Sometimes the wedding fayres that give you the most to think about are not the ones with people queueing out of the door.
Sunday 11th October at Oulton Hall near Leeds was one of those days.
It started cold and crisp — our favourite kind of autumn morning — with us arriving first, unloading and getting everything running before anybody else had even made it into the room.
We were buzzing.
There was only one slight problem.
We thought the fayre started at 11am. It actually started at 12.
Oulton Hall in numbers:
- 120 guests had registered before the event.
- Around 60 guests attended on the day.
- We produced 75 prints.
- We brought Magic, Mini, Mobile, Memories and Memories Live.
- We demonstrated our caricatures and new watercolour illustrations.
- Pet caricatures unexpectedly became one of the biggest talking points of the day.
- Our live Starlink test began at 173 Mbps down and 18 Mbps up and ran without a connection dropout.
- Someone even managed to lose the diamond from an engagement ring — at a wedding fayre — and somehow found it again.
Cold, crisp and exactly our kind of October morning at Oulton Hall.
Photo:Yorkshire Magic Mirror
First In. Very First In.
Being an hour early turned out not to be the worst mistake we have ever made.
It gave us time to get properly settled, build the full setup, get the music on and start testing everything without rushing.
And we had brought a lot.
The Magic Mirror, Magic Mini, Magic Mobile, Memories, Memories Live, caricatures and our new watercolour illustrations were all there.
Ray from Joshua Adams Menswear was next door. Teas started moving in both directions and the music was already doing its job around the room.
At one point Ray summed it up rather nicely:
“When you leave the room, everything goes off.”
We cannot work in silence.
First into the room and setting up ridiculously early — mostly because we had the start time wrong.
Photo:Yorkshire Magic Mirror
Starlink joined the setup for its first proper Yorkshire Magic Mirror wedding fayre test.
Photo:Yorkshire Magic Mirror
The First Conversation Lasted Half an Hour
The first serious conversation of the day lasted around 30 minutes.
And it was not even for a wedding.
They were looking at a charity ball connected to a very special 20th anniversary and were interested in combining several of the things we do: Magic, Mini, Mobile, Memories and Memories Live.
That became one of the themes of the day.
We had a lot of conversations with people who were not looking at one isolated product. They were looking at how several experiences could work together.
We are deliberately not calling those conversations bookings.
One of the strange things about wedding fayres is that you often have no idea what the real result was when you pack the van that afternoon. Somebody can meet you on a Sunday and book next week, six months later or, with weddings being planned so far ahead, potentially much later than that.
So we do not announce imaginary wins before they happen.
We remember the conversations and let the results arrive when they arrive.
Then somebody asked a question
Can You Do My Dog?
This is how new ideas sometimes happen around us.
Somebody showed us a photograph on their phone and asked whether we could create one of our caricatures from it.
It was their pet.
So we tried it.
It turned out brilliantly.
Then somebody else wanted one.
Then another.
Before long, every supplier and their dog seemed to be appearing with photographs on their phones.
And on this occasion, “and their dog” was increasingly literal.
One person asked whether we could create a caricature of their pet from a photo.
Photo:Yorkshire Magic Mirror
Then everybody seemed to want one.
Photo:Yorkshire Magic Mirror
And another, they just kept coming.
Photo:Yorkshire Magic Mirror
The Caricatures Had Competition From Our Own Watercolours
At Rogerthorpe Manor the previous week, the caricatures had stolen the show.
At Oulton Hall we brought something else with us too: our new watercolour illustrations.
The reaction to both became one of the strongest parts of the day.
People who initially looked as though they had absolutely no intention of stopping would see what was happening, start watching and then end up in a conversation with us.
That matters.
We are not simply showing people a product they already know they want. Sometimes we are showing them something they did not know was possible and watching the reaction change in front of us.
The other suppliers were constantly coming over to look too. Phones appeared with photographs. People wanted caricatures. People wanted watercolours. People wanted their pets.
It got slightly ridiculous.
Caricatures and the new watercolour illustrations became a magnet for couples and suppliers.
Photo:Yorkshire Magic Mirror
The new watercolour illustrations were very popular for couples.
Photo:Yorkshire Magic Mirror
One thing we do know, everyone loved it.
Photo:Yorkshire Magic Mirror
Then Quadraphonics Got Involved
At some point the Quadraphonics quartet joined in.
Not just a quick photograph either.
Instruments included.
That is exactly the kind of moment we enjoy at a wedding fayre. Four musicians did not arrive that morning planning to leave with themselves transformed into a caricature. They saw what was happening, got involved and suddenly we had another completely unexpected print coming out of the system.
We also created a watercolour version, which made a lovely side-by-side demonstration of how differently the same people and moment can be interpreted.
The Quadraphonics quartet got involved too — instruments included, obviously.
Photo:Yorkshire Magic Mirror
The same moment became a watercolour too, showing just how different the two styles can feel.
Photo:Yorkshire Magic Mirror
There Was Another Illustrator in the Building
There was also a traditional illustrator exhibiting at Oulton Hall, which created an interesting conversation during the afternoon.
What we do can look, at first glance, as though it occupies the same space.
It really does not.
A traditional illustrator has something genuinely valuable to sell: their skill, their hand, their style and the process of watching an artist create something for you.
Our proposition is different.
People come to us because the experience is immediate. We can take a photograph — or, as we discovered today, a photograph already sitting on somebody's phone — and turn it into something playful incredibly quickly as part of the entertainment.
Neither needs to pretend to be the other.
Do what you do. Be brilliant at it. Give people a reason to choose you.
Meanwhile, Starlink Just Kept Working
Oulton Hall was also the first proper wedding fayre test for something rather less artistic.
Starlink.
We have been looking at ways of making our connected products less dependent on venue Wi-Fi and mobile coverage. We do not want one connection method. We want options.
Before the fayre started, the Starlink connection was giving us approximately 173 Mbps download and 18 Mbps upload.
More importantly, it stayed up.
We did not have a single connection dropout during the event. There were two or three occasions when an AI conversion felt slightly slower, but it carried on working and nothing failed.
We cannot give a meaningful data-usage figure from this test because the Starlink equipment and account were loaned to us, so we do not have access to its usage statistics.
That means we are not declaring the experiment finished yet.
But as a test of whether Starlink could keep Yorkshire Magic Mirror running through a real wedding fayre?
That part went extremely well.
And Then Someone Lost a Diamond
Because apparently the day was not odd enough already.
A woman suddenly realised that the diamond had come out of her engagement ring.
At a wedding fayre.
Of all the places.
There was searching around the floor near the stalls and, somehow, against what felt like fairly ridiculous odds, she actually found it.
The diamond had simply popped out of the ring.
Wedding fayre drama over.
“You Watch. They're Good. They're Very Good.”
Possibly the least formal review we have ever received came from two women who were at Oulton Hall for afternoon tea rather than the wedding fayre.
They had been making very enthusiastic use of the bottomless prosecco.
They came over, got involved, had a fantastic time and wandered off again.
Then, in the corridor, we overheard one saying to the other:
“You watch. They're good. They're very good.”
We will take that.
A Room Full of Wedding Suppliers
Our room included Joshua Adams Menswear, Twilight Games Hire, Snap Your Moment, Suit One, Bianca Violin, Lee Call Photography, Party Cakes, Taste of Italy, Ace of Spades Casino, Tivoli Travel, Passion Flowers, Rob Ellams Magician, Forever Floral and Charlotte Elizabeth Photography.
Elsewhere around Oulton Hall were Antich, Ben Cummins Photography, Marlin Milton Duo and Meg from Something Reloved, alongside other exhibitors.
Grant, Ebony, Allan and Az were looking after the day for Wedding Fayres Yorkshire.
Sarah from Those Cherished Moments even came specially to see us and get a print after missing out the previous week.
And after the fayre, a catch-up with Mel from Passion Flowers and Grant Saunders from Wedding Fayres Yorkshire gave the day a lovely ending: sitting around, talking through the fayre, the positives and the wins.
The creative prints became as much a supplier experience as a couple experience.
Photo:Yorkshire Magic Mirror
The it became pets and couples, we had to oblige
Photo:Yorkshire Magic Mirror
Everyone wanted in on the action.
Photo:Yorkshire Magic Mirror
Was It Quiet?
Yes.
After the run of absolutely relentless Wedding Fayres Yorkshire events we have had recently, Oulton Hall felt different.
Around 120 people had registered and approximately 60 attended.
Oulton Hall had also hosted another wedding fayre only a few weeks earlier. That may have played some part in the quieter turnout, or it may not. There is no sensible way for us to know.
What was noticeable was how quickly footfall became the conversation among some suppliers.
We understand it. Everybody gives up their Sunday, loads a vehicle, sets up a stand and wants a busy room.
But we have never believed that the number of people walking through a door is, by itself, the measure of whether a fayre worked.
We care about the conversations.
We care about whether people understand what we do.
Ultimately, we care about the bookings and the business that comes from being there — and you cannot accurately measure that at 3pm on the same Sunday.
Somebody you meet today might book tomorrow. They might book months from now. Their wedding might still be two years away.
So there is very little value in us pretending we know the final result before it exists.
What we could control
Let Other People Count Heads
We could not control how many people walked through the doors.
We could control what happened when they reached us.
And we made every one of those moments count.
Some people spent the afternoon counting how many people were not there.
We concentrated on the people who were.
We made 75 prints. We turned people's pets into caricatures. We illustrated a quartet complete with instruments. We tested a completely different way of connecting our technology without a single dropout. We had conversations about combinations of products. We made people laugh. We drank a lot of tea.
And apparently we impressed two extremely merry afternoon-tea guests.
Let other people count heads. We'll keep making heads turn.
Planning a Wedding at Oulton Hall?
If you are planning your wedding at Oulton Hall, the Wedding Fayres Yorkshire event gave couples the chance to meet a wide range of suppliers and see ideas working in the room rather than simply collecting brochures.
If you met us there — or you are now wondering why so many dogs suddenly became caricatures — these are some of the experiences we were demonstrating:
- Magic Mirror Hire
- Magic Mini
- Yorkshire Magic Memories
- Memories Live
- Check your Oulton Hall wedding date
Final Thoughts
Oulton Hall was not another packed, relentless wedding fayre.
And that is exactly why we will remember it.
We arrived an hour too early. Ray kept the teas moving. The music went on. Our first major conversation lasted half an hour. Pets took over the caricatures. The watercolours got people stopping. Quadraphonics brought their instruments. Starlink refused to fall over. Somebody lost a diamond and somehow found it again. Around 60 guests came through and 75 prints left the stand.
Most importantly, people loved what we were doing.
Even some of the people who initially looked as though they did not want it ended up stopping, talking, laughing and discovering something they had not expected.
That is why we keep experimenting.
Not because everybody else is wrong.
Because we are not interested in standing still.
Be positive. Be different. Be bloody good at what you do.
And let everyone else decide whether they want to come along for the ride.
Tell us your venue and date and we'll help you build something your guests have not already seen at every other wedding.
