Autumn Showcase Weekend at the Wedding Warehouse

Last weekend we attended the Wedding Warehouse's Autumn Showcase.
What a fantastic weekend!

We had a small table displaying some trios and a wonderfully constructed frame to display our 32 colours that Phil had made especially for the occasion.

We were sited next to a chocolate fountain (dangerously close!) - have you ever tried Cheddar Cheese covered in Belgian milk chocolate? The majority of visitors seemed to head straight for the chocolate tasting thus hiding our candles on occasions when a queue formed. Although hopefully some of them may have spotted our offerings.

On our other side was the wonderful Jess from the George Albert Hotel near Dorchester. www.gahotel.co.uk/ She was a mine of information and ideas and a wonderful person to boot. The hotel sounds amazing and we will have to visit at some point in the not too distant future. Their outlook, unlike hotels that I am familiar with is flexibility and truly listening to what people want rather than telling them what they should/can have. This seems to be true for the way they treat their staff too.

Another exhibitor of note was the gorgeous Rebecca from Bladon House. http://www.bladonhouse.net/ She runs a B&B with her husband in a beautiful house in an amazing setting. A true focus on quality and hospitality with her guests she has now ventured in to the world of weddings. They have a barn that is simply crying out to host weddings, in fact parties of any description and she seemed to take a shine to our candles as well! I truly wish Rebecca every success - she is such a sweetheart.

Now on to an amazing florist called Sharon of S Cooper Floral Designs. http://www.cooperfloraldesign.co.uk/ Such a lovely person and so dedicated to her art. She does the most amazing displays and on the second day brought in a square glass stand; took one of our candles and designed some flowers around it. She is entering a competition next weekend in Birmingham and I wish her every success.



  

One of Sharon's arrangements and her matching candle decoration
Flowers by Sharon - candle is ours



Close up of our candle with Sharon's magic!






As if this wasn't enough - we also hooked up with Sally Hooper - incredibly elegant and mad about hats! She has been in business 14 years (an old timer compared to us) and has been making her own for the last 2 years. As well as making bespoke hats and fascinators she hires out for weddings and special occasions. A wonderful idea - and s much more economical than buying a hat you will only ever wear the once. She is passionate about her hats and this comes across. A really eye for what suits people and an honesty (in a really nice way) makes her unique. I believe she has over 500 hats in her collection and just wonder where she keeps them all. http://www.hoopershats.co.uk/

We also met some terrific photographers, a wonderful; jeweller and a great florist at Flower Magic who specialises in silk floral arrangements of all sorts from a small arrangement to arches covered in flowers that look real, right down to the dew on them! www.flowermagicflowers.co.uk/



And another passionate and incredibly hard working soul - a lovely lady called Ola of Dreaming Monkeys. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dreaming-Monkeys/228233600521734 She is lively and enthusiastic about all things crafty. She makes beautiful hand made invitations, patchwork quilts, dabbles in all sorts of other crafty things and is taking a giant leap next Saturday by opening her first shop in Salisbury. She is interested in having workshops running there so if anyone is interested in displaying their talents in front of the general public let me know and I'll put you in touch. Good luck with the opening Ola!



Last but not least a big thank you to Nicky and Richard at the New Inn at Dowlish Wake near Ilminster http://www.newinn-ilminster.co.uk/ (home of Perrys Cider). We stayed over on Saturday night and the welcome we had was lovely and Richard's cooking was amazing! We ate and drank far too much it was a good thing we were only there for one night.

All in all a great weekend and Phil and I have been inspired and are thrilled to have met so many great people.





The Glo Candle flame is ignited

I had been in one job for a very long time and had been looking for something new – something to excite me and give me a reason to get up in the morning (without dread). Phil and I started our journey one day whilst looking for a candle shop in which to buy some candles – hoping to find some candles that are a little bit different from the ones you can get in supermarkets, Ikea or department stores. Not having much luck in parking on such a search in Glastonbury we carried on to a lovely little town (sadly dying as a result of a major superstore on the outskirts) called Shepton Mallet. Shops were empty and we thought how great it would be have a shop in such a lovely community – all the shopkeepers were so friendly and so keen to see the town thrive again. We went away thinking maybe retail was something we should consider but it took another week or two to come up with a product that excited us.
I have always adored candles. From using them to provide light during the power cuts in the early 70s to dripping wax down the outside of numerous wine bottles as a teenager a few years later. Our thought process followed this route… if we can’t buy the sorts of candles we like then why not make our own. So we started making candles in one of our bedrooms in the Mendip Hills in November 2010. Loving the candles we were making we decided we wanted to share them with everyone. Not ready to embark on a shop we thought the best way to start would be with an ebay shop so we set one up. The flame of Glo Candles had been ignited!

What a week - preparations and hiccups

What a week (or two) we have had!
We have been preparing for the Autumn Showcase to be held at the Wedding Warehouse in Martock on Saturday and Sunday 22nd and 23rd October. It is their first wedding fair and we are delighted to be able to take part. We have had some nice fliers printed locally by a smashing company called MoneyGivers. Great job John and Tim! (Sadly they didn't actually give us any money and I received an invoice... )
The fliers are aimed at the wedding market and are shown on my last blog except now they are tarted up and glossy on both sides. We aim to take a selection of candles but not too many. I think our experience is growing and less is more otherwise our stall ends up loooking like a car boot sale.

On top of creating some nice candles for this event the orders have been rolling in. All of a sudden everyone wants big chunky candles! And black is a definite favourite along with a sprinkling of orange with Halloweeen just around the corner.

The hiccup has been that our lovely black candles made with a new wax have decided not to burn as well as normal. The flame is small and in spite of trying a few different wicks we are looking a why this could be. Too much dye pigment is a possible answer and it only seems to be with the black candles (thank heaven). So Phil has been scratching his head and tearing his hair out and now the fab people at 4Candles are involved. They are sending us some new wicks and a new dye they are trialling. We don't mind being guinea pigs in the slightest and tehy couldn't be more helpful so watch this space. In the meantime I have taken black candle listings off ebay just to be on the safe side. Am sure the candle magician will have it all sorted in a wink of an eye.

Almost immediately following the Autumn Showcase we have a day at Comet Customer Service Centre showing our wares to the staff there. Hopefully will get some nice orders and make some new friends.
Well that's it for now - on with the show!