{"id":292,"date":"2012-11-19T10:00:31","date_gmt":"2012-11-19T10:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.weddingdates.co.uk\/blog\/?p=292"},"modified":"2021-02-08T16:12:46","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T16:12:46","slug":"hitching-500-couples-without-a-hitch-one-great-george-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qa.weddingdates.co.uk\/blog\/hitching-500-couples-without-a-hitch-one-great-george-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitching 500 couples without a Hitch: One Great George Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

John Scott Lewinski discovered One Great George Street<\/a> (affectionately known as OGGSVenue<\/a>) while\u00a0it served as the London Media Centre for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. While covering The\u00a0Games, The Great Hall became his favourite base of operations. Though the American writer travels\u00a0the world writing for more than 30 magazines & online news sites, he’d never worked in a place with\u00a0such a mix of distinguished elegance and genuinely friendly folk. The relationships he forged during the\u00a0Olympic fortnight led him to investigate and write up the secrets of OGGSVenue<\/a>. You can contact him through his website or via e-mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Imagine planning a wedding. Conceptualize the endless planning, organizing and scheduling.\u00a0Consider having to deal with manic brides, obsessive mothers-in-law and budget-conscious\u00a0fathers. Visualize balancing all of those elements in perfect harmony to make certain that that\u00a0important day comes off with a hitching, but not a hitch.\u00a0Aoife Hanly<\/a>, Wedding Coordinator at One Great George Street, took all that on 500 times.\u00a0To gain a more detailed perspective on what Hanly does for her venue \u2013 and how the special\u00a0500th wedding came together \u2013 we stopped her in the stately hallways of OGGS before she could\u00a0arrange another bouquet or order up another cake.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say approximately 240 of my weddings have been at OGGS over eight and a half\u00a0years,\u201d Hanly said. \u201cThere have been about 192 at Moor Park Golf Club, and the other 68 came\u00a0together elsewhere, made up of friends, colleagues and family in the UK. I\u2019ve also worked on\u00a0weddings in the south of France, Tuscany and the USA.\u201d\u00a0While some might think burnout (veritable \u201cnuptial fatigue\u201d) would\u2019ve settled in by now, Hanly\u00a0reports she still loves what she does.\u00a0\u201cI really do still enjoy organizing weddings because each one is so different,\u201d Hanly\u00a0explained. \u201cEvery bride or groom wants to make his or her mark and leave a lasting impression\u00a0on the guests. I enjoy the creative side of that \u2013 the food and wine pairing, table decor, the\u00a0wedding cake design and all the beautiful flowers. The best part of my job is bringing it together\u00a0from a simple theme and color scheme to a fabulous \u2018wow factor\u2019 wedding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since OGGS<\/a> prides itself on its inclusiveness, Hanly has the opportunity to plan ceremonies for unions of all backgrounds, cultures and orientations. Each event can present unique personalities\u00a0and sensitivities.\u00a0\u201cWhen you work with different cultures and orientations regularly, you learn what they expect\u00a0of you and how you should communicate with them. You also become skilled in the art of\u00a0pacifying family feuds and stressed out brides and grooms before the ceremony. You become the\u00a0negotiator and the calming influence.\u201d\u00a0All of the gowns, tuxedos, flowers and cakes only served to prep Hanly for putting the finishing\u00a0touches on her 500th wedding \u2013 the happy union of Marina and Sadat \u2013 a Greek bride and a\u00a0Bengali groom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the first Greek\/Bengali partnership I dealt with, though I have had other fusion\u00a0weddings, such as Persian and Indian, Australian and Irish, English and American, Hungarian\u00a0and English, Nigerian and Italian. It\u2019s actually more usual to have a mixed culture wedding.\u201d\u00a0\u201cThere was a vintage theme with lace chair saches, intricate glass vases, beautiful pastel pink\u00a0roses with hydrangea and plenty of pearls. Planning the 500th meant creating a choice menu for\u00a0230 people \u2013 with each course suited to the cultural needs of Greek, English and Asian guests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanly\u2019s deft multicultural touch comes in especially handy as London becomes more of a draw\u00a0for many international couples.\u00a0\u201cWe have many brides from New York,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have had a bride and groom from San\u00a0Francisco who were visiting London, walked past the venue and came in to enquire. That couple\u00a0got married last June, and all their guests travelled over for the wedding.\u201d\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ve had French, Chinese and Persian couples. Other foreign unions came to us from as far\u00a0away as New Zealand, Nigeria and India. We have been able to accommodate all of their needs\u00a0from scratch using our excellent in-house catering with Chef David Wilkinson.\u201d<\/p>\n

With wedding 500 already in the registry book, Hanly has moved on to planning entries up\u00a0to 504 for the coming months. However, does she ever see herself settling in to plan wedding
\n1,000?\u00a0\u201cYes…If I can survive that long. I know OGGS will still be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check availability for this wedding venue in London<\/a>. Submit an enquiry & visit OGGS for a show around in Nov\/Dec and you will receive a free lunch or Lavazza in their onsite Caf\u00e9 Bar after your visit!<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Raw Silk Photography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Scott Lewinski discovered One Great George Street (affectionately known as OGGSVenue) while\u00a0it served as the London Media Centre for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. While covering The\u00a0Games, The Great Hall became his favourite base of operations. Though the American writer travels\u00a0the world writing for more than 30 magazines & online news sites, he’d never worked in a place with\u00a0such a mix of distinguished elegance and genuinely friendly folk. The relationships he forged during the\u00a0Olympic fortnight led him to […]","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qa.weddingdates.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qa.weddingdates.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qa.weddingdates.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qa.weddingdates.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qa.weddingdates.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/qa.weddingdates.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49738,"href":"https:\/\/qa.weddingdates.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions\/49738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qa.weddingdates.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qa.weddingdates.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qa.weddingdates.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}