The Wedding Herald sample mag was a great success - and the feedback has been tremendously valuable. A handbag size version will now be available, and I am hoping that current 'talks' with soon-to-be brides bear fruit - Wedding Heralds out there being enjoyed by family and friends worldwide!
An upcoming family 18th birthday, another family birthday today and a 21st birthday celebration for a close family friend last week have got me thinking about how we celebrate. Obviously trying to launch a business based solely on celebrations in any shape or form might have something to do with that! But other types of celebration are looming large too - new jobs, university interviews, university offers, new lives abroad, new babies. So how to do it? How to celebrate the different and important things that impact so strongly on how we live, and that can often change the paths and choices that we make.
Cake has been an important part of most celebrations - fortunately! For the 21st party I had a wonderful cake made by the fabulous Patisserie Viennoise in Otley. The cake placed the birthday girl in a setting that was dear to her heart, surrounded by her favourite and often infamous possessions - including the bunny that she brought home from university (sadly no longer with us but fondly remembered by all!!) Choclate eclairs, strawberry tarts, carrot cake (one portion of veg of course) bought from a local bakery have been consumed with relish as we chatted about and planned upcoming celebrations. Designs for possible cakes have also been discussed and orders will be placed soon!
Friends have sent me wonderful stories of their own celebrations and these will be featured on the website - OBEs, murder mystery parties, weddings, 30th birthday celebrations at Headingley and many more. Each and every story, with accompanying pics, convince me more and more that there are some fabulous celebration stories out there - I just need to find customers to let me share these stories on their behalf!

Celebrating a Herald

I am now the proud owner/creator of a sample magazine - a 12 page sample Wedding Herald. Hot off the press this morning, and lots of thanks to Thom for staying out of his death bed to get this finished, and to Christian at Wheelden Print for pulling out all the stops so I could collect my new baby today.
IT LOOKS AMAZING! If I'm very honest I have had the odd "oh heavens, what am I doing?" moment, though none of these moments has led to ditching the whole idea and heading for the hills. Actually holding the first Celebration Herald this morning was quite moving, in a strange way, and has assured me that The Celebration Herald is a great idea and an even better product.
Tomorrow it gets its first official showing. My lovely and patient friend Jane has given me access to her wedding and life story, along with fabulous pictures and treasures of special times shared with her friends and family. The first Celebration Herald is the result, and Jane will see it tomorrow - slightly nervous! The sample is only 12 of the 20 pages that will be Jane's full Wedding Herald, so that I can give potential Herald customers a real-life example of what they can have for their special day. I think it looks amazing (yes, I know I've said that already) and really surpasses my own expectations, and I have lived and breathed it for weeks now. The final effect is elegant and glamorous, the very essence of Jane's wedding day.
I am also meeting a real potential customer, so it is a big day tomorrow - watch this space next week for an update on what happened next ...

Heavenly blips

Just when it seemed wonderfully on track, plain sailing and sublimely smooth (I like a bit of hyperbole on a wet Monday morning) The Celebration Herald is a victim of a lurgy. Illness in Team Herald (Team is a bit of an exaggeration, but again you can't beat a bit of hyperbole) has meant the prototype mag in planned format and length is under threat.
Emails and calls between self, designer Thom (tbgd.co.uk) and printer Christian (incredibly helpful Wheelden Print in Bradford - wheeldenprint.co.uk) mean that the mag will be hot off the press just before I am due to take it to its first outing. I am hopeful that we can resolve the issue of length and content though, and I guess a few blips are to be expected. That's my 'don't panic, it will be fine, it will be fine' pep talk to self.
It did sort of ruin my viewing of Dr Who last night though! It is very difficult to concentrate on the Doctor's Hobson's Choice when trying to work out the logistics for a mad dash through the ether, and possibly through Bradford, before leaping on the now public-owned East Coast Rail service. The TARDIS would definitely have come into its own. There's never a police box when you need one.
Then there was the incident at the cash point ... I took money out, mind on other matters, got in the car and was halfway to Leeds before realising that I hadn't taken the money from the machine - sieve-like is the best description for my heraldic brain yesterday evening.
In today's blog I was going to concentrate on some of the fun and frolics of setting up a small business - source of many tales of trial and tribulation - but maybe later ...
Off to order a special cake for a 21st birthday celebration, and to see if the bank can retrieve my cash, whilst taking several deep and calming breaths. And it's still raining.

Heraldic musings

So I have this new business - The Celebration Herald - or at least I have the branding, fabulous business cards, a bank account and several bills - and I wake up every day with a mile long list in my head of what I need to do, who I need to speak to blah de blah de blah. It all feels like it is happening but no one knows about it except my family (all very bored by now), my friends (all long sufferingly supportive) and my fab designer Thom. Anyway my very good friend Mel (writer@large) has told me to start a blog, and here I am. The website is the next item on the new business agenda and Thom and I start work on that next week. The reality of it intensifies day by day, but it is wonderful and exciting.
Next week I will actually have the first Celebration Herald, or in this case a Wedding Herald, in my hands! And a meeting with my first potential client! And a request to send a copy of the prototype mag to another potential client! I will take a picture and post it here and hope that others apart from me actually get to see it. Excuse the exclamation marks, but they do seem appropriate in a cosy cliched sort of way.
The Wedding Herald has been produced courtesy of my friend Jane who very generously 'gave' me her wedding and lots of great stories about her and her husband's childhoods, their early years together and their lovely family now. It looks amazing and is the perfect example of why everyone should have a Wedding Herald. Ceremony in Brighton Pavilion, reception on the Bluebell Railway and a great after-party in Sheffield Park Station - the pictures are beautiful, as is the bride of course, and it is full of lovely stories and memories.