Vintage Days

We now have one of the largest collection of Vintage crockery, glassware, tableware and vintage props in the country. With 1,000+ place settings available we can cater for intimate gathering to the largest of functions, wedding and events.

Our range includes cups & saucers, plates, cake stands, sugar bowls and everything else to make your table a vintage treat. On top of all this we have the most fabulous (if we may so ourselves) selection of vintage props from bunting to bird cages to compliment our crockery & glassware. 

Special Offer now available for all couples holding a Vintage themed wedding or event in 2012 is available until 31st December

Book between 70 or more for tea to include:

Tea cup and saucer, side plate, individual cake plate per person.

2 teapots, 1 milk jug, 1 sugar bowl, 1 x 3 tier cake stand per table of ten.

***  ONLY £3.75 per person  ***

Includes - Delivery (region – South East) 

Includes – Delivery within A1 – DL12 (region - North East)

For a quote or more information then please do contact Gilly or Romilly.

T: +44 (0)845 4588914

E: Info@vintagedays.co.uk

W: www.vintagedays.co.uk

W: www.thegreatbigevent.co.uk

Bonfire Treats: Cookies and cream fudge brownies

This weekend brings Bonfire night and whether you are off to a display or having a party at home this month's foodie treat courtesy of our wonderful Chef David Gillot is Cookies and Cream Fudge Brownies, sounds perfect for a treat for all the family. 

Here's David's chocolate brownie recipe just ready for the weekend....

 

Ingredients

• 165g/5½oz butter, plus extra for greasing
• 200g/7oz dark chocolate, grated or finely chopped
• 3 free-range eggs
• 2 free-range egg yolks
• 1 vanilla pod, seeds only (or alternatively 2 tsp vanilla extract)
• 165g/5½ oz soft light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• pinch salt
• 154g/5½oz pack chocolate biscuits, such as Oreos, broken into quarters
• icing sugar, for dusting

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease a 20cm/8in square baking tin with butter, then line with baking paper with the paper overlapping the sides a little.
2. Melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat. When the butter has melted, remove the pan from the heat and add the grated (or chopped) chocolate. Leave to stand for a few minutes, or until the chocolate melts, and then stir together. Alternatively, you can put the chocolate and butter in a bowl and melt in the microwave in 25-second blasts, stirring well each time.
3. Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and vanilla together in a large bowl until the eggs begin to get light and fluffy. Add the sugar in two additions, whisking between each. Pour it around the side of the egg mix so as not to knock out the air that has been whisked in. Keep whisking until the mixture becomes stiffer. Once the egg mixture is ready, pour the chocolate into it - again around the sides so as not to knock the air out.
4. Add the flour, cocoa powder, salt and a third of the biscuits and stir until fully combined, then pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Scatter the remaining biscuits over the top, pressing them in slightly. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 25–30 minutes. The middle should be very so slightly gooey. Leave the brownies to cool in the tin - the top will sink and crack a little.
5. Pull the brownies out using the overlapping paper and cut into squares. Dust with icing sugar
6. ENJOY!

Have fun this weekend,

Gilly and team


The Great Big Event Co.
w: www.thegreatbigevent.com
e: info@thegreatbigevent.com
t: +44 (0)845 459 9812/4

Ginger Sunday

With all this unexpected good weather befalling us this week our thoughts have turned to how to make the most out of the weekend... so we hit the internet this morning and here's our highlights from around the South East:

LONDON

Did you know it is Ginger Sunday - no, nothing to do with hair colour, but in fact something much cuter. London Zoo are celebrating the arrival of Baby Tango - a rare ginger monkey born in September! They are offering 2 for 1 on all entries on Sunday (2nd October) for more details click here.

GUILDFORD
Closer to our Surrey Head Office there is a exciting new venue for music & comedy called G Live. If you fancy a few laughs then there are still tickets available for Al Murray stand-up show Barrel of Fun Extra or if you prefer the classics the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra are performing on Sunday evening (3rd October) tickets starting from just £19.50 www.glive.co.uk

ASCOT
Horses and beer more your thing? On Saturday 2nd October there is the Autumn meeting at Ascot, featuring the 5th Annual CAMBRA Beer Festival. So as well as the usual excitement of Flat racing there will be an extensive range of regional real ales, cider and perries. In this warm weather, what could be nicer...

BRIGHTON
Well, this could just top the horse racing for us... Frock Me at the Corn Exchange. Brighton's foremost vintage fashion show returns - from designers and students to the glamour glitterati, they all love this fair.


Frock me is the place to find clothes from every era from the 1920's right through to eighties retro glamour. Ooooh, we're not sure we can resist; plus we could go for a wander round the Lanes and the pier after! For more details go to www.visitbrighton.co.uk. We may just see you there.



If you know of another event happening that you think we might like, please let us know.

Enjoy the sunshine,

The Great Big Event Team.
www.thegreatbigevent.com

Brighton Rock comes to Goodwood Revival

Last week we were thrilled to be asked to style four beautiful Crown Pavilions for Goodwood's Revival festival. If you haven't come across this company before we highly recommend you look at their website www.crownpavilions.com and watch the video below.


Crown Pavilions & Crown Gardens Project : Ms Gabriella Atkinson from Crown Pavilions Ltd on Vimeo.

Crown specialise in creating beautiful garden rooms and gazebo's, which can be used from anything from a amazing outdoor dining area to outside kitchen.

Our job was to style four of their pavilions which were to be exhibited at the Revival. Armed with ivory drapes, lanterns and a truck load of retro sweets we headed south to Goodwood. Our four very special themes were:

A Place to Wed - This romantic pavilion was wrapped in ivory draping with interwound ivory. The centre table featured a beautiful bouquet from Carl Wilson, 3 tier cake stand laden with delicious cupcakes from Hannah Logan, the brides wedding shoes and a vintage cup and saucer from Vintage Days.

Gentlemen's Club - This outdoor room featured classic Gentlemen club items from Leather bound books, a beautiful silver candelabra on a white linen table cloth with a black fleur de lis on it. Classic and stylish.

Oriental Place - Here we recreated a small taste of the orient with multi-coloured lanterns inside and out, purple silk parasol and finished off with an amazing arrangement of fresh flowers - gorgeous!

Brighton Rock - In the largest of the four pavilions we went with a fantastic upmarket retro seaside theme. If you have a sweet tooth this was the pavilion to visit with a spectacular sweetie bar fully stocked with bon bons, windmill sweets, candy floss and of course Brighton Rock. All the sweets were supplied by the lovely Tracy Scanlan of Mrs Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe in Cranleigh It was a really sweet seaside, pink treat!

We hope the visitors enjoyed looking round these wonderful Pavilions as much as we enjoyed styling them and we hope there was enough bon bon's to go around!

If you have a room, marquee, gazebo our indeed a Crown Pavilion you would like us to style for  an party, wedding or corporate event then please just email us with your requirements and we will come back with our ideas.

Best wishes,

Gilly

w: www.thegreatbigevent.com
e: info@thegreatbigevent.com
t: www.twitter.com/greatbigeventco
f:  www.facebook.com/greatbigeventco

Glee Vs Abba - The Party

What a weekend we have just had; after months of planning and listening too maybe just one too many Abba tracks our fabulous Glee Vs Abba party took place and what a party it was!

Gilly headed up our Posh Party team with a beautiful marquee from Caron Marquees. The Marquee was fully blacked out with dark blue carpet and starlight ceiling which set the scene for a exciting night ahead.

The evening brought two shows one from the Conservatoire (Guildford School of Acting) who went all Glee, singing and dancing to all the favourite tracks from the TV show including our favourite 'Don't Stop Believing'   and then brilliant Fabbagirls who treated the guests to hit after hit from the 70's supergroup Abba.

Gorgeous food and drink flowed throughout the evening and at the request of our birthday girl we set-up a delicious 'Ice Cream and Cake Parlour' with personalised cupcakes. The sweet table proved very popular later in the evening!

We would like to give a big thank you to all our staff and suppliers who made the evening very special. The evening was a wonderful, sparkly success and we very much enjoyed it too.

Who won the battle of Glee Vs Abba - we're not quite sure but we think we maybe singing Dancing Queen for some time to come!

Our next blog will be coming soon on our first ever baby shower....

Best wishes from,

The Great Big Event Team

www.thegreatbigevent.com

Big thank you to Greg from Just Imagine Video for taking such wonderful photo's   

Glitz, Glamour & Acrobatics

Our busiest weekend, so far this year, fell just before summer solstice this year with a private party in Surrey themed as ‘Footballers’ Wives’.

The wives concerned were all rather chic and beautiful! With plenty of ammo to go with, our brief was to ‘create an amazing and unfortgetful’ party. Success is always in the eye of the beholder, but we have to say that given the client’s great enthusiasm and ‘joie de vive’ this was always going to be a party filled with fun and playfulness.

Our menu was canapes all night long and cocktails, created by our wonderful energetic chef, David G. My lasting memory of this will be the two ladies who managed to climb the swing (which we constructed over the client’s pool) and then proceeded to offer an impromptu acrobatic performance for a good 10 minutes... this was one of the many highlights of this special event.

And the final word comes from the client on the following day: "We've been delighting in the universally positive feedback we've received from our guests. 'Best party ever' is a phrase I keep hearing and we really do have you to thank for that."

Our next big party is Glee Meets Abba, can't wait for that one! More party updates to come this summer....


Gilly

www.thegreatbigevent.com