribution to your events, I received a fabulous email from one of the loveliest brides of last year, Laura, who sent me some fantastic pictures of our work in action! We were so pleased to see these (especially since Laura's wedding was the epitome of Twee...lace, pearls, cake and tea parties galore!) that we just had to share them to give this year's bride to be's some real life inspiration for the big day. Thank you to Nigel Gray Photography for these beautiful images (contact details at the end of this post) and of course, Laura and Toby who were married on 15^th June 2012 at Northbrook Park in Surrey.  

Laura and Toby ordered a variety of items from us which we created in their beautiful colour scheme which incorporated dusky pinks, turquoise and cream. They had touches of an Alice in Wonderland theme for their day, which meant lots of our infamous Eat Me Party Picks and Drink Me Tags - yey! We custom made these in a larger size for them to be tied around the necks of the wine bottles. We also adapted our popular Love Quote Flags to read quotes from Alice in Wonderland, and these were placed perfectly in vintage teacups provided by Teaspoon Events and stunning flower displays, created by Laura's friend Fiona Woolley.

 

 

 

 

We made some sweetie jar labels in dusky pink and ivory with a pearl heart embellishment and these featured on the jars of retro sweets on offer for the lucky guests. Our Doily Tags and cupcake sticks also decorated the delicious display of cupcakes, jammie dodgers (my all time childhood favourite!), biscuits and Victoria Sponge cakes, all made by Laura's mother in law Christine – and an amazing job she did!

 

 

Laura and Toby also had our Vintage Inspired Wedding Guestbook and Keepsake Box featuring on their guestbook table, which we customised with a special tag with their names and wedding date on there. Guests placed tags from their wish tree into the box which made a lovely keepsake for the couple and holds all their messages of love from friends and family. 

 

We so much enjoyed creating these items for Laura and Toby and these photographs from their wedding day illustrate perfectly how the smallest of details can add the finishing touches. We had to also show you photos of the little ones, Alfie and Charlie, who looked so cute in their Page Boy outfits with white plimsolls and socks – children at their finest :)

 

 

We loved working with Laura as she has an especially keen eye for design and details, having her own textile art business! Take a look at her website here: www.laurarosetextiles.co.uk

So a massive thank you to Laura and Toby for enabling Vintage Twee to add these special touches to your wedding day – we loved working with the colours so much it was one of those orders we were reluctant to let go of!!!! :)

Congratulations to you both on your wedding day!

Photography – Nigel Gray - nigel@grayphotography.co.uk

Venue – NorthbrookPark

Styling and Crockey – Teaspoon Events

Table Decor and Stationery – Vintage Twee!

Hair and Make Up - Sam Pearce

A Vintage Fairytale...

I wanted to write today's blog post as a special thank you to one of our lovely brides whose email made me smile from ear to ear when it popped into my inbox this week! Carla got in touch with some fabulous images of Vintage Twee's creations at her wedding, which took place last September with a vintage fairytale theme. It's not often we get to see our items 'in action' so to speak and so we are always grateful when people take the time to show us just how they were incorporated into their special day. So this piece is a massive thank you to Carla and Michael, who were married on 22^nd September 2012 at Warwick Castle. All images are by the fantastic Steve Gerrard Photography, and I think you'll agree that they are simply stunning!
 
Vintage Twee was lucky enough to create a number of fairytale themed items for Carla and Michael, including our Enchanted Fairytale FavourBoxes. These looked beautiful lay at the place settings of the guests, and fit perfectly amongst the gold and cream colour scheme of the day. The boxes contained little brown organza bags which were filled with special personalised M&Ms bought from Las Vegas on Carla's hen do – 22 of them to represent the date of the wedding, a beautiful idea! Carla also let us know that there were no boxes left on the tables at the end of the evening – music to our ears here at Vintage Twee! We love that people cherish our items as gifts, as well as décor, and take them home as a memento of the day.

 

 

 

We also had the pleasure of creating some bespoke lottery ticket holders for Carla and Mike, which incorporated the brown, gold and cream colour scheme and captured the magical essence of the day. These were placed inside bags and left at guest's place settings..unfortunately we didn't make any millionaires on the day but £30.00 between everyone was better than nothing!

Carla also requested some confetti cones to be created from the same fairytale paper that we made her other items from. These were printed with different sayings such as Happily Ever After, and Once Upon a Time and were embellished with a gold bow. They looked so beautiful placed in a basket for guests to take! Carla's mum also got creative with some additional fairytale paper we printed, and she made origami shapes for their wish tree and centrepieces! Each tree had a different shape to match the table name, such as 'Beauty and the Beast' which featured a rose and Carla displayed her table names in Italian to follow her dad's heritage. These are so lovely that perhaps Carla's mum would like a job here.... :)

 

Finally, Vintage Twee created our infamous cupcake sticks which were displayed in these beautiful cupcakes bought from Selfridges which looked absolutely delicious!

 

 

 

So a massive heartfelt thank you to Carla and Mike for sharing these photographs with us, they are simply stunning and all recognition goes to Steve Gerrard for capturing our items in such a fantastic way. And the best news for us?? Everything was so greatly appreciated that their guests made sure that none of the items were left behind at the end of the day, reassuring us at Vintage Twee HQ that our work is more than just a 'favour', it is a much loved keepsake, taken home and cherished as a reminder of a very special day.

Congratulations to Carla and Mike on their wedding and we wish you a lifetime of happiness together! Xxxx

 

 

Photography - Steve Gerrard

Cupcakes – Selfridges

Venue – Warwick Castle

Map Out Your Wedding Journey Vintage Style...

Ok, so one night off for the rock gig and it's back to work for Twee! We have spent the past few weeks developing our brand new 2013 ranges and it's finally time to share them with you! There's so many new additions to the collection that we thought it best to reveal a different one each week, starting with our completely unique (and eco friendly) Vintage Travel Range.

Save The Date Postcard

As mentioned a couple of posts ago, Vintage Twee has recently extended our range after many, many requests and is now creating handmade wedding invitations and Save the Date cards so we can meet all your stationery needs from start to finish!

Our Vintage Travel Range is perfect for anyone planning a travel or 1940s/war time themed wedding. This range captures a nostalgic feeling and authentic vintage appeal from the use of kraft browns, twine, old stamps and beautiful handwritten-type text. Our fabulous Save the Date cards are in the style of an old postcard and come with a lovely envelope to send them out to your guests in anticipation of the main invitation. These can then be followed by our vintage travel wedding invitations which are in the style of old tickets, with your main invite and rsvp card stored within the wallet. The front of the these have been designed using a vintage map from the late 1800s, old postcard text and stamp and finished with a hand tied twine bow to fasten the invitation wallet.

 

Vintage Travel Wedding Invitation

To continue your theme on the big day, we have our Vintage Travel Table Names and Menus, as well as our Luggage Tag Place Settings, which are perfect for anyone on a budget at just 99p each! Tie them onto napkin rings, teacups, cutlery or even just use them as venue decoration by displaying them on the handles of old suitcases!

 

 

 

Luggage Tag Place Settings

 

Vintage Travel Table Names

Vintage Travel Table Menus

 

Vintage Travel Individual Guest Menus

 

Suitcase Favour Boxes

We are especially proud of our extremely quirky 'Suitcase Favour Boxes', which have been handcrafted using a high quality Kraft cardstock and open for you to fill with a treat for your guests. They feature the vintage map illustration and will be printed with the bride and groom's names on the top. They also have a twine handle with a small tag attached which will be printed with your wedding date.

 

Why not save some money and use these favour boxes as your place settings too? They can be customised with your guests names printed either on the top or on the small tag! Do just email us for more information and a quote for this personalised service!

 

The Vintage Travel Range can be found on our website www.vintagetwee.com. If you would like to ask us anything at all, please don't hesitate to email us at joanne@vintagetwee.com

We hope this range has provided some inspiration for any vintage loving brides and grooms who are about to embark on the journey of planning a travel themed wedding!