On Saturday I spent the afternoon at Martina and Aaron's wedding at Oatlands Park in Weybridge. As I arrived I spotted a rather spectacular Ferrari parking by the hotel entrance. This turned out to be the wedding car and it made a nice change to the usual white Rolls-Royce!
The weather was lovely and warm so the drinks reception took place on the grass gardens outside the hotel. I spent a very enjoyable time talking with the guests and showing them various pieces of magic and mind-reading, alongside some special balloons for the youngsters. Most of my magic is aimed at an adult audience, but I always make sure to have a few things to entertain the children too (and for them nothing beats a good old balloon animal!) It was a great afternoon. Many congratulations to Martina and Aaron and all the best for your future together.
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Are you planning a wedding? You've probably arranged the venue, dress, cake, guest list and so on and now it's time to think about entertainment. Some music is a great idea - maybe a harpist or string quartet during the afternoon and a band or DJ during the evening. You could book a caricaturist, a photo booth, an ice cream stand or a chocolate fountain. All of these will add something nice to your Big Day but nothing quite beats having your very own wedding magician. Most people have seen magic on TV but very few have seen it happening for real right in front of them, so it's a great way to treat your guests to something unusual and amazing.
It's a very flexible form of entertainment. You can have a wedding magician entertaining your guests at any point during the day - at the afternoon drinks reception, alongside the wedding breakfast or into the evening. The only times to avoid are during those key moments such as the speeches or cake-cutting. My style of wedding magic is called "close-up" which means there's no need for a stage or any large props, instead I wander around mingling with your guests doing impossible things! Someone thinks of a word and I know what it is. Someone takes out a coin and I make it bend in their hands. All sorts of amazing things that people will remember and talk about long afterwards. I sometimes meet people months (or even years) later who still have a memento of the magic that they've seen! You probably haven't booked a magician before so it may be helpful to have a few pointers. First, make sure that they are a member of The Magic Circle, this is your guarantee of quality and means that you are booking a proper professional magician rather than an enthusiastic amateur. Second, make sure that they are insured, as many wedding venues insist on this these days. Third, have a good look at their website to see if they look busy. A good magician will be a busy magician and have a regularly updated blog and plenty of pictures of them performing at various events. Hope that helps - if you want more information or a quote please get in touch! I've done magic at a lot of prestigious venues - The Savoy, The Gherkin, Tower Bridge, Wembley Stadium - but this was my first time performing at The Ritz. I'd been booked for Chris and Michelle's wedding, the weather was glorious and the setting couldn't have been better. I arrived early and had an enjoyable chat with Ian Gomes who is the resident pianist for The Ritz. He has played for royalty and Hollywood stars and, as I discovered, is very interested in magic. In fact I'll be teaching him a few tricks in the near future!
Then Chris, Michelle and their guests arrived and I spent a couple of hours doing my repertoire of amazing things. The mind reading went down especially well and a couple of new routines that I have recently added worked perfectly and received an appreciative round of applause. The wedding was being held on May the 4th which is, of course, Star Wars day. This was no coincidence as Chris is a big fan and wedding cake was, appropriately, a unique design that featured Star Wars, Star Trek, Back to the Future, The Hobbit, Marvel superheroes and more - it was incredible, see the picture below! Well, it has been a very busy few weeks. My diary is fuller than ever and I'm getting phone calls and emails asking about my availability every hour or two! Luckily I managed to find a gap between bookings to fit in a short break in Venice during April, but no sooner had I arrived back in the UK then I was flying off again to Oslo in Norway, this time for work rather than a holiday. I'd been booked to appear at an international conference and was going to be doing magic for delegates from across Europe. The client paid for my flights and hotel and I was lucky enough to have some free time to explore Oslo before performing. It's a wonderful city and well worth a visit. I then got everything ready and spent a very enjoyable two hours amazing everyone during the evening drinks reception. Luckily everyone spoke good English - I've done card tricks in Italian and French while working at Heathrow Airport, but my Norwegian definitely isn't up to it! After a very late night I flew back to the UK with a lot of happy memories. Thank you to Iris for arranging everything and I look forward to going back to Oslo again soon!
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