Ely events company steps in at 11th hour to answer wedding day SOS at country church

St James church, Little Paxton where Ely events company QAV joined with two others to create a stunning banner to hide repair work so that it would look its best for a wedding. (Image: Archant)

QAV, the event staging and audio visual company based on the Lancaster Way business park, joined forces with two other firms to create a stunning banner to cover up scaffolding over the church.

Bride Victoria Clark faced wedding day disappointment when the church at Little Paxton had its tower wrapped in scaffolding for repairs.

But husband-to-be Ian Knightley stepped in to organise giant banners, balloons and bunting to camouflage the metalwork on the tower at historic St James’s Church.

Guests said the disguise had made the ceremony more unusual and would stay in their memories.

Canon Annette Reed, vicar, said: “It was a joyful and happy wedding and I think the banners, balloons and the bunting made a lovely addition.”

“It was a fantastic wedding and we all thought it looked stunning.”

She said the bride had absolutely no idea the scaffolding was being hidden until she arrived at the church - and friends had been forced to distract her from making a last-minute check at the church the day before.

QAV worked with printers Macroart and GESS, specialist signage installers, to create the banner.

Ian grew up in the village and was desperate to be married there but “as the scaffolding increased we became quite disheartened.

“This was the point I decided to try to do something to improve the situation as a surprise for Victoria.”

It was then he sent out an SOS email to all his contact and with the help of Ed Noble of QAV and other contacts the idea of creating a large banner came to fruition.

After a few meetings on site, a banner was designed which mirrored the stone work of the church, a picture of the bride and groom, flowers from the bouquet and the wedding theme of origami cranes.

“It is great to know that local companies can come together to do the right thing”, said Mr Noble.

Michael Green, commercial director at Macroart, said: “I’m sure that a building wrap is a pretty unique wedding gift.”

Understandably the groom Ian was over whelmed with the support he received, stating.

He said: “It’s easy to be cynical about businesses and people in general, but to know that there are companies like QAV, Macro Art and GESS, who are prepared, at such short notice, to step in and help two people they’ve never met before is really refreshing.

“They have turned a situation that had, at times, been quite upsetting, into a part of our wedding that we’re going to look back upon fondly for years to come.”