Hannah and Dave's proposal story

Congratulations to Hannah and Dave and Marina and Shaun who are the winners of our Free on the day management competition.

Due to the overwhelming response, the judges decided to split the entries into weddings happening this year and weddings happening next year. The judges loved the element of surprise in Hannah's story.

Marina and Shaun's story will be blogged next week.

Hannah and Dave's story

Myself and my partner Dave had been together for 7 years before we got engaged. From when we had been together for about 2 years, I had been hassling him. Every time I got drunk I would ask when he was going to propose, every time a couple who had been together less time than us got engaged I would say 'they've only been together X years, why are they before us?'. Dave would always reply that we would get engaged 'soon', 'in time', or 'sooner than you think', which I always pointed out was clearly not true as otherwise we'd be engaged already!

For a while we lived with his parents. We would often go out for walks in the evenings, and one of the places we would regularly go was Chesterton Windmill. I always loved it there, we were usually the only ones there on an evening and it gave us some important alone time.

At midnight going into New Year's Day of 2009, Dave told me that it would be in that year that we got engaged. I fully expected it to be at every major occasion - Valentine's Day, my birthday, his birthday, but no proposal was forthcoming. A drunken conversation resulted in him promising that we would be engaged by the end of August.

On our 7 year anniversary at the start of August we went to a friend's birthday party, where he announced his engagement to his girlfriend. Another couple engaged before us! I knew that I wouldn't be being proposed to any time soon, as he wouldn't have wanted to steal our friend's thunder.

In mid-August we went on holiday to Bournemouth. Not overly exciting admittedly, but we have been there more times as a couple than anywhere else. I used to go as a child and have always loved it there. Every day, every time we were alone, I thought this is it. But nothing. On the last day we were walking down the beach, no-one was around, and nothing. I gave up. It obviously wasn't going to happen.

When we got back from Bournemouth we were supposed to be going camping for a friend's birthday, but Dave said he wasn't feeling too well so we didn't go. So instead I cleaned the house, and did the ironing, and other such boring jobs. At the end of a busy day of jobs Dave suggested we go for a walk. I suggested somewhere but he said he fancied going to the windmill as we hadn't been for a while.

We got to the windmill and had a slow walk. There were a couple of people there taking photos. It was very rare that anyone else was up there. We stayed for about half an hour then started the walk back to the car. Half way back, Dave stopped me, and started a bit of a speech. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box, and I promptly burst into floods of tears. He's not a man of many words, but he said exactly the right ones. It hadn't even crossed my mind for a second that he would propose on that day, and it was at the perfect place, the place we would go to get a bit of time to ourselves several years before, and still visited if feeling nostalgic.

It turned out that when our friends announced their engagement at the start of August, Dave already had the ring at home (which he picked himself). And he insisted on taking his backpack everywhere we went on holiday (which at the time I didn't think anything of) as he had the ring in the bottom of the bag the whole time, but couldn't find somewhere meaningful enough to propose.

I always thought that I would know exactly when Dave was going to propose. It had felt so inevitable for so long that I thought as soon as he does something a little unusual I would know that was it. But he managed to surprise me, and it was the most romantic thing he's ever done.

Vivienne Tiger at the UK Wedding Show Ricoh Arena

We at Vivienne Tiger exhibited at the UK Wedding Show Ricoh Arena on the 15th and 16th of January. We enjoyed meeting all the lovely brides that visited our stall (63) and once again wish you all success as you plan your wedding. We have great promise and faith for the year 2011 and are seeing a lot of positive predictions for how the new year will turn regarding extraordinary weddings and events.

The theme was for the bride that loves her bling. The amazing floral arrangement was done by Michael Montecillo of MONTECILLO FLORAL DESIGNS. Thank you to Maureen Matharu for making the cake.

The UK Wedding Show

We at Vivienne Tiger have been very busy this week getting ready to exhibit at the UK Wedding Show at the Ricoh Arena Coventry.

DATE: Saturday 15th, Sunday 16th January 2011

Opening Times: 10am - 5pm

Fashion Show Times: Saturday & Sunday 12pm, 2pm, 4pm

The Show: Ricoh Arena is an exciting purpose built exhibition space and a new venue for The UK Wedding Shows in January 2011. Showcasing exhibitors from Coventry and throughout the Midlands with over 90 companies, this show provides a wide range of opportunities for couples to engage with the professionals in the wedding industry. The venue also has excellent facilities for visitors to the exhibition including a state of the art casino, restaurants and bars.

Ticket Prices:
Tickets are £8 in advance and £9 on the door.

Drop in to see us at stand 63 if you are at the show, to take advantage of our special offer.

See you there.

Happy New Year

We at Vivienne Tiger want to wish all our current and future clients a Happy New Year.

Congratulations to our newly engaged couples.

To all our clients getting married this year, we look forward to taking the stress out of your planning and making sure you thoroughly enjoy planning your big day.

Win a Free on the Day Management

To celebrate the New Year (2011), Vivienne Tiger Weddings and Events is offering a Free On The Day Management to the couple with the most romantic proposal story.

Valued at £500, this prize includes:

One meeting up to 6 weeks prior to your wedding to understand your design and layout - Contact all vendors prior to your wedding to confirm timelines - Coordination of wedding rehearsal if required – Manage set up of wedding sites according to layouts and design elements - Act as single point of contact on the day of your wedding - Direct your guests – Ensure wedding venue is left as stipulated in the venue contract.

How do you enter?

Email us your story to: vivienne@viviennetiger.com or via our contact us page on our website http://www.viviennetiger.com/. Include the date and venue for your wedding.

How many times can you enter?

Only one entry per couple.

Terms and Conditions

This offer is valid to couples planning their wedding in the West Midlands area between March 2011 – September 2012.

Entries must be submitted by no later than 23:59 on January 31st 2011.

By submitting an entry for the competition, the couple are deemed to have given consent for the entry to be published free of charge by Vivienne Tiger and for Vivienne Tiger to use their photographs in all portfolio and advertising material.

Vivienne Tiger will only ever use personal details for the purposes of administering this competition, and will not publish them or provide them to anyone without permission.

The best entry will be announced and published on 1st of February 2011. Vivienne Tiger’s decision will be final. No correspondence relating to the competition will be entered into.

The winners will be notified within 14 days of the close of the competition by email or as per the contact details provided in their entry.