A Diary of The Events Team

Roses are red, violets are blue, who will be buying some flowers for you? Why is the rose the most popular flower to give on Valentine’s Day? Where did Valentine’s Day originate from? What are the traditions behind Valentine’s Day? How many cards will our gorgeous team get this year? We might not be able to answer the last question but we have had a look into the rest...

©  There are a many theories behind the origins of Valentine’s Day but our favourites are:

• In third century Rome, Emperor Claudius outlawed marriage for young men, believing that single  men made better soldiers than those with families. Realising the injustice of this, one priest named  Valentine continued to perform marriages in secret for young couples. Claudius found out about these  secret ceremonies and ordered Valentine be put to death.
• The first Valentine’s greeting was sent from a prison cell where Valentine fell in love with a young girl, possibly the jailor’s daughter. Before his death, He sent her a letter signed “from your Valentine”.
• In 1537, King Henry VIII declared, by Royal Charter, that all England would celebrate February 14 as "Saint Valentine's Day". Over time, Saint Valentine became the accepted Patron Saint of Lovers and February 14^th became the traditional date for exchanging messages and tokens of love. 

© Red roses are a popular choice of flowers to give loved ones on Valentine's Day as they symbolise love, romance, beauty and perfection. All that is celebrated on February        14^th (and should be all year round might we add)!
©  You may have been forced to endure a speed dating night by one of your friends but count yourself lucky.  During the medieval era, English maidens and bachelors put          their names into a box; pairs of names were drawn out and those chosen had to become a couple for a whole year. The man was bound by duty to protect his chosen            lady and to wear her name on his sleeve!

©  If you have a family, the Norfolk tradition that Jack Valentine is a lovable yet mysterious character who on the eve of Valentine’s Day will knock at children’s doors and        leave them treats and presents might be one you want to keep to yourself!

©  Are you racking your brains for a popular wedding favour for your big day? We think the Welsh who celebrate Valentine’s Day on the          15^th January have a fantastic idea. It is customary for Welsh couples to give love-spoons with symbolic designs. This age-old tradition          possibly originated among sailors who would carve spoons and give them to a lady they were interested in marrying. Patterns include          keys to signify a man’s heart and wheels to show his hard work. What would be your design?

©  However, our favourite here in the office is the tradition in Denmark and Norway where men will send poems to their desired giving them a clue as          to who sent it by signing off with little dots which represent the amount of letters in their name. If the recipient guesses the sender correctly, she            is entitled to an Easter Egg a few months later. If she cannot guess her secret admirer, she owes him an Easter Egg! 

      We do hope on February 14^th you will be a washed with love-spoons, poems, roses and chocolates. Should you need to send a last minute bouquet,  don’t forget our lovely florists, Gardenia, Lavender Green, Seasons Florists and Richard Elder – they will be more than happy to help!

 Happy Valentine’s Day from all at the Events Team! 

A Diary of The Events Team

Last month we asked our caterers to share their favourite Christmas item from their menus, and this time, two of our florists have given us some great ideas of how to decorate your home this festive season.

Lavender Green have created these beautiful fruit garlands that look great hanging from the fireplace and will fill any room with the fragrance of Christmas.

To re-create the fruit garlands in your own home, simply follow these instructions:

Start by drying a selection of dried fruits, (including orange slices, whole limes) as well as some whole chillies and bay leaves. You will roughly need 6 whole fruits, 18 bay leaves and a 16 fruit slices.

Tie a knot in a long bit of string, and using a strong wire or heavy gauge darning needle, thread the fruit slices, whole fruit and bay leaves and chillies in a pattern of your choice. Ensure the different fruits are evenly distributed along the length of string.

Finish by tying a loop in the end and decorate with pretty ribbon.

Top tip: to keep the white rind on the fruit, slice them at an angle like a ‘V’ and peel the skin away slowly (be careful not to cut too deep).

Gardenia  have put together a step-by-step guide to making a table centre piece for the many times we’ll be sitting around a table this festive period!

You will need:

• A tray, dish, pot or other container

• Floral foam

• Florists wire

• Florists tape or electrical tape

• A candle

• Seasonal foliage like pine, fir, holly, ivy, rosemary and privet

• Decorations and accents of colour, such as dried fruit, cinnamon sticks, fresh roses, pine cones, red berries – be creative!

Prepare your ingredients. Soak the floral foam in water for at least 2 minutes before placing it in your chosen container and taping it down securely. Raid the garden for some evergreen foliage or cut a few sprigs of fir from your Christmas tree, then strip any leaves or needles from the bottom 2.5cm of each stem. Wire your decorations by threading them onto a piece of florists wire and twisting the ends together as shown.

Build up the base. Fix the candle into the floral foam then begin to cover the base with layers of foliage, pushing the stripped stems well into the foam to create a basic shape. Start with more robust stems of fir or pine, then create interest with sprigs of holly and loops of ivy. Don’t worry about being too neat, we’re going for a homemade look!

Add in some colour. Time to get creative. Use colourful dried fruit, holly berries, cinnamon sticks and other decorations to give your centrepiece a personal touch. We’ve stuck to dry decorations in this example, but don’t be afraid to use fresh flowers – red and white roses are stunning at Christmas.

Ta-daa! Your centrepiece is ready to take pride of place on your Christmas table. If you have used a plastic tray you may want to camouflage it with a few sprigs of greenery around the bottom.

Your table centrepiece will last a good few weeks if you keep the container topped up with water every few days. For New Year’s Eve try swapping the decorations for flowers, or add a bit of sparkle with silver and gold accents.

  

We’d love to see pictures of your creations over the holidays, so why not tweet us your photos @ParksteadHouse.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year.

The Events Team

The 21st Century, and Beyond!

The team here has been so busy over the last couple of months that it has been remiss of us not to keep you updated as to the progress of our Google 360⁰ business tour. It was launched just a couple of weeks ago, and we are all so excited to finally be able to show off Parkstead House.

We do hope you enjoy it! - http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=18175701672491725844

 

The whole of the University bought in to this project with grounds staff cleaning up the winter leaves and moving the goal posts.  Window cleaners washed and polished every pane of glass in sight and the carpets had a shampoo. Most importantly we have to say a special thank you to all of our porters who helped so much on the day.

After mentioning in the last chapter about trying to decide on colour schemes, we decided to conduct a Mail Chimps survey and the verdict was, “Yes go for strong bold colours”, so we hope you like the Racing Green that we settled on.  Shaunna and I spent three days setting up rooms making sure that things were ’just so’ and showed off the venue to its best. Buckingham Palace may measure cutlery, we measured chairs on the carpet! 

The camera is not so kind and can zoom in on any spot showing up cracks and marks and so everything had to be perfect. Mobile Music provided us with lighting and on the day of the shoot Gardenia delivered the wedding flowers.

 

 

Whilst we had plans for certain rooms to be shot in a certain order (the order that we were ready!), Kellie advised us that we had to shoot in the order of the walk to retain the correct light levels. This is where the porters came into their own – “THANKS GUYS”.  At one point, after finishing shooting the Richmond Room ceremony set-up, we broke down the room only to realise that the chairs appeared in the next room shots! That meant it was a case of all hands on deck to re-set the Richmond Room......chairs, lighting, tea-lights and the floral chair bouquets had to be re-tied, exactly as previously set-up.

 

 

This project was a labour of love, for both Shaunna and I and one that we are proud to have finally completed, particularly as this tour will become one of the first touch points with our target markets, business and consumer, private and students alike! We are so delighted with the results that another Google 360⁰ tour is planned for Grove House in the spring, so keep an eye out for that one! http://twitter.com/parksteadhouse
 

This, however was our  ‘Swan Song’ with Conference Roehampton and whilst Shaunna has moved into a marketing role with Venn Digital, I am delighted to be passing on the responsibilities of the Grove House Google 360⁰ to Anna Fowler, the new Marketing & Events Manager and I wish her well in her new role. Anna can be contacted on, anna.fowler@roehampton.ac.uk

Susan Stuart can be contacted on http://uk.linkedin.com/in/suestuart/