Unique Venue: Kew Bridge Steam Museum

I have a soft spot for this hard, uber urban venue. It isn't a very well known venue yet Bovingdons have been called upon to cater for a fair few private dinners and receptions. The venue can seat  up to 120 or 200 for a standing reception. Dining beneath the dramatic Victorian pistons and industrial age architecture is a unique experience and has attracted some of our most interesting clients, such as a company looking for a venue to launch their vintage themed brand and a couple wanting a Steampunk themed wedding. It is a London venue that helps you turn back time.
Key Bridge Steam Museum: http://www.kbsm.org/
Photo courtesy of Marc Wyndham.

Matching Venue to Menu

“Where shall we get married?” is likely to be the next question after “will you marry me?” and “when shall we do it”?
Before you make your choice, you should also be able to answer the question “What would we most like to eat?”

Venue hire is likely to be one of the most expensive elements of your reception budget so remember; the quality, style and cost of the venue you choose will directly proportional to the quality, style and cost of the food.

Forget this and disappointment is sure to follow, not only for you but for your guests.

Spending thousands of pounds on booking an expensive venue only to serve your guests cheap food, is akin to telling your family that you can’t afford to buy them Christmas presents this year because you’ve treated yourself to a £2,000 pair of Christian Laboutins.

A buffet of bangers and mash looks totally out of place in a palace. A golf club is an unlikely place to find a Michelin star chef (unless it’s Wentworth or St Andrews).

To save on cost and disappointment when it comes to booking your caterer, match your menu expectations to the venue. If you are expecting to eat a simple menu, find a simple venue (barn, marquee, hotel…) whereas if you are expecting impressive eats, find an equally grand venue (palace, castle, mansion…).

Start by asking yourself, what do you imagine eating on your wedding day?

If you imagine a picnic, with gingham checked cloths, bottles of beer, homemade gamepies, scotch eggs and Eton mess look for a rustic barn with long tables and low beams.

If you imagine a buffet of salmon, salads and strawberries and look for a marquee with long chamomile lawns to provide you with quintessential English elegance.

If you imagine a feast of rich winter flavours, lamb, soup, bread, sticky toffee pudding, look for a mansion with open fireplaces and candlelight.

If you imagine something dramatic and unusual with flavours to surprise and delight your guests, then pick an unusual venue a zoo, a museum or a vaulted undercroft.

If you imagine an DEGUSTATION menu with course after course of incredible food, then a famous palace, A COOL PURE WHITE SPACE or a castle is the only backdrop to truly do it justice.

And if you imagined a takeaway pizza and a cold beer… well then I really can’t help you!

This article originally published on The Wedding Community Blog

Review of 2010

The snow has given me the opportunity to sit and review. Wher has the year gone? What have we been doing? What have we been eating?

The Bovingdons team have agreed that we've actually had a lot of fun despite the overtones of doom and gloom from the media. This year has yielded a bumper crop of wonderful memories as well as new clients, new ideas and a new feeling of momentum and change in the world of food and events. In fact, I can think of at least one high point in every month.

January
An early start to the year with a 100% vegetarian banquet for a wedding at Stationers Hall on the 2nd Januaruy - bank holiday, what bank holiday? Tea marbled quail’s eggs, a rich tagine with apricots and dates, orange and pistachios... delicious! click here to see the menu.

February
The wonderful Jade Tombs joined our team from Bovey Castle and quickly became our Wedding Queen.

March
We were able to take some clients for a sneak peak of the refurbised Leighton House Museum and started making preperations for it's official reopening by HRH The Prince of Wales reopened click here to see the photo.

April
Thrilling news from Fulham Palace when, after an understandably rigourous tender proccess, they awarded Bovingdons with a place on their approved caterers list click here for the full story. 

May
Lights! Camera! Action! The busy season started with gallons of Chickychicky Chowchows at a pre-Cannes cocktail party for Channel 4 at The Orangery, Holland Park click here to see a photo.

June
A favourite moment was offering welcome refreshments to the House of Lords tug-of-war team and Macmillan at Westminster Abbey. Always an event with such a great atmosphere, i recommend buying tickets for next year, click here to find out how.

July
Our best team were based inside the College Gardens at Westminster Abbey an exclusive venue only open for eight weeks in the year. They were joined by Dave, our fabulous new chef, just in time to deliver a month of showcase events.

August
A comparitively relaxed summer month of refined weddings, corporate team days and summer balls... the month flew by. Top dish?

September
Memorable for waiters in hard hats wielding chisels at the topping out party at National Martine Museum (don't even ask about the Health and Safety we had to go through!)

October
Showed us just how utterly unique weddings could be. On the one hand we were asked for something with Victorian Gothic undertones at The Kew Bridge Steam Museum for a steampunk style reception. At the other end of the scale, we created dazzling white luxury and picture perfect elegance at Fulham Palace for a wedding magazine style editor's wedding. The photos speak for themselves.

November
400 special guests at the launch of Westminster City College after a three year refurbishment. A huge party to vcelebrate a huge project and a huge success all round.

December
My favourite (so far at least) was a private party in Surrey. 80 guests at home, cocktails, ice bars (literally!), sushi and grazing stations, full lighting, candles and colour. Thanks to being "snowed in", we were still going strong until the wee small hours!

2011
Olympics, Royal Weddings, film premieres, who knows...

Christmas Cracker: 45 Millbank

Here's my pick for Christmas 2010. I love Number 45 not only for its incredible riverside location but also because of its sheer size. The rooms and chic decor all point to a building steeped in history yet it has an open almost boutique hotel feel and the spaces are unexpectedly roomy.

The Banqueting Hall is the largest (and I think best) space and really comes into its own when full. It is pillar free so even with 200 people you still have clear sight across the whole room. It has a stunning and elaborate ceiling and plenty of Edwardian splendour to impress and wow.

If you still havn't booked anywhere for Christmas, you should definately consider it. Call their team direct for diary information on 020 7514 8514 or if you need any more convincing visit their website http://www.45millbank.com/.

May Big Picture

The Orchid Room at Nonsuch Mansion as taken by the wonderful Lloyd Dobbie.

To me, this photo captures the sense of calm anticipation felt by wedding caterers like Bovingdons. It also highlights the attention to detail needed to "set the scene" before the guests walk through the door.

Just looking at it gives me pre-event butterflies!

West End Charm: Fulham Palace

I am delighted to say that after a few weeks of anxiously waiting for "the phonecall", Bovingdons have been awarded a privileged place on the catering list at Fulham Palace.

There are so many reasons why I love this venue; its impressive courtyard entrance, the way that it nestles quietly beside the Thames, the romantic atmosphere of its wild walled gardens, its maze of achingly graceful rooms, its intriguing thousand year history, the graceful tall ceilings and elegant furnishings... I could go on. Fulham Palace is a venue that has won top awards and high praise as well as my heart.

The ink on our contract is still wet but I'm already looking forward to catering for some sublime summer soirees. In my mind, a perfect palace party would involve Courtyard canapés, a delicious dinner in the Chaplain’s Garden Marquee, a dance floor in the Great Hall and a corner for quiet conversation in Bishop Terrick's Drawing Room.

Fulham Palace has a great management team with a flexible approach to how you choose use its cluster of various sized drawing and dining rooms. For availability and more details call 020 7736 8140 or visit http://www.fulhampalace.org/, then call me to start talking food!

London in Surrey: Nonsuch Mansion

It's been just nine months since the end (or I suppose the beginning!) of our most epic project to date - refurbishing, rebranding and relaunching Nonsuch Mansion

To say that this Surrey venue has become a labour of love for Bovingdons would be a huge understatement. Well before the contract was won, we had fallen completely in love with this treasured venue and could not wait to throw open its doors and help make it the success it deserves to be. The 2010 / 2011 diary acts as reassuring evidence that plenty of others feel as passionately as we do.

Set at the heart of 300 acres of sumptuous parkland, its features appeal to both head and heart. In a practical sense it has a prime location (half an hour of London Victoria, minutes from the A3 Tolworth), space for up to 250 guests, a fascinating history and a perfectly flat lawn with plenty of scope for marquees.

But the real test of a venue is always in the way that being there makes you feel and the first few hosts have told us that they felt "cherished", "serene", " and "like royalty" on their important night.

You can read more about the venue the website, or for all of the mansion happenings and news you can read the Nonsuch Mansion blog or join the hundreds of followers and fans on Twitter and Facebook. And, of course, watch this space!

March Big Picture

The Orangery Holland Park decked out for a recent ceremony.

Hidden Treasure: Leighton House

Last week I was offered a first glimpse at the completed refurbishments at one of my all time favourite venues, Leighton House. It took my breath away, or (to quote The Independent's Charlotte Philby) "It has never looked better."

Bovingdons have been a listed caterer at this Holland Park gem for fifteen years and I must admit we have missed it dearly over the last 17 months. Leighton House has always been of those rare venues that feels both extravagant and intimate, opulent and elegant. I imagine this is why it has always been a favourite venue amoungst media and publishing fraternities.

If you would like a shortcut to their rapidly filling diary, call me quickly.

* Hidden Treasure: London's Leighton House is about to re-open after a £1.6m facelift, The Independent, Saturday 6 March 2010
* Leighton House Museum will open after revamp, The Metro, Monday 9th March
* Front Row (listen again), BBC Radio 4

Secret Garden: Westminster Abbey Gardens

Quite simply, the most exclusive and most sought after summer venue in London.

As far as I (and my clients) are concerned, nowhere comes close to matching its combination of heavenly gardens and incredible location.

It is also rare to find an outdoor venue where you can be utterly confident that all will be well inspite of an unpredictable British climate. Anything between 200 and 500 guests can enjoy alfresco cocktails in Big Ben's shadow, or if need be, seek sanctuary inside the framed marquee.

Impressive, central, grand, green, historical - Westminster Abbey Gardens ticks every box on the venue wishlist.

The catch? It is available for a mere 20 days in July.

The 2010 diary opens this week - I predict that my phone will be red hot with enquiries from those-in-the-know.