VW camper van hire northampton

Nervous ‘Sheddie’

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With over 430 new entries in to Shed of the Year 2015 competition there are 2520 sheds with a chance of winning the highly prestigious title of Shed of the Year!  And why does Pear Tree Weddings a vintage and classic VW wedding Hire company care about such things?  ….because we run our Wedding VW Head Office from our garden shed….we kid you not!

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On a wet August Bank Holiday last year the Pear Tree family turned it’s back on the fleet of wedding campervans and beetle put on old gear, took up a paint brush & paint pot each & began painting…..then over the following few weeks we painstakingly laid flooring, arranged furniture & lovingly populated our shed with all things VW.

So – voting starts on Monday 18th May!  The judges will choose 4 finalists for the categories of Normal, Eco, Garden Office, Cabin & Summerhouse, Workshops & studios, Unique, Pub and two new categories Historical and Budget.  The public will vote for their favourite in each category, with the finalists of each going through to this years’s Amazing Spaces Shed of the Year Channel 4 TV show presented by (the very lovely) George Clarke.

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It’s a tense time, we’ve already had our 5minutes of fame having been in numerous National Newspapers & local press when the competition was launched early this year….BUT it’s been soo much fun we don’t want it to end yet….so we have fingers & toes crossed that we can make it through to the finalists for the Office Shed category.

Goodbye from a nervous Sheddie…..you’ll hear from us very soon if we get through….if it goes very quiet you can assume we didn’t make it to the next round!!

VWs and Bagpipes!

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We were at fabulous wedding a few weeks ago – the couple, Susie and Jack, organised the most magnificent day, and the attention to detail was astonishing……only the very best for their day!   (which is why they invited Morris and Basil, 2 of our gorgeous split screen campervans, to join them!)

morris and daphne susie webb  daphne and morris susie webb

Our VW chauffeurs enjoyed their day, not only because they got a couple of hours driving classic wedding VW camper vans but also because they met some fantastic suppliers at the event, and amongst them was Matthew, a professional Bagpipe player! We’ve worked with orchestras, soloists and even a chimney sweep….but we’ve never worked alongside a Scottish Piper! Matthew, it turns out, has been playing the Great Highland Bagpipes for the last 19years, so he has gained a wealth of experience – and he was so comfortable playing in front of all the wedding guests!

piper

So if you ever fancy a Scottish element to your celebrations (and not just weddings, birthdays, funerals, Burns Night and other celebrations too) then please do look Matthew up…although he is based mostly in London and the South East he will travel to events too. For more information please see his web site, ThePipingExperience.com or call him on 07729 717 492

And to top it all off, he is such a lovely chap too!

DubAid and Pear Tree Weddings!

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Quite unbelievably one of the biggest annual VW shows of the year, DubAid, has changed to a new venue for 2015 – this year the show will be held at Towcester Racecourse on Friday 20th – Sunday 22nd March. Towcester racecourse is well…..quite literally 4 fields away from Pear Tree Weddings HQ!

dubaid

DubAid is in its 4th year and has raised £15,000 for charity to date – all proceeds from the show go towards selected charities across the UK.

Pear Tree Weddings are absolutely delighted to be involved with the show, we are one of the main sponsors and aim to have 5 VWs on display on the Saturday and 6 VWs lined up on the Sunday.  We will be there ‘working’ for the whole weekend, not trying to generate weddings – we will be enjoying talking to the VW public about our vintage & classic fleet…..

dubaid

For a chance to win tickets for DubAid please pop to  www.dubaid.co.uk/competition/

Winter VW wedding jobs!

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So it’s January and we’re not doing weddings…what are we up to at Pear Tree Weddings? Are we relaxing & chilling out until the new wedding season starts? Gosh no….we’re at work harder than ever – just different sorts of hard work!

daphne respray    curtains

We have just under 3 months every year to ensure our wedding hire VWs are in absolutely impeccable condition – we are incredibly proud of our show room standards, but it’s hard work to maintain them!  So, there are some body enhancements for each of the VW campervans and of course for Wilma the wedding Beetle….each vehicle also has a good major service, and (my favourite part) we make interior upgrades.  This year both Daphne and Wilson are having new blinds similar to those in Basil.  Wilson is also having new flooring, similar to that in Morris.  And all the VW camper vans are having some totally fabulous and exciting new buntings and cushions – the designs are simply amazing – can’t wait to share the photos with you!

We are also to-ing and fro-ing with Bruce and Bernie as they receive their total makeovers!

With all this in mind, we have to apologise if we’ve not been in the office as much as normal, although office hours are 9.30am until 2.30pm, Monday to Friday blind making & servcing dont happen in the office, so we’re out & about a fair bit taking VWs for re-sprays, servicing and at home to make 14 blinds……. please be assured though we check email every few hours & pick up messages daily – we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Bruce the VW Beach Buggy

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As most of you know, Pear Tree Weddings welcomed a VW Beach Buggy into the family last summer – whilst he was bought for a bit of fun it would seem that not only have we, but quite a few groom’s have fallen in love with our Bruce!  (We’ve even been asked by 3 brides if he can be hired for their wedding day!)  Bus & Buggy….perfect partners!

bus and buggy

Well, it seems a little selfish to keep him for our own pleasure, so we have decided to let Bruce join the Pear Tree Weddings VW fleet, as such he is having additional seats installed, as well as safety roll bars……and he will also be ‘wrapped’ in some new colour…but we’re not quite sure if it should be white or Pear Tree Vintage VW Green to coordinate with Daphne & Basil?

Bruce is a lurid green at the moment….but will soon be looking stylish and sophisticated….well, as sophisticated as a VW beach buggy possibly can!

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Now for a bit of the history of Bruce……Bruce started life as a beach buggy LDV – the LDV standing quite unbelievably for ‘Light Delivery Vehicle’! This meant Bruce started life as a two seater beach buggy with a small load area at the back.

As with most beach buggies Bruce uses a beetle chassis, where the top is simply removed and the new body bolted on top. So although he is indeed a beach buggy from the 70s Bruce has to be legally registered as a beetle from 1963, when the chassis was originally made. Weighing very little and with an aircooled 1671cc engine and straight through exhaust pipes Bruce is fast and loud and makes what can only be described as a unique statement.

So, all that’s left for now is for the Pear Tree Weddings team at HQ to pull together a Bruce ‘Fair Weather Hire Package’ – more details to follow soon.

Bernie the Bus!

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December was a very exciting time for Pear Tree Weddings, not only did Father Christmas very kindly visit, but we also welcomed the arrival of Bernie, our 1966 split screen campervan!

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We had been looking for a ‘new’ VW camper van for some months, as the rest of our VW wedding fleet is so busy – and when we saw Bernie we immediately fell in love again.  Bernie is in a little need of work on the outside, he will remain blue as it is such an amazingly popular wedding colour, however his interior is just gorgeous already! He will of course be treated to the Pear Tree Weddings soft furnishings make-over with curtains, cushions and curiosities!

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We knew the minute we saw the internet pictures of Bernie that he was a rare gem – and oddly we recognised the interior……very similar to our fabulous vintage green and cream VW camper, Basil, and looked to be of superior quality, very similar to our Bay Window campervan, Flossy.  After a little investigation we were thrilled to discover that Bernie’s interior was recently refurbished by our friends & VW experts – CamperShak (who fabulously fitted Basil & Flossy!)basil doors open