oldest vw camper in the uk

VW Wedding Season slows…..

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So here we are on the 5th November and we are wondering what to do this Saturday!  Although we have weddings on Friday, as the wedding season starts to slow down, we have ring-fenced a Saturday & Sunday off!!! YIIPPEEE!!!!

Here at Pear Tree Weddings we run our wedding season from March when the daffodils start to peep through until the beginning of December when the Christmas tree goes up……we know lots of you get married during the winter months, however we believe our VWs need a rest…..and if i’m quite honest, so do we!

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The vintage and classic wedding VWs don’t have power steering, and they don’t have ABS braking systems….which we think are quite essential for winter road driving, but even more importantly maybe for you, they don’t have efficient heating!!!  We also don’t want the VW wedding fleet suffering from ice and salt – all in all we’d prefer them tucked up in hibernation for the deep winter months.

As for the Pear Tree team?  We’ll be working hard – we’ll be renovating & titivating the VW campervans and VW Beetle, servicing and pampering them too.  In the office we’ll be planning the several hundred weddings we already have on the books for 2015, as well as taking lots of new bookings.

As for this weekend, well, after Fridays weddings have finished the Pear Tree Family will be driving off in to the sunset for a weekend break – enjoying out first Saturday lie in for over 9 months….can’t wait!

Pear Tree Weddings?

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Ok, so what do Pear Trees have to do with weddings? So many people over the years have told us what a gorgeous name our company has…… but few people know Pear Tree Weddings comes from the home of our vintage and classic VW wedding fleet….Pear Tree Cottage!  We have numerous pear trees in the garden, and more senior neighbours have told us stories of how, as children, they used to climb the cottage garden wall to steal pears on the way to school!  When we first started our business our logo was of Flossy and a pear tree, we even had leaf inspired font!

pears  door  pear tree old logo

Wilma is a lucky girl, she sleeps snuggled up in the toasty warm garage, whilst Flossy (our 1972 white bay window campervan) Daphne (our 1964 split window vintage green camper) and Bruce (our mad VW beach buggy) are covered in a protective weather proof ‘duvet’ – and sit on the drive way at Pear Tree Cottage.  These members of the fleet have tip top security, with not only ram proof locked barriers but also CCTV watching every minute of every day to ensure that they are safe & happy!  The rest of the fleet; Morris (our 1958 vintage two tone cream split screen VW), Wilson (our 1960 two tone cream split screen van) and Basil (our 1963 vintage green and cream luxurious wedding campervan) are all together in a rather fabulous local farm barn, set in the middle of Northamptonshire’s finest countryside, what a view they wake up to every day!

Having started Pear Tree Weddings quite some years ago now, we have been lucky enough to not only receive loads of VW campervan gifts, but we’ve also been inundated with Pear gifts too! Thank you to all those who have sent them in, they are pride of place in the new Pear Tree Weddings Head Office Shed!

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How many people can you fit in a VW?

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Well – 27 people can be crammed into a classic mini…..so no doubt you can get hundreds in to a VW campervan??? Wrong……

By law we can only transport a maximum of 8 people in to a VW campervan – after this we would require a mini-bus license. So, yes, we can take 7……but we don’t advise it!

We want you to be comfortable during your VW journey, we want it to be enjoyable and we don’t want you feeling squished in – the maximum number of passengers we recommend is 6…..BUT even that depends on the size of the people, the dresses & the hats!!!

daphne leo  wilson & chaps  bridesmaidsdaphne 22 march

We tend to have up to 5 passengers in the back seats – our seats have the advantage of facing each other, some wedding campers have the curved bench seats which inevitably means knees can bump, and the person on the curve can get squashed.  In the split screen campers each bench seat is 1m 50cm wide, with the opposite seat 1m 20cm wide….one seat is shorter as the built in Champagne units take up some space.  Except Basil – he has two 1m50cm seats as his Champagne unit has been hand crafted to the rear of the back seat (very clever!).  We can take one passenger up front with the chauffeur – but since the handbrake and gear stick are positioned central to the van in the front we don’t like two passengers up front otherwise the poor chauffeurs has to lean across one of your guests just to change gear!

S flossy bridesmaids silver morris bride & groom petrol bridesmaids

So work it out for yourselves – we think the more space the better, so if you are less than 3miles from your ceremony venue, why not let us do two trips – giving you the maximum comfort a VW can offer.

 

Behind the scenes – VW photoshoot!

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As soon as Morris came on board we had a huge amount of interest in him – being the oldest bespoke wedding VW in the UK he drew an awful lot of attention……so we held a photo shoot so that we could share some amazing images of him, alongside Wilma the VW wedding Beetle.

morris photoshoot wilma photoshoot    wilma flowers

The Pear Tree Team went to Plum Park Hotel, Towcester for a fabulous & fun day with Ravinder Crone, an award winning and published lifestyle, portrait and wedding photographer.  We borrowed some incredible dresses from A Brides World in Northampton and the most gorgeous page boy outfit from Suitors in Buckingham……with simply stunning flowers from Emma at Signature Flowers, Quainton.

So, Ravinder Crone produced some incredible images of the VWs…..but the pictures we loved ?  The behind the scenes shots…..when the models didn’t realise the camera was still snapping away….. when it started raining and the models huddled together on the bench…… the page boy running around handing out snacks from his box of flapjacks!

models rain    chops flapjack

But the very best shots of the day….well of course we are a little bias……surely the beautiful bridesmaid & page boy……a.k.a. Little Miss & Master Pear Tree!

bag camera chops glassbag chops plum chops & bag

 

Friday 13th….unlucky?

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So, we were sat in the office today thinking how odd it was that we had no weddings booked for today – the only Friday in the entire wedding season without a wedding….when some bright spark said “Well who would want to get married on Friday 13th?”   Good point…….but that got us thinking about the bad luck and good luck superstitions that are associated with weddings.

Did you know for example finding a spider in your wedding dress is very good luck – so too is rain on your special day!

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Wilson the classic VW campervan was at a wedding a few months ago with a chimney sweep….meant to be a sign of good fortune at the start of your marriage – why?    Well, over 200 years ago a London chimney sweeper saved the life of King George III, the king then proclaimed all sweeps were good luck bearers – to ensure a long happy marriage a kiss from a chimney sweep on your wedding day is still believed to be the ultimate good luck.

As for the horseshoe that appears so often on a wedding day – well, it’s fair to say it is a symbol of luck – the origins of which are a little unsavoury, so for now just keep carrying those horseshoes, but don’t concern yourself too much with why!

BUT – stop press – the funniest superstition we found was “Having a cat eat out of your left shoe one week before the wedding is good luck” – oh, please let us know if you ever try this one out!!!

Basil, Morris and Wilson, a selection of our split screen campers are all out tomorrow….finger crossed we meet a chimney sweep!

 

Personalise your day!

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Your wedding is truly individual – you and your other half, your family and friends all coming together at your chosen venue to celebrate your day.

Pear Tree Weddings are delighted to be able to offer some added extras to help your VW wedding become even more personal! We’ve mentioned the printed ribbons before, but there is no harm mentioning them again…. there is such a wide range of stunning colours and font options (in fact we’ve just ordered a gorgeous purple ribbon with silver printing – can’t wait to see that on the VW).  But our favourite little added extra at the moment is the personalised bunting that can go inside the campervan on your wedding day – it makes for some fabulous photos as well as a simply gorgeous keepsake!

bunting

This bunting is available in white, with your choice of colour printing – our brides have always had the love heart shape, but I’m sure something a little more adventurous could be attempted!  The choice of words is totally up to you – bride & groom names, wedding date, wedding venue, name of the VW…you choose!  Priced at £20, we need a few weeks to have the bunting produced….we think it is well worth it (which is why Morris, Wilson and Daphne all have their very own personalised versions!)

Please do get in touch for more details……. info@peartreeweddings.co.uk