With the distinct feel of spring in the air this past weekend, we passed a hectic but lovely couple of days at Bury Court for a pair of lavish events. As you know, Jacaranda are the approved caterers for this unique venue, so in addition to meeting a plethora of betrothed couples at the Wedding Extravaganza on Sunday, we also fed 160 guests for a very special meal on Saturday night.
We took great pride in catering this charity dinner in aid of the vital and important work carried out by Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice. In addition to the great food and huge amounts of money raised, the event also welcomed two Celebrity Big Brother winners, Alex Reid and fiancée Chantelle Houghton, who glowed with her expectant motherhood.
The Bury Court Wedding Extravaganza on Sunday couldn’t have been held on a more gorgeous, picturesque day. Jacaranda don’t tend to exhibit at many wedding fayres, but this one is so different to the usual run of the mill show that it’s a pleasure for us to be involved.
With a really nice mix of local suppliers we had the opportunity of catching up with a lot of our favourite vendors. Some of our preferred photographers were exhibiting, including Damian Bailey, Rob from Shooting Hip and Marcus Dodridge. A fabulous little café area on the mezzanine of the barn was a fantastic vantage point to look down on all the exhibitors whilst enjoying great coffee and cakes supplied by Kay from Coffee Charisma.
We were very fortunate to have our stand set up next to florist extraordinaire Jill Simm. In addition to providing floral inspiration and gorgeously scented blooms for brides and grooms, she also provided the table centre for our sample table set up, which really added an extra wow-factor! Of course, we couldn’t exhibit without plying our guests with food so we gave them demitasse shots of Jerusalem artichoke soup with cep mushroom dust and white truffle.
For something sweet, we also had a couple of mini puddings, including milk and white chocolate panna cotta and a rhubarb fruit jelly with lemon posset topped with crushed meringue. Just in case this wasn’t enough, there was also a hog roast on site for hungry grooms more concerned with their food than their favors!
The turnout was huge; we’ve never seen the car park at Bury Court so full! This may be in no small part due to the very strong vintage feel to a lot of the exhibitors, which is bang on trend for contemporary weddings. The Jacaranda boys got pretty excited about the display of vintage cars and there was also a bridal fashion show.
For us, the Wedding Extravaganza was a huge success because we were able to spend lots of time chatting to clients that have booked us for their weddings this summer. It was also the perfect opportunity to meet new clients who have not yet had the chance to come down to Jacaranda HQ in Midhurst, so we relished meeting them for the first time in such beautiful and inspiring surroundings.
The next major Bury Court Barn events will be the opera between the 9th and 17th March and the grand tasting evening on the 4th April, so watch this space for more details.