How my wedding styling and stationery business started

How I started Pink Peony Weddings

I’m often asked how I started my wedding business and what are some of my biggest inspirations. So, with that in mind, I wanted to write a short blog to give you an overview of how it all started, a bit more about me and a further insight into my passion for styling weddings!

Photo credit to Perfect timing photography.

After studying a BA (Hons) degree in fashion & textile, design and enterprise at Portsmouth University, I started my career as a fashion designer for a studio London designing womenswear for a number of popular UK high street brands. From early on in my career, I’ve always wanted to setup my own business, but I didn’t really know what type of business, where to even begin and what I’d be able to earn as a living. 

It was back in 2015 when I got married that my inspiration for starting a wedding business started. For my own big day, I designed and managed everything from the invitations, on-the-day stationery, sourcing all the props and making and creating various things – my husband often jokes that all he had to do was turn up on the day! 

photo credit to Binky Nixon

Of course, it doesn’t always go to plan and there was one issue with the day itself in that our venue didn’t allow access until 11am  to decorate, so I had to urgently find a company who could do it for me – as we were getting married at 1pm (us brides need to give ourselves some time for hair and make-up). When I was planning ahead, I had written an actual bible (the company I hired must have hated me!) for how I wanted everything to look and I really begrudged someone else doing it when I knew how I wanted my big day to look.

Looking back, I guess it was this specific attention to detail to my own wedding and knowing how I wanted everything to look on the day that led to Pink Peony Weddings being born, I also absolutely loved it! In fact, on our honeymoon in Antigua, I remember I was already hatching a plan of how to get started. I felt that being able to offer stationery, decor hire and styling services was a unique offering and could potentially be an amazing business. At the time I was in a full-time job, but I eventually I decided to take a leap of faith and quit so I could pursue my dream of working in the wedding industry and build the business.

However, at the same time we were also trying for a baby and after 18 months of disappointment and discovering fertility issues, we had accepted it would be a long road ahead and this reaffirmed my decision to quit my job. As life would have it though, on the day I quit I found out that I was pregnant. Serendipity perhaps?! Of course, it did mean it took slightly longer to get the business off the ground, as the next couple of years were spent mostly being a ‘mum’ while working part-time in a restaurant.

That still didn’t stop me evolving Pink Peony Weddings and looking into what I could offer in terms of unique styling, prop hire and stationery. And it wasn’t long before the stables in our back garden started to become full of props pretty quickly!

What followed over the last few years has been one hell of a journey to establish my business and helping to design stationery and style so many wonderful weddings. Although just as 2020 was set to be my busiest year, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. I dare say at the time of writing I hope we’ve turned a corner and as we reach the end of 2021, it’s been an incredibly busy summer season and business has never been better. 

I’ve been involved in helping to style the weddings of so many amazing couples over the last nine months and looking back, while it hasn’t been easy and not without its challenges, I know taking the plunge to set up my own wedding business was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Photo credit to Sarah Scott photography

I have so many exciting plans for the future of Pink Peony Weddings (watch this space) and can’t wait for the 2022 wedding season! I really hope you’ve enjoyed reading this blog and learning a bit more about me and Pink Peony Weddings. If you have any questions or are interested in finding out I can help to style your wedding, please do get in touch.

photo credit to Red Peacock photography