Nearly nine years ago, my friend Katie was getting married and asked if I'd help her collect vintage crockery for her wedding - and so began the start of our joint business venture, Bristol Vintage.
Initially we thought it might just be a one-off for Katie's wedding as we're both vintage geeks but we hadn't realised that there's a whole community of us out there!
Over the next two years, we had masses of fun collecting crockery and props and making lots of new contacts in the vintage and wedding worlds; we learnt about marketing ourselves on-line and we discovered how to pack and deliver crockery unbroken and how sometimes we can't sleep when we're worrying about doing the best job for our clients.
In the third year Katie had the joy of becoming pregnant and having a beautiful baby daughter, now nearly six years old!
Although Katie had to leave Bristol Vintage to focus on her family, she's still very much a part of the company, often helping me brainstorm ideas and always there if I need support or just a sounding board.
Although Katie had to leave Bristol Vintage to focus on her family, she's still very much a part of the company, often helping me brainstorm ideas and always there if I need support or just a sounding board.
It's been an amazing journey, including staging the first vintage wedding fair in the South-West, which has gone on to be an annual event, our crockery appearing in lots of magazines, TV shows, and supplying crockery for hundreds of weddings, parties, funerals and other events. Our clients have included Pieminister, Goldbrick House, Hotel du Vin, Aardman Animations, Riverstation, The Clifton Club to name a few as well as scores of wonderful couples and individuals and we've loved working with them all.
We've co-organised a shop launch, been involved in photo shoots and held an annual wedding fair with the most fantastic exhibitors, many of whom have become friends.
We've co-organised a shop launch, been involved in photo shoots and held an annual wedding fair with the most fantastic exhibitors, many of whom have become friends.
I would love for someone to continue the company as we've built up a great reputation and a fabulous collection of crockery, which will be very hard to part with but, if that's not possible then I will be selling the crockery and props off separately.
With love to all our followers and past clients for many happy moments!
