GATHERING EVENTS

A Darling Affair 13/11/2015 0 Comments

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For Gathering Events, it all started with Jen and Adam’s love for the open road, vintage caravans and old-fashioned celebrating!

Based in beautiful Brisbane, this Husband and Wife team love a good road trip and travel far and wide throughout Queensland and Northern NSW to offer a complete pop-up bar service for your event.

With Jen having over eight years of event and hospitality management and Adam being a true jack of all trades, this darling duo are accompanied by a crew of super talented and fun bar professionals.

Gathering Events are more than just a caravan bar. Able to offer their clients an array of options to maker their event unique, choices are limitless. Whether its homemade ice tea at a bridal shower, or lawn games at the reception, guests will be delighted by this teams bright ideas.

Be sure to come and meet this lovely couple and see their amazing caravan in person at the next Brisbane Wedding Festival held on January 30th, 2016. Hosted by the Brisbane Racing Club, you wont want to miss it!

Until then, visit Gathering Events on their website or visit their Facebook page for more details.

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HANSEL AND GRETEL CAKES

A Darling Affair 04/11/2015 0 Comments

Hansel and Gretel Cakes started with the love of all things sweet and founder Megan, may be the sweetest of them all.

Developing a passion for baking in her mum’s kitchen, Megan dreamed of creating beautiful cakes and desserts. After finishing University and a stint in a corporate career, her vision of baking full-time was still on her mind. From that dream, Hansel and Gretel Cakes was born.

Using quality products and having a flair for detail, Megan brings stylish cakes and desserts to the Brides and Grooms of Brisbane. With a belief that your wedding cake should be a reflection of you and your big day, Hansel and Gretel Cakes offer modern and unique designs to suit any style.

Since entering the wedding industry three years ago, Megan prides herself on making cakes that couples will absolutely adore. Client happiness is the driving force behind her passion and love for wedding cakes. She believes that every couple deserves the cake that they have always dreamed of.

We are so excited to have her on board for our Brisbane Wedding Festival on January 30th, 2016 hosted by the Brisbane Racing Club. Until then you can visit Hansel and Gretel Cakes on their website or find them on Facebook.

ANNOUNCEMENT: A DARLING AFFAIR BRISBANE 2016

A Darling Affair 21/10/2015 0 Comments

You’re hearing straight from the horses mouth. We have been keeping this under wraps for some time now and we are excited to announce our new Brisbane venue to kick off 2016!

The Brisbane Racing Club is a unique venue that has our hearts racing with delight. With it’s fantastic history and character the venue is opening it’s doors to loved up couples tying the knot.

A Darling Affair will be filling the venue to the brim with the most creative, friendly and jaw dropping displays put on by our Darling vendors. Our festivals are full of life, colour, fashion, live music, fun and flavours.

We are also excited to be teaming up with some incredible sponsors who will be bringing out the big guns to make this event pop!

The Beauty Case will be heading up the fashion department and looking after the interests of all our style savvy brides-to-be. You will be inspired by some stunning fashion parades and a visit to the Brisbane Racing Club’s Bridal Lounge to try on some designer wedding gowns.

Moreton Hire is bringing one of their huge marquee’s that will be packed with some insanely talented wedding vendors. You will experience their grand marquee onsite – not just in a brochure. It’s all about the ‘experience’ when you come to A Darling Affair.

The amazing team behind AVIdeas is going to deck out the fashion parade area for your viewing pleasure with a stunning display and they will be going gangbusters with their incredible lights through out the outdoor areas as the sun goes down and the night life starts.

It will be our biggest wedding festival to date. Your not going to want to miss this, with more big announcements to come so stay glued to your screens.

Where: The Brisbane Racing Club, Ascot (home of the Eagle Farm Markets)

When: January 30, 2016 – 2pm to 7pm

To get you excited here is our exclusive promotional shoot to get you ‘chewing at the bit’ and wanting to grab a ticket to the event. Put together by an all star cast featuring The Beauty Case, Jennifer Gifford Designs, Florido Weddings and Bella Blooms Floral Designs, all of whom you will be able to visit at the fair.

It’s just a taste of what’s to come!

Get it in your belly! – Wedding Catering

A Darling Affair 09/09/2015 0 Comments

It’s hump day AND it’s lunch time so we thought we’d grab your attention and write about some of the yummo food and drink caterers who tickled our taste buds at The Sunshine Coast Wedding Fair.

The great thing is when you come along to our events is you get to sample everything. The Food, drink and our vendors personalities are all taken for a test run and it is safe to say that the next few businesses come highly recommended by our staff and guests on the day.

THE BAR BOYS COMPANY

Our dear James – owner of The Bar Boys Company – was a real character as you can tell from the above image. Super friendly, pleasant to our darling guests and knows how to mix a mean mocktail! Toffee apple and pina colada were on the menu and we can tell you that those things got guzzled down, however their beverages go far beyond these two flavours. Just ask James, he will be happy to rattle them off to you.

If you were lucky enough to be on the back lawn at The Chapel Woombye, like some of our darling models, you were treated to a chocolate shot with a Oreo cookie for the garnish. It was real good!

The Bar Boys Company is classy, sleek and they have some lovely styling décor to suit your wedding day theme. Add a little pizzazz to your wedding celebrations and hire them to not only entertain your guests but to keep them refreshed so they can party the night away.

L&L Co. EVENTS – JIMMY’S CATERING

The wonderful crew behind L&L Co. specialise in helping you plan your perfect day. They have great contacts that they collaborate with to provide you with the best of the best on the Sunshine Coast. One of those services is Jimmy’s Catering.

Jimmy’s Catering has been around for some time now on the coast and he sure knows how to mix the perfect spices and seasonings to make mouth watering food. At the fair they served up delicious sliders that were so delicious that we all kept going back for more!

Clean, quick and ever so polite, Jimmy’s Catering is top notch when it comes to serving up some of the best wedding reception food. Check out L&L Co. Events today!

THANK YOU SUNSHINE COAST FOR HAVING US! – WEDDING FAIR RECAP 2015

A Darling Affair 03/09/2015 0 Comments

We were so thrilled to be back on our own turf on The Sunshine Coast last Saturday! We have a soft spot in our hearts for our local crowd, both the vendors and the new brides and grooms to be, that come through the gates.

A Darling Affair’s events are all about creativity, inspiration and the friendliest vendors who are genuinely excited for you on your engagement to the love of your life. There were darling guests and wedding suppliers grinning from ear to ear and having a good old laugh as we walked around the venue of The Chapel Woombye.

When Elephant Met Zebra – our official photographers captured the days events to perfection for you to relive all over again, OR if you couldn’t make it you can see it for the first time and think damn I should have gone!

The weather forecast was a high percentage of rain. However, the heavens were kind to us and the sun shone down for us all to have a ripper of a day.

There was live music, food and drinks on the lawns and photo booth fun. Workshops by Trent & Jessie Photographers on wedding day photography and Coco Bride ran one on stationery styling, were bonus features at the event.

Simply Style Co decked out a beautiful bridal and suit collaboration with their gorgeous hire range. But wait there’s more!

The Fashion Parade was the highlight of the event and it still gives us goosebumps thinking about it. It was located under a magnificent nordic tipi by TIPI LUXE. Seriously you will fall in love with them. Just glorious!

Simply Style Co once again added simple touches of styling to the catwalk and Heavenly Blooms out did her self and created a beautiful hanging feature along with crowns and bouquets for the fantastic models from Katz Management.

The Fashion Parade was orchestrated by the wonderful talents of our fashion team led by Khesanh from The Beauty Case. With Khesahn at the helm, her team whipped up flawless make up and feminine natural hairstyles that were topped off by Komorebi Brides beautiful headpieces. The talented wedding gown and suit suppliers such as – Bohemian Brides, Willow Hastings Designs, Erin Clare Couture and Wil Valor inspired our darling guests who took front row seats.

We’d like to say a HUGE thank you to our incredible sponsors Hello May and Sunshine Coast Brides Magazine for their coverage of our event to get A Darling Affair out there to you darling people.

We were so stoked with the amazing talent. Thank you for putting on a fabulous show our incredible vendors. You make us so happy. It just keeps getting better every year! Let’s do it again sometime!

So feast your eyes on these wrap up images and don’t forget to head to our Sunshine Coast Vendor Directory to find the vendors who were there in all their glory!

There are more images to come in the next few weeks and we can’t wait to show you EVERYTHING!!!

Wishing you all the best for your wedding planning. We hope you made some great connections and enjoyed your A Darling Affair experience!

The ADA Team xxx

YOU’VE GOT TO BE IN IT TO WIN IT! – GIVEAWAY BONANZA!

A Darling Affair 27/08/2015 0 Comments

Here at A Darling Affair HQ we wish that we could trade places with our lovely guests who will be at the fair on Saturday and sign up our names for the massive prize pool that is on offer at The Sunshine Coast Wedding Fair!

Our awesome vendors have been so kind enough to donate prizes that are genuinely something to get excited about and are not the run of the mill wedding giveaway’s.

If you pre-purchase your tickets online you are automatically entered into the draw. This means you don’t have to stand in line and write your name on our guest list and can enjoy more time chatting to fabulous wedding suppliers, listening to live music and stuffing your faces with delicious food!

If you choose the other option and sign up on the day, our friendly Darling Helpers will be there to help you! No problems at all!

We love that our prize pool isn’t one major prize for one lucky bride or groom to be – each are individual prizes which means more chances to win! We like to share the love around.

Here is the official full giveaway list for you to get excited about!
The Beauty Case, Trent & Jessie Photographers, Heavenly Blooms and Willow Tree Creative Services are all teaming up for a Lovebirds Engagement Shoot for one lucky couple. Package includes: hair and makeup, photography, flowers and concept styling. Valued to $1000.

Simply Style Co – CONCEPT CREATION & ON THE DAY STYLING PACKAGE – valued up to $1,250.00!

The White Tree – a free 3 piece band, valued at $2200!!!!

This is a line up of Male Vocals/Guitar, Bass and Drums. Their standard inclusions apply…5 hr call, feat up to 4 x 45min sets, full PA system provided

Kombi Celebrations – 3 hour champagne kombi hire package, valued at $750

Bohemian Brides – a Wear 5 ways dress

Coco Bride – $300 bridal illustration

TravelShoot – a $200 Travelshoot Voucher

Chase The Sun Creative – up to 80 calligraphy placecards or a welcome chalkboard both valued at over $200

Erin Clare Couture – 1 of 2 Chapel length veils, one in a Silk white colour the other is Ivory in colour valued at $175 each

Komoberi Bride – a Sterling silver and gemstone headpiece – value $129.99

The Ballerina Bride – are offering a Free Make up Trial!

Sass & Niki’s Wedding Hair – KEVIN.MURPHY Gift package from their styling studio to the Value of $100

Frankie & Mavis – a wedding tea towel by The Smith Collective. The tea towel is hand drawn with every detail to remember your day like the location, date and pictures of the lovely couple themselves, then hand printed in a colour of your choice. Valued at $75.

The Tuck Shop – $50 voucher for little boat espresso

Chef Favours – one of our handmade Taste Crates worth $50. A handmade timber crate with 6 Chef Favours included so it’s all six of their handmade delicious flavours

The Spoken Shop – XO board

L&L Co. Events – menu tasting for 2 people

Big Love Weddings & Celebrations – Name Change Kit.

A downloadable kit full of vital information & forms. It saves a lot of the time and hassle of changing your surname with all the agencies you need to.

Butter cups Cupcakes – a dozen cupcakes.

*Full T&C’s will be shared with the winner of the prize via the wedding vendor who has donated it.

** Winners will be announced the week following the fair.

THE GOLD COAST WEDDING FESTIVAL – WRAP UP

A Darling Affair 08/06/2015 0 Comments

The Gold Coast Wedding Festival was just amazing if we do say so ourselves.

It was the perfect weather for the end of Autumn as the industrial venue – Rabbit & Cocoon – is a market style set up with both inside and outside areas. The venue was filled to the brim with the most talented and incredibly friendly wedding creatives on the Gold Coast and beyond. It was set to be a fun night you could feel the anticipation growing in the air.

The bands starting cranking just after 5pm when our guests had knocked off work and headed to the festival to have a great night of wedding planning fun. The brides and grooms to be were cheerfully interacting with our vendors, some who are new to the scene and others who have been perfecting their art for years.

The wedding festival had loads of inspiration, colour, laughs and action with a mammoth fashion parade that was maxed out around the red carpet and orchestrated by The Beauty Case team and Interlaced Media. Our guests had eager eyes checking out the finer details of the beautiful gowns and tailored suits not to mention the models from Katz Management. The Fashion parade featured local and interstate designers. We are so excited that we have vendors traveling from other parts of Australia, like Suzanne Harward Designs, to be a part of the action.

With bellies filled with delicious food and drinks, guests and vendors mingled together like they had been friends from way back. The night went off with out a hitch and we couldn’t have been happier for yet another A Darling Affair event to go down in history as an ‘affair to remember’.

Special thanks goes to our ever so supportive and hardworking sponsor Hello May. We love that they come to our events and get to meet all you beautiful guests and their readers up close and personal. Also a HUGE thanks to When Elephant Met Zebra who works themselves to the bone capturing the wonderful night on camera.

Thank you all for coming. We loved seeing your smiling faces!

We hope you found the perfect wedding supplier for your big day!

There will be more in depth details and images to come of who was at the event and what they do this week. So stay tuned xx

Sweet Treats

A Darling Affair 13/02/2015 0 Comments

These two sweet treat suppliers are any but average. Our guests at The Brisbane Wedding Fair didn’t just buy one flavour but several and some of these treats were taken home to be devoured later.

YUMMI FRUIT ICE-CREAMERY

These guys were soooo popular because of the crazy heat that was radiating outside, that they were selling out of flavours one by one through out the day, so much so that some of the Darling team members missed out all together on getting one of these popsicles in our mouth. We hope our guests enjoyed them and could give us a review of their favourite flavour so we can get one next time.

But never fear we did taste their real fruit ice creams and that truly satisfied us and kept us going through out the busy day’s event.

Make sure you track their movements down as Yummi Fruit Ice-Creamery are found at local fairs and markets across town. With gourmet ice blocks in the flavours of Lychee Coconut, Strawberry Bitters, Salted Caramel Chocolate Banana, just to name a few, you will no doubt be wanting to try them all!

I HEART BROWNIES

I Heart Brownies has given time and dedication to mastering the perfect brownie. There’s nothing more upsetting than biting into a brownie and it ends up being a standard chocolate cake. Check out these ingredients for quality: Belgian black cocoa, couverture chocolate, free-range eggs, QLD cane sugar, Australian butter and gluten-free flour.

There are so many flavours that it’s hard to choose just one, so why should you? Why not test taste them all for your wedding reception favours. There’s choc orange, turkish delight, the standard chocolate and my personal favourite choc mint, plus many more!

I Heart Brownies have already catered for over 50 weddings and would love to provide their brownies for yours!

CROWD PLEASING FOOD VANS

A Darling Affair 12/02/2015 0 Comments

These two foodies really stole the show out on the food lawn with their awesome caravans. They have nailed every part of their character and design and literally played the part to match with the crowd pleasing food and drinks they served up at The Brisbane Wedding Fair.

Our mouths are watering right now for more!

THE CURIOUS CARAVAN

With the temperature soaring above 35 degrees at The Brisbane Wedding Fair, Naja from The Curious Caravan stayed calm cool and collected like she always does and enjoyed the day serving up her crowd pleaser of a drink that had people lining up all day. – the elderflower lemon mint fizz! On a cooler day Naja can serve up coffee’s and treats to your guests as you can hire out The Curious Caravan for your engagement party or wedding recption.

But wait that’s not all!! The Curious Caravan also comes with added extra’s like vintage furniture plus some fun quirky games like a large wooden Jenga, all for the purposes of helping your guests enjoy their time getting to know each other, interacting and having some fun!

CHIPTEASE

Even with the crazy heat going on during the day it didn’t stop our guests from ordering delicious hot chips from the ultra cool van ChipTease. Sweet potato fries and the yummo regular fries cooked to perfection with awesome sauces to match. You can never go past a hot chip, it’s an Aussie favourite.

The ladies behind ChipTease have such an awesome set up and amazing uniforms to match so if you are a vintage or rock’n’roll fanatic, or if you want a variety of street food vans parked on a lawn for your wedding reception for your guests to pick and choose from you surely need to have ChipTease in the line up.

WEDDING CATERING PACKED FULL OF FLAVOUR

A Darling Affair 11/02/2015 0 Comments

At the Brisbane Wedding Fair we were so excited for the food vendors that we had on board to tantalise or guests taste buds. Oh boy was the food good. I think we tasted everything that was on offer and forgot to take some treats home for our kids because we gobbled it all up!

Things literally got sold out on the day because people went back for seconds. So if you missed out on stuffing your face and trying out the caterers who can be at your wedding then here is a review for you.

POP TACO

The team behind Poptaco sure do know how to put on a mean mexican spread. Flavoursome, moist, saucy, juicy oh man it’s making my mouth want to have another pork roll right now!
Poptaco can cater for your event and will make you want to party like a mexican for more. Have a look at their instagram or fb feed and you will see it’s down right authentic food.

A great alternative to a formal sit down dinner and perfect for sharing and loads of talking and interaction between guests. Your money will be well spent on this food.

PIZZANTICA

Woodfired pizza’s on the back of a Kombi. Two of our most favourite things rolled into one! What a clever concept a woodfired oven on wheels!

Hand made gourmet pizza’s for your wedding guests. You can never go wrong with a good pizza especially one made by the masters of traditional pizzas. A great share meal for the masses and less clean up for you at your wedding reception or engagement party.

You pick the location and they’ll roll right up!

CUISINE ON CUE

Well well well…Cuisine on Cue were amazing! Amazing caterers with fantastic and personable people skills, well groomed and most importantly amazing food. This crew really know what their doing and hit the mark all through out the day.

Cuisine on Cue were serving up mouth sized bites packed full of flavour to our guests in the studios and boy were they good. They do much more than serve starters, they can cater for your entire wedding reception. You just choose what tickles your fancy and they will whip up a storm in the kitchen.

Their professional customer service and the attention to detail is what they bring to every event, regardless of the size, catering style or budget. They will work with you to meet your needs.