Cedar Events

We are all individual with our own style, taste and ideas so why not celebrate that at your wedding? We all want our wedding to be the one that people remember (for all the right reasons of course!) and talk about afterwards. 

With an impressive 10 years experience in the wedding & special events industry, Seyi Olusanya, the Creative Director of Cedar Events has been producing spectacular, breath-taking and flawlessly events. Seyi Olusanya was born in Lagos Nigeria and has lived in the UK since the early 90s, after a successful career in the IT industry she followed her true passion of all things design to set up Cedar Events a wedding & special events design, planning & Production Company. Cedar Events has been recognized within the industry as a trendsetting company and has earned itself a reputation for delivering events that their clients and their guest talk about fondly for months.

Events designed and produced by Seyi always have the Cedar Events Factor as she calls it. An event organized by Cedar Events will always be a breath-taking one! We pride ourselves in the originality & exclusivity of our events and in providing a quality service by paying attention to detail. Seyi is skilled at discerning & drawing out the secret pleasures that her clients have always wanted but have never had the resources, creativity or confidence to celebrate by translating them into a breath-taking event.

Over the years Seyi has developed relationships with some of the most prestigious venues in destinations around the world such as Claridges Hotel London, The Address Dubai, Sheraton Gambia to name a few. With a team of highly accomplished & award winning associates in those destinations the Cedar Events team work to create flawlessly executed events. Because of Seyi’s commitment to creating a culture of excellence & personalised service since the inception of the company she has attracted a discerning client base that includes the Crème de la crème of the Nigeria society. Over the last few years Seyi’s repertoire of events include weddings of daughters of ex-presidents & royalty. Her events cut across cultures because of her interaction with different cultures.

Seyi has provided content for magazines such as Cosmo Bride, Continental Magazine, & as a guest columnist for Fab Afriq Magazine. In April 2011, Seyi presented two workshops at Oaken Special Events Fair in Lagos Nigeria, where Celebrity Preston Bailey was a guest of honour. Seyi spoke recently on wedding planning at the launch event of FitBride Ltd to a group of brides to be, and is currently scheduled to speak at the Brides of Culture Wedding Fair in March 2012. She is currently taking requests to speak at wedding fairs, create workshops & mentor up and coming wedding and event planners. Seyi’s style of presentation is lively, real and interactive. Her topics of speciality include:

• Planning & managing large weddings & special events
• Destination: UK - What is the attraction?
• Small company with a global reach: is it possible?

Seyi's Qualifications & Courses:

LLB (Hon) Law - University of London

BA (Hon) English. - Lagos State University

Managing major events – City University

Event Design - Central Saint Martins

Please do take a look at Cedar Events Website and check out their Gallery, 'Like' their Facebook Page and follow Seyi on Twitter!

Outside the Asylum

The main purpose of this blog is to bring you all useful, helpful and relevant information on anything wedding related, and the occasional bit of frivolity or personal bits. Weddings, civil ceremonies and other celebrations take a good deal of planning, time and money, so it's very important that you have exactly the day you want so that you can look back on the whole experience with pleasure and happiness rather than wishing it could have been different.

You may follow a religion and be happy to get married in your regular place of worship, or you may be looking for something a bit different. Some register offices are lovely I'm sure but some are probably rather business like and impersonal and may have a kind of production line feel to them. You might want something a bit more than just a quick register office ceremony but not a full blown religious service, today Rev. Brendan Johnson, an Interfaith Minister, offers some words of help and advice.

Photos, check. Flowers, check. Ceremony…..?

Did you know that you can have a bespoke ceremony, designed to reflect your beliefs, without having to go through the dogma of a service you may not believe in, or the sterility of the Civil wording? I’m a Minister with the One SpiritInterfaith Foundation  and there are nearly 500 of us, and there are lots more Independent Celebrants in the UK. Whilst (at the moment) it is only the Official registrar who can ‘legally’ marry someone, many more couples are finding that they can do the ‘legal bit’ separately, and are opting for a more personalised service (literally!) www.interfaithfoundation.org/unique-wedding-ceremony answers some of the question you might have.

An independent Celebrant is able to work with couples to really work out what they want to say to one another and isn’t limited by one creed or dogma, if you want Hindu Scriptures, Islamic poetry and Bon Jovi, why not? It’s YOUR day! If you want to include any kind of element that you’ve seen elsewhere, you can. Our job is to deliver what you want from a ceremony, so please do consider one of the many Independent Celebrants available. Most couples put a lot of thought into the details of the ceremony, i.e. cakes, flowers, dresses, cars, and so on, but don’t really realise that they can do so much more than just writing a few words of their own to be included in a load of promises to a God they don’t necessarily believe in.

You can see if there’s a Minister near you (and there probably is) by searching here or you can email my wife and I and we’ll be happy to help.

Rev. Brendan Johnson & Rev. Becky Johnson

Wedding Keepsake Booklets

What happens to all the wedding stationery after the big day? Whilst some guests will collect all the different items and keep them for a while, most probably ends up in the bin fairly quickly. Lil’Guy have recently been producing booklets containing the full marriage ceremony wording plus the Order of the Day, menu and thank you messages from the bride and groom.

22 Page Wedding Keepsake Booklet

Using top quality materials such as Grade A rhinestone buckles and embellishments, genuine Swarovski crystals, gorgeous ribbons and flowers these Keepsake Booklets make a wonderful memento for guests which is far less likely to just be ditched.

The card used in both the budget and bespoke stationery at Lil’Guy is obtained direct from the manufacturer, who use world-renowned mills and the sustainable forests are FSC certificated. The pulp is elementally chlorine free, which essentially means that the bleaching agent is not released into the environment but is continually reused.

The booklets can be supplied boxed or loose for handing out at the church or venue.

Sunkissed Ceremonies

Well we've had an extremely dry Spring this year with some glorious sunshine then June arrived, more damp squib than Flaming June! Although the rain is desperately needed for the crops it would be good to get some sunshine and warmth back again - on Sunday evening Mr LG even suggested lighting the open fire, something which the LGs and I needed no persuading about! 

Today I'd like to welcome Julia Tsiaka from Sunkissed Ceremonies to our blog. Julia is a Celebrant on the beautiful Greek island of Rhodes .......

All About the Ceremony By Julia Tsiaka

If you’re looking for a wedding ceremony that’s completely your style and totally unique, consider a Celebrant wedding ceremony on the beautiful sun-kissed Greek island of Rhodes.

Sunkissed Ceremonies is a brand new Celebrant wedding service in Rhodes which creates tailor-made wedding ceremonies, in the English language, for couples who want to make their special day extra special.

Celebrant wedding ceremonies are becoming increasingly popular all over the world because they allow couples the freedom to express themselves in their own way; to celebrate their wedding day in the way they really want, with respect for their personal beliefs and cultures.

You can hold your Celebrant wedding ceremony in Rhodes at any time of the day or evening, you can express yourself freely when you say your vows to one another and you can include elements of any and all religions and beliefs.  You can include readings and music of any kind and mix up traditional and modern rituals.

The exchange of rings, the exchange of vows, the readings, the music and any other ritual held at a wedding is purely ceremonial and can be performed at any time and in any location.  And that’s where I, as a professional Celebrant can help you to make your wedding ceremony unforgettable.

                                                          

Many couples choose to register their marriage with a simple visit to their local Registrar first before jetting off into the sunshine with family and friends to celebrate their “real” wedding ceremony.

Banish any thoughts of not holding your wedding ceremony at exactly the same time as your marriage registration.  After all, you wouldn’t Christen your baby or hold a naming ceremony on the same day that you register their birth, would you?  There are few events that we celebrate at the same time that we register them.  Why should weddings be any different?

As your wedding Celebrant, I will spend a great deal of time getting to know you before creating your personalised wedding ceremony.    The ceremony will be completely unique to you, revolving around the story of your lives, your interests, how you met and how you feel about each other, and moulded around your beliefs and lifestyle. 

You are free to keep as much of the traditional wedding service as you would like and I will suggest some ways to make your ceremony unique with the inclusion of less traditional rituals that might suit your circumstances, like the sand ceremony, the unity candle or the wine ceremony.  See more examples of rituals on my website

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Consider the benefits of having a Sunkissed wedding ceremony in Rhodes. 

• It’s an economical option to holding a full-blown traditional ceremony with a Registrar in attendance at an approved UK venue

• You can choose to have a simple UK marriage registration before or after your Celebrant wedding ceremony in Rhodes or combine your Celebrant wedding ceremony with your legal Greek marriage registration on the island

• You can invite the family and friends that you really want to have with you on your special day – perhaps ask them to splash out on airfares rather than give you a wedding gift.  Ask those guests who cannot join you in Rhodes, and/or the traditionalists amongst them, to your legal marriage registration in the UK.

• You can hold the ceremony almost anywhere you like, at any time of day and there are no time restrictions

• You can style your wedding with a fun or favourite theme, e.g. roaring 20’s, masquerade, wild west, geek, movie stars, Titanic, ancient Greeks, etc. or perhaps just a colour or particular style such as blue and white, ecological, vintage or simply something that fits in with the gorgeous sun-kissed location

• You can express yourselves in any way and with any words, e.g. vows, readings, music, songs, dancing, etc. and stage your own ceremony choreography

• You can include other members of your family in the ceremony, e.g. children, or include a remembrance for someone that is no longer with us

• You can include any religious elements that you like from one or more religions, rituals such as breaking the glass, jumping the broom, handfasting, or even make up some of your own

• You don’t need any documentation, expensive legalisations or translations for a Sunkissed wedding ceremony – everything is in English

• It’s fun and it’s in the sun!

• You can have one heck of a long wedding celebration following your Sunkissed wedding ceremony – it might last until your return flight lands in the UK!

So, if you really want to put some sparkle into your wedding ceremony, come to the Greek island of Rhodes and say your vows in a very special location.

My thanks to Kitty for hosting this article on Celebrant wedding ceremonies in Rhodes.

You can find out more about Julia and the services she provides on her website, email her and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

In April we featured Laurra and Maria Nalty from One Life Ceremonies with suggestions for those of you who would like to do your wedding ceremony where and when you wish, and I'm a supporter of The Any Campaign which is working towards changing the law so that you CAN get married anytime, anywhere - please do visit their website and sign the petition if you think the law should be changed!

One Life Ceremonies

Three years ago yesterday Mrs Lil'Guys and I tied the knot.  It was second time around for both of us and so we decided to have a civil ceremony rather than  a church wedding.  We investigated the options: expensive hotel do; register office for our area (horrific impersonal concrete office building); nearby market town register office in the old town hall on the edge of the medieval part of town; in the garden at home. In the garden at home was our first choice but sadly not to be since you can only get married at home if one half of the couple is incapacitated so as not to be able to travel.  Whilst I'm sure Mrs LG contemplated the practicalities of that (!) we settled on the register office in Horsham which at the time was in the old town hall and had a pretty garden outside for photos and a view down a Medieval road towards the church.  We were limited to 24 people in the room, which sounds a lot but really isn't when you start making a list of the people you really want to witness your vows!  After the very short ceremony (which we kind of blinked and almost missed!)  and a few photos we headed home for a reception in a marquee in the garden. We had the most memorable and fabulous day and I don't think now that we would have changed anything about it, however we did feel very restricted by numbers.  Today we welcome One Life Ceremonies to the blog with an alternative .....

One Life Ceremonies are Laurra and Maria Nalty, a mother and daughter team based in Yorkshire who like to do things a little bit differently... they write and conduct wedding ceremonies that can be held in any location, including outdoors and their aim is to create exactly the wedding ceremony that you want with no restrictions.

One Life Ceremonies - Outdoor Weddings

  

Your wedding day is one of the most important days in your life and the wedding ceremony is your opportunity to make commitments to one another and express your undying love in front of you family and friends - so why shouldn’t it be exactly as you want it and held exactly where you want it to be too?

Can we hold our wedding outside?

This is one of the first questions many newly engaged couples want to know. As our summers become hotter and holding an outdoor wedding becomes much more plausible the idea is high on many dream wedding lists. With America and Australia leading the way with outdoor weddings, we see countless images of beautiful ceremonies on beaches, in forests and gardens with a happy glowing couple, their hair lightly blowing in the gentle breeze... ahhhh... then we find out that England is still living in the dark ages.

Now this may come as a shock to some of you but in the UK it still remains impossible to get legally married outside. In fact you are limited solely to venues licensed for marriage, the Register Office or within a church.

So the dreams of a beautiful outdoor ceremony in the bright sunshine with butterflies fluttering by as your guests fan themselves down become relegated to a ‘oh well... it would have been nice but ..’ and the next thing you find yourself booking the local hotel wishing things could be different.  

Now they can be! Yes there is another option that allows you to hold your wedding outside and it is becoming extremely popular with many UK couples who don’t want to be restricted to a licensed indoor venue.

But how can we have an outdoor wedding?

In the UK a legal marriage can only be conducted by a Registrar or a designated religious representative and it must be performed indoors within a church or in a venue licensed for marriage. The marriage itself is a formal procedure in which a set of standard statements must be made and a Register signed, these are the only rules and there is nothing to stop you going along with your two witnesses in your jeans before your wedding to complete the legal documents.

So onto the exciting part... with the legalities out of the way this leaves you free to have exactly the wedding that you want and hold your wedding ceremony wherever and whenever you choose!

Your outdoor wedding can be traditional or completely unconventional and it can include everything a wedding should include; the giving away, personal wedding vows, poems and readings, an exchange of rings, your first kiss! 

So ok, you won’t be signing the register, but you can do everything else and it means you are totally unrestricted!

Some outdoor wedding ideas:

• Beach wedding  
• Wedding in a marquee
• Wedding in an unlicensed venue
• Wedding at home or in a garden
• Wedding in an unusual venue or location
• Wedding the grounds of a hotel or the hotel itself
• Wedding in a castle
• Wedding in a tipi tent

 

One Life Ceremonies are highly regarded for their personal service and attention to detail and will work with you to create the outdoor wedding ceremony you’ve always dreamed of. They also place no time restrictions on the ceremony, meaning they won’t be watching the clock if the bride is a bit late! They can also help you to find the perfect location to hold your outdoor wedding if you’re stuck and need some ideas.

You can contact Maria or Laurra by phone ((0113) 868 0072), via their website, by email, follow them on Twitter, and Facebook. 

Photography by Olivia Brabbs 

If you think it should be legal to get married wherever and whenever you chose why not sign The Any Campaign petition and help to get the law changed!