It's an event that looms large on many people's calendars and not just brides or wedding suppliers, a day sure to inspire as it showcases the cream of Cornwall's creative talent.

Wed Magazine is a much loved and highly respected publication in the region and beyond, and for many suppliers it is the only show they will do.  Guaranteed to be well organised and busy, we all turn out knowing we are in safe hands and look forward to meeting the wonderful readers of the magazine who turn out in abundance to put faces to the names they read about, and plan the fine detail of their big days.

This years Wed show did not disappoint - with 200 hundred pre registered visitors (and about 4 times that actually in attendance) the day was buzzy, busy and jolly good fun!  All hosted in the elegant surroundings of the Headland Hotel in Newquay - nestling in rugged surroundings over looking Fistral Beach, it was the perfect place to spend a chilly Sunday afternoon.

Princes House was well represented with Annalise Harvey, Holly Young Headwear and Anna d'Souza all displaying their breathtaking designs.  Ella Butler was there too making up the gorgeous models who wafted around all day looking fabulous in our work!

It was great for us to meet some new faces too - and re assuring that despite only being open for 7 weeks the word about Princes House had spread with many visitors to our stand having attended our fabulous launch night in February.

We all wanted to say a massive thank you to Rebecca and Brendan of Wed Magazine for their incredible organisation, attention to detail, and for looking after us all so well!

We've been waiting a long time and watching the refurbishment with great excitement and now the time is here... Capella Cornwall has landed at Princes House.

The salon's luxe new home is on the ground floor of Princes House, in one of our unique studio rooms, packed to the rafters with period features.  Proprietor Sarah Hooper has tastefully refurbished this space to create a salon which is  totally in keeping with the heritage of our fabulous house, but packs a little bit of contemporary punch into the experience.

You'll get top quality treatment from Tony and Guy trained stylist Sarah who offers a first class customer service to compliment her impressive hair cutting, colouring and styling credentials.  If it's hair -up you're looking for, for a special event or your own wedding then Sarah can help you there too, with a varied portfolio of work including extensive styling for commercial shoots for magazines such as Wed (one of our favourites!)

To celebrate the opening of her new place, Sarah is offering 10% of for new customers, and a further 10% for you and a friend (if they've been recommended by you!) 

More details in the graphic below... spread the word, you won't regret it!

I was lucky enough to have an appointment with Dan Jaffe of Jaffe et Fils Ltd at his factory situated in Aximinster. The buildings are affectionately known as ‘the feather factory’ by the locals. The company is the last surviving feather works in the UK.

It was started by his parents, Lois and Eric Jaffe after the war and is now run by two of his sons, Ben and Felix. They import all kinds of feathers from all around the world (where the different birds are farmed) as raw material. They then dye, cut and treat the feathers ready for the fashion industry to use in all kinds of creative ways.

As you can imagine, I was very excited to be there and it was a pleasure to be shown round the whole factory. There were boxes upon boxes of different feathers all labeled up. There were orange ostrich feathers, black peacock feathers, turquoise spines you name it, they had it. They also do all sorts of feather mounts to be used in military regalia and feather Scots Pipers Bonnets for the marching bands. Dan was happily showing me The Hat magazine in which various well known milliners use their feathers. He then took me around the rest of the factory to show me how everything was made.

First he took me to the courtyard where on a series of washing lines were bunches of ostrich and peacock feathers hung upside down to dry in the sun. They had been treated and dyed ready to be turned into something magical.

In the warehouse there were bags of Turkey Marabout feathers (soft and fluffy) in every colour of the rainbow. These are used for trims and boas. They were like giant multicolored pillows you wanted to jump into (I had to stop myself). There was a room with some ladies sewing strips of feathers into fringing to decorate costumes with, edge headdresses, trim cushions….whatever you can think of! And there were other ladies upstairs trimming and cutting feathers into arrowheads. It’s fantastic that everything is done by hand on the premises and for the consumer buying from this company supports British industries and saves on air miles.

We went upstairs and there was a warehouse full of all the raw materials, with huge bags full of natural plumage from guinea fowl, partridge, turkey, goose, duck, cockerel, Ring Neck, Lady Amherst and Reeves pheasant. On this floor was a lady stripping and cleaning ostrich feathers. She looked very content surrounded by all the fluffy waste from feathers. Dan explained to me that shortly after the war his father had found a bag of feathers that had been thrown out and that his mother who was very artistic turned them into brooches and sold them at a market. It all started from there. Dan explained how the business went from strength to strength. However the increased use of cars with a closed top the car saw the decline of people wearing elaborate hats. He said that the buses and trams gave more space for a lady to wear large hats with feathers on and when people started traveling in cars they began to wear hats that were more practical for the smaller spaces. However business is still going strong for the family who have recently expanded to a brand new building.

I ended up staying for over two and a half hours just chatting and learning about the history of feathers and the millinery industry in Briton.

You can find out more about Holly's work here and the feather factory here