An Autumn Barn Dance for Leon Restaurants

This weekend we opened the barn doors of Splendid Days HQ to host an event for Leon restaurants, London. Leon is owned by John Vincent and Henry Dimbleby and it`s a fantastic chain of restaurants that specialise in healthy but delicious fast food. Knowing we were being asked to do this by two discerning foodies was a great compliment! Do visit their fabulous website and take a look at what they are up to and if you are ever in London drop by -the food is delicious !www.leonrestaurants.co.uk 

The brief was an Autumn barndance with masses of bunting and lashings of cream tea and hot mulled cider and the event was a prize for one of their very lucky customers.We don`t do anything by halves here at Splendid Days and couldn`t wait stuck into styling and planning the event.Venue, food, flowers, planning, styling and set up were all by Splendid Days and everything came together fabulously on the night! 

The theming was rustic with straw bales and old apple crates dotted around the barn topped with red cushions.Richly coloured flowers were mixed with hedgerow finds of holly and wild sloe and chunky church candles were displayed in our zinc buckets tied with red gingham ribbon .A touch of vintage glamour was added by using our glass cake stands and our bunting handmade from vintage fabrics was the essential finishing touch!

 

We provided a delicious array of layer cakes, meringues, fluffy scones and jam with cream and a variety of yummy flavours of cupcakes .
 

 

Pictured above are cherry and almond sponge cupcakes with a cherry filling .We also made toffee apple cupcakes -an apple sponge topped spread liberally with cinnamon butter icing and topped with a final layer of toffee sauce and fresh apple slices .The final flavour was the Splendid Days classic -blueberry and cream cupcakes - a vanilla sponge with a blueberry jam suprise filling topped with vanilla cream and decorated with fresh blueberries .The cakes were served on vintage plates in a variety of pretty patterns  and our glass cake stands. 

Hot steaming mulled cider was served from our fabulous vintage punchbowl and soon warmed up the guests as the snow fell .

 

The band arrived and they soon had everybody dancing the night away ,when it all got too hot guests retreated to the garden to sit on the straw bales surrounding the log fire fire pit .If you are looking for a fantastic band to make your event go with a swing I would highly recommend them .(They are called Tight Squeeze,web address to follow) 

All in all we really enjoyed putting this event together and using our vintage wares to give it an authentic feel. If you would like help pulling off a fantastic event of your own or would like to hire some of our vintage goodies then do give us a call as we would love to help! 
Sally x

Wonderful Wiston

This weekend I exhibited at the fabulous Wiston House in Steyning .
What a stunning venue it is, with its sweeping long driveway through park like grounds populated by grazing sheep and wild deer.If you are hankering after a Jane Austin style wedding then this could be the place for you! 

This is me setting up the display which took ages as I couldn`t decide which pieces to leave at home and so came with boxes and boxes of goodies.Luckily I had trusty assistant Pam with me to help!

The finished result! 

How lucky to be in front of the most gorgeous fireplace and mirror.

The view through the window opposite overlooks the beautiful grounds.

 

This is a close up of some of the blue and white vintage crockery collection. Some of the brides and grooms looking around seemed to be rather taken with the idea of having blue and white crockery on their big day.

I don`t know any other hire companies with a huge collection of vintage blue and white crockery to hire so if you want to set the trend now is your chance! It`s all very Ralph Lauren!

 

Pictured above are some of the delicious raspberry and vanilla buttercream cupcakes, these didn`t last long and although I turned up with 125 I left home with only 2! 
All in all we had a fabulous day.
Thank you to Amanda Deane at  Wiston House for the very kind invitation and thanks to everyone who stopped by our stand to say hello and have a look at the vintage crockery.
Do get in touch if you decide to go vintage as we would love to help make your day Splendid !
Sally x