Archive for May, 2009

Weddings at the Kursaal in Southend

We’re delighted to hear that the first wedding has taken place at the iconic Kursaal complex on Southend’s seafront.

Having originally opened in 1901 as the Kursaal Ballroom, the Essex building expanded into an amusement complex in the 1930′s. By the 1980′s the Kursaal said farewell to Southend’s entertainment reportedly for the last time leaving the building to rot away.
However with huge financial support in 1998 the Kursaal reopened it’s doors with ten pin bowling being the main attraction and maintaining it’s distinctive dome.

Now, the Kursaal has re-invented itself again as a wedding venue for brides and grooms of Essex looking for a historic building in Southend to marry, having become a fully licensed and approved wedding venue by Southend Borough Council.
The Kursaal have 2 rooms available for wedding ceremonies, and civil partnerships and have a whole string of weddings planned for the summer.

Getting Married in Southend

The first couple to take advantage of the licence being granted are Westcliff residents Louise and Tony Nicholls who tied the knot in front of around 50 family and friends.
According to our source, Louise said: “I had always loved the building as a child, and the room itself has a beautiful glass ceiling.
“Also, we wanted somewhere very different, but even some of our friends and family were a tiny bit apprehensive at first.
“However, when they saw it they were won over. Now even my sister is thinking of holding her 40th birthday there.”

Southend wedding, but not honeymoon

Rather then choosing to remain in Sunny Southend Seafront for their honeymoon, the newly weds headed to Italy.

Kursaal Functions spokesman Matthew Chambers said: “We have already got several more weddings booked for this year”

The Kursaal sounds to us like another fantastic place to get married in Essex.
Visit our main page if you’re looking for plenty of wedding venues in Essex.

Easy Jet Wedding Ceremony

Yes, you read the title correctly, bargain flight company EasyJet are planning a little twist to a standard flight with a budget airline company – they are talking about couples getting married on an Easy Jet plane.

According to our sources, Easy Jet have applied to Luton council for a licence to perform in-flight weddings. Let’s hope that Luton council does the decent thing and sees this as a shameless publicity stunt aimed at making Ryan Air jealous – as they are the kings of rubbish press releases to gain free publicity – remember the paying to use the toilet story ?!

Picture the scene, the wedding guests all in their finest, queuing to check their bags in at Luton, then a stampede to the bright orange air bus to fight for a seat near the front of the wedding ceremony.

In flight weddings

The groom manages not to be sick on take-off, stands patiently in line for a quick use of the toilet to shake off last minute nerves, then finally the beautiful blushing bride walks down the aisle knocking into elbows and dodging the curly cheese sandwich cart with the usual baby screaming in the background. No father to link arms with because there is only room for one person at a time down the aisle. Painting a picture of a lovely wedding to remember so far ? Perhaps not.

The East Jet wedding idea is supported by Jeffery Husson, who is a captain at EasyJet : “To officiate a wedding would be a special honour for me. It would be exciting if I could marry couples above the clouds,” he said to the Daily Telegraph. However, I for one think I may prefer him to focus on flying the plane.

Cheap flights to your honeymoon

Alright, maybe we shouldn’t be so harsh on the airline company, we are in tough times and the thought that you could use the flight to double up as the trip to your honeymoon, but what do all the wedding guests do when they arrive ? Presumably have a drink to celebrate and then fly straight back again, either that or stay for a week or two spoiling your honeymoon.

With EasyJet planning to become a wedding venue in the sky it leaves us wondering whatever next, Tesco to provide ceremonies in their aisles ? McDonalds to offer drive-through weddings…?

Star Wars wedding

After last week we brought you the heart warming fairytale story of a couple deciding to marry as Shrek and Fiona, this week’s look at unique wedding ideas, brings us to a couple who happily planned a Star Wars Wedding.

With the groom deciding to dress as Captain Han Solo, the bride (of course) opted to be his love interest from the movie – Princess Leia.
Duncan Thomson, 41, and Sammi Gardiner, 39, chose the unusual wedding ceremony after their obsession with the classic Star Wars movies, surrounded by their wedding guests who were also asked to dress as characters from the films.

Star Wars Day – May the 4th be with you.

Choosing the unofficial annual “Star Wars Day” of May the 4th as their wedding date, for those of you who are not quite up with the films, the date is significant as the happy couple billed the wedding as “May the 4th be with you” – if you still don’t get that, it’s a pun on the movies famous phrase.

The couple from the Isle of Wight even went as far as to invite the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas. Unfortunately the director was unable to attend the wedding, possibly due to the fact his wookie costume was at the dry cleaners, possibly not. In actual fact Lucas returned a RSVP letter to the couple bearing his Skywalker Ranch stamp saying he could not make it.

May the 4th be with you.

Star Wars Wedding Vows

Using the movies scenes to exchange their marital vows, Mr Thomson wowed his bride with such vows as “I promise to protect you from carbon freezing and promise to protect you from the Dark Side, through hyperspace and into the far reaches of the galaxy.”

During the Star Wars wedding ceremony in Shanklin, on the Isle of Wight, the groom’s best man was his 18-year-old son Kieren who (of course) played the role of Han Solo’s sidekick Chewbacca, and his daughter Charlotte was dressed as Queen Padme Amidala.

The wedding even had a Darth Vader, hopefully a friendly version, who delivered the readings, again in the style of Star Wars scripts. Vader was “protected” at the wedding by two of his Imperial Stormtroopers, whilst reading verses such as “Members of the Galactic Empire, Duncan and Sammi met a long time ago, in a place far, far away. The force is strong with these two.” And “If you do not underestimate the power of marriage then together you can rule your house as husband and wife.”

According to our source, Duncan and Sammi chose the unusual wedding theme after their romantic first date 4 years before was a trip to a cinema, where they (of course) watched Star Wars – Revenge of the Sith.

As UK law does not allow any religious references in civil services, the couple had to omit certain terms from their unique wedding vows as the word “Jedi” is now a recognised religious religion in this country. Bizarre but true.

We’d love to see the wedding video – hopefully the videographer used plenty of the dramatic musical score in the background.

Having found a Shrek wedding and now a Star Wars wedding, Essex Wedding Services is on the look out for more unique or strange wedding themes, if you spot any, keep us posted and we’ll do our homework to get something on the blog.