Hello there! It’s been a few weeks since writing my last blog. We were supposed to close for Christmas on 30th November but we had so many orders to complete it was impossible! So we finished for Christmas at lunch time on Christmas Eve. Never again!! But our customers were very happy and that really does make it all worthwhile.

And here we are, nearly the end of January and we have been busier than ever with lots of designs being created for save the dates and wedding invitations and we have some lovely table stationery to do as well in the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, here’s some beauties from last year. There were some Christmas weddings so I had to show you some photos. We were so pleased with them and they really did have that Christmassy feel.

The photos probably don’t do them justice. They were soooo sparkly and absolutely perfect for a Boxing Day wedding. 💜 

Have you seen the latest....?

Hi there! Thanks for popping in to see our latest blog post. I must try and keep up with them - time is just so limited at the moment. My Dad has been unwell over the summer, that has cleared up nicely and now he’s got another problem to contend with. It takes days out of our week as him and Mum need care whilst he goes for hospital appointments. It’s not easy. He’s having another operation in early December to try and get this problem sorted, fingers crossed. Whilst he’s in hospital we will be looking after Mum here at home and taking her to visit him each day. This will enable us to work when we can too.

So what have we been up to lately? Well ... we loved doing these beautiful invitations. We always aim to please and the bride & groom to be were over the moon with these beauties! They are kraft card pocketfolds with a bird cage theme with little champagne gold hearts added along with touches of burgundy which is their colour scheme including a beautiful burgundy handmade bow.  I’d love to know what you think!

When we started our little business, we had no confidence it was going to grow and grow. We did our best, of course we did but here we are over 6 1/2 years later and we are just flying. We literally have orders and collections every week now, we didn’t think that was possible.

Because of the time of year we have had a lot of table stationery to create. One couple came to us at a 2-hour wedding fair and we were knocked out that they had come especially to see us and to book their table stationery for their wedding 200 miles away a few weeks later! Of course we obliged and here are the results. They had a mirror they wanted to mount the table panels onto so you can’t get the full effect of the stationery but we think it was very striking all the same. Deep mauve onto cream card with heart embellishments. Perfect! 💜

Hello!  Welcome to our blog!

We’ve actually had our busiest year so far.  The two Bluewater wedding fairs we attended back in October and January respectively have really given us such a busy year. At first I was a little bit apprehensive, almost scared that we couldn’t deliver all the orders that were coming our way. But we have succeeded so far, we’ve had a year of such happy couples and some really warm comments and reviews. If you are one of those couples, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. 

One of our couples that were married at the end of June chose a very rustic design and style. Kraft card pocketfolds with customised navy and pink bunting to be precise and we loved it! The evening invitations were printed bunting but still tied with twine so fully co-ordinated with the day invitations. We were chuffed to bits with them as were our very happy couple. It just makes our job so rewarding. 

And then we were asked to do their table stationery. We were so pleased - they clearly loved their invitations enough to ask us to do all the remaining on-the-day stationery - what an honour! So we produced their table plan, place names and table numbers all to fully co-ordinate with their invitations. Again we were pleased with the results and I am confident our couple and their guests were too. 

See you next time - I ll try to make it sooner rather than later! 

www.facebook.com/penniesfromheavendesigns 

Sunday, Sunday ...

Here I am, Sunday morning, listening to the birdies chirping outside. Not having pulled my curtains as yet I just don’t know whether it’s sunny or not but it sure sounds it today! I hope so anyway, we have new fences and I’ve been desperate to get out there and paint them to preserve them (and of course make them look better than the ‘orange’ colour they were when they were delivered!)
So that’s definitely one job for today and if I have the time I will be watching the Tennis later today.

We have a very busy week ahead - I need to complete 3 orders, 6 different designs, all in all around 220 invitations - will I do it?! If I do (and I must!) it will most certainly be a record for me. I’m looking forward to the challenge no matter what and (I’m probably speaking far too soon here, touch wood!) hopefully everything will run smoothly.

In the meantime I’m going to show you some very special Save the Dates that we created a few weeks ago - the couple wanted something small & perfectly formed to include the pencil so this was what we came up with. Needless to say they were very happy! Til next time ...

WE ARE BACK!!!

Wow! I cannot believe that for these past years I couldn’t get into my blog - lost passwords, new devices and all the confusion that goes with a technophobe like me has prevented me from signing in and writing posts on this, the Pennies from Heaven Designs blog. I’m chuffed to be able to spend an hour or so working it all out this evening so here I am!

We have been very busy in the last couple of years. I will find some photos of some of last years beautiful wedding stationery orders we completed. We had a great 2018 - we had 31 bookings altogether, our best up until then! And then it really went crazy for us when we exhibited at our first Bluewater (Kent) wedding fayre which was huge and very enjoyable! Two days of wedding heaven in October with the cream of Kent’s suppliers, we had a great time!  So we did it all again in January! This time it was even busier and we still loved it. We had couples from all areas of Kent, Essex and Sussex who were mostly getting married in some of Kent’s beautiful venues. In all, over 3500 couples attended over all the four days - we went home with jaw aches from chatting about couples’ plans and lots of smiles too. It was fab! And we are doing it all again this year on 5th/6th October and looking forward to it.

But before that, we have lots more lovely orders to complete and consultations for weddings happening in 2020 - I think next year is going to be a monster for weddings. We hope so and we will be waiting in the wings to hear all about different wedding plans from some lovely couples who would like consultations with us. We look forward to it!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hello to 2017!  We hope you all had a lovely Christmas!  It went far too quick for my liking ... the present buying, putting up the tree then we had our first 'Christmas Day' on 17th just before our eldest daughter took our grandaughter back up north where they live for their Christmas and our youngest daughter took herself off to the Dominican Republic for Christmas and New Year.  Santa also visited us that day - what a real treat that was too!  He stayed for photograph opportunities with everyone, it was fantastic!

Just before Christmas I had the pleasure of creating some beautiful wedding stationery for one of our couples, Chanel and William who are getting married this year at the stunning Rowhill Grange.  Their colour scheme is baby blue and ivory so they went perfectly, finished with an ivory ribbon knot.

I am so pleased with the finish, embellished with tiny baby blue pearls and the RSVP and wedding information booklet all co-ordinated perfectly.  They were so pleased with them too and couldn't wait to send them out to their guests!

We have lots to show that we created before the end of the year so please feel free to subscribe to keep up with the latest news.

All there is left to say is to wish you a very happy new year, hope 2017 is kind to you - Denize

We are FINALISTS!

Good day to all our readers!  The temperature may be a little cooler, but I hope you are still enjoying the October sunshine and the glorious colours of autumn.  

In the past month we've had a lovely time.  Not only did we have the most beautiful week in Portreath, Cornwall in an amazing cottage with our own hot tub (!) but after months of contemplation, we entered this year's Kent Wedding Awards and it has been announced we are FINALISTS!  After winning in our Stationery & Favours category last year we've worked so hard this year introducing new products and services so it would be lovely to retain our title but we are just so happy to be finalists and we are looking forward to a great evening with lots of great Kent wedding suppliers at the Awards Ceremony on 10th November.  

In the meantime, I thought I'd show you some photos of stationery we have done for various weddings and also for a local community project quite recently.  

HempstARA Autumn Lunch

Gemma & Lyndon love their evening invitations!

Gemma and Lyndon's day invitations - laser hearts 

Charlotte & Darren's Thank you cards

These were Linda & Kevin's invitations created on pale cream semi-pocketfolds with graphite grey double sided ribbon and a photo of the church where they were married, a very sentimental place for them.   

If you are interested in a no-obligation quote for wedding stationery, please get in touch!  You can reach us by email at penniesfromheaven@virginmedia.com 

or text at 07505365019 or see us and many of our previous designs on facebook at www.facebook.com/penniesfromheavendesigns

We look forward to hearing from you! 

Lilac 'n' Lace

After my last blog post, I am pleased to tell you it is STILL hot!!! 32 degrees in mid-September is just so unusual and tv have reported the hottest September day since 1972, amazing! So it's really nice that summer has extended itself just a little bit this year.  Alas, I don't think it's going to last.  My holiday is looming, but as long as it's dry I don't mind if it's not sunny.  

In April of this year we were asked to do some beautiful invitations for an August wedding.  The colour scheme was sort of dark lilac and they wanted to include some lace bunting.  A bit of a challenge at first, I went through hours trying to figure how to make lace bunting and then we hit the nail on the head:  We printed lace onto lilac et voila .... this is the result.  I am sure you will agree the stationery turned out beautiful .... we were very pleased! 

A real close-up of the bunting on the guest book

The little twine handmade bows finishes the bunting off

The cream & lilac guest book

A beautiful font finishes the guest book beautifully

The beautiful bunting stack invitations 

For more lovely designs, please see our facebook page.  If you know someone who is planning a wedding, please let them have our contact details, we look forward to hearing from them! 

penniesfromheaven@virginmedia.com

www.facebook.com/penniesfromheavendesigns

Thank you for reading this blog, please share with your friends! More next month! Happy planning!  Denize, pfh xx

Deep magenta madness!

Hello, good afternoon readers!  Boy it's hot!  A little too hot to be working - or even doing anything for that matter! 

It's the peak of the wedding season for florists, photographers and cake makers, however not for us.  Our peak season is 6 - 12 months before then as we create couples' wedding invitations giving their guests a first glimpse in anticipation of their special day.  However, we have been busy creating some lovely table stationery for couples for their actual days.   So, without hesitation I'm sure you'd love to see some photos (!), the first of which was us getting creative.  The bride couldn't decide what she liked until she saw some beautiful hearts on our page so Daren, the graphic designer got going and created very similar to be included on her stationery.  Printed on cream card, her colour was deep magenta, almost red wine colour.  When we printed a try-out we decided that the heart needed just something more to finish it off so I decided to add a cream handmade bow.  This is the result:

These are their place names, the heart is cut in such a way so it 'pops' up.  They have guests' menu options on the reverse too.  

Jane & Michael's Order of Service

Table names in the red wine 'heart' style

Place name with the 'laser' heart design

Feeling blue .... and a little bit cream ....

We've done lots of wedding stationery this year and the way our diary is filling up, we will be just as busy next year too which is all good - it pays the bills!

One design we have created is a little bit different.  We called it 'Pin Cushion' design, because of the look of the beautiful scattered pearls that look like the top of pins in a pin cushion!  The couple in question's colour scheme was navy, cream and they decided to have pearls with their day and evening invitations.

Navy mat, cream embossed card dotted with beautiful pearls

Evening Invitations

Lots of semi-pocketfold day invitations

Queen for the Day! Mum's 80th Birthday ... making memories

We only have a few days until the end of June and in our family, another birthday, our eldest will be 24 next week.  Unbelievable how this time goes, I remember when our two girls were so little and enjoyed taking them to school and nursery, coming home and having lovely summer evenings at home in our paddling pool at the time, at this time of year.  In May we also celebrated my Mum's 80th birthday.  It took some organising as I was adamant it was going to be a surprise so I started putting my organisational skills into place!  We booked the venue, a beautiful historic building in the heart of Meopham, great for all sorts of celebrations www.nursteadcourt.co.uk.  We decided on afternoon tea for everyone and as it is the year of Our Majesty's 90th Birthday, I decided that my precious Mum was also going to be Queen for the day! So that was the theme.  And we did her invitations ... of course! 

We wanted to make it so memorable, not every day your Mum is 80, so we employed a brilliant photographer Kirsty www.photographybykirsty.co.uk who spent a couple of hours taking some fantastic photos of our family and friends. We had a fantastic cake made by Karen www.icedimagescakes.co.uk all in the vein of Queen for the Day.  Not only did it look stunning, it tasted delicious!  Of course, the day wouldn't be complete without Mum's first Great-Grandchild and our first Grandchild, the beautiful Sofia so we had to get some photographs of her also.  It was a fantastic day, the sky was blue, the surroundings were absolutely gorgeous and to top it all Mum had just one of the best days.  In fact, everyone did! 

Superb views of surrounding countryside
 from the historic house

What a stunning cake - certainly a cake for Queen for a Day! 

Everyone enjoying their afternoon tea

Cake, cake and more cake!

Always smiling for Great-Grandad!

Mum and Dad enjoying the day 

Family and Friends 

From left:  Lianne, Nathalie, me, Mum, Dad, Daren, Graham

Mum with Jill, a friend for nearly 50 years

Sofia is getting tired of being papped! 

  

Sofia with Great-Grandad and Mummy

Debbie and Nathalie 

Great-Nanny & Grandad with baby Sofia

I want to go home - too much cake!!! 

Alan,  Joan, Lianne and Mum