Your Bristol & Somerset Wedding - October/November 2020 (Issue 79)

MEET LORYNNE HEYNS OF THE LITTLE LOLLIPOP SHOP Tell us about your company… The Great British Confectioners Ltd is a renowned UK luxury wedding favour business, and it all started with The Little Lollipop Shop in Bristol. Our confectionery has been the choice for countless global brands from Tommy Hilfiger and Chanel to Virgin Atlantic and Estée Lauder. What’s your favourite product you offer? The Love Heart Candy Crushin’ Lollipops are our cutest product yet. With an explosion of edible sugar crystals, sparkles and rose gold love heart candies, they’re perfect for any special occasion and make the sweetest wedding favours. We can customise them to include a name or date too. Why should couples choose local suppliers for their wedding? Following COVID-19, local suppliers need support from couples more than ever. Lockdown rules have seen many weddings postponed or cancelled, which has had a massive effect on income for most wedding suppliers. If you could design a product for a celebrity, who would it be? I’d choose Marilyn Monroe. She oozed all the class, sophistication and glam that we aim to reflect in our lollipops. Visit www.littlelollipopshop.co.uk MEET RACHAEL HARTLAND OF THE ILLUSTRATED INVITATION Tell us about your company… Our stationery features our artist’s pencil sketch of the couple’s wedding venue. We started a few years ago and now have the majority of Bristol and Somerset venues within our portfolio. Our style is traditional and elegant, with the drawing taking centre stage. We do a lot of personalisation, such as colour themes, calligraphy and personalised envelopes. We’re a small family business, and even despite COVID-19, giving up my job a year ago was the best decision I’ve made! What’s your favourite product you offer? It has to be our illustrated invitations. Our couples have fallen in love with their venue and chosen to spend the biggest day of their lives there, what better way to set the tone than sending an invitation with the venue beautifully illustrated on it. Why should couples choose local suppliers for their wedding? A lot of independent business will be family-run or managed by the owners, so their brand and reputation is everything. Business often comes from word-of-mouth and the couple should receive a first-class service. We also know other local businesses and can make recommendations or work with them to ensure the wedding flows perfectly. If you could design a product for a celebrity, who would it be? It would have to be one of our seating plans with the venue illustrated as a watermark for the Spiderman actor Tom Holland. Our teenage daughter has the biggest crush on him, and would love it if the wedding was featuring her as the bride and all our family on the seating plan! Visit www.illustratedinvitation.co.uk MEET GAYNOR PAGE OF TOPIKKI Tell us about your company… Topikki is an established bespoke wedding stationery business, and we also offer a designer range and other special occasion stationery. I have a passion for creativity and a lifetime of art, design and crafting experience and qualifications. What’s your favourite product you offer? I love all aspects of creating wedding stationery and ensuring it’s coordinated, but I think the icing on the cake is the seating plan. It’s the final piece of stationery and often designed with not just the couple, but also the venue stylist to deliver the very best piece that can be created. Why should couples choose local suppliers for their wedding? They’re usually a small business with the customer at its heart, so you get to meet and build a relationship with them. Staying local means your vendors are more likely to be aware of your venue and be able to create something that’s fully suited to the location as well as the theme. I like to get to know my couples so that I can produce stationery that reflects their personalities. If you could design a product for a celebrity, who would it be? I’d love to make something for England and Saracens rugby player Maro Itoje. His passion for the game, his work and his team resonates with me, so I’d love to design a set of stationery reflecting his links to rugby along with the passions his future spouse might hold. Visit https://topikki.co.uk www.caroline-alexander.co.uk HANDMADE PRODUCTS 63