WEDDING SOIREE

Check out our new Wedding Soiree blog for all the information on the event.

(Click to link)

Be sure to check back regularly lots of exciting stuff planed for this event.

The Problem With Posting

We have had a few nasty and untrue comments about our last post (which we have now removed) none of which was meant as a hurtful or nasty comment on anybody else's business but we did want to talk about how we felt about planning events we do not believe we warranted the backlash that happened and do feel that we deserve the right to defend ourselves and more importantly our business which we will soon.

2012 and the problem with Markets part 1

So we have been busy planning our schedule for next year, we have so many new and exciting things planned and we wanted to start using this blog to journal our adventures in event planning and styling.

So we figured we would start with a heads up on where we are and the mood at Crown & Country HQ.

Are main business since setting up Crown & Country Vintage has been running handmade and vintage markets and for the last two Christmases we have run one at the Longfield Suite in Prestwich.

 We love planning and styling markets and meeting all the great people, even thought they are a lot of hard work and they can be hard to make work financially as well. The main reason for this being the little thing called the “Market License”, many people don’t know about this (we didn’t when we started out a few years ago) and it can catch people out.

Bury Council (our local council) is one of the highest priced in the country, for a market of 5 - 30 stalls (no matter if you only have 10) it is £300 then £8 a stall after that. While we think a market license is a good thing, it just seems like a very steep price to pay, they say it is to stop rival markets from operating (the law is from 1290 or something like that) can’t personally see how a vintage and handmade market is competition for a council market but they have the sole right to run markets in that area.

When you factor in insurance, room rental, promotion, staff costs and your time its hard to make it work.  And we always wonder how organisers can charge £15-£20 for stalls, its so hard on other companies or smaller markets.

The government talks a lot about bringing the independent high street back and this is something we really care about which is why we are organising a local food festival in 2012 in Prestwich to celebrate local food and business. The license though can really work against these sorts of events, many councils in places like London don’t charge for the license as they would rather encourage people finding ways to celebrate the local community. Its a shame but that is how it is. 

 

We are going to be talking about some other issues about running Markets in Part 2 which should be up soon.

 

PRETTY THINGS

Hi everyone, 

Sorry it's been so long between posts it's been so busy here at Crown & Country HQ, We have been planning out 2012 and we have so much planned it’s a scary kind of exciting, so stay tuned for more info about that and for our new look blog/website etc for 2012. 

But for now we thought we would share some pics from our Winter Market the other Sunday, Hope you enjoy and thanks again to everybody who made the day really special.

 

Thanks to Rodo Creative for there fab pic of our tea room.

Women's Institute

Hi don't forget to come along to the Longfield Centre at 2pm Sunday, for our meeting about the Prestwich and Whitefield WI, We won't keep you long and you can have a cup of tea and a biscuits whilst the area organiser tells you all about what being a member of WI is all like.

 

If you can't make it to the meeting just e-mail us at mail@crownandcountryvintage.co.uk and we can add you to the list of interested people. 

 

Hope you can come to the meeting as we are really excited about setting up a WI and the more members we have the more we can do.

Hope to see you there

Susan & Charlotte

A GREAT DAY

We had a great day yesterday at our Winter Market. Lots more photo's to come soon.

TODAY'S THE DAY

Hope you can join us today from 10 am till 4 pm a day of vintage and handmade delights, with hot food served in our vintage pop up tea shop, chill out and knit and natter away a Sunday afternoon.