You can read our latest update here.
In this issue
October 2009 Suppliers' Update
You can subscribe or unsubscribe to our newsletters and updates here
October 2009 supplier’s update
Chair covers – who knew?
My first introduction to chair covers was joining Hire Things. I’d never even heard of them before that. O f course I got married 15yrs ago so that might have something to do with it…
We had several listed on Hire Things that were being hired out with astonishing frequency. What was this all about? I did some research!
I found that chair covers are used to …
Hide worn and tired chairs
Add elegance and create an amazing atmosphere
Unify the room and create a complete look that all works together.
Transform everyday rooms ( or beaches) into amazing places!
Well there you go, now I know. My wedding in the very utilitarian local yacht club could certainly have benefited from a transformation!
They certainly make a difference to your venue that table clothes and flowers only start and aren’t just for weddings. You can totally glam up any event instantly by ordering the complete package.
There’s a rainbow of colours available as well as different designs and textures – I’m quite partial to these paua coloured ones myself. You can find the right style to fit for your chairs
Starting from $4 each you can get them delivered and even put on the chairs for you, a bargain!
Top Tips for Wedding Speeches
Congratulations. What a day to look forward to. A Wedding day is a day that families and friends will remember for the rest of their lives.
So… its important that everything on this special day is memorable and a pleasure for all-including the speeches.
A Wedding speech is often very personal and its content has to be appropriate to those being acknowledged. Whether you’re the groom, bride, best man or father of the bride making a speech can be made easier with some well chosen advice, a little help and thought.
The following considerations will ensure the speech making part of the day runs smoother and also give some guidance to all the speakers.
Seven points to Consider when deciding your Wedding Speech Process
1. Don’t get carried away and have all and sundry speak. Too many speakers may weary the guests.
2. If at all possible avoid last minute requests by people to speak.
3. Don’t force anyone to speak if they really don’t want to.
4. Encourage those who are concerned about their speech to seek expert help.
5. Look for an MC who is comfortable and confident speaking in public.
6. Ensure you brief the MC on your expectations regarding; their role, length of introductions, tone, jokes and flow.
7. Speakers should know well in advance of the wedding that they are going to speak.
Seven essentials that will increase success: for all speakers
1. Commit time to your speech preparation and give it your undivided attention. Don’t think it will be okay to think of something on the day.
2. Find out what the purpose of your speech is and do the bride and groom have any expectations.
3. Ask for HELP if stuck, unsure or need guidance. It’s good to get somebody else’s opinion and it is only an opinion.
4. Don’t embarrass the bride or the guests.
5. Don’t think it has to be hilarious by including plenty of unrelated jokes. Try and get a balance of sincerity, real life stories and humour.
6. Keep your speech relevant and don’t ramble.
7. Practice. Practice in front of someone else and ask him or her to give you honest comment. Small adjustments in critical areas often make a major impact.
About Bruce of Wedding Speeches.co.nz
I have been helping people with their wedding speeches for a number of years. Assistance can be in person, by phone or email. My approach to wedding speeches certainly makes speech making easier.
All assistance is based on the speaker’s personal requirements and ranges from general advice to major involvement.
Bruce
www.weddingspeeches.co.nz
Make over your Home for Summer or for Sale!
With spring arriving it’s a great time to have a clear out, shake off winter and set the scene for enjoying a glorious summer.
Whether your selling your home or it’s just in need of a makeover, home stylists can add real value to your property and your lifestyle.
Clutter can be depressing and overwhelming. Many people get stressed out over how to store all their stuff! One of the obvious solutions is to get rid of the clutter!
Lorraine from Housedressings says ‘if in doubt chuck it out!’ and offers a few hot tips to get you started
* Kids gear (tricycles, skateboards, roller skates) stored in the garage for sentimental reasons – even though the kids are off at university
* Kitchen appliances purchased on impulse and which are rarely used (bread makers, juicers, grinders, and blenders are typical items taking up valuable space)
* Paper – old newspapers, magazines, paper backs, Time and Reader’s Digest magazines and National Geographic’s
* The two drawers of plastic containers – lids without containers and containers without lids!
* Gym gear – used for three weeks and then abandoned
* Clothes you haven’t worn in over a year
* That ‘interesting’ vase that Aunty Myrtle gave you
* Any item that you don’t really love
We have several Home Stagers who can help you with simple, inexpensive improvements that can be made within your budget. Rhonda from first Impressions offers a great DIY home staging package full of tips and advice to use yourself.
Home Staging has become hugely popular when selling homes, making sure you have the best presentation to secure the best possible price.
Essentially, home staging is selling a lifestyle by helping prospective purchasers visualise what it would be like for them to live in the space. Home Stagers use home design techniques to their full effect, bringing out the best in a property.
Contact Lorraine , Rhonda and any of our Home Stagers for great ideas and their current special offers.
Make money from your things – without having to sell them!
You no longer have to sell the things you own to make money out of them!
Now you can make extra dollars and keep your stuff by hiring out your things online.
Many of us have “things” sitting round waiting to be used. Hiring them out in your community gives you some extra income, saves someone else having to buy one, keeps the cash in your local area and is great for the environment. Benefits all around.
You can hire out pretty much any thing you own – tools, sports equipment, kitchen equipment, baby gear, toys, camping gear, clothes, a spare room etc etc.
Sam listed his camera gear a few months ago and has already made over $200 just form hiring out things he wasn’t using all the time.
Rhonda is a mum who has had over 160 hire transactions
Here’s an example of what you could hire out.
$10 Drill $40 Tent $10 Sander $15 Hedge trimmer
$30 Trailer $90 Roof Box $10 Toys $40 water blaster
$20 Bikes $30 Baby gear $30 Camera $20 Sewing machine
Hiring out a few things like this and you could start making money every month – easy extra income!
Start listing on www.hirethings.co.nz today and make some extra $$.
Tell your neighbors/friends/colleagues so they can list stuff you might want to hire!
Happy listing!
Hire a Hunk and liven up your day!
Bored with housework? Had a bad week? Want to add a bit of sparkle to your day or to cheer up a friend? You need to hire a hunk!
Hunks for hire are a fabulous bit of eye candy for those desperate housewives, single girls, widowers or office ladies who want to spice things up around the office, home or garden.
Get the girls together for a glass of wine and enjoy a good old perve and lots of laughs.
As well as looking gorgeous you can hire a Gardening Hunk to cut your hedges, do some weeding, or mow your lawns; a Pool Hunk to clean your pool; a Domestic Hunk to Vacuum, clean windows, car or decking; a Handy Hunk repair the fence, change a tyre or odd jobs around the house and a Chauffer Hunk to drive your girls around town on a pub crawl, keep them in out of trouble and home safely.
You can even get a hunk in costume….pirate, uniform, warrior…
Give a friend a birthday present she’ll never forget!
Take A Party Cruise For Your Next Function!
No soggy sandwiches and bosses in silly hats here! You don’t have to have the same old boring Christmas party, leaving do or celebration event that you usually do.
Take the stress out of organising your next work function; dine in style surrounded by the ocean and the city lights. A party cruise is a great way to have fun and unwind. Cruising on the harbour creates a fun and lively atmosphere that even the office grouches enjoy.
You can book complete packages including catering, drinks and music and just turn up. The easiest party you ever organised!
If you prefer you can bring food and drink as well as arrange your own music or entertainment. You can even make it a fancy dress party for some extra fun. Check here for a few costume theme ideas.
Party cruises are especially great for Christmas. It can be a busy, hectic time of the year without having to organise your end of year work party!
Here are some ideas
- 3 Hour Harbour Cruise & Gourmet BBQ
- Cocktail Cruising in Wellington
- A 4hr Christmas party cruise that includes a full Christmas Buffet dinner & free live DJ.
- Party the night away while cruising the beautiful night lights and scenery of Auckland’s Waitamata Harbour.
- Tall ship 4 hour twilight Harbour cruise including Christmas Buffet
Prices vary depending on number of guests but start around $46pp.
You can book your Christmas party cruise now and forget about it until its time to turn up and enjoy your evening, how good is that?
Iona
Keeping the kids happy
Keeping the kids happy – always challenging but always worth it!
Happy kids = happy parents.
Kids grow fast and they grow out of things just as fast. You can spend a lot of money on clothes, toys, baby equipment for each stage of your child’s development. So much to do, so much to learn and so many cool things!
This year alone my son has already been through fads of Ben 10, Bakugon and is now fixated on Star Wars.
Unless you are made of money and have a warehouse to store everything, what are your options? Choose a selection of things you hope they like? Buy them and sell them for a fraction of their value in a few months when they have out grown them?
This is where hiring makes the most sense.You can hire your kids a selection of toys for a week/month, they get to enjoy something fun and interesting and you can swap it when they start to get bored! Perfect.
It makes much more sense to hire a selection of toys for a short time while they are still “new”and exciting, then hire something different next month. Toy hire is an easy way to get top quality, well known brands, that are totally safe for kids and match their current level of development.
Toy hire works especially well for those larger items such as toy kitchens, ride-on-cars, indoor climbing frames etc and are great as part of a party pack for birthday parties or when your entertaining and would like the kids occupied…
So next time your thinking of buying toys for your children, take a moment to consider how long they are going to play with it, where are you going to store it and do they really need to have one or would they just enjoying playing on/with one for a while?
As well as saving you money I think this sends great messages to our kids regarding the reusing of resources, that you don’t always have to own to enjoy.
Costume parties, stuck for ideas?
 It’s very cold and gray this time of year which makes
a perfect reason to dress up and to step outside yourself for bit, for the best ever mid winter party!
A costume or fancy dress party is always fabulous fun, with lots of hilarious photo opportunities and great memories.
Conversation is easy with lots of laughs at each guest’s arrival – depending, of course on how outrageous you plan to be!
Stuck for Party Theme ideas?
Jenny from Pieces of Eight Costume Hire has these suggestions
1920’s Charleston, 1930’s Gangsters, 1940’s War Years, 1950’s Rock n Roll, 1960’s Hippy Days, 1970’s Disco & T.V Characters, 1980’s Retro & T.V Characters, Ancestors, Animals, Aussies & Kiwiana, Bollywood, Book Characters, Cartoon Characters, Celebrities, Christmas, Countries of the World, Country & Western, Disco Fever, Drag Queens, Easter, Fairy’s & Goblins, Fairytales, Famous Adventurers, Famous Dead People, Famous English, Flying, Forever Young, Halloween, Humorous, James Bond 007, Movie Characters, Murder Mystery, Musicians, Myths & Legends, Naughty & Nice, Nautical/Water Theme, Pirates of the Caribbean, Professionals, Rogues & Villains, Roman/Grecian/Turkish, T.V Characters, The “P” party, Letter themed Party , Uniforms, Witches & Wizards …
 Jenny makes and designs most of her costumes, importing only select garments.
She is particularly proud of the quality and quantity they carry, including hats, wigs and accessories.
Every kind of costume you could imagine available nationwide and in their gorgeous new showroom in Tauranga.
 Meet some more of our costume people
Debbie at Alter Egos runs her business online and is so dedicated she was replying to requests while in labor with her daughter, then following bookings from her hospital bed!
She has a range of fun and sexy outfits available nationwide for both men and women.
Sandra and the team at Creative Show Off make it their mission to find you the perfect costume for you.
Their expertise is unmatched in the Wellington area and have a collection built over 20 yrs including costumes from stage and film productions.
 When your feeling a bit naughty, Melarie from Wear It Out has an astounding range of sexy costumes for all occasions.
Order before lunch time and get your costume the next day!
Rosie in Palmerston North offers you a beautifully presented collection with excellent personal service.
All outfits come complete with all accessories.
What ever you’re up to and what ever you’re wearing have a fantastic time!
Iona and the Hire Things Team
|
||||||
|
Stuck for Party Theme ideas?
Jenny from Pieces of Eight Costume Hire has these suggestions
|
||||||||
 |
1920’s Charleston, 1930’s Gangsters, 1940’s War Years, 1950’s Rock n Roll, 1960’s Hippy Days, 1970’s Disco & T.V Characters, 1980’s Retro & T.V Characters, Ancestors, Animals, Aussies & Kiwiana, Bollywood, Book Characters, Cartoon Characters, Celebrities, Christmas, Countries of the World, Country & Western, Disco Fever, Drag Queens, Easter, Fairy’s & Goblins, Fairytales, Famous Adventurers, Famous Dead People, Famous English, Flying, Forever Young, Halloween, Humorous, James Bond 007, Movie Characters, Murder Mystery, Musicians, Myths & Legends, Naughty & Nice, Nautical/Water Theme, Pirates of the Caribbean, Professionals, Rogues & Villains, Roman/Grecian/Turkish, T.V Characters, The “P” party, Letter themed Party , Uniforms, Witches & Wizards …
|
|||||||
What do you do in your community?
I was planning this blog, when elbow deep in dishwater that looked a lot like soup. On Wednesday evenings I head down to the Johnsonville Salvation Army to wash dishes for several hours, lots of dishes. Every week they host a community meal (called MASH – Meal At Sallies House) for anyone and everyone.
Lets face it there are lots of people struggling at the moment and having a $2 dinner once a week can make significant budgeting difference to some.
We have Pensioners coming for some company, families coming to give Mum a break from cooking, teenagers coming to do what teenagers do – gather and talk! We also have people who come for their only cooked meal that week.
Whats the most amazing to me are the people that work there. They come from all walks of life, accountants, nannies, business owner, single parents, retirees, corporate managers and even CEO’s all coming to give their time to their community.
We are all busy people but a little bit from a lot of people can make a big difference. And sometimes making a small difference in someones day is a big deal.
So I ask you – what are YOU doing in your community?
There are many ways to get involved in your community from getting to know your neighbours to becoming a volunteer. Check out these website www.sajchurch.com and www.donatenz.com You can give household items, food and support to good causes. Find out today where the need is and how you can help.
