We’re halfway through 2016 now, so we thought it’d be a
good idea to write our ‘Review of the Year…so far’. Why? Because our year has
been absolutely awesome with thousands of you visiting our shows, reading our
magazine, downloading our App, browsing our website, voting in our Awards…
You, our engaged couples, have made these last six months so amazing that we feel we need to savour just exactly what you have helped Little White
Books achieve so far this year – helping us make your wedding planning simple,
fuss-free and fun!
It’s fair to say that the planning stages of our 2016
Spring season actually began in Summer 2015, and it was on a gloriously warm,
blue-skied Summers day that the dates of 9 & 10th January were set for our
Teepee Wedding Fair at Eaves Hall, Clitheroe. Back then, I think our biggest
concern might have been snow – but we could cope with that because the Ribble
Valley probably has the best snow-clearing procedures in place – and what’s
more, we would have the minibus shuttling our visitors up to the Hall all day.
What we didn’t forecast was one of the wettest Winters on record – not just
rain, but rain, floods and more persistent rain all over Christmas and in the
run up to our Eaves Hall show.
It wasn’t an issue for the teepees though and the four
teepee build by Teepee Tent Hire began on the Wednesday. Three days later, and
we’re ready to greet our visitors. What an incredible start to our season.
Forty of the regions’ leading wedding suppliers – many of them award-winning –
all under one (canvas) roof – and you began arriving in your hundreds. It’s all
too easy to organise a teepee or marquee event in the Summer – try organising
one in January – and we nailed it! Eaves Hall itself was a stunning wedding
haven, dressed and showcased by Creative Cover Hire and Red Floral Architecture. Over the two days we all welcomed over 500 brides & grooms
and over 1250 visitors. Absolutely awesome.
So as the weeks passed, each wedding fair was breaking
all records. We know you visit our fairs because you will meet a variety of
suppliers – all fantastic, easy to deal with, talented local exhibitors; and you know you
can visit several of our wedding fairs because you’ll meet lots of different
businesses at each event because we don’t work with all the same faces. This is
wedding planning made easy!
Even our social media posts were going viral – remember
the Rapping Bridesmaid? You saw it on the Little White Books Facebook page
first! And the live wedding proposal on Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night
Takeaway? On our page within minutes!
This season saw Little White Books cover four counties –
Cheshire, Lancashire, Merseyside and West Yorkshire – with busy shows in each
area! And every bride that visited our wedding fairs received a free copy of
our 200 page wedding magazine, and one of our large cotton goody bags too,
again for free. Lots of you also received extra goodies such as our fab exclusive
Wedding Planners and natural petal confetti from Shropshire Petals. And then there was the time that we
invited the Teepees to Towneley Hall in Burnley on Valentine’s Day and we gifted our first 100 brides with a red rose and chocolates. We fully appreciate the
time you spend with us and we love making the experience of our wedding fairs
fun and enjoyable.
We relaunched our Wedding Blog and renamed it as the
‘Great Northern Bride Blog‘ in recognition that all our brides are Great
Northern Brides! It also ties in nicely with our biggest show, the Great
Northern Wedding Show and our Great Northern Wedding Awards. More to follow…
We launched a free to download wedding planning App, and
in the first four weeks of launch over 1000 of you had downloaded our App,
absolutely free. Not got it yet? Search LWB Wedding Planner on App Store or
Google Play and start planning now. Make notes, choose your favourite
suppliers, save important events, plan your budget – this App is a dream!
April’s Great Northern Wedding Show – wow. Another
phenomenal event. And we have you to thank for this. In three years of
organising the show it’s the first time we’ve had rain but you still queued in
your hundreds around Bolton Arena, patiently waiting to meet over 120 brilliant
wedding businesses. Two standing room-only catwalk shows, a packed house at the
3pm Alternative Catwalk with Legend Bridal, and an Arena packed full of
Prosecco, great food and endless wedding inspiration. Over 1000 engaged couples
and over 3500 visitors, this is one immensely popular day out. This show is
HUGE and it’s free when you pre-register before the day. We’re back at the
Arena on Sunday 18th September – pre-register for free entry now, and for those that missed April’s show – watch our mini-movie here, courtesy of Wedding Films by FreezeFrame
Our Spring season finale shows took place at the DW Stadium and the Lowry Theatre – two brand new venues for us and your support for these events was again just humbling. We could not have wished for better shows to round off our Spring season. Thankyou to ALL of you that have joined us at our wedding fairs. We are so proud to work with not
only the best wedding suppliers in the North West, but the best Wedding Venues
in the North West too. Many of these venues and suppliers are award-winning,
which brings us nicely onto our Great Northern Wedding Awards 2016. Representing
the ultimate wedding businesses throughout our region, we’ve seen our engaged
couples eagerly waiting for this year’s results. We received over 10,000
individual nominations and votes this year and your winners are announced here.
So, what does the rest of 2016 have in store?
Our new Little White Books magazine is out soon and our launch evening is on Wednesday 20th July at our popular Ashfield House wedding fair.
Our wedding fairs begin once again in late Summer with Beeston Manor, Mercure Haydock and the Village Hotel in Bury all kickstarting our season on Sunday 4th September.
The Great Northern Wedding Show returns to Bolton Arena on Sunday 18th September and we have some important news to exclusively share with you here – our catwalk shows will include an unrivalled collection of plus size gowns and better still, we have the Winner of the 2015 Plus Size Bridal Awards Edith & Winston Bridalwear on the catwalk together with Great Northern Wedding Awards finalist bridalwear retailer, Bridalwear by Emma Louise. Our show is the ONLY show in whole of the North to feature classic bridal collections on our catwalks together with collections for the curvy bride and the alternative bride, as well as occasionwear and formal hire. Entry is free but only when you pre-register before the day – here’s the link you need
We are thrilled to announce we will be hosting an Autumn Wedding Spectacular at Mitton Hall on Sunday 9th October where you can create your own Love Story with Mitton Hall and Little White Books. In addition to receiving a free wedding magazine and free goody bag, our first 250 brides will also receive a full colour show guide encorporating a bespoke wedding planner. And we’ll be introducing ‘Groom Service’ – all Grooms will receive their very own wedding planner tailored to the Groom, plus the first 100 Grooms on the day will receive their very own man-goody-bag!
Thank you so much for making Little White Books part of your wedding planning, and we cannot WAIT to see you again very, very soon!
