A Guest Post from Belle’s Events

Brighton, craft, Events, Hand Crafted, VintageNo comments

Today we have a guest post from Kelly who runs the fantastic Belle’s events. I visited her recent vintage wedding fair and bridal bazaar which were both wonderful events with such a great range of unique stall holders. Find out more about her…

“Early last year I was made redundant from a large American corporate company as a PA. It was the best thing that has ever happened to me. I sulked for approximately 3 minutes.

I took the opportunity, as many do when made redundant, to launch my own company, Joss, my husband and I bought Belle, a beautiful old VW Beetle and so Sussex love Bug was created in January of this year. Being married to a rather fantastic web developer was quite handy in this situation I must say as without him none of this could have happened.

Realising that Sussex Love Bug alone was not going to make me enough money I started looking for a little part time number to fit around my children, Jimmy 6 and Matilda 4. Luckily enough, and once again, thanks to Joss I landed a job at Hove Town Hall admin office. My boss asked me to run an event to get Hove Town Hall recognised as a great venue. I immediately thought about a wedding fair, I generally haven’t enjoyed the ones I have been to in the past and haven’t had great experiences showing Belle at them either. Obviously it was quite cheeky of me, but that’s the way I am, so I approached her about doing a vintage wedding fair where I could have the car out the front. After she had agreed I set my sites on creating not only a fantastic vintage wedding fair but also a great day out for brides and their wedding party.

After putting the adverts out for Belle’s Vintage Wedding Fair I soon enough had plenty of enquiries flooding in and excel, a former stranger to me became my new best friend.

So, Belles Vintage Wedding Fair at Hove Town Hall in May this year was my first event and it’s ‘fair’ to say, sorry, that is was a great success, I had plenty of fantastic feedback from suppliers and brides. I was so chuffed when over 500 wonderful, friendly people came through the doors, especially as it was the same day as the Children’s Parade in Brighton and it was bad weather. Most of the suppliers were asking me to do another one and I was receiving e-mails from brides disappointed that they had missed it and asking when was it happening again.

I think the reason it worked so well because all the suppliers had fun doing it, I don’t have many rules, just turn up, set up and enjoy the day. I would love to mention everyone that came but there are too many, we had photographers, stationers, dresses, milliners, entertainment, ice cream, free cava on entry, the beetle, live music, stylists, make up artists, cine film makers, a candy cart, a photo booth, the list goes on.

Since then I have held the second Belle’s Vintage Wedding Fair and the first Belle’s Bridal Bazaar at The Unitarian Church in Brighton. Next up are the two Christmas Boutique Markets, one in Shoreham, my home town on December 1^st and one on December 15^th at Brighton Centre, after that we have Belle’s Bridal Boot Fair on February 3^rd at the Rahhi Hall in Hove and then on to the Spring 2013 Wedding Fairs. I am taking bookings for all of these fairs apart from the Shoreham one as it is sold out.

As they say, large tree’s grow from small acorns and I am thrilled to say that the next chapter of Belle’s Events looks set to be Wedding Planning, I think the reason I am getting planning enquiries is due simply to the fact that I know a lot of unique, fantastically skilled wedding suppliers. January will see the launch of Belle’s Bridal Black Books, bespoke lists of suppliers for brides that don’t have time to trawl the Internet. Watch this space!”