real life Archives - The White Emporium

Where to begin with 2020? I toyed with not putting a year in review together as it really doesn’t feel like this year has gone to plan! However on reflection I have achieved a lot, The White Emporium is still functioning which after loosing 90% of my weddings and events for 2020 needs to be celebrated!

So at the start of the year business was booming, I had a business mentor helping to navigate the growth of TWE, I had a fully booked summer and along with Nikkita Palmer Designs we were quoting to style some large local events. It was head down time, working hard completely oblivious to the carnage that was ahead.

In March TWE got flipped upside down when lockdown came and the postponements started. I’m not going to dwell on this but to say a huge thank you to all my couples, for being so supportive and understanding through out all this chaos. I honestly could not have got through the year without you! I can’t begin to understand how you have all been feeling with so much uncertainty, but I do know that when you do get married it will be amazing and completely worth waiting for!

Amy and Adam managed to say ‘I Do’ just before Lockdown. Real wedding featured in Coco Wedding Venues Shot by Aaron Collett Photo.

So we all know the bad of this year, as a business and individual I have been entitled to £0 financial support, like so many other small business to have been completely excluded has had a hugely damaging effect mentally, but there has been no choice but to keep taking steps forward.

That is enough of the bad lets celebrate the good!

When lockdown started and it became apparent that local charities would immensely suffer I was drawn to the plight of St Johns Hospice Moggerhanger. Loosing their funds overnight meant they were at risk of being unable to provide their crucial end of life care. Joining forces with The Flower Mill we quickly set about contacting local businesses to arrange a raffle, we raised an amazing amount £2025! A huge thank you to everyone who bought a ticket and every local business who donated a raffle prize!

Next up was getting the business through Summer, so I threw my efforts into creating The Stay Home Picnic, a chance to achieve escapism in your own garden. Joining forces with Nikkita Palmer Designs, The Bountiful Table and FM Tents. The picnics were hired for birthdays, anniversaries, small parties (when they were allowed) and missed wedding days.

Stay Home Picnic Celebrate — Stay Home Picnic, we had to be the models! Captured by Em J Photos.

Dried flowers have always been a love of mine, so I started creating bouquets and hoops to sell, I have loved creating various design and later in the year I started working on commissions for intimate wedding bouquets and bespoke vase displays. You can still find a limited number of design available on my ETSY page and I am hoping to bring them back bigger and better for Mothers Day and Easter! You can find out more about TWE studio here.

Towards the end of August and the beginning of September I had a couple of weddings!!!! 1 fully styled intimate affair at The Farmhouse Redcoats and a small celebration at Tip Top Venues. I was so nervous, I felt like I was just starting out as a stylist not nearly 6 years in!

Outdoor Ceremony at The Farmhouse Redcoats — Natalie and Mark said I do in September at The Farmhouse Redcoats. Captured by Nicki Shea.

October saw me style a wedding editorial for a print magazine at the stunning Rushton Hall, more to come on photoshoot styling in 2021! Due to Lockdown this shoot ended up being the last shoot of the year I would work on. Another victim of Covid has been the cancelation of so many beautiful shoots, ideas being put on hold and re-worked for another date. However a lot were able to proceed from the modern and fresh Blossom shoot as featured in Wedding Sparrow that we were lucky enough to start the year with to 70s boho vibes, ruined church locations and rebellious shoots full of love and colour.

In November just before lockdown I held a pop up dried flower shop at Epanoui and it was lovely being in hands on selling products. Then we headed into Lockdown 2.0 plans for Christmas wreath workshops were shelved but very excitingly I got to style the set for a new pilot TV show The Fiddle Faddlers, available on Youtube and perfect for any toddlers in your life. Because 2020 was the strangest of years November which is usually the quietest months of the year was also one of the busiest! I lent backdrops to Love and Life Studio and styled Christmas backdrops for Two-D Photography. I also appeared on an episode of Work Actually Podcast, it was so refreshing opening up about the challenges 2020 has bought and definitely worth a listen if you want a peak inside my mind.

Christmas Pop Greenery and Dried Flower Wreath Kit — Christmas Pop DIY Wreath Kit

I also saw the start of selling Christmas products for the first time. I sold out of calligraphy baubles and dried flower baubles so it was then time to launch Christmas wreaths and table centres. I have loved working on physical products and feel so honoured so many people chose to support my business by buying from me. A huge thanks to Epanoui and Browns of Stagsden for believing in me and giving me a platform to sell from. Hannah and I joined forces for the DIY wreath kits and from every kit sold we donated £5 to Mind – Bedford, Luton, MK. I was fortunate to be able to hold a couple of socially distanced wreath workshops at Southwood Social Hub that were beautiful and simple in their striped back styling.

One From One of My Favourite Shoots of The Year. Captured by Hannah Duffy.

Strength is Beauty, I loved curating this shoot! Shot by Victoria Mitchell Photography

So on reflection 2020 hasn’t been all bad, I had hoped heading into 2021 there would be a road map for the reintroduction of wedding ceremonies, but we will get there and the weddings will be better than ever! For now lets just take it one step at a time.

Full image credits – Aaron Collett Photo, Em-J Photography, Nicki Shea, Hannah Duffy and Victoria Mitchell Photography

I don’t know if it’s because I am a mum, or small business owner or both, but I find it incredibly difficult to take me time. Any time I do spend by myself that’s not work related is usually spent punishing my body at some gruelling exercise class. Great for cleaning out the cobwebs and a de-stress, but not so great for a relax and unwind.

Hidden gem of a salon. Lords and Ladies

When Lords and Ladies asked me to try their new Therapeutic Harmony Massage I couldn’t say no. 85mins of peace and quiet away from a computer, phone (I bet my i-phone thought it had been abandoned) or baby. Absolute bliss! It was during this 85 glorious minutes this blog post was born, as in the back of my mind that little niggle of guilt was speaking to me. Should I really be laying there with my eyes closed when there was so much to do and I had left Little D in the care of family, should someone else be looking after my child when I was basically off having a jolly! As Amy’s skilled hands pummelled and smoothed my overworked body my mind was free to wander and soon banished the feelings of guilt away. Not only can I not remember the last time I was that still and quiet without being asleep but I actively chose not to think about work. Instead I set to solving the problems of Brexit, day dreaming about where I would love to go on holiday and wondering just how Game of Thrones was going to end. In the past year I don’t think my brain has dared to venture outside the realms of weddings or babies.

The massage itself was everything I could have wanted it to be. Amazing smelling oils, firm hands that got into those hard to find knots made worse by the constant lugging of heavy boxes (oh the glamour of being a Venue Stylist) all set in the stunning ambience of this gem of a salon. The mix of deep tissue massage, head massage and sweeping strokes was really vitalising. when I stood up I felt like the elastic man, with a flexibility lost since the day Devon broke me. I also walked out mentally pumped, my brain was on fire and it continued into the next day, I was so motivated, the massage proved to be a non toxic version of Red Bull!

Elegant relaxing treatment rooms at Lords and Ladies

Styled Decor of Lords and Ladies.

So why don’t I take more ‘Me Time’ if it’s good for business and my energy levels then surely I should feel ok about it. Maybe it comes from the comments made in jest about my daughter forgetting who I am as I am away for work, (I know they don’t mean it but it stings all the same). If I have to leave her for work then I shouldn’t choose to leave her for pleasure. I am terrible at switching off, always thinking about the work that needs to be done, what candle sticks need to be de-waxed, terrible at sitting down still, when there is always something itching at me to be done.

Devon and I Ami Louisa Photography

But the concept of ‘Me Time’ is so important. Throughout my NCT classes they almost drilled the concept into you, find some time to switch off and unwind, it will make you a better mum. But in reality who actually does it? But we should! we really should! I sometimes think of my life as that of the old advert for the Duracell bunny, the bunny keeps going because it can, because it’s packed full of energy but eventually it also falls over. Mums and business owners are the same, if we don’t stop, take that half hour out, get our brain lost in that book then at some point we to will burn out.

So I have made a promise to myself (I will try very hard to follow) to take time out. starting with picking up a book again, so the last thoughts I have before I go to sleep aren’t about answering emails or how I will juggle looking after Devon with trying to pack for a hire collection, but about something meaningless, something I have spent 5 blissful minutes escaping into.

2020 What A Year!

Me Time

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