Blissful Bay Weddings

Last month I had the pleasure of attending a mid-week After 5’s Mini Wedding Expo event hosted by Salon One – The Cove in Tauranga.

This ‘cutting-edge’ Salon boasts a team of 9 super-friendly, experienced Hair & Beauty Therapists.

Their services cater beautifully to the modern bride, groom & bridal party; with Salon One being a one-stop shop for all you wedding beauty needs.  You will be amazed at the services & packages that can be tailor-made to your budget & requirements of your special day.  Their services include:

• Hair removal
• Eye Treatments
• Make-up
• Spray Tanning
• Paraffin
• Hands
• Eye Lash Extensions
• GO30 nails
• Feet
• Massage
• Facials
• Cosmetic Tattooing
• IPL
• Teeth Whitening

What I thought was particularly cool is that, your bridal experience with Salon One can begin as early as your Hen’s night.  You can get your girls together to enjoy a fun evening of wedding hair & make-up trials whilst sipping on wine, enjoying a few nibbles & having a few laughs with the Salon One Team.

After 5’s mini-wedding expo

The evening started at 5.30pm and I was greeted by the lovely Ang, Salon One’s Owner who kindly showed me to an office where I could relieve myself of hauling my monstrous handbag/bag of tricks.  She continued to show me around the surprisingly large premises of the Salon.  I was then introduced to Salon One’s wonderful new manager Chris Hamilton.  Chris spoke to me of her experience, which is not short of extensive; her 30 years in Hair & Beauty included time catering to the beauty needs of brides & grooms on the romantic Destinations Wedding Island of Vanuatu.  She also shared with me her desire to cater more to clients planning a wedding in the Bay of Plenty & Salon One plans on organising another Mini Wedding Expo later in the year to offer prospective brides & grooms the opportunity to see for themselves the extensive range of services & packages the salon has to offer.

While perusing the Salon & donning a glass of white wine offered to me on my arrival, I was impressed with the Space the Salon utilises.  Salon One is large enough to host a Hair-dressing Salon, adjoining Make-up Salon & additional rooms for massage & treatments known as the Beauty Rooms.  The Beauty rooms have adjoining doors that can be opened up to create one large room; very handy for a bridal party wanting to indulge simultaneously for a massage. 

The clean & modern internal surroundings of the Salon are aesthetically pleasing, with its high mono-pitched ceiling; black, white & chrome coloured furniture & fittings; and plentiful glass windows & doors.  This corner Salon situated at right end of Fraser Cove, Tauranga is definately a touch of class while maintaining a welcoming atmosphere at the same time.  I imagined the laughs and fun times that can be had here with a bustling crowd.  True to my estimations, once the crowds arrived for the mini-wedding expo, I was not left disappointed.

The crowds easily reached up to about 30 people including staff at any one time comfortably.  Guests got to enjoy the evening activities with wine & nibbles (catered by Lemongrass Catering Company); and availing themselves of a pampering by hair & beauty technicians.  As I walked through the Salon, I watched on intently as professional hair technicians busied themselves with ‘hair-ups’ & styling, whipping up stunning hair designs for both long & short hair in a matter of minutes.  Make-up artist Sam transformed guests with the range of Jane Iredale make-up cosmetics sold at the Salon.  Lucky guests also received massages & treatments in the Beauty Room.   And, if you are one that prefers to watch your technician mix hair colours, then you will be most pleased that this Salon hosts a large ‘kitchen’ area viewable for these preparations.

Check out the evening out for yourself:

 But this is certainly not where it ends.  The delicious nibbles made available to the punters that evening were provided by personal chef & caterer Belinda Lombard of Lemongrass Catering Company limited.  Specialising as a personal chef & caterer for corporate functions, weddings, themed events, cake decorating & adult & children’s parties; Belinda provided an array of truly tasty & delicious finger food to tantalise our tongues.  Belinda has spent 18 years as a Chef, with 15 years of experience overseas & 5 years in New Zealand.  And although she is a busy mum of 2 pre-school children, she still runs her business successfully & ensures she cooks great dishes for the family.

 Belinda provided delectable morsels for our tasting pleasure which was a superb introduction to what remarkable menu’s she could provide for your wedding reception. 

Lemongrass Catering Company Picture Board:

1. King Prawn & Chorizo Skewers with Paprika and Lime Aioli
2. B.L.T Pesto Stacks
3. Belinda Lombard
4. Whitebait & Prawn Fritters with Tartar Dressing & Pink Peppercorns
5. Thai Pork San Choy in Cucumber Cups
6. Belinda cooks!
7. Haloumi Cheese with Tomato Chutney on Sour Dough Crosini
8. Lemongrass Catering Promo Info

In summary – the food catered by Lemongrass Catering Company was delicious, timely & well presented.  It was such a pleasure meeting with Belinda & I can guarantee that she will leave you & your guests very happy customers.

 I also had the pleasure of meeting a few of our lovely local Wedding Industry Vendors

Left to right: Debbie Maguigan ‘Brides on Devonport’ – 2 years experience in Bridal Wear Design; Aaron Lang ‘Aaron Lang Photography’ – 10 years photography experience;  Christine Grant – Registered Marriage Celebrant with 9 years experience. 

 And last but not least, were the fantastic wee goodie bags packed with a variety of hair, face & nail products; chocolates & discount vouchers – kindly provided by Salon One that we all got to take home with us at the end of the evening – Who doesn’t love taking home some wee freebies that we can play around with at home?

So if you haven’t yet shortlisted your Hair & Makeup specialists & are still considering a Caterer; I tell you now, you will not go wrong leaving these aspects of your Wedding Day to Salon One & Lemongrass Catering Company.

Well, what to say? 

There has certainly been a lot going on of late including one particularly interesting wee project that was inspired via THE KNOT – 10k Wedding Budget Challenge.  This is a great idea to provide couples with relevant costs & information of their local wedding vendors.  So, I too, have jumped on this ‘band wagon’ to make available to couples in my area what the Bay of Plenty wedding industry has to offer.  Consider also how significant it is for many couples to monitor their wedding budgets, and being able to provide a means that enables couples to ‘tweak’ expenses to suit their wedding logistics & budget.  I hope to post my first ‘Under 10k Wedding Budget’ within the next 7 days.  So keep an eye out for it.

Other blog ideas I have been working on are real life “how were you proposed to” stories.  I hope to add a new story each month.  If you have a particularly interesting wedding proposal story that you would like to share with me to post on this website, I would be very keen to hear from you.

So on top of working on my website & business, there is still the usual routine of work & family; and then there is of course Social Media Networking via Twitter & Facebook.   Due to the holidays, admittedly I haven’t indulged myself to a more beneficial capacity as of late, though I still continue to enjoy networking with the many innovative and interesting people within these online communities & have recognised what a significant tool Social Media Networking is.

And there it is!  My ‘excuses’ for failing to post blogs more regularly … I hope you will forgive me.

There are very few people that do not love Candles for one reason or another.  They are such a versatile product that can be used for a variety of different purposes.

I have a preference for scented, natural Soy based candles over paraffin based candles & will explain shortly why.  The following is a wee list as to why we love candles & what purpose they are most commonly used:

• Ambiance: candle light can set scenes that can invoke a variety of different moods depending on the person, usually intimacy or romance, relaxation, health & even energy.
• Scent: If you use scented or essential oil candles, they can be lit to emit pleasant smells into the atmosphere, which may also invoke our senses in a positive way
• Relaxation: a lot of people light candles in the bath, the bedroom or any other room they are working in to stimulate or relax the mind.  I even enjoy lighting them in my office while I am working, sometimes when I look at the flames it calms my thoughts, which can stimulate & motivate my mind for added innovation
• Decoration: there is no doubt about it, when you walk into a room full of lit candles, there is no need for any other decorations – especially when candles are held in interesting & suitably specific candle holders. 

Considering the above, it is no wonder why candles are a popular wedding or formal decoration.

And, as they are enjoyed by so many people, they also make great Wedding Favours.

Last year I had the privilege of hosting a Soy Candle Party with The Soy Candle Company and was blown away by the huge range of Scents & Essential Oil based candles available to stimulate our senses.

Another interesting fact about Soy Candles, is that burning natural Soy Candles is a much healthier option over normal paraffin based candles; and Soy Candles burns at a much lower temperature (due to the lack of Petroleum based oils) and the melted scented Soy wax can easily be rubbed into your skin without burning you & leaves the most amazing scent & feel on your skin.

If you are interested in purchasing these wonderful candles for either a wedding, formal occasion or your own personal use, please feel free to contact me.  Or you may contact Sam Miles from The Soy Candle Company (formerly known as White Lites).

I can guarantee that after you have used Soy Candles, you’ll be reluctant to ever go back to using an non Soy based candle again.

Of Course the Bay of Plenty is a perfect to place to get married!!

The Bay of Plenty is well known for its beautiful beaches, gorgeous weather, spectacular scenery; & boasts a number of beachside & lakeside townships with great shopping boutiques, cafes, restaurants & entertainment.

The Bay of Plenty also boasts numerous Wedding Professionals & Services, from Romantic & ExclusiveVenues, Exotic & NativeFloral Designers & Talented Entertainers to Award-winning Cake Designers, Interesting & Enthusiastic Celebrants & Dedicated Wedding Planners - with all that and more in between.  There is nothing that cannot be supplied to you located right here in the Bay of Plenty to make your Wedding Day truly memorable.

Last year, the Bay of Plenty Region was the 5th most popular region in New Zealand with 1309 Registered Weddings.  In fact, in analysis of New Zealand Statistics, a ratio of 1:59 Weddings per population aged 20 – 44yrs occurred in the Bay of Plenty last year – so, big Up’s to the Bay of Plenty for being a popular & beautiful place to marry.

So come on people, there is so much to offer here in the Beautiful Bay of Plenty & one things for sure, you will fall in love with this awesome region & will be so pleased you chose to Wed here … you wont want to leave.

Be sure to keep an eye on this Website, a page is soon to be added with Wedding Pics had here in the truly Beautiful Bay of Plenty.

Dont you just love beautiful bright Gerberas?
Thanks so much to Best Blooms – Auckland NZ Florist – & just check out their gorgeous Wedding Gallery

http://bestblooms.co.nz/weddings.html