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Morning and happy Monday to you :-) To start the week off, what better way than to get to know a top professional live band, The New Breed.
Sophie the lead singer of The Néw Breed has had an impressive and diverse career in music, and now leads The New Breed, who provide live musical entertainment for events. with over 1300 weddings under their belt what better choice can there be for your wedding entertainment.
I do so love live music, you can’t beat it. Read on for more about The New Breed, and some great tips about choosing a live band for your wedding.
{w} Hi Sophie, could you tell readers a little bit about you?
I am the singer and leader of The New Breed, a full time professional band supplying live music for weddings and corporate events. We have performed at over 1,300 weddings across the UK and offer a very wide range of music. This ranges from intimate jazz and swing ideal for the wedding ceremony or wedding breakfast, through to the full band performing a wide selection of soul, Motown, rock and pop for the evening reception.
{w} What do you like/dislike about your job?
My work is varied, unpredictable and consequently very exciting! I get to meet different people enjoying some of their happiest moments literally every week. My career involves traveling across the UK and abroad. I therefore get to see and perform at some of the most beautiful and prestigious venues in the world. I was lucky enough to be the very first artist to perform at London’s O2 Arena upon its opening which I am very proud of! I beat Bön Jovi to the stage by a week!!
What I hate most.….the long journeys to and from home and getting stuck in traffic. The irregular eating patterns aren’t great either. I don’t have a weekend social life as this is the busiest time for bands so I miss out on a lot of parties and celebrations. It’s quite strange to stop and think about it actually, I am out every week celebrating with people who are complete strangers!
{w} How did you get into music and into the wedding industry?
I started my career as an actress and worked with Matt Lucas in the National Youth Theatre. After some time in the theatre I decided that singing was what I really wanted to do. I went professional at the age of 22 and parties, weddings and tours all over the world suddenly became my reality! My life is never dull. I have recorded 4 albums, written for film, featured on many TV documentaries and have supported such diverse acts as The Sugababes, McFly and Will Young.
Morning {www}ers… i have something fresh and exciting to share with you this morning.
Appy Couple is a smart phone app dedicated to helping couples share their wedding information, whist having fun. Not only do you get an app but you also get a free coördinated wedding website too. Where you can share images and receive RSVPs all through your phone, on the go.
The app is not only super stylish with many design options, but really easy to use and totally accessible.
And the best part? Limited {www} readers can use it for free! Wohoooo… just use the invitation code: WWWSP1
{w} Hi girls, could you firstly tell {www} readers a little bit about you?
We’re Sharmeen Mitha and Susanne Dunlap, co-founders of a tech startup in NY called Appy Couple. We wanted to give engaged couples an awesome, gorgeous way to easily share the information and excitement of their wedding—from the engagement to the honeymoon and beyond. So we created our super-easy service that lets them customize and publish their own mobile wedding app to share with guests, family and friends.
{w} What do you love/dislike about your job?
Being in a tech startup is amazing. Seeing something go from idea to reality is a real thrill! And getting great feedback from couples who are already using Appy Couple is the best reward of all.
{w} How did you get into the wedding industry?
We sort of fell into the wedding industry because we saw a need for what we wanted to create. We’ve been to lots of family weddings recently, and wanted to find a way to take some of the stress off of brides and grooms, and make it easy for them to share information, pictures, get RSVPs etc.
I have something a little different to share this afternoon, and i hope you enjoy it. I was contacted by floral genius Emma Lappin asking if I would be interested in sharing the following film.
It’s great as it shares how a florist sets up and creates the wedding reception décor for a couple… something we otherwise would never see. And I am ever so interested to see how hard wedding vendors work for us behind the scenes so to speak.
The wedding industry after all is a service dominated industry, so I think it’s nice for you to be able to see the work behind such an event. Plus its super duper pretty :-))
As you watch this, just imagine the bride getting ready, with no idea of all the brilliant vendors she has on board getting everything just so for her and her fiancé :-)
Here is what Emma had to say…
“I met Kayleigh last year, when she invited me to her parents house to talk about her wedding. It was in the most stunning rolling Hampshire countryside, the house being surrounded by very pretty woodland. As soon as I met her I knew that the scheme would be fun, colourful and tree inspired. The first thing she did was show me her design for her invitations which was the silhouette of a big oak tree. It was going to be a big wedding –180 guests, but we wanted to create an intimate atmosphere. Both Kayleigh and Jack have big personalities and so deep bright colours suited them perfectly. So we designed a scheme incorporating all of these aspects and created a magical woodland inspired scene that created the most gorgeous atmosphere and backdrop to their celebrations.
We decided banqueting style tables would be more fun for guests and more in keeping with the scheme. We ran 100 metres of hessian down the tables to create rustic table runners and take away the whiteness of the table cloths. We added over 1000 candles to the tables and 140 table arrangements in a mix of bark lined, moss lined and reed pots. The flowers were designed to have colour impact but to keep a natural feel, we used roses, clematis, berries, ranunculus and plenty of wild foliage. We lined the barn with olive trees, the closest looking to deciduous trees in November that still had leaves on. We back lit them with purple uplighters. Kayleigh created her own table numbers painting bark she had stripped from logs from the wood store. We used wooden hearts hung on the back of chairs for place names and created a wonderful centre piece in the barn using larch branches with hanging bauble tea lights, wooden hearts and wired roses, which later became a wishing tree.
We were really lucky to have Tony Whitmore come along to photograph what turned out to be quite an epic project for us. He decided that it would be a good idea to video some behind the scenes footage and this short film is the wonderful result.”
Film by Tony Whitmore
Whilst we are feeling the cold, and the dark nights… we can only dream of warmer weather in the UK. But we can dream and begin planning travels for the future.
Exsus Luxury Holidays create the most amazing bespoke holidays all over the world and in Africa… with luxury honeymoons being one of their specialities, read on for more…
Hi, could you firstly tell our readers a little bit about you?
I studied for a degree at Edinburgh University (accompanied by my dog, who has his own degree scroll). Afterwards, the real world called, and I spent five lovely years planning luxury African adventures from the Cotswolds. Since January, I’ve been enjoying the buzz of big city life in London, where I run the Africa department at Exsus Luxury Holidays.
How did you get into the travel industry?
I lived in Tanzania for a year, and spent much of my time exploring, from the top of Kilimanjaro to the plains of the Serengeti, via some seriously beautiful beaches on Zanzibar. During my time here, I fell head over heels with Africa, so when the time came to getting a job, luxury travel seemed just the ticket. A six week research trip followed, complete with luxury tree houses and gin and tonic in starlit bathtubs– after that I never looked back.
What does Africa have to offer honeymooners?
Most honeymooners really need to relax after all the work (and partying) involved in a wedding, so it’s crucial to have somewhere that you can totally wind down. Africa’s brilliant at this, from gorgeous private islands in the Indian Ocean to beautiful wilderness spas.
I was so excited when The UK Alliance of Wedding Planners contacted me about becoming a part of the {www} family. This fantastic industry body is a well regarded resource in the wedding industry. Whether you are a bride to be looking for a wedding planner, or a wedding planner looking for training, they are here to help. Without further ado, let me introduce you to the lovely ladies that founded and run UKAWP.…
{w} Hi UKAWP, could you firstly tell {www} readers a little bit about you?
The UK Alliance of Wedding Planners was founded for one purpose: to promote professionalism in wedding planning. This is done through membership, mentoring, training courses and specialised events. The UKAWP is owned and run by three like-minded wedding planners who are passionate about the industry and each run a small but successful wedding planning business of their own. Bernadette Chapman, Sandy Moretta and Kelly Chandler regularly feature in the media and are widely recommended by established planners, industry professionals and training providers as being a dedicated and practical Alliance for all wedding planners, established and new. Each of the directors has approximately 9 years experience running UK-based wedding planning businesses and have run the Alliance together since May 2006.
{w} What do you love/dislike about your job?
Each of us brings a different take on weddings; we have complementary experiences and operate in different areas, but all three are committed to promoting professionalism and good and honest business practice in this field. We firmly believe that being operational wedding planners and knowing the day-to-day of the job enables us to run the Alliance successfully, train new potential planners and nurture and support members.
{w} How did you get into the wedding industry?
We each came to wedding planning from different backgrounds – one a PA, one an Events Manager and one from Marketing, but each of us has the same approach to wedding planning in that we are highly professional and want to help other planners become as professional as possible in an otherwise unregulated industry
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