I Do Wedding Awards 2017
How It Started
Back in January 2017 we received an e-mail to say we had been nominated for "Best Photobooth in the East Midlands" in the I Do Wedding Magazine awards.
Whilst we were over the moon we were a little dubious and not quite sure. We had seen a couple of instances where "awards" had been set up by a lone photographer with only one entry - them! However as we dug deeper into the voting system used by I Do Magazine we realised that its format is not based on everyone getting their best mates to vote but from people who actually use the services of the nominees. With this in mind we clicked on the "accept nomination" button and eagerly awaited the next step.
Shortly after we received a link to our nomination, mentioned it a couple of times on our Facebook page and sent one e-mail to each of our eligible couples asking if they would be kind enough to vote. Once this was done we carried on with work and family life as normal (well as normal as an Angelic life can be!).
Time To Party
Roll onwards to the evening of May 16th 2017 and Mr and Mrs Angelic found themselves with new hair, new clothes, new shoes, a couple of glasses of alcoholic beverage (a rarity with 4 little Angelics) and butterflies in our stomachs as we waited near the entrance to the Sheffield City Hall as finalists in our category.
The staff at I Do put on a great show. The room was beautifully decorated, the food was delicious and we shared a table with the lovely guys and gals from All Luv Dub , My Dream Photo and Beau Hair. Afterward we bought chocolate bars firstly in the hope of finding a golden ticket but more so to raise much needed funds for New Life to help change the lives of disabled and terminally ill children. With the help of Wedding Venue Lighting and their magic mirror over £2000 ended up being donated.
And So On To The Awards
And so - onto the awards themselves. We cheered for our industry friends as we heard who had won other categories and then ours......!
Mrs Angelic was convinced that, with so many other good companies in our category, our Vintage Booth didn't stand a chance of winning and she was just very pleased to be in the top five so imagine our absolute amazement and joy when we were named winners! The whole of our table cheered and we gleefully went and collected our award from Capital FMs Jojo and I Do Managing Director, Richard Wilson.
A Debt Of Gratitude
What an amazing, but also humbling night. Couples who had used our services in 2016/17 had taken time out of their busy lives to go and vote for us. They had emphatically stated that we were their number one. We are so grateful to everyone who took that time to vote.
We would also be very lax not to mention a trio of people that help make out tremendously.
The booth-multi-talented Craig can often be seen towing Ellie, our caravan photobooth around the Midlands or running one of our vintage booths whilst Lauren usually comes as a pair with Mick for our vintage photo booth or with Richard if a wedding needs shooting.
Our "Booth Butlers" are fabulous and their energy, drive and enthusiasm continue to drive us onward and upward. We owe them a debt of gratitude for this awesome win which belongs as much to them, and to our customers who have kindly voted, as to us.
Lauren, Craig and Mick - go Team Vintage #prayforthetrophy
Wedding Festival On The Hill
It isn't often Mrs Angelic gets to play in the sunshine as part of a wedding fair but yesterday she did just that. Donning her Vintage Booth hat she took one of our Vintage Photobooths to East Bridgford Hill to take part in their "Wedding Festival On The Hill". The brainchild of Emma and Amanda (owner and co-ordinator) it involved a couple "renewing their vows" coupled with exhibitors attending as suppliers to that renewal. As a quirky idea it worked really well.
Preparations:
Future brides and grooms attended as guests of the couple renewing their vows generally staying for the majority of the day. The grooms took themselves out to the sun-drenched rear lawns and relaxed with a drink from Boxed Drinks' Horsebox Bar.
They tried their hand at Clay Pigeon Shooting and croquet meanwhile their brides were able to watch the skills of make up artists and hairdressers at work. These skills were provided by Alison and Barbara for hair, Blush Moments for make up whilst Shade Bridal, Daisy Dresses and Giulia provided beautiful dresses and hats.
The Ceremony:
Guests and exhibitors all congregated to watch the ceremony charmingly conducted by Ali accompanied by ARK Angel and The Nottinghamshire Harpist. The music provided a beautiful addition to the renewal service and all the guests joined in with the spirit of the festival creating a lovely atmosphere worthy of a real celebration.
Festival Entertainment:
Once the ceremony had been completed guests had the opportunity to take part in the entertainment that had been provided as part of the festival. As well as our gorgeous Photobooth they could take a ride in Betty or Bertie around the village, dabble on the blackjack table or have a boogie. Guests could chat about dynamic displays, watch the lovely calligraphy talents of Danielle Lummis and marvel at the truly quintissential English floral work of Daisy Works all whilst nibbling on delightful canapes and listening to the gramaphones playing their records.
We weren't exhibiting the wedding photography as Angelic Photo but it was lovely to meet up with the talented Mike and the quirky Hannah as they bustled about capturing the renewal....and some gorgeous gluten free cake!
Mr Angelic had been lucky enough to attend the "Swing On The Hill" event held the night before and, as always, he had his trusty Canon camera to hand to capture some images of the evening at this gorgeous Nottinghamshire venue. We will leave you with a sample of the images he captured so you can judge for yourselves.
Wedding Madness Continues!
Traditionally July, August and September is classed as wedding season with those three months often being the busiest for marriages. More recently though, with July and August no longer guaranteeing the dry weather October has started to tag itself onto the madness. The weather has been consistently dryer albeit a little chillier and more couples are looking to tie the knot during the tenth month.
For us here at Angelic and Booths HQ it is a manically busy month. This weekend alone has seen us at two weddings both with photo booths, two wedding fairs and a standalone Vintage Photobooth (which is still out working as we type).
Friday saw Mr and Mrs Angelic at Shearsby Bath in Bruntingthorpe for the wedding of Gemma & Tom. They had booked us on our most popular package which covers both bridal and groom preparation up to the first dance and also had one of our vintage booths as part of the evening entertainment. The civil ceremony took place in the Old Spa Room with its tree of wishes in the corner - a lovely idea that Mrs Angelic may just steal when we get settled into our new home (one day!) and we then shot the formal shots in the gardens just outside the fountain marquee. There may not have been many guests but they certainly kept us on our toes. We were extremely honoured to have been included on the table plan for the wedding breakfast and that placed us perfectly for the speeches. An early cake cutting (cake was being served with teas and coffees) left us with just the first dance to do as a formality and we then had a great time with the photobooth to end the day.
Saturday had us travelling to Market Harborough where Mrs Angelic met up with Charlotte and her supporting cast at Wainwrights as hair and make up was completed and Mr Angelic headed over to take Ellie, our caravan photobooth, to the reception venue at The Big Barn, Ashley where he met up with our groom, Alex. We then completed preparation shots back at Charlotte's parents' house before we made our way over to one of the most ornate Anglican churches we have been in for a while. Listening to the choir as they sang their hearts out beautifully for their first performance it was a joy to photograph at St Mary The Virgin church. The day was full of laughter, madness and a lot of love and again we were treated to food in the barn with another early cake cutting. Finishing off the evening Ellie proved extremely popular yet again and was continually busy.
Sunday saw Mr Angelic taking Ellie to Boughton House as part of Silver Linings wedding fairs and Craig took our vintage booth to Dunchurch Park as part of My Fair Weddings fairs and we have already had phone calls enquiring about availability or bookings and Strictly Come Dancing hasn't even started yet!!!
Lauren is still out at her big event at Keythorpe Manor for Kiran & Kulwinder so we can't really say much but we do understand that the booth is being well used.
To all of our brides and grooms this weekend we wish you huge congratulations and many years of happiness, health and love to come....
Now if you can hear snoring coming loudly from the corner it might just be Mrs Angelic (if Baby Angelic lets her!).
Time Flies When You Are Having Fun
Many months ago the ever so lovely Mr Angelic designed a new website for our wedding photography business and we were going to be very good and put lots of blog posts on to let everyone know what we have been up to.
As you can see by our very clean and empty blog life got a little bit crazy and it didn't quite happen so Mrs Angelic has decided that we need to be much better at this social lark so here we go.....our first post of our brand spanking new blog.
So what has been occurring? In the words from The Sound Of Music - Let's start at the very beginning.....of 2016.
2016 has been a year of growth for the Angelics - in every way possible.
As some of you may know we also own and run our quirky photo booth company - Booths Dot Co - with our distinct looking vintage photobooths and Ellie our caravan photobooth. This has kept us extremely busy with booths going, literally, across the country to some rather amazing venues and events. We will eventually set up a blog over on that site as well but one step at a time..... :D We have some fantastic ideas for the future growth of this side of the business and you can keep up to date about our newest builds as they happen by liking our Facebook page.
We have taken on two people to work alongside us with both the booths and the wedding photography partly because of how busy we have become but also partly because as well as our business growing our family has also grown and we now have a nearly 8 month old Little Angelic to keep the older Little Angelics on the run. Lauren has taken over some of the mantle of the photography from Mrs Angelic and has been doing a cracking job as we hit our busiest year ever for weddings whilst Craig has become an extremely able and well-liked booth attendant.
Angelic Photography itself has gone from strength to strength with us travelling the Midlands and further afield to some stunning venues including the beautiful Hothorpe Hall & The Woodlands, Swancar Farm Country House, Hellidon Lakes and The Tythe Barn, Launton to name but a few. We are always extremely grateful to be invited to capture one of the most important days of a couple's life and are very lucky that we go to some fabulous venues such as these.
We have worked with many wonderful suppliers and Mrs Angelic aims to try and do some blogging about these over the course of time as they certainly deserve recognition. Keep an eye open for her "Quality Questions" that she will be starting very soon.
Corporate-wise we have worked with some brilliant companies over the last year - from having the fantastic opportunity to work at the ITV Gala to our "Santa Shoot" with Howdens Joinery Company - and this side also continues to go from strength to strength as we work alongside some very good event planners.
And the future?
Well immediately Mrs Angelic is EXTREMELY excited to be working at the wonderfully regal St Paul's Cathedral this month before we leave a seriously busy Summer season and hit an almost as busy Christmas season.