Vintage Tea Party

Lavinia's Tea Party (who did the most amazing job with our tearoom at The Cotswolds Vintage Fair) are hosting a Vintage Pamper and Tea Party on the 18th September.

It is being held at Somewhere Else, 65 Castle Street, Cirencester GL7 1QD, 5pm ~ 8.30pm.

Tickets cost £6 plus 50p online booking fee. Tickets are limited so buy now and collect on the door.

On arrival you will receive tea and cake (inc. in the ticket price) served on Lavinia's collection of gorgeous vintage china and tiered cake stands.

On hand will be stylists and beauticians to glam you up in vintage styles, all for £5 a treatment, including:

Vintage 'hair do's' from Vintage Hair Art
Vintage make-overs from Limelight Image Consultancy
Vintage manicures- get the half moon style as worn by Dita Von Teese.

The vintage shopping will include stalls selling: clothes, jewellery, hats, buttons, lace, glassware, bunting and more.

Included in the ticket there will be a Stroll Swing dance lesson, (a solo dance so no partners required), by Swingbytes Dance.

If thats not enough you will be taken back in time with a cabaret performance and DJ playing original 1950's vinyl records!

2-4-1 cocktails 5pm-7pm
Immerse yourself in vintage goodness, 1940s and 1950's dress- optional!

I'm going to try and get there if I can!

Ali x

An amazing day...

A big thank you (huge!) to all the stallholders who participated in the fair on Saturday and for supporting me in my new venture organising a vintage event! I was amazed at the variety of goods on offer and the beautiful and unique displays that you all put together so wonderfully. I really appreciate all of the time and energy this takes, but the results were so worth it!

The feedback from customers who visited (final count ~ 1200 of them!) was also amazing ~ I think that the high quality of stalls was very much noticed and appreciated and I could see armfuls of purchases leaving the building...

The number of visitors exceeded my hopes and expectations and yes, there were queues, full tea tables and a very busy car park, but all in all I'm am so grateful for those that supported us, took notice of the advertising and PR and got in their cars and drove (some quite a distance!) to our village hall in the middle of nowhere! So, an even bigger 'thank you' to our customers!

Lastly an enormous 'thank you' to Lavinia's Tea Party for managing to keep calm and provide our visitors with a steady stream of cakes, sandwiches and teas, all served on pretty vintage china, I don't think any of us were quite prepared for such a busy day!

I managed to take a few photos in the minutes before we opened, I apologise if your stall hasn't been included but I ran out of time as usual! I know that some of the stallholders including Viv at Hen's Teeth, Jo at Hesta Nesta and TabbyRoo have also blogged about the fair!



Until the next one....I will keep you posted when I have recovered from this one!

Ali x

At Home in Winchcombe

Winchcombe is a delightful small town very near to Toddington where The Vintage Cotswolds Fair is taking place. If you are visiting the area over the bank holiday weekend, it would be a perfect opportunity to visit the 'At Home in Winchcombe' exhibition which is open until the Monday 29th August.

Karen Cull, an interior stylist and co~owner with her husband of Anton & K Decorative Living in Winchcombe (who also happen to have a stall at The Cotswolds Vintage Fair!) has created a series of room settings at the Winds of Change Gallery. Karen has selected a range of contemporary and period furnishings, fine art and decorative pieces from businesses within the town ~ a wonderful way for retailers to work together offering customers and visitors the opportunity to gain inspiration on how to achieve an individual look by combining the old and the new. Best of all, the items on display can all be found within a short walking distance in the town.


Winds Of Change Gallery
Broadway Road
Winchcombe
Glos. GL54 5HT
Tel. 01242 603 836
www.windsofchangegallery.co.uk

Homes & Antiques Magazine Top Pick

BBC Homes & Antiques magazine have given us a lovely spot in their latest issue ~ we are their 'Pick of the Month' of events to visit during August!

The August issue is the first magazine published with its revamped look and content ~ a really great issue to be in as the subtitle they have given it is 'The Vintage Issue'!

Readers can bring along the page from the magazine for 1 free entry to the fair...

Editorial News

A couple of snippets to share with you ~

Good Homes magazine has given us a lovely editorial piece in the current issue (August) which has just been published promoting the event.

Also out this month ~ BBC Homes & Antiques magazine have featured us in their events listings for August. Readers can bring along the page from the magazine to take advantage of free entry for one person on the day. Once I get a copy of the magazine I will update this post with a photo.

Approximately 50 press releases were sent out in May ~ these are the two publications that I currently know about that have printed editorial for the event. If there are any other magazines that you read and you see the event mentioned, do please let me know!

My next PR campaign will be focused on the local press including the weekly newspapers, followed in August by local businesses with postcards and posters. I shall be sending out postcard flyers to all stallholders next week in the post ~ these can be sent to your own customer database, given out at other events or displayed in your shop!

Ali x

Marquees & Teas

Thanks to everyone for returning booking forms and for such a great response! As there were more stallholders than spaces, I have taken the plunge and arranged for a marquee to be erected to accommodate more sellers...most of the spaces have now been filled in there too...an updated list of stallholders can be seen on the side of the blog ~ we have got some fabulous vintage loveliness coming to the fair...

I am also very pleased to announce that Lavinia's Tea Party (Cotswolds based) will be hosting the tea room. Lavinia is an expert in 'pop up tea rooms' with a unique vintage style using old china cups & saucers, cake stands, flowers & decorations ~ as well as making gorgeous homemade cakes! Weather permitting we shall have tables & chairs on the terrace looking out at the stunning view ~ I'm putting in an order now with the weather Gods for sunshine on the day!


Ali x

Posters & Postcards

Thank you so much to all those lovely vintage addicts who have already booked a space ~ you should by now have received a confirmation from me that your booking forms have been safely received.

Postcards and posters are currently being printed and should be available in the next couple of weeks. All stallholders will automatically receive a bundle of the postcards to start giving away. If you need more, just let me know!

I will also have a small quantity of larger sized posters (approx A4 size) suitable for shop windows and displays ~ the design is shown below. If you would like to have one ~ please let me know. All part of spreading the word! The design for the banner on this blog is the same for the promotional postcards, except of course there will be text on the reverse with all the necessary details!

You can copy either of these images from the blog to add as buttons/links on your own blogs or websites. If you need specially re~sized images, do let me know and I can email them to you.

Until next time,
Ali

Save The Date ~ The Summer Cotswolds Vintage Fair

I am pleased to announce that following the success of the Cotswold Vintage Fairs last year, I shall be continuing with this lovely event at Toddington Village Hall ~ on Saturday 27th August 2011.

I hope that I can follow neatly in Tonia's (Poppy Corkhill) footsteps after she has decided to give up the organisation of the fair due to other commitments.  Thank you Tonia for all your hard work last year!  My hope is that I can build on what we already have in place, making The Cotswolds Vintage Fair a unique destination for those who love to sell and buy vintage.

If you are a previous stallholder, you will receive an email from me within the next few days.  New applications from stallholders are very welcome ~ please email me to request further information.

Once the blog is up and running properly, I will keep it updated with news of stallholders, PR & marketing activities and general tales of worry and sleepless nights!

I do hope that you can join us!

Please do contact me with any comments or ideas ~ I would love to hear from you.

Ali x