London Wedding Planner

With the summer almost upon us, wedding planners around the country are gearing up for a busy wedding season, and for me this time of year is all about finalising details and creating schedules, lists and spreadsheets. However, we still need a bit of light relief from time to time from all this logistical planning, so a couple of weeks ago around 15 of us planners got together to combine work with pleasure for a fun evening of hat making with the lovely Katherine Elizabeth .

I first met award-winning hat designer Katherine at a bridal event in April, where she was exhibiting a selection of her gorgeous hats and fascinators. As well as creating beautiful head pieces for weddings and special events, Katherine also runs Mad Hatter Couture parties , where a group of friends can get together and make their very own fascinator.

Katherine explained how her hat parties are proving extremely popular with brides looking for something a little different to do for their hen party, and that can also involve mums and older relatives. I thought this sounded like a great way to spend an afternoon with your friends (plus you get to wear your own hand-made, unique fascinator on the big day!), and suggested to Katherine that it would be a lovely idea if us planners could experience it for ourselves and then tell our lovely brides all about it. Hence came about the wedding planners’ hat party!

We held our hat party at the Portal Restaurant in Clerkenwell, but you can hold it at Katherine’s studio, another venue of your choice or even your own home. The Portal were fabulous hosts, greeting us with champagne and providing canapés as we battled with needle and thread!

Our hat making table was beautifully laid out with all manner and colour of fabrics, buttons, ribbons, lace, feathers and sparkly jewels – we were like magpies, swooping down on all the pretty things in front of us!

Katherine started the evening by explaining the basics of putting together a fascinator, starting with the base piece and building up to incorporating dramatic feathers and accessorising with buttons and sparkles. This all sounded very straightforward, and Katherine made it look wonderfully easy, within minutes having pulled together brightly coloured ostrich and pheasant feathers for a design that wouldn’t look out of place at Ascot.

And then it was our turn, and believe me it wasn’t as easy as it looked! But it was so much fun! The couple of hours we spent picking out our items and painstakingly sewing them together went by so quickly, with much of the time spent giggling, cursing feathers that had a mind of their own and comparing each other’s sewing skills. It was great to spend time with so many fellow planners and to see their creative skills – there really were some very impressive designs!

I think Katherine’s hat parties are a brilliant way for brides to spend time with their friends and relatives – I just love the idea of a relaxed girly get-together where you actually get to take something away with you that you can wear at the wedding! And with a very reasonabe starting price of £38 per person (including all materials) there’s no reason why you can’t follow it up with dinner and a night on the town! But if you’re not the partying type, Katherine also offers add-ons such as afternoon tea or the services of Benefit make-up artist Fiona Tanner to make your experience even more special.

I had a great time at our hat party, so a huge thank you to Katherine for a lovely evening, and to The Portal for their hospitality. My final creation was a rather striking black and purple design that I was actually rather pleased with. What do you think?!

Photo Credits: Fanni Williams at Fubumedia

You might also find interesting:

• The Big I Do Redo
• Learning the Art of Floristry
• Wedding Planner Q&A – Paying For Bridesmaid Dresses
• Real Wedding – Katherine and Nic, Central London